Poll: How Long Until Xbox Game Pass Gets A Price Increase?

Well the all access program locks in the price at slightly less than the current monthly price for the next 2 years. I imagine that they plan plan to increase the pricing after that point, otherwise they would have a large amount of users paying less than the asking price. I think gold will just disappear by the end of the year, and no more “free/permanent” games with gold giveaways. They want us forever renting rather than owning the products.

I think the structure will change a little, adding a base Gamepass, while allowing the user to add specifics such as EAPlay (now included), Ubisoft and Gold.

Likely to be within the year tbh.

It'll happen eventually, I'd say likely next year ..

I have to imagine the LAST thing Microsoft is going to try right now is a price hike. That said, I'd pay $19.99 or even $24.99 for Ultimate. It's saving me a lot of money compared to what I used to spend on games and it's more or less got me hooked on the Xbox ecosystem despite owning a PS5 and a Switch.

Services normally increase every couple of years (see Netflix price increase structure)

After the failed money grab and rumoured division in the board room over the initial decision I'd be very surprised to see anything changed in 2021. If the add Ubisoft then maybe a new tire will be added bit current ultimate will stay the same.

Next year we will likely see an increase. I'm making sure I'm maxed out for my 3 year's of ultimate the next time they have a big sale on GPU card's just to delay the impact as long as possible. It's still a stupid good deal, I've played $300-$400 worth of games already and it's been less than 6 months since I got GPU.

Game Pass is such good value right now that it probably needs a price increase (not that I want it) for Microsoft to make money.

I think it will happen, just not anytime soon.

It does seem like Microsoft are looking to recoup money from somewhere, there are a lot of subscribers but how many are actually paying for it? I basically paid £1 and won't be spending a penny until next year, maybe even longer as I'm offered another 12 months with a new phone upgrade, Samsung are giving subs away with their new phones.

I wonder if the real reason behind the Gold price increase was to Ultimately phase out the cheaper version of Gamepass and then drop Gold altogether

Fair enough they increase their price in the next 1-2 years. The service is amazing value.

I hope they merged with Gold as well, so they can have a very simple message to the market.

I think price will go up when their new generation first party releases like perfect dark, fable, halo infinite and others become available on the service. Also, I think Microsoft will ditch the base game pass tier and xbox live gold and have xbox game pass ultimate as the only all-in-one subscription, rebranding it as Xbox Game Pass only, as base tier will be gone.

It's a tough sell. GP depends on numbers and a large subscriber base. Bigger than it is now. And a lot of current subs are sold on the merit of the deep discounts and $1 sign ups. So they need to turn all that into revenue first while keeping numbers large and growing.

It seems obvious that prices will keep increasing, but there's a problem with that in that at a certain point it stops growing and starts bleeding subscribers when the price gets too high. The price needs to seem attractive, not seem like a digital county club to get numbers. Netflix is $9 for sd/mobile viewing, $14 for hd. Gpu is $15 already. There's only so much room for price expansion before you price yourself out of the mass market and contract into a premium market.

Plus the cloud giants are going to be waging price wars with Amazon Luna invariably having a free with prime tier. I doubt Microsoft is going to ship Tide pods free 2 day with gpu subs. That cost more.

So it seems like the goal is price hikes and yet i don't see how they could really do it for some years. Not too mention psnow is somewhat competitive now for less money and more market reach. If Sony actually marketed it, that's dangerous.

Buuut ..... This is the Microsoft that decided a 100% price hike without warning right after a console launch was a good idea a half a week ago. Reading the room isn't their strong suit. At this point i wouldn't be shocked if Kinekt with Windows Hello facial recognition is mandatory again by next month (at least for 5 hours until they reverse it) and used discs have a $20 fee.

Edit: fun fact, the Android app actually still shows the double priced gold pricing on the front page ads! And the market already demonstrated it's not working to absorb increases with the backlash to gold that was so severe they had to backpedal same day. I really don't want these guys to become #1.... Ever...

I think the first "price increase" will be the cancelation of the base plan, making Ultimate the standard.

That might also be the day they cancel Xbox live gold, grandfathering existing accounts but no longer offering it for new or lapsed subscribers.

They will go for a slow and steady plan, I dare say the failed gold increase was a step on that path.
I can see gold going first with a phasing out date(you can trade gold for game pass 1:1 at the moment so easy transition) then sometime after that they will start to creep the price after that, possibly for new signups like Netflix did.

I think what Microsoft will do is start giving timed exclusivity for Xbox Game Studios games to Game Pass Ultimate members. So for example if the general release of Halo Infinite is on November 15th/16th then Game Pass Ultimate members get the game around November 2nd. Not even buying the most expensive version of a game (like past Ultimate Editions of Forza and Gears granted you 4 days timed exclusivity) would be enough to grant you early access, the only requirement being Game Pass Ultimate.

I'm not sure they'll increase the price until series S/X is really available and has a high install base. At that point I'm sure they'll consider increasing the price.

Also think the 2 years access will factor in to this decision, so would guess the increase will be in around 1-2 years from now at very earliest.

@eduscxbox i think they will drop gold keep regular game pass, and ultimate...regular game pass will probably wont include EA or Ubi, ultimate will is my thinking. Regular gamepass will be the low end ultimate will be the upper end and i think both will. Get a price jump. Next 2-3 years this will happen.

@Blessed_Koz Yeah, that's something they can also do. But every time they add something new to XGPU the base tier looks more and more like a waste of money to invest in, as XGPU gives us so much more for the money. That's why I said that, but we never know, it will depend of how many people subscribe to XGP vs XGPU in the end.

@eduscxbox if it wasn’t for the inclusion of ea i was gonna downgrade, dont have a pc capable of gaming or android device. Maybe give us a tier that has no pc or streaming but everything else will be the bottom and ultimate will get everything.

It may well do but its great value.

Argos UK dropping Series X stock as I type this
Just had one in my basket. Good Luck.

It will happen the year after Microsoft finally has a few exclusive bangers so probably 2023 or 2024 depending when games like Starfield, Avowed, Fable, Everwild, Gears 6, Forza, and Hellblade arrive.