Microsoft Turns Game Pass Into a Hard Pass (Premium)

Microsoft has made a mess of Xbox Game Pass, turning what should have been a win into a far more questionable future. This change was poorly communicated and badly timed, and it undermines the Xbox platform and is understandably a disappointment to fans.

Laurent wrote about the Game Pass changes—which include the price hikes rumored back in May, a new subscription tier, and the end of what has to be the most popular of the existing tiers—yesterday. Here, I'd like to step back and try to understand why Microsoft is making these changes and how (or whether) this rejiggered family of offerings could in any way align with its customers' needs.

It used to be simple.

Microsoft positioned Xbox Game Pass Core as a modern evolution of Xbox Live Gold that built on that older offering's key original features—online multiplayer with matchmaking on console—and addressed the end of the Games with Gold perk by adding a curated catalog of games. Game Pass Core was previously $59.99 per year, but this offering now costs $99.99 per year, a big percent increase, with no changes to the service at all.

Microsoft also offered Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC Game Pass—yes, inconsistently named as noted—for customers who want to access large game libraries for a monthly fee. These offerings have been nearly identical, with both getting new Microsoft Studio game releases on day one. The PC Game Pass library is much smaller than that for the console, and as such, Xbox Game Pass for Console was a bit more expensive each month, at $10.99, compared to $9.99 for PC Game Pass.

Incredibly, Microsoft is shutting down Xbox Game Pass for Consoles, the oldest and most popular of these offerings. It is replacing Xbox Game Pass for Consoles with something called Xbox Game Pass Standard that costs $14.99 per month—a 27 percent price hike—and provides the same console game library and other perks as its predecessor. But there is one major backward step, too: Where Xbox Game Pass for Console provided day-one access to all new Microsoft Studio game title releases, Xbox Game Pass Standard does not. Instead, subscribers will get some new Microsoft Studio titles sometime later; this is vague, and it's not clear how long you'll have to wait. In fact, some titles will never come to the library.

With PC Game Pass, only the price is changing: This subscription will now cost $11.99 per month, a 17 percent price increase.

For those who want it all, Microsoft also offered Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. As you would expect, this subscription combines Xbox Game Pass for Console with PC Game Pass, giving customers access to both game libraries. But it also offers other perks, like Xbox Cloud Gaming—the game streaming service originally called Project xCloud—and an EA Play subscription (which would otherwise cost $5 per month). Xbox Game Ultimate cost $16.99 per month until this week's price increase. Now it costs $19.99 per month, a 15 percent increase.

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