The 2017 baseline
Microsoft announced Game Pass on February 28, 2017. The pitch was unlimited access to more than 100 Xbox One and backward-compatible Xbox 360 games for $9.99 per month. The games were downloaded and run locally on Xbox One, not streamed.
Broad availability followed. Xbox Live Gold members got early access on May 24, 2017, with a 14-day free trial. The service opened to everyone on June 1 in 31 markets. Microsoft's launch posts also promised monthly catalog rotation, with new games arriving and some leaving. Members got discounts if they wanted to buy catalog games outright.
The 2026 lineup
Microsoft's Store listing shows four plans in the U.S.:
| Plan | Monthly price | Advertised library | Notable perks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $9.99 | 50+ games | Online console multiplayer, in-game benefits |
| Premium | $14.99 | 200+ games | New Xbox-published games within a year of launch |
| PC Game Pass | $13.99 | 300+ games on PC | Day-one releases, EA Play |
| Ultimate | $22.99 | 500+ games | Day-one releases, Fortnite Crew, EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics |
Microsoft's Premium listing says Ultimate and PC Game Pass get new games on day one, while Premium waits up to a year for Xbox-published titles. It also says Premium excludes Call of Duty titles from that one-year window.
The "50+," "200+," "300+" and "500+" figures are advertised library sizes. They are not fixed inventories, and the 2017 "100+" was a launch catalog. Comparing them as raw game counts says little about value. Platform access, release timing, rotating membership and perks all matter.
The arithmetic, with caveats
- Essential: $9.99 in 2017 and $9.99 in 2026. That is flat in nominal dollars, and therefore lower in real terms. These figures are not inflation-adjusted.
- Ultimate: $22.99 against $9.99 is $13 more per month, about 2.3 times the launch price.
- PC Game Pass: $13.99 is a separate PC-only product, so it is not a like-for-like successor to the 2017 console service.
The AOL piece complains that the same price now buys fewer games. That is true on paper, since the entry tier lists 50+ games against 100+ in 2017. But the 2017 service had one tier. The 2026 Essential is the cheapest rung of a ladder, and the 2017 library had no equivalent of today's day-one releases or bundled partner services. Judging value means deciding which of those extras you actually use.
The April 2026 price cut and its catch
The 2026 pricing story has a second half. On April 21, 2026, Game Pass Ultimate dropped from $29.99 to $22.99 a month, and PC Game Pass dropped from $16.49 to $13.99. Reporting at the time said Essential and Premium stayed at $9.99 and $14.99.
Forbes noted the cut followed an October price hike that took Ultimate from $19.99 to $29.99. The 2026 price is therefore a partial reversal, not a return to where Ultimate was before October.
The trade-off is Call of Duty. Future Call of Duty titles won't join Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. They arrive the following holiday season, about a year later. Existing Call of Duty games already in the library remain available. Microsoft's announcement does not say that every Call of Duty title is on every tier, so the BGR line about benefits "across each tier" is looser than the evidence supports.
Xbox head Asha Sharma said Ultimate had become too expensive for too many players. That quote is from the TBreak report on the announcement. Forbes suggested day-one Call of Duty may have been a driver of the earlier price hike. That is Forbes' analysis, not something Microsoft stated.
A correction on cloud playtime
BGR says that as of September 2026, Essential includes five hours of cloud playtime a month. Microsoft's September 3 Xbox Wire post describes this as an upcoming change.
- Limits begin in November: 15 hours for Ultimate, 10 for Premium and 5 for Essential.
- At the time of that post, eligible subscribers could stream without monthly hour limits.
- Microsoft expects the change to affect 4% of subscribers.
- Subscribers who use up their hours will be able to buy more cloud playtime through the Xbox Store.
- Microsoft promised pricing and further details before the change takes effect.
- Microsoft also plans a way to buy cloud hours without a Game Pass subscription, to stream eligible games you already own.
The Store listing now shows the hour allowances, so the plan page already reflects the coming limits. Treat them as a November change, not a September one. This matters because cloud play was a major draw for Premium and Ultimate in 2026, while the 2017 service ran entirely on local hardware.
What this means for subscribers
- Casual or backlog players: Essential costs the same as in 2017, but it is a smaller, console-centric entry point.
- Windows gamers: PC Game Pass at $13.99 gives day-one releases and EA Play. Ultimate costs more but adds console and cloud use.
- Call of Duty fans: The price cut came with day-one access removed, so the savings may not suit you.
- Heavy cloud users: Check Microsoft's November details before choosing a plan. Prices may also vary by region, as Microsoft notes.
Over nine years, Game Pass went from one $9.99 plan to four, each priced for a different kind of player. The sticker price tells less than it used to, so compare tiers by what you will actually play, where you will play it and when you want it.