Xbox Game Pass Tiers Rebranded, New Features as Ultimate Now Costs $30/Month - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 October 2025 / 25,221 Views
Microsoft has announced multiple changes to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Game Pass Core has been rebranded to Game Pass Essential, Game Pass Standard has been rebranded to Game Pass Premium, and Game Pass Ultimate name remains the same.
Game Pass Essential and Game Pass Premium do offer more benefits than before at the same price, while Game Pass Ultimate has increased from $19.99 per month to $29.99 per month with some added benefits.
Game Pass Essential and Game Pass Premium now includes games on PC and cloud gaming, and have in-game benefits that includes Riot Games. More games are also available now on both tiers.
Game Pass Ultimate now includes Ubisoft+ Classics (normally ~$15.98/month) and Fortnite Crew (normally $11.99/month). Ubisoft+ Classics a selection of Ubisoft games to play on console, PC, and cloud that includes the majority of Assassin's Creeds games, Far Cry games, and more. Fortnite Crew gives access to the Fortnite Battle Pass, 1,000 V-Bucks each month, and more.
All three tiers can earn MS Rewards by playing games that can be used on the MS Store. Essential users can earn up to $25/year, Premium users up to $50/year, and Ultimate users up to $100/year. MS Points can also be earned by buying games and add-ons - 10 points per $1 for Essential users, 20 points per $1 for Premium users, and 40 points per $1 for Ultimate users. Premium users can get an extra 5% in points for select Game Pass games and add-ons purchases, while Ultimate users get an extra 10%.
PC Game Pass will remain available, however, it is increasing from $11.99/month to $16.49/month. It has the same benefits as before.
Game Pass Essential
- $9.99/month - £6.99/month (Same price as before)
- Playable on PC, console, & cloud
- 50+ games playable on console and PC (Up from 25+)
- Unlimited cloud gaming
- Online console multiplayer
- In-game benefits, including for Riot Games
- Rewards towards purchases
- Can earn up to $25 per year (25k points globally) in the Store by playing games
- Can earn 10 MS Points per $1 spent on games and add-ons
- 1x bonus earn rate for quests
Game Pass Premium
- $14.99/month - £10.99/month (Same price as before)
- Playable on PC, console, & cloud
- New Xbox published games added within a year of release (excludes Call of Duty titles)
- Unlimited cloud gaming with shorter wait times
- Online console multiplayer
- In-game benefits, including for Riot Games
- Rewards towards purchases
- Can earn up to $50 per year (50k points globally) in the Store by playing games
- Can earn 20 MS Points per $1 spent on games and add-ons
- 5% extra MS Points for select Game Pass library games and add-ons purchases
- 2x bonus earn rate for quests
Game Pass Ultimate
- $29.99/month - £22.99/month (Up from $19.99/month - £14.99/month)
- Playable on PC, console, & cloud
- 75+ day one games a year, including all Xbox published games day one
- Ubisoft+ Classics (Normally ~$15.98/month) included
- EA Play included
- Fortnite Crew coming November 18 - Normally $11.99/month - Fortnite Battle Pass, 1,000 V-Bucks each month, and more
- Unlimited cloud gaming at the best quality (Up to 1440p) with shortest wait times
- Online console multiplayer
- In-game benefits, including for Riot Games
- Rewards towards purchases
- Can earn up to $100 per year (100k points globally) in the Store by playing games
- Can earn 40 MS Points per $1 spent on games and add-ons
- 10% extra MS Points for select Game Pass library games and add-ons purchases
- 4x bonus earn rate for quests
PC Game Pass
- $16.49/month - £13.49/month (Up from $11.99/month - £9.99/month)
- PC only
- Day one games (Including Call of Duty)
- EA Play included
- In-game benefits, including for Riot Games
- Can earn up to $50 per year (50k points globally) in the Store by playing games
Here is the list of new games added for each tier starting today:
Ultimate – Available Today
- Hogwarts Legacy (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed II (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations (PC)
- Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection (Cloud and Console)
- Assassin’s Creed Unity (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Child of Light (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Far Cry 3 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Far Cry Primal (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Hungry Shark World (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Monopoly Madness (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Monopoly 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- OddBallers (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (Cloud and Console)
