Goodbye, the "good old days" of Game Pass

Microsoft is updating Game Pass again, most notably for many that the price of the Ultimate tier is increasing from $19.99/month to $29.99/month. The $9.99/month and $14.99/month tiers remain the same price, but get new names and the perks somehow change, but I'm not an expert on Game Pass to be able to clearly communicate the differences. The gist is that nothing got cheaper, one tier got more expensive, and the complexity of what games you get access to and on what platforms is just as complex as it has become over the last couple years.

Lee Peterson wasn't happy with these changes:

When I wrote about Flight Sim on PS5 I did kind of think that was the end for the Xbox, to me it seems obvious that Microsoft aren’t going to be making any new Xbox consoles in a few years. Now, off the back of that they are increasing game pass by up to 50%, it’s like they are not giving any reasons to get one and also just annoying those of us that bought the Series S or X.

Funnily enough, I wrote about Game Pass back on 2022, also linking to one of Peterson's pieces, saying enjoy the good old days of Game Pass:

Microsoft is spending an absolutely insane amount of money on Game Pass right now, and that party can’t last forever. Game Pass is already more expensive than it used to be, and as Microsoft buys more studios and includes more and more in the subscription, I’d expect the cost to start climbing. If this is going to remain a good business for developers as well, I just don’t see how things can stay where they are.

So enjoy Game Pass now! If you enjoy the lineup of games and you are saving serious cash by using it, seriously get the most out of it and appreciate that you’re most likely living through the service at its best.

Back when I wrote that, it cost $15/month to get all games on Xbox & PC as well as streaming games from the cloud. Today that same plan costs twice as much and I wouldn't be surprised to see the costs continue to slowly rise.

This is where I put on my old man hat and say that buying games is great, they support developers more directly, and you can just play what you want without feeling an obligation to play new things constantly to make the monthly cost worth it. Don't let me stop of you if you enjoy this sort of thing, but I'm not into paying subscriptions for games myself.