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Microsoft is raising the price of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription again and rebranding some of its Xbox Game Pass plans. Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate will be priced at $29.99 per month instead of $19.99 — a 50 percent increase. Microsoft is attempting to justify the price hike with a variety of upgrades across all of its Xbox Game Pass tiers.
Xbox Game Pass Core is being rebranded to Xbox Game Pass Essential, and the Standard plan is now Xbox Game Pass Premium.
“What’s new for everyone across all three Xbox Game Pass plans is bigger game libraries, including PC games across each of the plans,” explains Dustin Blackwell, director of gaming and platform communications at Microsoft, in a briefing with The Verge. “There is also unlimited cloud gaming, which is new to Essential and Premium subscribers.”
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is moving from $19.99 a month to $29.99 a month, which is a surprising $10 increase. While Microsoft increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate last year without improving the subscription, it’s adding a bunch of improvements this time around. “[Game Pass Ultimate] will now include access to more than 400 titles globally, this includes the majority of our partners who want to continue to bring their future games to Xbox Game Pass,” Blackwell explains.
Microsoft is adding 45 games to Game Pass Ultimate today alone, including Hogwarts Legacy, a variety of Assassin’s Creed titles, and many more Ubisoft games. “We’re also now giving access to more than 75 day one releases each year,” Blackwell says. “That’s a 50 percent increase over the day one titles we provided last year.”
Ubisoft Plus Classics is also now part of Game Pass Ultimate, a perk that provides access to a selection of Ubisoft games across console, PC, and cloud. On November 18th, Fortnite Crew will also be part of Ultimate, which gives subscribers the Fortnite Battle Pass, 1,000 V-bucks each month, and more. “With Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft Plus Classics, those combined add about $28 a month in value to Ultimate subscribers,” Blackwell says.
Xbox Cloud Gaming is also coming out of beta and getting 1440p resolution support and bitrate improvements for certain games on select devices. These cloud improvements are exclusive to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.
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