Game Pass Price Increases

[J4MES OX4D 10,410]

Microsoft has raised the Game Pass ultimate price meaning a near-50% increase and an extra £100 a year. It's now $30. The cancellation page was so overloaded last night, it crashed too! Hogwarts Legacy has been added yet you can get that in the sale for £8 on PC and the new price makes purchasing games like the new COD outright far more attractive. These 'upgrades' that MS are using to justify it bear absolutely so benefit to gamers who just want to play games on the pass on their overly-expensive console. Putting more games on the pass means a higher price as developers will be vying for a cut so this is also counter-productive especially if gamers collectively aren't interested in the majority of titles on there. The whole Xbox brand has become extortionate for very little return these days. 

 

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Price Rises to $30 a Month, Microsoft Adds More Day One Games and Throws in Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics to Help Justify the Cost - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

Microsoft has kicked off October by announcing a significant price rise for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which comes just over a year after the last price rise for the subscription service.

 

[Luseth 2,158]

I have nosed at game pass recently there are a few games on there I could quite happily play and may still pick up (not ultimate mind). That said you can see that there must be issues behind the scenes financially with everything they produce at the moment going up and up in price, I do think that with some of their recent acquisitions they must not have made anywhere near the amount of money they needed to, to justify the purchases.

 

That said if Sony keep their subscription as is I can see it really pushing Microsoft's Xbox side of things further down the crapper.

[cyberninja2601 1,116]

On 10/2/2025 at 7:15 AM, J4MES OX4D said:

Microsoft has raised the Game Pass ultimate price meaning a near-50% increase and an extra £100 a year. It's now $30. The cancellation page was so overloaded last night, it crashed too! Hogwarts Legacy has been added yet you can get that in the sale for £8 on PC and the new price makes purchasing games like the new COD outright far more attractive. These 'upgrades' that MS are using to justify it bear absolutely so benefit to gamers who just want to play games on the pass on their overly-expensive console. Putting more games on the pass means a higher price as developers will be vying for a cut so this is also counter-productive especially if gamers collectively aren't interested in the majority of titles on there. The whole Xbox brand has become extortionate for very little return these days. 

 

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Price Rises to $30 a Month, Microsoft Adds More Day One Games and Throws in Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics to Help Justify the Cost - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

Microsoft has kicked off October by announcing a significant price rise for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which comes just over a year after the last price rise for the subscription service.

 

 

I looked and my price is not increased at the moment. Don't know if it's new subscription or what. But my Oct/15 price will be what I paid in September. 

People have to remember that they need to pay the price to play online (both PSB/XBOX). the cost of the GAME pass is whatever is the difference. 

People can decide if that is worth it to them or just move over to steam. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,410]

1 hour ago, cyberninja2601 said:

 

I looked and my price is not increased at the moment. Don't know if it's new subscription or what. But my Oct/15 price will be what I paid in September. 

People have to remember that they need to pay the price to play online (both PSB/XBOX). the cost of the GAME pass is whatever is the difference. 

People can decide if that is worth it to them or just move over to steam. 

The price increase is effective immediately for new subscribers and it goes up for existing ones on November 4th. The silly thing about it is they are bloating the pass with more day one games which means the pot has to increase i.e the price goes up significantly yet the revenue splits will probably decrease especially if Microsoft want their first party tiles to have the majority share. Some developers will probably be lucky to receive $0.25 an install at this rate! They should just have 3 flagship games a month and then 12 others and then switch it up. This will allow other games to have some breathing space at retail and allow for some proper revenue to be earned. Microsoft need to accept they wont beat Sony especially with business models like this. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,410]

Well this was obvious - Microsoft lost an estimated $300,000,000 putting BO6 on Game Pass with 82% of accounting sales on Playstation. 

Microsoft reportedly estimated that Game Pass led to $300 million in lost sales of Black Ops 6, with 82% of copies sold being on the Game Pass-less PlayStation 5 | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

---

Is that good?

 

I would love to see the other games totted up in revenue missed. The Pass is 'profitable' apparently but that could basically mean $5bn earned but with $4.5bn lost at retail collectively meaning a half million profit that has to be shared between 100+ developers. 

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,268]

Whether they we like it or hate it - business model wise, having exclusive games to specific consoles makes the world go round. They may have got millions of digital applause online when they said they wouldn't do exclusives, but they kissed goodbye to console wars when that happened. Its just not what the gaming world has ever been and thats why Sony and Nintendo will continue to make the big profits when they bring out their own exclusives.

[phil bottle 10,190]

I've made pretty good use of the GamePass until now but yeah I won't be continuing with it personally following this,  I've got plenty of games to play on PC and indie companies are making better games than the big boys these days anyway, so bye bye Microsoft.

 

Also, the subscription model is becoming a joke in general, no wonder ppl are returning to pirating.

 

 

[GazzaGarratt 11,268]

4 minutes ago, phil bottle said:

Also, the subscription model is becoming a joke in general, no wonder ppl are returning to pirating.

 

The great physical revolution returns!! YARRRRRRR! 🤣

[Luseth 2,158]

20 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

 

The great physical revolution returns!! YARRRRRRR! 🤣

 

You joke about it and whether or not it is another topic of conversation but I suspect we will see it go round full circle. Digital is great and conveniant and has been for some time however as prices of all these subscriptions increase and mount up they won't hold their appeal forever.

 

We are seeing it now with people returning to vinyl with music again, people also like to own things.

[J4MES OX4D 10,410]

I don't like subscriptions in general and they soon mount up. Most people probably have 5-6 across media, entertainment and shopping and this could easily cost close to £100 a month soon. Also when lead companies make moves, other ones follow suit - Nintendo put their games up to £70 recently and like lapdogs, EA and Microsoft were on it within a week. People subbed to the Game Pass for a year will now pay $360 which is crazy!

 

I've said it before, but the Game Pass was originally great value for the gamer but absolutely terrible for developers and it's even worse now even with the increase of price, because the pot share is far more competitive. This is easily one of the worst business models in the industry that in the long run will sink developers because they make pittances per install but are bailed out because Microsoft is their owner or affiliate. When Microsoft shafts them due to a lack of success like they have done with so many already like Tango Gameworks, it will destroy so many studios and careers because no matter how good the games are, they area buried within a bloated pass and cannot earn any money anywhere near to cover internal costs. 

Epic have stabbed so many developers in the back trying to topple Steam and Microsoft are going the same way with their fruitless attempt to dent the Playstation market share. They really need to abandon this pass altogether.  People be far better off spending $15-20 a month on games in the Steam sales and to hell with paying for a console and the online requirement.  

[GazzaGarratt 11,268]

22 hours ago, Luseth said:

You joke about it and whether or not it is another topic of conversation but I suspect we will see it go round full circle.

 

You know I joked but also meant it 😄 I've always been a believer that near enough everything is cyclical, so I won't be suprised to see a boom at some point.

 

I do think we have a chance of another gaming market crash though. Like James says above, the way that people consume stuff these days, a developer can't keep up and the pay in relation to work/life balance is just not good in any way. With Microsoft seemingly moving more and more away from the market, could be a good time for a new emergent to come in if they can figure out a way to break it.

[phil bottle 10,190]

I went to cancel my subscription yesterday but apparently my November fee remains the same as usual, so I've held off for now.