Summary
- Microsoft might be working on a cloud-only Xbox Game Pass tier.
- The rumored plan is reportedly meant to be more affordable than XGP Ultimate.
- The Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family plan could also be making a return in the future, after being discontinued in August 2023.
Even more Xbox Game Pass tier changes may be on the horizon, including a cloud-only plan, according to a new report from a known Microsoft insider. The purported tweaks are understood to be part of an effort to help Xbox Game Pass reach new audiences worldwide.
Back in mid-July, Microsoft quietly announced several huge changes to Xbox Game Pass, including a fairly comprehensive price increase affecting everyone but members of its Console tier. The company also opted to eliminate the $10.99-a-month console-only subscription for new subscribers, which will soon be replaced with Xbox Game Pass Standard, requiring a $14.99 monthly fee. The third change concerns day-one releases on the service, which won't be offered to Standard-tier subscribers but will instead soon become an exclusive perk of PC Game Pass and Ultimate-tier memberships. While the price hikes took effect on July 10, the remainder of the service overhaul is scheduled for September 2024.
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Microsoft Possibly Working on Cloud-Only Xbox Game Pass Tier
But that may not be the last of Xbox Game Pass changes to materialize in the foreseeable future, with Windows Central's Jez Corden reporting that Microsoft is already working on some other novelties. One of them is supposedly a cloud-only tier that's meant to be more affordable than Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which is currently priced at $19.99 per month. Corden did not offer a timeline for when this new tier of the service might see the light of day.
Xbox Game Pass Family Plan Might Be Coming Back
The second change mentioned in the report concerns the Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family plan, which Corden says might be coming back, citing "very tentative rumors." The multi-account plan was a short-lived experiment that was only offered between September 2022 and August 2023. It was initially made available in Ireland and Colombia before making its way to six more countries in early 2023. It allowed up to five people to enjoy all the benefits of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for roughly $25 a month, which was cheaper than paying for two separate Ultimate memberships at the time.
While the price hikes and tier revamp announced in July 2024 were largely geared toward optimizing Xbox Game Pass profit margins, these newly rumored changes seem to have an entirely different goal in mind; a cloud-only tier and a five-account plan would both ostensibly help the service reach new audiences, like price-conscious consumers not interested in buying an Xbox console or finding $20 to be too much for a single monthly subscription. Making the service more accessible could help Microsoft offset some of the effects of Xbox Game Pass's declining growth.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the highest tier of Microsoft's flagship game subscription service that offers over 100 game titles that you can play with a single purchase, making it one of the most outstanding value propositions of the Xbox ecosystem to date.
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