Xbox Game Pass Faces Price Hike Amidst New Tiered Plans and Changes to Day-One Releases

In a major shakeup for its popular gaming subscription service, Microsoft has announced substantial changes coming to Xbox Game Pass, including a price increase and the introduction of new membership tiers. Effective starting September 12, 2024, subscribers will see altered pricing structures across all platforms, alongside tweaks to what the service offers—most notably, the absence of day-one releases in certain tiers.

The standard Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will see a price rise from $16.99 to $19.99 per month. PC Game Pass will increase from $9.99 to $11.99 monthly. Perhaps most significantly, Xbox Game Pass for Console, the traditional console-only option, will be discontinued for new subscribers altogether. In its place comes Xbox Game Pass “Standard,” priced at $14.99 per month, which surprisingly will not include day-one releases or cloud gaming access—features long considered staples of the service.

Microsoft says these changes aim to offer “more value and flexibility” to players, but the move has left parts of the gaming community concerned. The removal of day-one releases from the Standard plan—which had provided major first-party titles like Starfield and Forza Motorsport on launch day—marks a fundamental shift in Game Pass’s core appeal. New subscribers will need to opt for the $19.99 per month Ultimate plan to continue receiving new titles on release day.

Existing Xbox Game Pass for Console members can retain their current plan—complete with day-one titles—as long as they don’t cancel. However, no new memberships will be sold under this designation starting July 10, 2024.

Microsoft’s Game Pass strategy has long been admired for its value and accessibility, but this pivot toward higher pricing and reduction of benefits in mid-tier plans arrives at a pivotal time. With increasing competition from services like PlayStation Plus and a growing library of third-party subscription platforms, how users respond to these changes could shape the subscription gaming landscape for years.

Whether this new tier system sustains Game Pass’s momentum or drives users away will largely depend on how much value players continue to see in Microsoft’s evolving ecosystem as it heads into 2025.