Xbox Game Pass Is Now Officially More Expensive In Most Countries

Still decent value, but as per themightyants post above, the offering is offering less choice, so the value of it IS decreasing, which is slightly concerning. It will only take a few of those big first party titles to land though to add to the value significantly.

I'm paid up for about 18 months of Ultimate, but I might reconsider it after that time. I don't play much on PC if I can help it, and when I do, I often find it better to just buy what I want on steam. That front end at least works! Even the titles I do wish to play on the series X I don't always have the time for, so I'll decide if its worth it to this house to carry on once my subs up. That has less to do with the quality of the service and more to do with where I play my games, which for the last few months has been on other platforms. Still, even Zelda and FF16 have to finish some time, hopefully just before Starfield drops!

@themightyant My guess would be that the increased volume of monthly games in previous years was due to Microsoft wanting to build up the game pass library to a level that they were content with and now they are happy with it they are balancing the new arrivals with the games being removed to keep it at a consistent level. Of course it could also be that they felt like some games were being overlooked with so many all being added each month.
100% agree with you on charging extra for early access to games being advertised with the tag "play it day one on game pass" being a bad move.

Not if you just get it on ebay.

I'm on a 3 year sub using the xbox gold - gamepass ultimate conversion thanks to that.

Still the best value in gaming for me by far. Without Gamepass I would have missed out on so many gems... What I really need is more time to play them😁.

It sucks end of the day but they already said it's coming and it's a corporation doing corporate things. If you have rewards in your area use them for free GPU time, 10.5K points if you auto redeem. I have almost 2.5 year's stacked and it keeps growing. So going to play for free for as long as I can.

@Sol4ris I wish I had gamepass when I was a kid....then again I might have turned out a lot differently in life if had all these games and time to play them.

@themightyant

"Some games like Starfield, Forza require an additional premium pass (£35 in the case of Starfield) to play Day 1."

Literally the first I've heard of this. Would you care to elaborate?

Geez, it's almost double the price in my region now. Not liking this at all.

@Ralizah you pay £35 get it day one (along with the future dlc or added content or whatever) and 5 days later it joins GamePass.

Of course it’s being sold as ‘early access’ or ‘day -5’.

Anyone paying the full monthly RRP is missing out on a massive savings opportunity. The astute way to access Game Pass is to take advantage of the Gold to Game Pass 1:1 conversion offer. I did this a few months back, and so am effectively paying less than £3/month for access up until March 2026! That’s a saving of over £350.

I can’t fathom paying full price for Game Pass honestly.

@Ralizah He is claiming that since premium edition comes with a "Play 5 days early" bonus, that 9/1 is actually day one, as opposed to 9/6. That way, it can be spun as a negative. Starfield and Forza (multiple Gears and Forza's prior have had this bonus) are included in Game Pass, and this is somehow an added cost to play "Day One." The cost update Game Pass or standard editions of 1st party games to Premium is typically $35. You pay literal premium for the premium version.

@theduckofdeath @PsBoxSwitchOwner Ah, alright.

Not a practice I'm a fan of, but also not the end of the world for me. Hard to be disappointed when I won't pay a penny to play Starfield.

I switched my subscription from Ultimate to PC earlier today. Cloud streaming is of no interest to me and I don't remember the last time I actually redeemed one of the Ultimate perks.

My fear with all this is MS eventually not selling ownership (relative anyway) of the games and making them GamePass only. I get my GP as part of my phone subscription so not bothered (atm) about price rises but as much as GP is the 'best value in gaming' paying over £100 year after year adds up compared to buying a couple of games a year. Currently the way it all is is perfect for me but if MS made it so you could only play their games (which will grow with every acquisition) on GP it would suddenly make gaming a lot more expensive for some people.

@Ralizah I used to buy the premium ($99) versions of their games, which came with early access. That always included DLC and Play Anywhere for PC, as well. I don't have a problem with paying the $35 bucks upgrade the Game Pass version.

@theduckofdeath it’s not spun as a negative.

Xbox clearly advertised day 1 on GP. Which turns out it isn’t day 1 at all it’s actually on GP day 5. As you can play it 5 days before.

It is what it is, it’s MS way of monetising GP even more.