- Rabbids: Party of Legends (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Rayman Legends (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Risk Urban Assault (Cloud and Console)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Skull and Bones (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- South Park: The Stick of Truth (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Steep (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- The Crew 2 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- The Settlers: New Allies (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Tom Clancy’s The Division (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Trackmania Turbo (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Transference (Cloud and Console)
- Trials Fusion (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Trials of the Blood Dragon (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Trials Rising (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Uno (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Watch_Dogs (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Wheel of Fortune (Cloud and Console)
- Zombi (Cloud, PC, and Console)
Premium – Available Today (also in Ultimate)
- 9 Kings (Game Preview) (PC)
- Abiotic Factor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Against the Storm (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC)
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (PC)
- Age of Mythology: Retold (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Ara: History Untold (PC)
- Arx Fatalis (PC)
- Back to the Dawn (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Battletech (PC)
- Blacksmith Master (Game Preview) (PC)
- Cataclismo (PC)
- Cities: Skylines II (PC)
- Crime Scene Cleaner (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Diablo (PC)
- Diablo IV (PC and Console)
- An Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire (PC)
- The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (PC)
- Fallout (PC)
- Fallout 2 (PC)
- Fallout: Tactics (PC)
- Football Manager 2024 (PC)
- Frostpunk 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Halo: Spartan Strike (PC)
- Hogwarts Legacy (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Manor Lords (Game Preview) (PC)
- Minami Lane (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Minecraft: Java Edition (PC)
- Mullet Madjack (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- My Friendly Neighborhood (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- One Lonely Outpost (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Quake 4 (PC)
- Quake III Arena (PC)
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC)
- Rise of Nations: Extended Edition (PC)
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Sworn (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
- Terra Invicta (Game Preview) (PC)
- Volcano Princess (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Warcraft I: Remastered (PC)
- Warcraft II: Remastered (PC)
- Warcraft III: Reforged (PC)
- Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
Essential – Available Today (also in Ultimate and Premium)
- Cities: Skylines Remastered (Cloud and Xbox Series X|S)
- Disney Dreamlight Valley (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Hades (Cloud, PC, and Console)
- Warhammer 40,000 Darktide (Cloud, PC, and Console)
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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The FCC was right. Constant Gamepass Price Hikes.
"The FCC was right"? I mean this is true for any subscription service out there...
There were right on stating that the sky is blue too?
12 x 30 = 360$. What other digital entertainment only subscription service costs 360$ a year apart from cable TV services?
What are you talking about?
It is not about the price, it is about the hike... This guy seems to believe that the FFC magically discovered that a subscription service will have hikes in the future.
And what exactly is your point about the 30$ per month? Like any other subscription, if you don't like it, don't use it, or you can use the lower tier (that did not get any increase); Ultimate got more stuff added to it, so if you do not want it, just don't pay, but complaining about it is so weird....
Simply stating that it is $360 does not prove anything; it makes no point or argument. Good job, you are skilled enough in math to figure this out.
so your just going to act like Xbox's purchase of activation and and GP ultimate now costing 360$ a year is just purely coincidental because all subscriptions get price increases over time?
So, you are just going to act like adding Ubisoft (15$), 75+ Day One games, and more games has nothing to do with the price increase? So, what is the excuse for all other subscription services every time they increase a tier price (including Sony)? Because it seems that, for Microsoft, things must be different in your mind.
Or in 50 years from now, will you also blame any increase on Activision? Activision's acquisition was definitely part of the plan to make GP a more attractive offering, and it has been 100% taken into consideration while pricing GP. Period.
