Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Price Gets a $30 Hike

A Steep Price Hike, but With Several New Perks

Microsoft is increasing the cost of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $19.99 to $29.99 a month, an increase of 50% that pushes the all-in plan to $360 a year. The company is positioning the move as an upgrade, touting a more expanded slate of day-one releases and new bundled subscription packages designed to make things slide down nicely for power users.

The PC-only Game Pass plan is also going up, from $11.99 to $16.49 a month, as part of a broader reset of Xbox’s subscription economics across platforms.

What Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Now Includes Today

Now, Microsoft says Ultimate will include access to more than 75 newly released games each year on their launch day, contributing to a library it touts as counting more than 400 titles available across Xbox consoles, PC, and cloud streaming. In its announcement post on Xbox’s official channels, the company cited marquee releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, High on Life 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, and The Outer Worlds 2 as examples of headline gains.

Ultimate also serves other subscriptions at no cost on top, such as Fortnite Crew, Ubisoft+ Classics, and EA Play. For context, Fortnite Crew usually costs $11.99 a month by itself and includes the Battle Pass as well as monthly V-Bucks; EA Play is $4.99 a month; Ubisoft+ Classics constitutes a selection of titles from Ubisoft’s back catalog on rotation for its subscription bundles.

Cloud gaming will continue to be an Ultimate differentiator. Microsoft is promising improved streams that are easier to join and support for a wide range of devices, including phones, smart TVs that include the Xbox app, dedicated handhelds, and even select VR headsets through browser streaming. Ultimate members are being sold on a supercharged Microsoft Rewards experience, including an opportunity to earn up to 100,000 points per year (roughly equivalent to $100 in Microsoft money) by playing.

PC Plan Costs More, With Fewer Frills and Perks

The PC Game Pass bump to $16.49 a month also brings new day-one access to first-party and select third-party titles, but not the full stack of Ultimate’s perks.

Cloud streaming entitlements, bundled third-party subscriptions, and fastest-queue streaming are still Ultimate territory for now, meaning the PC tier is a library-first proposition rather than an ecosystem pass.

How It Stacks Up Against Rival Gaming Subscriptions

At $29.99, Ultimate is now quite a bit more than the $19.99 per month PlayStation Plus Premium tier in the US, with Extra running at $14.99 and Essential costing only $9.99 according to published Sony rates.

Sony doesn’t typically brandish its first-party blockbusters on PS Plus day one, and Microsoft would lean on the day-one availability as a key value proposition — which gets stronger now with Activision Blizzard games in that stable after all.

Nintendo’s Switch Online + Expansion Pack, though much cheaper on an annual level, is aimed at a different audience with classic libraries and add-ons instead of day-one third-party releases or premium cloud streaming.

The Cost Math for Players and Different Play Styles

The new Ultimate rate amounts to an additional $120 per year. But if you’re someone who regularly buys two or more $70 titles at launch — and gains from cloud access, or one of those bundled subscriptions — the math can still tilt in Game Pass’s favor. If you’re largely playing a couple of older releases and ignoring add-ons like Fortnite Crew, the higher price kills the value rapidly.

Households will bear the brunt.

The cost for households sharing a console or having multiple profiles can multiply subscriptions, and unlike the one-time purchase of games, subscriptions will keep billing you even if you don’t play that month.

Subscriber Revolt and Rewards Adjustments

The community reaction has been swift, with cancellation threads springing up all over Reddit and other social platforms. Some players point out that at $30/mo, it may actually be cheaper to just buy the games you really want and wait for a sale on the others.

Adding to the frustration, Microsoft has also updated its Rewards program policy to either limit or outright prevent the use of Microsoft Rewards points toward time on Game Pass, according to user reports and support guidance. That takes away a popular offset for power users who had been using point redemptions to lower monthly costs.

Why Microsoft Is Pushing Up Price Across Game Pass

More day-one deals and a bigger third-party slate are costly. Industry analysts at houses like Ampere Analysis and Niko Partners have long observed that subscription platforms eventually chase higher average revenue per user once first-phase growth slows. That folding of profitable bundles combined with the expansion of infrastructure in the cloud and inclusion of Activision Blizzard franchises increases both the value proposition as well as the cost base — necessitating a need for Microsoft to raise its ARPU.

US game spending continues to be dominated by live-service smashes and a pair of mega-franchises, meaning day-one access to the biggest releases remains strategically vital for retention — even when it risks sticker shock on the subscription price.

What Happens to Other Game Pass Tiers and Names

The lower tiers are being rebranded: Xbox Game Pass Core is now called Game Pass Essential and Xbox Game Pass Standard is now called Game Pass Premium. Their prices are still $9.99 and $14.99 per month, respectively. Both tiers are being tapped into more uniformly across console and PC — cloud access is expanding, even if we’re not quite at Ultimate streaming priority or bundled services.

Bottom Line on the New Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Price

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has become the priciest mainstream gaming subscription out there. It can still be a strong value for players who consume a lot of new releases, stream across devices, or take advantage of the included bundles. Everything else, the calculus has shifted — and that makes those cheaper tiers (or even just buying a handful of must-play games outright) look a whole lot more appealing.