Once deemed as 'the best deal in gaming', Microsoft has once again increased the price of their Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Not only that, but this increase has also arrived with a complete reshuffling of the subscription, offering new tiers and different benefits.
This has resulted in the majority of the existing tiers having undergone name changes, for example: the Core membership is now the Essential membership, and Standard is now Premium.
The Game Pass Ultimate subscription is the tier that has come with a huge price hike. What was once priced at £14.99/month is now £22.99/month. This means Ultimate subscribers have gone from paying £179.88 per year to £275.88.
Xbox claim that the changes they've made comes down to offering more flexibility and options for gamers, with an official statement from Team Xbox saying, "We know not everyone wants the same thing in their Xbox experience, so we’re evolving Game Pass to offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players, whether you love day one releases, discovering hidden gems, or playing across multiple devices and screens and across Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud."
These tiers have come with substantial changes alongside the price hike. Essential subscribers will now have access to over 50 games (was 25 before the change) and the ability to cloud stream video games. Premium subscribers will gain access to a list of over 200 video games, access to Xbox-published games within 12 months of release and shorter wait times for cloud streaming. Ultimate subscribers get to play over 400 video games, new games on day one of release, EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics and the best quality for streaming.
Ubisoft+ Classics is a new addition to the Ultimate perk list, as before, only EA Play was available.
This change has put Xbox Game Pass more in line with what PlayStation offers with PS Plus, which has a very similar 3 tier subscription setup.
The change has caused outrage within the gaming community, with gamers crashing the Game Pass membership site from mass cancellations.
With this news following the announcement that Microsoft are raising the price of their Xbox consoles, it has many gamers questioning the viability of Xbox's future and whether or not the Xbox brand is strong enough to handle the amount of backlash it has received this year.
