Xbox Game Pass Undergoes Massive Shakeup: Rebrand, Price Hike, & Cloud Availability

Xbox Game Pass rebrands and increases price of all tiers. Here’s an overview of Game Pass Essential, Premium, Ultimate, and PC.

It’s only the beginning of October and Microsoft already has us scrambling to keep up. Today, all the chatter about the price was put to rest when Xbox officially announced the massive price hike. Not only that, the tiers are also rebranded to understand the hierarchy better and well, to justify the increase.

Xbox Game Pass New Tiers and Prices

A price hike was making its rounds in the community well before the announcement. While it’s obvious that this is inevitable, many were bewildered since it was only July last year when they already increased the price.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that reward points can no longer be used to directly redeem Game Pass subs which many believed was the first step of a major overhaul. Then Extas1s also mentioned that there will be a big announcement regarding the service on October 1. And it did. Effective the first day of the month, what we know of Core, Standard, Premium, and PC is no longer.

Basically, Core was rebranded to Essential and then Standard to Premium. Ultimate and PC Game Pass stays the same, namewise. Each of the first 3 tiers were upgraded with a bigger game catalog, cloud support, online console multiplayer, and all are playable on PC too.

As for the price, here’s an overview:

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: $29.99/£22.99/€26.99 a month from $19.99/£14.99/€17.99
• Xbox Game Pass Premium: Retains $14.99/£10.99/€12.99 a month
• Xbox Game Pass Essential: Retains $9.99/£6.99/€8.99 a month
• PC Game Pass: $16.49/£13.49/€14.99 a month from $11.99/£9.99/€11.99

While Premium and Essential will remain the same price as their predecessors, Ultimate members are the ones bearing the load. But Microsoft is packing it with more perks than ever before. Day-one releases are still included but this time, they made a commitment of at least 75 titles per year. Then apart from EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew will also be included. The latter will join the tier on November 18th.

And since this is the highest tier, distinctions are made in regards to “common” inclusions. Ultimate will have the best quality and the shortest wait time in cloud gaming, followed by Premium, and then Essential. The max annual reward points also vary in increasing increments.

All in all, the price hike is not that bad. Or maybe this is what we were getting groomed for since Game Pass this year has been absolutely incredible. All these changes are effective October 1 for new subscribers and November 4 for current subscribers.

As for the Xbox Game Pass October lineup, no official news has been released. However, alongside the changes in the tiers, Microsoft added over 45 games across the three tiers including Hogwarts Legacy.

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