Microsoft is shaking up Xbox Game Pass with price hikes and a new subscription plan as it gears up to release Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on the all-you-can-play service.
New users now have to fork out an extra £2 per month for PC Game Pass (£9.99) and Game Pass Ultimate (£14.99), while existing members will get the bump in September. Both services still offer the same perks, which we’ve listed in full below.
Alongside the PC and Ultimate price increases, Microsoft is also introducing a new Standard plan in the coming months. While the UK price has yet to be confirmed, the new tier essentially replaces the £9 per month Console plan, which is no longer available for new subscribers from July 10, but with a couple of big changes.
Here are all the Game Pass subscription plans with their new prices and a full list of perks.
Xbox Game Pass plans: How much does a subscription cost?
With the introduction of its new Standard plan, Microsoft will soon offer four Game Pass membership options, two of which (PC and Ultimate) now have new prices:
Game Pass Core (£6.99 per month)
- A smaller library of around 40 games with little to no new additions
- Online console multiplayer
- Deals and discounts
- Cons: No Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Game Pass for PC (£9.99 per month)
- The full library of around 400 games with new titles added every month
- Xbox first-party games released on day one
- Online multiplayer support as standard
Game Pass Ultimate (£14.99 per month)
- The full library of around 400 games with new titles added every month
- For consoles and PC
- Xbox first-party games released on day one
- Support for online multiplayer
- EA Play membership and games
- Stream games on multiple platforms
Game Pass standard ($14.99 - UK pricing TBC)
- Coming soon
- Hundreds of older and recent games, but no new releases
- Online console multiplayer
- Deals and Discounts
- Cons: No Black Ops 6. No day-one releases.
Which Xbox Game Pass service is best for you?
For players, the updated Game Pass prices will inevitably push more Xbox console owners towards the priciest Ultimate tier.
Alas, the new Standard plan is a mixed bag: Unlike the Console tier it replaces, it offers online multiplayer support, but ditches day-one releases like Black Ops 6, Fable, and Doom: The Dark Ages.
So, if you want to play the new Call of Duty on Xbox consoles, Ultimate is the only game in town.
Why is the price of Game Pass increasing?
Although Microsoft hasn't explicitly stated that the price hike is directly due to Black Ops 6, which hits Game Pass on October 25 (the day of its release), the timing and the changes to the service’s structure suggest that the high-profile title may have played a role.
Microsoft's Game Pass saw explosive growth during the pandemic, reaching 34 million subscribers by early 2024, up from 25 million in January 2022, but new subscribers are now harder to come by.
And it's still stalled. March 2024 non-mobile video game subscription spending was only up 1% vs the April 2023 figures that got me to post the below last year. https://t.co/O0WQhQX023
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) May 7, 2024
This, coupled with its $69 billion (then £56bn) acquisition of Call of Duty studio Activision Blizzard in October, suggests Microsoft is looking for ways to maintain growth and recoup lost sales from day-one releases like Black Ops 6 (a game that will likely retail for £70).
The price hike isn't an isolated event. Sony raised PlayStation Plus prices last year citing "market conditions" and the need to invest in "high-quality games and value-added benefits". Similarly, Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service has also seen price increases in some regions outside of the UK.