@theduckofdeath I agree with you you would have to buy the expansions anyways. With the upgrade I'm getting one expansion and early access which works for me. If it is not your cup of tea wait the five days and there is no extra charge.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Either buy the premium version, pay for the upgrade, or just wait 5 days. You more than early access from the upgrade. If you plan to pick up the DLC, think about buying the upgrade/premium version now.

It's not a trick and it is an added sweetener for many games (Diablo, etc.). I'm not sure how much value some people expect to ring out of Game Pass. Publishers could not grant early access and charge the same for premium.

I'm sure some dev and QA saves will carry forward after release. I'll be there Day -5 as always.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

Which turns out it isn’t day 1 at all it’s actually on GP day 5. As you can play it 5 days before

It is day one on Gamepass! Now, if people decide to pay extra for premium passes they'll have the added bonus of playing the game a few days early, however for the vast majority of subscribers will be day one. I guess its just Microsoft's way of incentivising the purchase of premium passes. Of course we can all have our subjective opinions on it.

@themightyant

Many of the titles added have stayed. The number of titles has gone from like 250 to over 400 plus. So to say it’s not as good of a value is kinda misleading.

@themightyant

As the others have said, it's pay £35 for 5 days "early access" + the first DLC

Or it can be, here have 5 days of early play time for taking the plunge on the DLC which you may or may not like, huh?.

If anything this shows how subjective our own views/opinions can be.

@Sol4ris how can it be day 1, when on any of the preceding 5 days. I can go to the Xbox store and buy it, and play it that day? It’s clearly out and available to buy and play.

Day 1 is the day it releases be that ‘early access’ or not.

It is what it is. It’s a marketing tool to get more money.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

Alright, we clearly don't agree here so thanks for keeping it cordial.

@themightyant "Day 1 is when it's available to everyone paying for it. i.e."

People paying for the regular version of the game don't get to play until 9/6, though. Am I wrong?

Personally, I don't mind if some want to pay premium for early access, catch bugs, and that results in at least some more bug fixes on the day one patch.

When I joined, there was like 250 titles on Game Pass. Now there is like 450ish. On top of that, EA Play was added, much of Bethesda Zenimax’s catalog has been added, if ABK goes through much of that companies catalog will be added. And I have seen a measly 2 dollar increase in that time.

Some are saying it’s not as good of a deal as the number of titles being added each month has gone down, but the total number of titles available has almost doubled. So I gotta disagree on that one. And when MS finally does start firing on all cylinders with first party, it’s gonna improve Game Pass just that much more.

Personally, I have never once thought of cancelling and this slight price increase is utterly irrelevant to me.

@Sol4ris yeah it’s fine. I see where you are coming from.

@Dragonsbane

Yeah, I don’t consider people paying extra for early access day 1. Day 1 is when it’s released to the mass public and we still get day 1 releases on Game Pass. People paying $30+ for a few days early access doesn’t change a thing on that front for me and I for one have no problem with it.

🤷‍♀️
I keep seeing it as day one. Game Pass only ever includes based copies of the games, never DLC or premium editions. They are still giving exactly the same thing I would get for $70.

I would be upset if I was told that the $70 bought copy did include access to the early "head start", though, because at that point the Game Pass copy is not the same as the $70 one.

@Moonglow but the game is available 5 days before the 6th. Correct yes? It’s available and playable? Anybody can go out and buy it? Play it on any of those 5 days?

Do these 5 days not count? I don’t see anything in the day 1 marketing that said ‘starfield regular game available day1’. The premium version is the same core game? Or is it different and not actually starfield?

Clearly it’s a very good marketing tool because you can see how many people believe it. Personally the 5 days make no difference, I’ll be playing it via GP. I fully agree with @themightyant it’s misleading to say available day 1. When clearly and evidently and undeniably it’s available 5 days prior.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

It’s available 5 days prior as a bonus for people ordering premium editions. That will always be early access in my book. The day standard editions are released to the mass public is day 1 for me. Just all depends on how you look at it. For me, there is a difference between a few days early access, which is not available to everyone, and actual day 1, which is available to everyone, and you’re entitled to disagree.

