Xbox Game Pass removes day one games, raises prices for standard version

In May, Microsoft confirmed that Call Of Duty would be coming straight to Game Pass and that, despite rumors, this would not mean a new, more expensive subscription tier would be coming.

That’s not entirely true, however, as major changes are coming to the service, which will see price increases across the board as well as the release of new first-party games for the new Standard tier at the end of the day.

The current Xbox Game Pass for Console service is being canceled and replaced by the more expensive Xbox Game Pass Standard on September 12. Importantly, this service will not include day one first-party games or cloud gaming options.

The price of the new Standard service in the UK has not yet been announced, but in the US it will be $14.99. So you can expect the price in the UK to be more like £10.

For that price, you can still download existing Xbox first-party games and the usual rotating selection of third-party titles for free. Plus, you can play online, because you get the equivalent of Xbox Live Gold/Game Pass Core thrown in.

To get access to cloud gaming and new titles from day one, you’ll need to pay for the more expensive Xbox Game Pass Ultimate option. This currently costs £12.99 per month, but will now increase in price to £14.99.

Surprisingly, PC Game Pass still gives you first-party games from day one. The price is also going up, but the increase is modest: from £7.99 per month to £9.99 in the UK.

Finally, Xbox Game Pass Core, the subscription service formerly known as Xbox Live Gold, will retain its monthly price of £6.99 in the UK, but the annual price will increase from £49.99 to £55.99.

As usual with Microsoft, it’s all terribly confusing, but while no public announcement has been made yet, there is a short FAQ page on the Xbox website, after the changes were initially leaked by website Windows Central.

If you currently have a Core membership, nothing will be taken away and you can keep your subscription. However, starting September 12, you can only stack Xbox Game Pass for Console for up to 13 months.

While this is the second year in a row that Microsoft has raised the prices of Game Pass, this is a much more significant change to the way the service works in terms of pricing, with the Standard service now being much less attractive than the old Game Pass for Console.

It’s undoubtedly a response to the fact that Game Pass and subscription services in general haven’t been taking off as well as expected, and that adding Call Of Duty to the service risks losing out on revenue to Xbox and PC owners who would otherwise have paid full price for it.

Microsoft claims that most Game Pass users are already on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes both console and PC options. So from the perspective of those customers, the only thing that will change is the price increase.

However you slice it, this is further proof that subscription services aren’t the killer app Microsoft once envisioned, and that Game Pass wasn’t sustainable at its previous lower price points.