Xbox Game Pass announces hefty price hike, and users are not impressed

Xbox has announced several different changes to Xbox Game Pass, leading to outrage among gamers online.

The price increases and changes are so across the board confusing that Xbox has released a four-page document that details all the changes, but the important ones are as follows:

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is increasing from £12.99 to £14.99 a month
• Xbox Game Pass Core is increasing from £49.99 to £55.99 a year
• Xbox Game Pass PC is increasing from £7.99 to £9.99 a month

The company has also announced that they're completely getting rid of Xbox Game Pass Console, the cheaper alternative to Game Pass Ultimate that removed some games, and replacing it with a new tier titled Game Pass Standard. This new tier, however, will not include new games on day one, likely a side effect of the promise to put all upcoming Call of Duty games on the subscription service, and a direct side effect of the fact that the Xbox audience has been conditioned over the years to expect new releases day and date.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to land on Game Pass later this year.

What this has essentially done is kill Game Pass as it once existed. The original pitch and selling point for the service was to give access to all major new releases on day one to all subscribers. Now, that's not happening unless users change their subscription to a higher tier, meaning that many subscribers will inevitably be priced out of that service.

"As great of a service Ultimate Game Pass is, looks like it will be one of those services I only activate when I have a few games I want to actively play. Cancelling once I beat Still Wakes The Deep," one user wrote on the changes.

Meanwhile, Giant Bomb host Jeff Grubb explained the reasoning behind these changes: "It's [Xbox Game Pass] not gaining subscribers like they thought it would. It is not the answer to Xbox's problems. They talked about reaching 2 billion gamers. They don't talk about that anymore. They still believe in Game Pass, but it is not the end all be all. And this isn't surprising."