Microsoft reworks Xbox Game Pass tiers, Ultimate gets a S$10 price hike in Singapore
The Core and Standard tiers also get replaced by the new ‘Essential’ and ‘Premium’.
Microsoft has announced that it’s changing up its Xbox Games Pass tiers. Specifically, Core and Standard have now been replaced with Essential and Premium respectively, with the biggest change being that they now include access to both PC and console titles. Meanwhile, the Ultimate tier has been retained, with revisions to what it includes.
In Singapore, all three tiers will have pricing bumps associated with this. These changes are relatively minor for Essential and Premium, though it’s an increase nonetheless. Essential will cost S$10.99/month, while Premium will cost S$14.99/month, which are both S$1 increases compared to Core and Standard. The US prices for these two tiers remain unchanged.
Ultimate, however, sees a massive price hike. Previously costing S$18.90/month, you’ll now need to shell out S$29.99/month.
As for what these new tiers include, Microsoft has outlined them here, in US pricing:
The three new Xbox Game Pass tiers. Customers will be automatically moved to these new plans.
Importantly, customers will automatically transition to these new tiers, so you might want to check if your account has already migrated. Core and Standard subscribers will move to Essential and Premium respectively, while Ultimate subscribers will stay in that tier.
Speaking of Ultimate, for that price increase, Microsoft says that subscribers will now get over 75 day one releases a year. This comes alongside a Ubisoft+ Classics subscription bundled in, and starting from 18 November, a Fortnite Crew subscription will also be included in Ultimate.
As for the other tiers, Premium will now get new Xbox-published games within a year of their launch. All three plans will also have access to unlimited cloud gaming, though quality and wait times will vary between them. Microsoft says that Ultimate will include up to 1440p stream quality, as well as the “shortest wait times,” though it didn’t specify by how long compared to the other tiers.
Finally, Microsoft also took the chance to announce new games joining Xbox Game Pass this month. You can find the games list for the revised tiers here.