Xbox Game Pass price increase announced

Microsoft has raised the price of one tier of its Xbox Game Pass subscription.

The company has rolled out three new tiers at different price points: Essential, Premium and Ultimate.

Previous Game Pass Core subscribers will be moved to the Essential program. Standard will become Premium while Ultimate will remain the same.

Essential will cost $9.99 a month and will have 50+ games for console, PC and cloud play. Premium will be $14.99 a month and will feature 200+ games, plus access to new Xbox-published games within a year of release. Ultimate will have access to 400+ games for $29.99 a month and will include 75 or more day-one games a year, including all Xbox published games, plus Ubisoft+ Classics, EA Play and in November, Fortnite Crew. Other benefits also come with each tier.

The costs for the lowest two tiers remain the same, but the cost of the Ultimate one will be increased by $10 a month, CNBC reported. That is about $359.88 annually.

PlayStation Plus Premium, by comparison, is the highest tier of PlayStation’s subscription and costs $17.99 a month or $159.99 for a year plan.

Xbox’s new pricing went into effect on Oct. 1 for new subscribers and Nov. 4 for current subscribers, IGN reported.