Microsoft's buffet-style service, Xbox Game Pass, has cemented itself as the core of the firm's gaming business, with the program swelling to 34+ million subscribers in the years since its introduction in 2017. Its members enjoy open access to a large catalog of both first-party and third-party titles across Xbox and other platforms in exchange for a monthly fee, making it a pretty cost-effective way to enjoy games in the modern socioeconomic landscape.
However, while Game Pass has been very popular for a very long time, a new restructuring of the program by Microsoft has proven to be quite controversial. That overhaul came on Wednesday morning, with the company bringing Ubisoft+ games to the service, new tiers, more widespread availability on PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and a $11.99/month Fortnite Crew subscription (1,000 V-Bucks, special unlocks) to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
All in all, the overhaul improves the value of Game Pass' lower-end tiers by expanding their platforms and game libraries, with Xbox Game Pass Standard replaced by an improved Xbox Game Pass Premium option that notably includes access to new first-party Xbox games within 12 months of their launch (previously, Standard didn't get these titles at all).
The major downside, however, is that the flagship Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier has gotten a whopping 50% price increase from $19.99/month to $29.99/month, making it significantly more expensive.
Now, it got some upgrades of its own — Xbox Cloud Gaming queue priority, 1440p resolution with streams, new Ubisoft+ titles, up to $100 earnable Xbox rewards, and Fortnite Crew — but even so, the Xbox community's reaction to the price hike has been a scathing one.
One look at the Xbox subreddit says it all, where at the time of writing, the majority of the top and rising posts are from fans angry and frustrated with the increased cost of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
"I'm not paying that much," reads one of the most-upvoted comments on the subreddit's top post on the news. "I renewed my subscription about a month ago at the lower price. Won’t be renewing again after this one expires," asserted a user replying in agreement.
"That's going to price so many people out, and really ironic after they literally just talked about it being profitable," added another. "It's just not worth it for casual gamers, especially since you can get quite a few games each month for $30 in the sales. $360 a year is nuts for a subscription service."
Notably, the price shift has even seemingly led to a sharp uptick in Xbox Game Pass cancellations, to the point where Microsoft's website is struggling to properly load — making people think the company was preventing them from backing out of their subscription.
Notably, the price shift has even seemingly led to a sharp uptick in Xbox Game Pass cancellations, to the point where Microsoft's website is struggling to properly load — making people think the company was preventing them from backing out of their subscription. This isn't the case, though, after struggling to load the cancellation page myself, I can confirm that there definitely seems to be heightened traffic (check out our guide on canceling Game Pass if you're planning to).
"Their site is 100% getting overloaded right now from people like me trying to downgrade or cancel," said one Game Pass user. "For those of us that don’t give a f**k about Fortnite or Ubisoft classics, we should just be able to pay $20-$25 instead and not have access to those add-ons," argued another who said they were soon dropping down to one of the more affordable tiers.
A bold move — and a big mistake
With Microsoft continuing to adopt an increasingly multiplatform strategy for its Xbox business, and with the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds scheduled for an imminent release, much of this Game Pass overhaul makes sense; bringing more tiers of the service to platforms like PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming gives folks using PCs, gaming handhelds, and other devices more options.
More options are always good, especially when you're trying to draw players that may not have a traditional Xbox console into the Xbox ecosystem and get them to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass in the long term.
Naturally, though, more widespread access to Xbox Cloud Gaming means that the service will become more expensive to run — and by choosing to largely try recouping that cost by spiking Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's price, I think Microsoft has made a big mistake.
More widespread access to Xbox Cloud Gaming means that service will become more expensive to run — and by choosing to largely try recouping that cost by spiking Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's price, I think Microsoft has made a big mistake.
Unless you're a big Fortnite fan who will get serious use out of that Fortnite Crew membership or an avid enjoyer of Ubisoft titles, there's been very little value added to Ultimate in exchange for that $10 cost increase. That is ultimately one of the biggest reasons why Game Pass members are so frustrated — though honestly, even with added benefits more widely applicable to all players, I still think there'd be strong blowback.
At the end of the day, $30 for a monthly subscription will be a tall order, no matter what it gives, and it flies in the face of what made Game Pass "the best deal in gaming" in the first place: its bang-for-your-buck value.
I believe Microsoft would have been far better off if it slightly increased prices across the board instead of sharply increasing Ultimate's, because now, the program's best feature — day one game releases — is locked behind a $30/month paywall many won't be willing to pay. In the end, though, only time will tell how large an impact this has on the Game Pass business.
Personally? I'll be switching over to the $16.49 PC Game Pass. With it, you get almost all the benefits of Ultimate sans Fortnite Crew (I couldn't care less), $100 of earnable Xbox rewards credit (you get a max of $50 instead), and multiplatform access for half the price. And while it's limited to PC only, that's not a problem for me, as I prefer playing games on my PC anyway.
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