Like it or loathe it, we live in a subscription economy. Music, movies, meal boxes, and more are no longer things you buy once. They’re a constant draw on your wallet. Gaming is no exception[1], and while every major player in the sector has some form of sub for players—from PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online for consoles to Apple Arcade on phones—none of them offered quite as much for a modest monthly fee as Xbox Game Pass.
Depending on the subscription tier, the service gave players access to a significant library of titles and was available on Xbox consoles, PC, or via cloud gaming. While most of its competitors focused on back-catalog titles for their gaming subscriptions, Game Pass stood apart by including major first-party titles on their day of release for subscribers to its Ultimate tier.
Microsoft long claimed it was “the best deal in gaming,” and with new releases costing upwards of $70 per title versus a $19.99 monthly price tag on Game Pass Ultimate, it was hard to argue. Recent changes to the service, however—including some hefty price rises—have upset users in a big way, sending so many people rushing to cancel their subscriptions that the membership site crashed[2].
What’s Happened?
On October 1, Microsoft revamped the entire structure of Game Pass[3]. Previously, and following an earlier rejig in September 2024[4], players had essentially four options—Game Pass for PC, Game Pass Core, Game Pass Standard, and Game Pass Ultimate. Going forward, Core is replaced with Essential, and Standard is replaced with Premium, while Ultimate retains its name. All tiers are now accessible on PC, although a dedicated PC-only plan remains available.
It’s not the rebrand that’s had people canceling, though—it’s the hefty price hikes that have come with the upper tiers. While Essential keeps the almost totemic $9.99-per-month pricing of Core, Premium jumps to $14.99 from Standard’s $11.99 (a 25 percent increase), and the PC-only offering goes from $11.99 to $16.49 (a 38 percent increase). It’s Game Pass Ultimate that’s proven the most contentious, leaping from $19.99 to $29.99. Price increases on subscription services routinely boil the frog and creep up in price slowly—just look at what you used to pay for Netflix—but a massive 50 percent spike overnight, the equivalent of $120 more a year, has caught many off guard.
It doesn’t help that it follows two price hikes on Xbox consoles themselves in the span of less than a year, at least in the US. In May 2025, the 512-GB Xbox Series S went from $299.99 to $379.99, the 1-TB Xbox Series X from $499.99 to $599.99, and the 2-TB Series X from $599.99 to $729.99. These prices rose globally, with prices reflected in each territory. But then, in September, prices rose again for buyers in America, taking those same models to $399.99, $649.99, and $799.99, respectively. Microsoft cited the increases being “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment”—read: tariffs[5]—but the combined effect on pricing across the whole Xbox ecosystem really challenges that “best deal in gaming” idea.
References
- ^ no exception (www.wired.com)
- ^ membership site crashed (www.notebookcheck.net)
- ^ entire structure of Game Pass (news.xbox.com)
- ^ September 2024 (news.xbox.com)
- ^ tariffs (www.wired.com)