Board 8 > Xbox changing Game Pass tier names and raising prices again

(+) Yeah! (+)

Now going by Essential, Premium, and Ultimate (compare PS+'s Essential, Extra, and Premium).

With the latest upgrades, Ultimate is now priced at $29.99/month, reflecting the expanded catalog, new partner benefits, and upgraded cloud gaming experience. Standard subscribers will be upgraded to Premium remaining at $14.99/month, offering exceptional value for players who want flexibility and access to new Xbox-published titles within a year of launch. Core subscribers will be upgraded to Essential remaining at $9.99/month, providing a curated library, online multiplayer, and cloud gaming for those who want to jump in and start playing.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f070505f.jpg

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/10/01/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-premium-essential-plans/

Biggest change is that day 1 releases are only on the $30 tier now. The middle tier will get games within 1 year of release.

PC Game Pass still seems to get day 1 releases but the price is $17 now.

RIP Game Pass honestly.

Even though Ive never owned an Xbox, I always found the Xboner definitely not just console wars in a funny hat and fake moustache rhetoric since the Xbox One to be deeply tedious

But man, Xbox really dont know what theyre doing with their business do they?

Pretty much every company is jacking sub prices lately

just curious when the bubble bursts on that

$17 for PC Game Pass seems fine, I guess I'll keep it.

Game Pass was ridiculously unsustainable and I can't believe they took so long to come up with a plan like this. It was both too little money per month, AND measurably cannibalized sales of the day 1 games. This new setup seems to fix that a bit, but probably not enough.

Since new AAA games are coming out at $70-90 now, you break even here with only 1 new game every 3 months. On PC it's 1 new AAA game every 5 months.

Xboner of the day

LiquidOshawott posted...

Pretty much every company is jacking sub prices lately

just curious when the bubble bursts on that

Hundreds of millions of people spent over $100 a month on cable decades ago. Limits are high.

The biggest mistake was everyone buying into all these monthly streaming style services.

...yeah, this is a major price hike...

Like, it's more than just going from $20 -> $30. You used to be able to get a 3-month pass from Costco for $45-50 or online from less reputable places for (much) less.

This is definitely something that will really make me want to change this as a standing monthly cost to an "I'll subscribe for a month or two".

There's also no annual membership as with PS+ to help bring down the price. Or Black Friday sales on it either...

Protip for people subscribing for one game: if you cancel partway through a month, you'll get refunded on the rest. I subscribed to play Doom: the Dark Ages and cancelled after finishing, so it only costed me like $2.50.

Sometimes I get offered full refunds even when there's like 10 days left in my subscription whenever I cancel. I've taken them in the past but I'm a little scared to keep doing that like they're going to ban my account or something.

lololololol

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0afdd745.jpg

As someone who pays for Ultimate and Fortnite Crew already, I actually save money, but this is still stupid.

MacArrowny posted...

Protip for people subscribing for one game: if you cancel partway through a month, you'll get refunded on the rest. I subscribed to play Doom: the Dark Ages and cancelled after finishing, so it only costed me like $2.50.

Oh man i wish I had known about that. Thanks for the info!

I can't take credit for this but

Xbox $360/year before tax

honestly, it's still well worth the value if you wanna play games like this - cloud gaming especially. so i can't fault anything here, this is still severely underpriced for value you get, it's a price hike of something that was always a starting price to begin with and they kept it for a very, very long time.

As a comparison to the old price it seems high sure

As a value proposition on it's own it still seems good if they have games you want to play.

It basically went from a "no duh" to a "is it worthwhile for me right now"

You were basically an idiot if you didn't have it before. All you needed was 1 or 2 games a year to make it worth it.

Definitely downgrading when the price goes up

Someone smell blood in the water lmao

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a13d1bcc.jpg

looking at the subscription model ultimately it looks like a lot of people who had Ultimate can basically downgrade to Premium with no real loss of value (if anything it saves money) unless they desperately wanted Day 1 games. and PC just went up by a few bucks which... still makes sense, and they still get the Day 1. those seem to be the only models that might be worth it, Ultimate at $30/m is way too much and the basic version is too basic.

Wanglicious posted...

unless they desperately wanted Day 1 games

this is the main reason people subscribe

Xboner of the day