For several years, Xbox Game Pass was widely regarded as the best value in gaming. You pay $20 for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and receive online multiplayer, the ability to play Xbox Studios’ titles on day one, access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and a handful of other perks. Because of Microsoft’s partnership with EA, you also get access to EA Play.
While all that is still on offer with Game Pass Ultimate, the pricing has received a massive 50% increase. With Game Pass Ultimate now costing $30/month, that translates to a $360 annual charge! Microsoft seemingly isn’t offering any discounts or bundles if you subscribe annually, either, making the price an even tougher pill to swallow.
The Aftermath
In case you’re not grasping the full scope of the situation, just last week, if you were subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate Annually, you were paying $240/year; now it’s $360. That’s a 50% increase for the monthly model, and a 40% increase for the annual model. As you can probably expect, the outrage from Game Pass users was loud and immediate.
According to The Gamer, the number of people rushing to cancel their Game Pass subscriptions is so massive that the site is continuously crashing. Additionally, content creators, influencers, and even a lot of media sites have their pitchforks at the ready and are telling people to unsubscribe. Yeah, definitely not a good look when there are massive Steam Sales happening right now.
What Should You Do As A Sports Gamer
As a subscriber to Game Pass Ultimate, I get access to EA Play. Through this subscription, I get access to a boatload of games that I never would have tried before. Most of them were simulators like EA WRC, F1 24, and Forza Motorsport. I’m a big fan of sports games and arcade racers, but simulators aren’t really my thing. With that said, I never would have known how fun Forza Motorsport is, even for casuals, if I didn’t have Game Pass Ultimate.
Now, I was fine paying $20 just to get access to these games, but $30 is a bit too much. Especially since I can buy Forza Motorsport for around $18 right now in my region through Steam. In the U.S., Forza Motorsport is $35 right now on Steam. Whether you, as a sports games fan, should be walking away from Game Pass or not depends on a few factors.
First, do you only download a couple of sports games a year and grind them out? This is the case for many players of EA FC, Madden, and Football Manager. These games are many people’s bread and butter, and they are the only games they play all year round. If you fall in this category, you’re better off just buying three or four of these games every year and calling it a day. Spending $360 every year just to play a handful of games is not a good deal.
Then there are people like me, who try to experiment with almost every game they can, thanks to services like Game Pass. Now $30/month isn’t bad if you play dozens of games every month, but not many people have the time for that. I only do that so I can write about games! If you do fall in that category, though, then you’ll have to make the call yourself whether that’s worth $30 or not. I will say, though, if you’re smart and buy games during sales, you can easily buy four to five AAA games and a good number of indies every year. So, make your subscription decisions wisely.
