Microsoft has reduced the Game Pass Ultimate subscription price from R349 to R239 per month, addressing fan backlash and restoring its status as an affordable gaming subscription option. Picture: Michael Sherman/IOL
Image: Michael Sherman/IOL
As usual, my heart sank when I saw an email from Microsoft over the weekend, but I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt about a most welcome subscription reduction.
I previously wrote about the shameful price increase that Microsoft dished out with its Game Pass Ultimate subscription in December after one-week warning.
It shot up by 75.38% from R199 to R349 per month.
That had me seriously considering cancelling my subscription altogether, since I don’t make proper use of it anyway.
Fortunately, the price has come down to R239 per month, which once again makes it a good value offering from the tech giant.
Gaming is not cheap, and the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription from Microsoft made it one of the most affordable ways to own your games.
When I first signed up for Xbox Game Pass a couple of years ago, it was R129 per month. That gave me access to around 100 games, and more new AAA games than I could play at any one time.
It was quite honestly the best value subscription available as a gamer.
Then the first price increase struck, without much warning it went up by R70 from R129 per month to R199 monthly in September 2024. That was a 53.8% increase.
But the latest increase in December really came as a crushing blow to many gamers, many of course are not adults and therefore would have had trouble keeping the subscription going as it would be difficult to justify it to their guardians.
For those that did cancel their subscriptions, this might just make them return to Game Pass.