Talking Point: Are You Happy With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate In 2026?

My subscription ran out the day after Christmas. I can't say that I've missed it. Not having Gamepass has helped me focus on the backlog I already have.

I currently have GPU it runs out in a few months. It last cost me £96 for 3 years using the stacking method. Won't be renewing however once or twice a year I may grab a code for a month. At it's official monthly cost imo it's nowhere near worth it way to many shelf fillers.

Premium works better for me:
1. I mostly use GP for indies, and most of those come to Premium - or will eventually. It'll be interesting to see if big ones like E33 and Blue Prince move over.
2. It's less overwhelming and less choice. I feel like I can actually keep up with Premium.
3. $15 is a cost I can just forget about and let renew, without feeling pressure to get max value out of it every month.
4. MS games will be on the service forever, so I can wait a year or more to play them.
5. Ubisoft games are cheaper to play on the $17 Ubi+ sub and EA games are cheaper to play on the $6 EA Play sub.
6. I can still grab Ultimate 1-2 months a year to catch up on the big titles (haven't needed this yet).

$30 a month to own nothing.

Im currently in pc only gamepass. I switch between pc and premium based on how many of big pc/ultimate only games have built up.

It will be interesting to see how they realign the whole model after the personal xbox computer releases.

I've always had top tier but have such a backlog for stuff I already bought and the games MS has been releasing lately on it aside from the Oblivion remake and expedition 33 have definitely not been my cup of tea. CoD has been getting exponentially worse so there's not much value to the most expensive tier

I am subscribed till mid 2027 on old pricing and will downgrade to essential as its not worth it for me anymore.

Dont care for COD. Most games are on sale for cheap so all good. I plan on leaving the ecosystem after this gen since i can get xbox games on playstation

I've been an ultimate subscriber for years (and still am). I did not stack, so I get charged $30 monthly. My first instincts after the price raise was to cancel, but then they doubled rewards points so I thought id just stick it out a while longer...then they started messing with that. What kept me in was FOMO, I thought MS was going to consistently release first party games every month or two like they did a year ago...that has not happened. Then I thought well there at least going to show their appreciation by putting awesome 3rd party games only to ultimate? That also has not happened, as clearly premium gets everything day 1 as well.

So no, im not happy with ultimate and will finally, after years, downgrade. I held out as long as I could MS, but if you dont care, then I dont care.

I’ve said it before this year, but currently premium is the better tier so far.

Will this change once stuff like Forza drops? And bigger day 1 games drop? Most probably.

I use Premium. I just don’t play many games on GP anymore and 99% of the day one games don’t interest me. Especially for that atrocious price

I'm at Ultimate with about 1.5yrs left. Mainly due to the $1 conversion of multiple stacked years of cheap old Gold tier then Rewards points conversions continually earning me more free months. Multiple places you can still get Ultimate at old pre 50% price increase (Costco in store & others online). So approx CAD$22/mo. When you consider current Rewards rate, nerfed but also easiest time wise it has ever been to earn, approx CAD$18/mo gift card earnings. So net cost of $4/mo. I think I will stack another 3-6 months, that should cover me to PC gaming on Helix.

I didn't have a gaming PC, but finally realized in 2024 PC gaming is the future. Have been collecting free Epic & Amazon games plus buying Steam game keys on key shops at massive discounts on super sales. Add another 2yrs of collecting PC Games while I have Ultimate & PC backlog will be absolutely enormous. Will then switch to PC gaming on Helix & tackle the backlog, can easily justify buying premium hardware due to everything that was saved on software through the years.