Microsoft will increase the price for both its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscriptions starting September 12th. For those subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, this change will raise the price by $3, pushing it to a monthly $19.99. For PC Game Pass subscribers, it’s getting a $2 price hike, from the current $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
Price adjustments come concurrent with Microsoft’s addition of a new “standard” subscription tier for Xbox Game Pass. Available for $14.99 per month, the option won’t feature day-one access to first-party Xbox games but will include online console multiplayer access—something that had not heretofore come under the Xbox Game Pass for Console subscription.
Current subscribers to the Xbox Game Pass for Console tier will have their stacks remain valid for up to 13 months from September 18th. New subscribers, though, will no longer be able to access the console-specific subscription option after July 10th, pending the availability of the new Xbox Game Pass Standard subscription.
The changes come in advance of a planned reinforcement of the Game Pass service with highly anticipated titles, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, later in the year. The price changes are concentrated on the Ultimate subscriber base, which makes up the lion’s share of Game Pass users, and bring along previous $1 or $2 per month rises that saw action a little more than a year ago.
Microsoft’s decision to increase the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate can be viewed as a move to deter abusers, offsetting the added costs associated with Activision’s Call of Duty series in the deal. It was officially confirmed earlier this year and had some gamers up in arms over the deal.
