As the dust settled on Microsoft’s shock price rise for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which jumped 50% from $19.99 to $29.99 in the U.S. in what amounts to an extra $120 a year, fans reacted with a mixture of anger, cancelations, and frantic subscription stacking.
Meanwhile, a poll of 10,000 IGN readers showed 45% of our audience isn’t interested in subscribing to Game Pass at all following the news, with just shy of 30% saying they will subscribe to Ultimate despite the price rise.
To justify the increase in price of Ultimate, Microsoft has increased the number of day one releases per year to 75, and has added Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics for the first time ever. There are also upgrades to Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming quality.
Ubisoft+ Classics — valued at $7.99 / £6.99 per month per platform — is now part of Ultimate. Starting November 18, Fortnite Crew — which itself costs $11.99 / £9.99 a month — will be included in Ultimate, with access to the Fortnite Battle Pass and 1,000 V-Bucks each month.
The cloud gaming boost amounts to better performance. Ultimate subscribers “exclusively enjoy our best quality streaming and shortest wait times,” Microsoft said. Xbox Cloud Gaming has also officially exited beta “as part of our commitment to make gameplay smoother and more responsive.”
Microsoft said the new $30 a month Ultimate price reflects “the expanded catalog, new partner benefits, and upgraded cloud gaming experience.”
Xbox Game Pass Tier and Price Changes, October 2025:
- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: $29.99 a month, up from $19.99 a month
- Xbox Game Pass Premium: $14.99 a month, the same as the old Standard subscription
- Xbox Game Pass Essential: $9.99 a month, the same as the old Core subscription
- PC Game Pass: $16.49 a month, up from $11.99
The updated pricing went into effect on October 1 for new subscribers, and will go into effect on November 4 for current subscribers. As part of the announcement, Microsoft added more than 45 new games to Game Pass, including Hogwarts Legacy. Check out the full list here.
Despite these extras, has the Ultimate price rise forced a rethink among Game Pass subscribers? IGN readers have been discussing the changes and offering their thoughts in the comments. They make for interesting reading, with some saying they have now canceled their subscription.
Hertzwin, for example, pointed out that $360 a year (the new price for Ultimate across 12 months) is the same cost as buying five full-price games a year at $70. “Looking at the Microsoft Studios releases, I don’t see five games in any year I’d want to play,” they said. “There is no savings here anymore for an average gamer.”
“$30/month is insane,” added DippinDoansy. “No way I’m keeping Game Pass now. I’ve already been moving more and more towards Steam. This is just the final nail in the coffin for me.”
“I have been an Xbox defender since the beginning, but this officially crosses the line,” commented shoeflavored1313. “Can’t believe I’m finally bailing on Game Pass, but today’s that day. I just cancelled. I’ll just go back to buying games.”
RealFrowns, however, insisted Ultimate still offered them decent value. “By the end of this year, I will have played well over $500 worth of day one additions to Game Pass,” they said.
“So, even at $360 / year, I would still be saving money with Game Pass especially if you take into account that I’d still need to subscribe to Core so my kids can play Xbox online. So, it’s only a difference of $240 / year that I’m paying to play those $500 games.
“That said, the gap between what I’m playing and what I’m paying for gets smaller and smaller, which makes it quite a bit less appealing.”
And at least one IGN reader sees value in the new perks included in Ultimate. “My initial thought was ouch! $30 but if it includes Fortnite Crew, which I’m already paying for… Then this isn’t so bad. I can cancel Fortnite Crew, since it will come with Game Pass,” said Link3200.
Even GameStop got in on the act, before confirming it will continue to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99 a month in-store and online despite Microsoft’s official price rise.
Meanwhile, some Xbox fans have jumped on subscription stacking in a frantic bid to get ahead of the Ultimate price hike. As IGN explained, the best option for existing Ultimate subscribers was to stack their membership to its limit (36 months) while the change had yet to kick in at retailers like Amazon.
Microsoft will of course have braced itself for this sort of reaction, and will have run the numbers on a variety of scenarios before deciding to hike the price. Perhaps it factored a degree of cancelations into its projections. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft has said Game Pass reached a new annual record of nearly $5 billion in revenue this year, following the launches of The Elder Scrolls Oblivion: Remastered, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
The upshot of all this is Xbox fans are faced with more expensive gaming. Last month, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox consoles in the U.S. “due to changes in the macroeconomic environment.” Microsoft similarly raised eyebrows when it confirmed a $999.99 price tag for the upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X handheld, and $599.99 for the ROG Xbox Ally. At least Microsoft U-turned on $80 games for this holiday season.
Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
