Launch day access to first-party titles now restricted to $19.99/month "Ultimate" tier.

For years now, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass has set itself apart by offering subscribers launch-day access to new first-party titles in addition to a large legacy library of older games. That important “day one” perk is now set to go away for all but the highest tier of Game Pass’ console subscribers, even as Microsoft asks for more money for Game Pass across the board.

Let’s start with the price increases for existing Game Pass tiers, which are relatively straightforward:

  • “Game Pass Ultimate” is going from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
  • “Game Pass for PC” is going from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
  • “Game Pass Core” (previously known as Xbox Live Gold) is going from $59.99 to $74.99 for annual subscriptions (and remains at $9.99 for monthly subscriptions).

Things get a bit more complicated for the $10.99/month “Xbox Game Pass for Console” tier. Microsoft announced that it will no longer accept new subscriptions for that tier after today, though current subscribers will be able to keep it (for now) if they auto-renew their subscriptions.

  • DrasglafEnglish
    25•6 months ago

    I paid for it for a while some time ago, but stopped because I don’t play many recent games anymore. I can wait for the games to be very cheap and buy them on Steam or GOG, and also play more indie games than ever, and I also have retro gaming.

    It was obvious from the start that they would start rising prices as soon as they got to a critical number of subscribers, it was too good to be true for a long time. I think the regular subscription was something like 5€ a month when I used it, now the price has doubled and it’s going to keep rising without a doubt.