But repeating an increase after another, claiming it is always Activision's fault, is just amusing at this point. Esp. When they announced the price hike while adding new stuff to it (because in your mind when Sony increase their prices it is because of good reasons, when Microsoft does it, it must be because of the thing people keeps talking for years right and not like anything one because costs are highers and in that specific case because they clearly added content to it). Yah, sure, keep arguing with yourself now
I assume the point is that MS specifically said to the FCC that there would not be a price increase after the acquisition
They never said that. They said tha that price will not increase BECAUSE of Activision. Who on earth would believe that GP price would never increase like any other subscription service...
That clearly implies that there won't be any immediate price increases, otherwise it's a worthless statement thats impossible to prove otherwise.
I'm not arguing with that (that it would be difficult to prove), but this is also a neat point to note that they said it would never increase because of it, and then claim that it is because of Activision? Esp. when every other subscription service increases over time... And in that case, when they add content to it...
Or saying that because they said that, the GP price should never increase... Or it will be automatically because of Activision? Will you still say that when the price increases in 10 years or 20 years? That they should not because of the FCC hearing? It simply makes no sense.
You don't keep up with subscription services I guess the top version of Netflix is close to 30$ dollars a month. GPU is not the first subscription service to be 29.99 a month since ESPN launched a premium subscription service a couple of month ago that costs that much each month which is losing value next year since they are no longer going to have MLB games.
Ehhh I think its easy to argue that the content available in PS Plus, GamePass, NSO far exceeds most streaming services
Most games exceed the length of several movies and multiple seasons of shows
and also have much higher replay value than rewatching a video does
$30 is fking ridiculous tho
You say that like people don't rewatch classic comedy series on Netflix as background noise, hard to do background gaming. And having instant access to certain films instantly has a massive appeal for many for repeat watches.
Gaming also however requires constant attention and more time than watching TV does, it's very easy to put a 30 minute comedy programme on when eating for example. Harder to do when gaming.
Don't disagree with the value gaming services offer, if of course you can make use of it and have the time.
Gamepass Ultimate was $15/month when they announced the Activision deal. Now in three years it's doubled in price.
Has to be the fastest rising sub price in entertainment by far.
In the same time frame GPU increased by 100% ($15 to $30), netflix premium has increased 25% ($20 to $25) and PS+ Premium has remained $18/month.
50% Price Hike. That's what happens when you give CoD away for free. They have to pay for those lost sales somehow.
People somehow thought a $4T megacorp was going to act like Santa Claus and use an entire expensive divsion as a loss leader whose expenses would be covered by its more profitable divisions. Nope, the stockholders are going to want to see a big ROI on the gaming division.
See also: the people who think EA going private on $20bn of heavily leveraged and high-interest debt is somehow going to improve things there.
This isn't about 'LOSS' but about 'GREED'. BO6 made the most revenue of all COD games.
They want more from the COD Ultimate subscribers.
CoD isn't included in the lower tiers
The lower tiers didn't get a 50% price hike.
So whats CoD got to do with the price increase?
An article just went up on Bloomberg yesterday where former employees say releasing CoD on gamepass cost an estimated $300 million in lost sales.
The tiers with CoD (Ultimate + PC) both got a price rise (50% and 37% respectively) while the tiers without CoD did not.
CoD is the only title explicitly stated to not be on the lower tiers after a year has passed.
While it won't be the sole factor the correlation is pretty obvious.
Yeah i dont believe them. CoD BO6 broke records.
This is nothing more then corporate greed, nothing to do with ABK or CoD.
The proof, Sony is literally doing similar things.
$360 year!
With Classic "Buy >resell> repeat" i can play over 20 games in a year, easy.
Gamepass is no longer a good deal.
So, in 2 months I can buy a fully priced AAA game with the same amount of money. A game that I prefer to play than those offered. well....
Game Pass Essential and Premium remain the same price as before, but have added benefits. Ultimate is a big jump even if it does have more benefits added.
Looks like PC Game Pass still exists. The main Xbox article made it seem like it was killed. The price has gone up. Edit: Looks like it does NOT include Ubisoft+ Classics.
It's a good thing this was announced on the MS website because if Sarah Bond had to do it in the video she would have blinked over 1000 times trying to rationalize it.
Yearly Ultimate GP subscription should be called .....
