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.

  • enkersEnglish
    1072·
    5 months ago

    This shouldn’t come as a surprise. MS has been offering game pass at a good value for a while now to entice users and grow their platform. Now it’s time to start squeezing value. Standard enshitification cycle stuff here, and a good reason not to play their game.

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.todayEnglish
      165·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, it was pretty obvious that this was going to happen sooner or later. It doesn’t meet the definition of “enshitification” though. The platform, Xbox Live, isn’t losing functionality it’s just getting more expensive. There’s also no obvious shift to favor business customers.

      It’s a pretty standard price hike with a small side helping service tiers changing features.

      I’m not HAPPY about it of course.

    • ryathalEnglish
      71·
      5 months ago

      The pass for pc version is pretty bad, the catalog is mediocre, the interface is awful, and downloads are insanely slow (especially compared to steam).

      • 60fpsrefugee@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, the Xbox app sucks, it’s slow and get stuck all the time. They have been at this for 3x years now, developing Windows native app, why in the hell can’t their 1st party app just not be semi broken on their own platform.

    • Pistcow@lemm.eeEnglish
      106·
      5 months ago

      I mean, if you play games often but not a day 1 person, it’s still a good value at $19.99.

      I’m an old dude with managing a family and had fame pass casually while having maybe 1-2 hours a week to paly games. It never bothered me for what I was paying for to casually play a ton of good games. Buuuut with the raise in price I’m just going to cancel.

      • veroxii@aussie.zoneEnglish
        5·
        5 months ago

        According to the article 19.99 gets you day 1 releases. If you don’t need it the new “standard” will get you all the non day 1 for 14.99

      • Laser@feddit.orgEnglish
        4·
        5 months ago

        I mean, if you play games often but not a day 1 person, it’s still a good value at $19.99.

        From how I understand it, the $19.99 is the highest tier and as such still includes day 1 games. It’s the others that lose it.

      • UID_Zero@infosec.pubEnglish
        51·
        5 months ago

        Same situation, I packed up my Xbox because we’re looking to move. Cancelled Game Pass Ultimate sub for now, but maybe I don’t end up resubscribing.

      • conciselyverboseEnglish
        43·
        5 months ago

        Is it? That’s $240, or 3 launch day AAA games a year, plus a slightly older sale game. Microsoft doesn’t publish that many games that people want day one, and you can build a big library of games of all scales relatively quickly if you’re willing to spend $240/year on games and are moderately patient with sales/used games. And many of the games people are enthusiastic to buy on launch aren’t from Microsoft and aren’t available until they’ve been available at reasonable discounts. I’m not sure how much you save with the annual discount, so maybe that’s a little better, but a lot of their library are games you could find used or on sale for $20-30 at some point (or cheaper).

        I do personally actually prefer PS’s “we’re not including our games day one” approach because I think it allows them to properly invest in real single player experiences knowing that more people will actually buy them, but $240/year will buy you a lot of library.