PC Game Pass hiked to $16 a month, $200 a year, includes day one first-party Xbox games

Microsoft's third Game Pass price increase has affected PC Game Pass, but the extra cost offers day and date access to new first-party games.

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Game Pass is getting overhauled with a rebrand and price hikes. Ultimate is now $30 a month, and includes Ubisoft+ with the promise of 75 day one games per year. Game Pass PC has also gone up from its original $11.99 price to $16.49 per month, an increase of +37%.

Interestingly enough, this price increase was not mentioned anywhere in the official Xbox Wire announcement post, nor did Microsoft make a new promotional trailer video for PC Game Pass like it did for the other tiers. The new PC pricing is only available via a clickable drop-down section on the Game Pass join page. Perhaps the imminent launch of the Xbox Ally PC handheld duo has something to do with this obfuscation, as Microsoft may want new users to initially buy games at full price.

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That extra $4.50 per month unlocks a commitment from Microsoft, though. The Game Pass subscription plan page confirms that PC Game Pass now includes day one access to all new first-party releases, including those in the future. That should mean that games like Call of Duty Black Ops 7 will be available to PC Game Pass subscribers on day one.

This could be a friction point as PC gamers get a bit of favor over Xbox console users, which could also be why this information was somewhat hidden.

Microsoft has confirmed that Call of Duty games will not launch day one on Xbox Game Pass Premium, the $15/month offering. But apparently they will launch on the $16.50/month PC Game Pass subscription.

That's an interesting disparity that highlights the potential downfalls of serving so many platforms with different price points, and this layer of friction could further harm Xbox's goodwill with enthusiast fans--especially those playing on console.