Microsoft has revealed another shakeup to Xbox Game Pass, with a lot of smaller ramifications to it.
As reported by Windows Central, prices are rising across the board, and Microsoft is adding another tier that will not have Day One games. Given that the majority of Day One Game Pass games are produced by Microsoft themselves, this change seems completely unnecessary. But, we’ll get into that below.
Price changes for Game Pass are regional, but to give you a general idea, these are the new prices for Game Pass in the US
PC Game Pass: $ 9.99 – $ 11.99
Game Pass Core 12 Months: $ 49.99 – $ 55.99
Game Pass Ultimate: $ 12.99 – $ 14.99
The monthly price for Game Pass Core will stay $ 9.99 per month. Now, regarding Game Pass for Console, Microsoft will stop offering it to new users moving forward. Everyone who has a Game Pass for Console subscription now will be allowed to keep it, but new users will be offered Xbox Game Pass Standard.
Xbox Game Pass Standard will be $ 14.99 a month, and give players access to the Game Pass library, as well as online multiplayer. But it won’t have Day One games.
Now, a lot of gamers and press are already making a big hoopla about Day One, but let’s review what has changed in this offer. Game Pass for Console did have access to the Game Pass Library, and it had Day One games, but it didn’t have online multiplayer. To add multiplayer, subscribers either had to also subscribe to Game Pass Core, or upgrade to Game Pass Ultimate. And Game Pass Ultimate is the cheaper option, which also added more features.
As it was, Game Pass for Console seemed to cater to a very specific niche, of Xbox gamers who were only interested in single player experiences. These changes generally seem to be pushing Xbox subscribers towards Game Pass Ultimate. The switch from Game Pass for Console to Game Pass Standard in particular, seems to be about Microsoft recognizing that their subscribers want online multiplayer more than Day One.
There’s certainly an incentive for Microsoft to add online play to all the Game Pass tiers, as they are about to launch Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. But once again, that may entirely be the point; Game Pass Standard players will buy Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 outright, or wait it out for it to join their library, as long as they keep the bigger library and have the online play.
On the side, it’s also more honest to do things this way than to make their customers have to think about adding two subscriptions together. But it remains to be seen if Game Pass Standard will work to get gamers on board Xbox after they publish Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and for that matter, if the price changes will hamper a potential influx of new Xbox users or not.
Maybe Microsoft came to the conclusion that most Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 players will stay on PlayStation, perhaps prematurely. Or perhaps the sales targets just have to be reached immediately. Whatever the case, who really decides if this will work or not aren’t the critics who won’t be buying Xbox consoles and services anyway, but the actual end users.
