Hot on the heels of Xbox having its best showcase in years at Summer Game Fest, upcoming changes to Xbox Game Pass see it step on another rake. There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and Xbox immediately ruining any goodwill it’s recently built up by making yet another asinine business decision. Making thousands of layoffs in January, after its Activision Blizzard acquisition, and then shuttering Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin months later wasn’t enough.
This time the bad news relates to Xbox Game Pass , which Microsoft revealed on its support page earlier this week will soon be further segmented into more tiers. Whereas previously you had Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Game Pass Core, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (with a PC equivalent thrown in), further changes to come on September 12, 2024, make it so the value proposition for the so-called ‘ best deal in gaming’ is about to grow much more complex. In case you missed it, Microsoft has announced that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will soon incur a price increase from £12.
99 / $16.99 / AU$18.95 to £14.
99 / $19.99 /AU$22.95 and that the tier replacing it, Xbox Game Pass Standard, will adopt the previous Ultimate’s price point.
The new Standard tier won’t include the benefit of day one first-party releases being included, however, all but eradicating the ability for existing subscribers to enjoy the same perks for the same price as before. Planning on enjoying the likes of Avowed , Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 , and I.