Xbox $360
Man, I'm done with gaming sub services. Letting my PS+ lapse. The only one I'm keeping for now is NSO but only because I'm on a family plan and split up, it's only $10/year. Everything else is gone. I'm even cancelling streaming services. Shit's too expensive.
For anyone unfamiliar, this is how drug dealers hook their customers. You start off giving free samples. Then, when they're hooked, you slowly raise the prices until the addict is willing to rob stores in order to get his/her fix.
That’s literally how drug dealers operate. They will give someone a highly addictive substance for free and try to get them addicted.
“Come on, just try a little bit, it will be fine. One hit, ok?”
“Feels good, right? Another hit?”
You obviously have no experience with drug dealers whatsoever. They absolutely do not work that way. That's just some ridiculous nonsense that people spouted in the '80s and '90s.
Obviously I have no experience with drug dealers personally, what a ridiculous statement 🤣🤣
So why are you talking about something you have no real knowledge of?
I’m also an expert in superheroes and I’ve never once met Superman. Crazy eh?
The price of Gamepass Ultimate DOUBLED in Brazil lmao.
Went from BRL 60 to 120. You can buy 4 or 5 AAA games with this new yearly price.
You can buy 4 or 5 AAA games in any country with this new price. More if you stick to sales or buy used games.
Their subs are going to decrease. Although, some diehards keep stating it is the best deal in gaming on another forum.
I think a lot of people are just going to downgrade their tier. There is going to be less Ultimate subscribers and more Premium subscribers.
Well they cant keep giving the service out for free. its not surprising. The 2m lost won't be noticeable in the finciscial report.
I mean, it’s still a great deal if you have the time to play games all the time without having to own them and since now all games are basically sold digital and according to Ubisoft you don’t “own them” then I don’t see the issue with the price for Ultimate. Now for me that I’m a casual gamer this hurts and probably will downgrade to just GamePass PC but even that might be hard cuz I used bing rewards to get GamePass for free. We’ll see if it’s now atainable to get it within the time it takes to get a Xbox Gift Card.
Why doesn’t Microsoft just axe the Ubisoft & Fortnite portions of this offer to lower the price? At $30/month, you’re basically paying full price for a digital license.
(Also, I cannot fathom people who are subbed to the highest tier of GP are the same ppl who spend money on Fortnite vbucks lol.)
They clearly were going to hike the price no matter what. The extra offerings of Ubisoft Classics and Fortnite are just there so they can say you are getting something more for your money rather than them just raising it and offering nothing. It's for PR reasons basically.
No idea how much they're paying for the fortnite/ubisoft classics but it's probably not that much. I guess they're betting that increasing it to $30 and adding fortnite/ubisoft will go over better than increasing it to $25+ and adding nothing. Not sure if that's true though.
An ad based tier coming soon apparently.
Rumor said that was not a new tier, but the lowest 9.99$ option (getting ads). Again its just rumors.
MS or Xbox havn't mentioned anything about it.
So only ultimate has day 1 releases? Was it always like that?
Slowly but surely it will get more expensive and feature less games.
What indication (other than fearmongering) makes you come to the conclusion that it will feature fewer games? When the announcement itself lists a lot of new games (and access to more services, like Ubisoft)?
Will it get more expensive, yes, and nobody is arguing that (or I hope did not expect that), that's how every subscription service on the planet works, and it is unfortunate.
Well, it got less expensive for me since I am going to downgrade to the Premium tier and save 5 dollar a month.
I mean it is getting more expensive, but they are adding a significant amount of games to the service.
lol. I'm glad I jump ship before it was cool
Welp... I'm out
Outside of Halo Infinite, I haven't even touched my Xbox this year
Every new game I've played has been on PS5 with the exception of DK on Switch 2
The price hike on ultimate is bad or at least not having a 20$ ultimate option without Ubi is.
In my case i'm definitivly downgrading to premium. I don't care much about Ubi or Ea anyway. And had ultimate only for pc + xbox which is now covered by premium.
