Xbox has announced another revamp of the Game Pass subscription model. Core is now called Essential and Standard is now called Premium. While the Premium tier gets more expensive, the price is raised for the Ultimate tier especially: In exchange for Fortnite and Ubisoft cooperations, subscribers have to pay a 50 per cent price increase. The price hike will not immediately take place in Germany for currently active customers, however.

Update from 08 October:

The price hikes for Game Pass will not affect existing customers in Germany, Italy, Poland, Ireland and South Korea because of consumer rights laws. Microsoft stated as such in emails going out to users in the respective countries, which users shared on Reddit. GamesMarkt has received the email for the German market as well.

The new prices will only take hold in these markets when user buy into a new subscription.  Currently running subscriptions with an auto-renew will for now keep the former price tag.

Original from 1 October:

Today, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Game Pass will get another restructuring after the one in September 2023 (we reported in German). Starting today, Game Pass Core subscribers will automatically move to a new tier called Essential, Standard subscribers will transition to Premium, and Ultimate subscribers will remain in the Ultimate plan.

Essencial will cost 9,99 US dollars or 8,99 euros a month just like Core before, while Premium will run for 14,99 US dollars or 12,99 euros a month, up from 11,99 US dollars. Significantly, Xbox promises their own published games within a year of launch in the Premium tier, so not necessarily as Day One releases. Significantly, Call of Duty games are specifically taken out of this tier, and will not be made available within a year of release for Premium customers.

Especially the Ultimate plan sees a significant price increase, from 19,99 to 29,99 US dollars or 26,99 euros. For this, Xbox guarantees at leas 75 day one releases in Game Pass. Fortnite Crew, the Epic Games service running 11,99 US dollar, will be implemented in Game Pass Ultimate as well, in addition to Ubisoft+ Classic, another separate subscription normally running for around 16 US dollars.

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Pascal Wagner
Pascal Wagner
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