Wondering whether the Reward point pricing will be raised as well . . .

@RIghteousNixon those 5 day early access is available to everyone. Anybody can buy that version. It is available to the mass public. It’s freely advertised.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

Only if they order a premium edition, which the VAST majority of people do not. So given that fact, it’s not available to everyone. I am talking about everyone regardless of what edition they buy.

@Kaloudz my point all along is it is misleading, it’s a marketing tactic. To get people to spend an extra £35.

But again your point is wrong. The early editions is available globally on the first. It’s not for a select few. Anybody can now go online and buy that version. Anywhere. So it’s either out on the first by your definition of available to everyone. Which makes GP release day 5.

Again it doesn’t bother me. I’ll be playing on GP.

@themightyant @Kaloudz Sorry to butt in the conversation, mates!

I get everybody's points about this Early Access/Day One scheme. I am not well versed in the matter, so I will mention one of the few experiences I have had. I think Atlus has done this kind of thing. IIRC, if you preordered the Persona 5 Strikers Deluxe Edition, you could play the game, like, two or three days earlier. But I don't know which other dev/publisher still do this.

People can see it as they see fit. Me personally, I view it as early access. You have to pay for it above and beyond your standard Game Pass sub and you get access a few days early. And I am all for that kind of thing offsetting the overall costs of Game Pass. I will never do it but I have no problem with those who do. Early access and day 1 are 2 very different things to me and both are very easy to understand, again at least from my perspective. If people see it differently, they see it differently.

Either way, I have no problem with it. It helps them make a little extra money for big releases and I have no problem waiting till the official launch date.

Over on Reddit there’s talk that the 1:1 Gold to GPU conversion has been changed to 3:2. I can’t validate but thought I would mention it here.

@themightyant I read most comments about it here and in other articles.

My take is, I don't like it, but I see the business side of it. I think NES has said it elsewhere, but here's an industry which relies too much on FOMO and being exploitive of the customer's lack of patience and self-control.

What I really, REALLY dislike is that there are some elements of wordplay ("play it Day ONE on GP: but wait, if you want to play it REALLY on DAY ONE, fork out the cash!") that intends to deceive the customers. If you want to exploit the FOMO and the hype and make some cash, why not be frank about it and quit the wordplay?

This situation doesn't affect me directly (as I can wait for the GP release/standard release, as with pretty much most games), but I see that it is a deceptive marketing scheme.

@gamer5634 saw this too.

Sadly it’s now a price rise on consoles, GPU price rise, less reward points, and lowering of conversion.

@gamer5634 The official Xbox support site states the changes:

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-faq

What happens to my prepaid months of Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and/or EA Play when I sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?

• Xbox Live Gold and PC Game Pass conversion ratio: Any remaining time will convert to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time at a ratio of 3:2 and be rounded up to the next full day. For example, 90 days remaining of Xbox Live Gold or PC Game Pass will convert to 60 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time.
• Xbox Game Pass for Console conversion ratio: Any remaining time will convert to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time at a ratio of 4:3 and be rounded up to the next full day. For example, 90 days remaining of Xbox Game Pass for Console will convert to 68 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time.
• EA Play conversion ratio: Any remaining time will convert to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time at a ratio of 3:1 and be rounded up to the next full day. For example, 90 days remaining of EA Play will convert to 30 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate time.

@lechugajr I'm surprised that hasn't come already. I did the 3 years XBL to GPU conversion 3 years ago this time. My membership period has been doubled through MS Rewards and I will continue accruing them. I've used them for gift cards a couple times, too.

At some point, I imagine I'll have to actually pay for Game Pass. That's fine, it is worth it. The Points thing is kind of like a game.

I’m tight of money now that I bought a home and my expenses skyrocketed. I had to unsub from GP after the raise until I’m more economically stable

@themightyant What you are describing as "early access" is the Steam definition, or one definition. "Early access" is meant literally — play the game before it launches to retail.

You can't hold MS or any other company to those terms. The perk of Starfield/Forza/Gears premium is 5 days "early access," which is something they added to the usually "2 DLCs," and "extra XP boost" perks.