I've got a new video discussing the changes to Xbox Game Pass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A33mUER4Ek8
I think I will downgrade from Ultimate to Premium since I hardly ever play any of the EA games and I own a ton of Ubisoft games. Plus, I can wait a year for most Microsoft published games also.
Greedy satanic$oft at it again, seriously who surprised by this?!?
And it's fook up there xbots brainwashed bitches defending this! Y'all a bunch of useless inbred POS!!
And it begins. Anyone surprised? They made a significant jump right off the bat so that future rises won't seem so big in comparison.
I just stay on Essential/Core and buy games when on a bigger sale ... EX: Star Wars Jedi Survivor I waited and got for $12 on XBSS. Seems to be about the best option while getting access to multiplayer online if you aren't huge into every AAA title, etc.
I'm glad I just re-upped for a year via EA play credits. Anyone know if I can still do it right now? If so, I'll add two more years that way.
ETA: I've learned that 12 months of EA play now converts to 2 months of Ultimate. So, they've mostly closed that loophole
Interesting I see comments talking how they will save money by dropping from old Ultimate to new Premium. Except at the same time they are saying they are OK with buying some titles too, even if later. Sounds like net revenue gain for MS. Regardless of the churn between tiers, I think MS is dead set on optimizing for max revenue. And I´d say some of the content mix decisions are based on idea that few are actually using all of it (i.e. large amount of 1st party release + fornite + EA + ubi), and their external content deals are based on low utilization:subscriber ratio. Anyhow, I can see MS´ existing GP subs largely continuing with the platform, and to a large extent they have sunk cost fallacy keeping them there. I think it´s clear to everybody though that GP is now somehow a revolutionary sub, in fact it´s really comprable to other subs out there even if core Xbox fans may not have considered those due to not playing on those platforms. I think the discourse was degraded by not simply engaging with different subs dynamics from the start, distracted by ¨1st hit free¨ marketing and messianic platform worship.
Are there yearly options for these or just monthly?
Id just stick with Premium thanks. The extra cost for Utimate isnt necessary for me.
So one thing that I don't think has been addressed is, are other devices like the Rogue Ally considered a console or a PC? Because that makes a difference on what tier makes most sense for players.
Console is a closed platform that needs games specifically developed for it. Xbox ROG ally is just a Xbox branded PC open platform that has access to all stores and plays games that way.
I'm not gonna pay $30 a month for Game Pass. That, and I haven't been using my Xbox much lately, as I've shifted my focus to the Switch 2, so I'll switch to the Essential tier for now.
Can someone explain how this xbox gamepass pricing compares to playstations' tiers? I see a lot of complaining but im genuinely curious which service is cheaper. Im not subbed to anyone but nintendo right now and only because it was dirt cheap for a year plan
PS Plus (whatever the middle tier is called) competes with Xbox premium and offers way more games, no idea about the other two though.
PS+ Standard is £7 a month or £60 a year. Comes with it's Monthly game and online but that's about it. GP Standard comes with a set amount of games but cloud gaming for the same monthly price.
PS+ extra is £11 a month or £100 a year. comes with the game catalogue and Ubisoft+ Classics but not streaming, so this means lack of access to PS3 games or streaming games you own. GP Premium says 200 plus games (so not sure how this differs from the Ultimate) but can't see any diffrence between this and standard outside of more games, same cost as PS+ middle price.
PS+ Premium is £13.50 a month or £120 a year is all the above plus cloud gaming, some Sony films in Sony Pictures. GP Ultiame is 400+ games, day one, EA Play and Ubisoft + classics, then the same other benefits as lower packages.
I will note however, I can't find the yearly subs for GP, if they exist, so PS+ Premium is £120, GP Ultimate is £276 per year.
All PS+ comes with share play and cloud storage, discounts and all that jazz, presume that is the same for GP so ignoring it. Xbox does have share play right?
Obviously though, I wonder how many people are really paying any of these prices. I got PS+ Premium for like £75 due to discounts offered and discounts on credit. i presume many people do the same for GP Ultimate, stacking cheap months.
