Today, Microsoft announced a significant update to the Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans for Xbox Game Pass.
First and foremost, the price and names for Xbox Game Pass is changing.
- Xbox Game Pass Essential (formerly Core) – $10
- Xbox Game Pass Premium (formerly Standard) – $15
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – $30 (was $20)
- PC Game Pass — $16.50 (was $12)
The base plan (Essential) will cost $9.99, Premium is $14.99, and Ultimate is $29.99. To accompany the price increase, Ultimate now includes Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics for the first time, enhanced Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming quality, and Rewards with Xbox.
Fortnite Crew is valued at $11.99 per month, giving players access to the Fortnite Battle Pass and 1,000 V-Bucks each month. Ubisoft+ Classics is valued at $7.99 per month, featuring the entire catalog of Ubisoft games playable on console, PC, and cloud, including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and more.
Xbox Cloud Gaming has exited Beta and comes alongside this tier, now boasting a larger collection of games and streaming quality up to 1440p. Lastly, subscribers can now earn up to $100 per year (100k points globally) in the Store just by playing games and get up to 30% off titles and 4x points on purchases for being a member.
Xbox Premium and Essential have also gotten some changes. The former provides access to over 200 games and extends the Xbox gaming experience across console, PC, and cloud, while the latter is now fully playable on PC and features 50 games.
So far, fans are unhappy about the price increase, especially with the Ultimate tier increasing by 50%, with many already stating they’ve revoked their payments. For more information on this and other potential changes to the subscription service in the future, please check back with Simulation Daily.