The launch/street date is the day at title can be released (physically or digitally) at retail and can legally be sold for play. That is Day One. If a game gets delayed, the 5-day perk is still relative to the launch date. Is this perk tossed in to help sell premium editions? Yes. So what? It is 5 days and is not unique to Xbox 1st party titles.

I'm unsure of what you want to accomplish with the argument over "Day One on GamePass." Do you want early access removed from premium editions? Do you expect a standard Game Pass sub to afford you 5 days early access? Would "Official Street Date on Game Pass" be more to your liking?

Xbox has been offering the 5-day early access perk with premium versions for some time. I'm pretty sure it predates the inclusion of 1st party titles in GP and maybe even Game Pass itself. A GP sub is $11/month and one has to be realistic the expected value returned — it's not premium or infinite.

The price wouldn't bother me if they continued to offer lots of decent new additions.

At one point they were adding at least 3 or 4 games a month that I really wanted to play.

There has been nothing for me since Hifi Rush in January though.

Kind of off topic, but since this thread is loaded with GP users, how is RedFall doing? I recall seeing that big patch, but nothing since- Is it still in that needs several more patches phase?
Thanks iff anyone knows

Also a heads up. People are noticing just today that Gold > Ultimate 1:1 conversions have stopped. It now seems to be 3:1 according to this Reddit post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesX/comments/14sidb8/psa_11_gold_to_gpu_seems_to_be_gone/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2

This comment shows a screenshot of a response from Xbox Twitter confirming the new decreased conversions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxSeriesX/comments/14sidb8/psa_11_gold_to_gpu_seems_to_be_gone/jqzbpf7?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2

I understand the issue people are having with the Starfield premium package. Personally I’m happily paying € 35 to have a steelbook/something in my collection for such an important game next to the “air” that is GP, the earlier access is a nice bonus. Guess I’m old fashioned

I just did the 36 months Xbox Live Gold 1:1 conversion a few days ago. Lucky timing!

gp is nothing more than the old bait n switch scam.

game pass is a good service, especially for the kids I buy a lot of games myself and own most of them the price is good of the game pass

Astonished so many people here don't understand that 'day 1' is quite obviously the first day that you can play the finished version.
Its plain english.
The GP version is not Day 1 no matter how much spin is put on it.
However, late or not, I'm glad its included on GP.

@Titntin Day One (launch) is when everyone can play any version of the game with similar success. Games (and movie discs) have released to retail on Tuesdays for decades. Some games even had "Day One" editions. Unless a store breaks the agreement by selling early. Some games release in Japan (or on other platforms) months prior. Should we scream, "Not Day One!!!", in those cases? LOL

Don't you think 5 days is a little arbitrary? Would you rather the perk was not included in premium, so no one had the option? What if they made it 7 days early? Thirteen? (I'd pop some popcorn and come back here if it was 13 days early.) Why pick on Game Pass? The same thing happens to physical and digital sales on Xbox and Steam.

I've got to be honest — this has got to be the most frivolous argument I've seen on a game site. This is up there with the "Xbox doesn't really support back-compat because the games are actually emulated" argument years ago.

I get the impression that some people don't want to pay for the premium version (fine), but are bitter that others can play e-a-r-l-y . You're arguing semantics, not some nefarious plot. Xbox could change it to something just as effective without changing the early perk.

@theduckofdeath Its not an argument unless you make it one. Its a discussion on an advertising tag line thats not appropriate in many peoples minds. Of course people who sub to game pass dont wish to pay for a premium edition, the point of the service for many is suppossed to be to get first party titles 'day and date' of release.
I think it would be much better if they advertised such games simply as 'coming to game pass' rather than 'day 1 on game pass'.
Symantics or not, im not the only person who finds this advertising decietful and its a big part of their game pass perks, yet in practice, game pass players are clearly a second class of players behind those prepared to cough up more cash.
Your welcome to your point of view and Im grateful you expressed it. But I dont share it, or understand the logic behind your statements. I cannot excuse such misleading marketing of their service no matter much defenders wish to excuse them.
Im still looking forward to the game even if its clear gp players are not playing day1. You have clearly bought the edition and will get to play on day 1, and I hope you enjoy it too despite our divergent view on this. That the game delivers and is a huge hit for MS is the most important thing for all of us.