Hello and welcome to another entry in our “The Big Question” series, in which we present an argument to you, the Eurogamer community, for further interrogation. This week: After the Xbox Game Pass price hike, is it time to cancel and start buying games again?
What’s all this about? Well, if you didn’t see the news from earlier in the week, Xbox has increased the price of its Game Pass offerings. The top-tier, Game Pass Ultimate now costs a not-insignificant £22.99 a month or about £276 a year! I’ve already commented on how an eventual Game Pass demise might be bad for game discovery, for those who use the service that way, and today we’re asking if it’s time to wave bye bye to Game Pass and start buying games again. Of course, there might also be a middle ground, if anyone is able to see nuance in a topic (unlikely, this is the internet!).
Today, I’m confused as I struggle to weigh up the true value proposition of Game Pass.
No one can tell you what value is, but there’s no denying Game Pass Ultimate is now more expensive than the competition
£23 is a lot of money. Of course, this is somewhat relative, and you might argue that if you are someone with a £500 a month car lease, a £60 phone contract, and £40 a month sub to an artisanal cake delivery company, that actually it’s not much, really – but it is. In the world of entertainment subscriptions it’s a lot.
Netflix Premium, the most expensive tier offered by any streaming TV/Film streaming service, is £18.99 a month. Game Pass Ultimate is more expensive. PlayStation Plus Premium, the high-end option for PlayStation users, is £13.49 a month or £120 a year, which is a lot cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate. So, then you must look at the value, which is almost impossible to say anything definitive on as everyone is different – where I might see a smart addition to the service, others will see a way to charge more for something they don’t want.
For me, I do use the EA Play games as they get added to the catalogue, and I was subscribed to this separately before it was added to Game Pass Ultimate. I also will absolutely get my money’s worth from the Fortnite Crew perk that my son has been desperate for since Epic introduced it. Do I also want Day One Xbox published games? Yes, I do, and it’s probably my number one reason for preferring Game Pass to rival services. Better streaming quality for games playing via the Cloud? Maybe – the jury is still out on how good streaming has become.
Is this enough to pay more than double the £11 for Game Pass Premium or eat the cost of a Burger King meal deal on top of the £13.49 for Sony’s best offering? Incidentally, GP Premium currently lists 373 games, PS Plus Premium (including classic games) is at about 550, and GP Ultimate offers 838. Quality counts for more, here, I’d argue, but there’s certainly some more value on display.
That’s a whole lot of talk without actually making any statements about my future with Game Pass. The recurring billing elephant in the room, and let’s lower our voices a little, is the fact that you don’t have to pay £22.99 a month for Game Pass Ultimate. Just yesterday I added a year to my membership for £135 via a proper UK games retailer that is widely used. No doubt this will increase somewhat in the near future, but I very much doubt I’ll ever pay the full price.
Do I think I’ll cancel Game Pass, then, and switch to buying games? It might shock you to hear it, but I already buy plenty of games. Not many Xbox games, but 10+ a year across Switch, PS5, and PC. I don’t think I’m going to cancel Game Pass and start buying Xbox games again as the service gives me and my family comparatively cheap access to a wide variety of games. It’s also just easy. The games in Game Pass are the games we have on Xbox – play all that take our fancy, and don’t worry about all the rest. I’ve always been quite tight (careful, is perhaps a better term) with money, and I’m not averse to making spreadsheets or performing some scrap paper maths, and £20 I can just file away – that’s my spending on Xbox, done, nice and neat.
-Tom O
The big question, then: After the Xbox Game Pass price hike, is it time to cancel and start buying games again?
