Microsoft has announced sweeping changes to the pricing and structure of its Game Pass subscription service. There are price hikes across the board: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is going up to $19.99/month, an increase of $3. And the basic console tier is to be phased out and replaced with a new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier that will not include day-one releases like the forthcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
The changes were reported by Windows Central and confirmed by Microsoft on an official Xbox support page.
Effective immediately, Xbox Game Pass for Console is no longer available for new subscribers. Members who are already subscribed to Game Pass for Console and have automatic payment renewal enabled will be able to continue to use it, including the access it offers to day-one games.
Xbox Game Pass Standard will become available to new or lapsed subscribers “in the coming months,” Microsoft said. This new tier will not include day-one releases of Microsoft-published games like Black Ops 6, Obsidian’s Avowed, and Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. But it will include online multiplayer, which is currently not part of the Game Pass for Console plan. Microsoft did not say how long it would take for its big first-party games, or other day-one releases, to cycle into the back catalog of “hundreds” of games offered on the Standard tier. At $14.99/month, it will be more expensive than Game Pass for Console, which has a monthly cost of $10.99.
PC Game Pass subscribers will continue to get day-one games, albeit with a price increase of $2/month. But Game Pass Ultimate is now the only option for console players who want day-one releases and aren’t already signed up to the existing Console plan. (Microsoft sources told Windows Central that “the vast majority” of Game Pass subscribers are already on the Ultimate tier, anyway.)
