The latter are already available through Ultimate and PC Game Pass but are now playable in the Premium tier. Planet Coaster 2 arrives on April 9th, followed by Tiny Bookshop on April 10th. Both games will be playable for all three subscription tiers. Meanwhile, Football Manager 26 and its Console release join Premium on April 13th.

April 14th is big for new releases with the addition of Hades 2, which also launches day-and-date on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and Replaced, the long-awaited 2.5D side-scrolling cyberpunk platformer. If neither is to your liking, there’s also The Thaumaturge, an underrated narrative-focused RPG. Meanwhile, April 16th sees the arrival of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered for Premium and EA Sports NHL 26 on Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Oddly enough, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the 2019 reboot, will also be available for all three tiers, followed by Little Rocket Lab, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato, and Vampire Crawlers (based on the uber-popular Vampire Survivors) on April 21st. Double Fine’s Kiln wraps up the first wave on April 23rd, launching for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Its open beta is set for April 9th to 11th on Steam, so there’s plenty of time to try it out for free.

Check out all the games that will be leaving on April 15th:

• Ashen (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Grand Theft Auto 5 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Terra Invicta (Game Preview) (PC)

Other notable releases for the first wave of Game Pass in March include Final Fantasy 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, both out today on Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass. to a T, a new adventure from Katamari Damacy’s creator is next on March 4th, though it’s currently playable for Premium subscribers.

EA Sports F1 25 arrives on the same day for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, followed by Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf on March 5th (which also marks the day of its launch on all platforms). And if you’re not keen on exploring Night City and becoming a legend as V, there’s also Construction Simulator, which drops for all three tiers on the same day.

For those who didn’t venture into Pharloom last September, Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available for Premium subscribers on March 12th. It’s followed by DreamWorks Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party on March 17th for all three tiers.

Of course, several titles will also be leaving the service on March 15th. Check them out below and finish them while they’re still available.

• Bratz Rhythm & Style (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Enter the Gungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• F1 23 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• He is Coming (PC)
• Lightyear Frontier (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (Cloud, Console, and PC)

What about the here and now? Well, today sees the arrival of Aerial_Knight’s DropShot and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Premium subscribers can also finally go hands-on with Avowed, which is getting a meaty new Anniversary Update today alongside its PS5 port.

Death Howl, a Souls-like deck builder, follows on February 19th for all three tiers, along with EA Sports College Football 26 for Ultimate subscribers. However, the standout addition is undoubtedly The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for Ultimate and Premium. Right on time for that rumored new DLC.

TCG Card Shop Simulator arrives on February 24th, though it’s still in early access, with Dice A Million joining on February 25th for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Towerborne’s 1.0 release is also out on February 26th and will be available for all three tiers. And for those who don’t care that Henry has come to visit us on March 3rd, they can experience Final Fantasy 3 instead.

Check out all the titles that will be leaving on February 28th (available to purchase at a 20 percent discount for Game Pass members):

• Monster Train (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Injustice 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (Cloud, Console, and PC)

This was in response to the Xbox profile announcing that cloud gaming had arrived in India alongside expansions to servers in Brazil and Argentina. Spencer said, “One way we measure progress is by looking at engagement, and the momentum is encouraging: Game Pass cloud hours are up 45 percent compared to this time last year, and console players are streaming 45 percent more on console and 24 percent more on other devices. “

Which sounds all well and good, but how many were utilizing Xbox Cloud Gaming to begin with? How much time were they originally spending? These are currently unknown. Nevertheless, Spencer felt that “Progress is also about more choice for players—play what you want, where you want—and that’s what drives us forward.”

It’s also worth noting that cloud gaming is available to a wider spectrum of Game Pass subscribers than before. Previously exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential can now access the same, albeit at lower quality and slightly longer wait times. Microsoft is also working on a free cloud gaming tier supported by ads, though it has yet to provide specifics.

Providing “free ad-supported cloud access to some games” and existing separately from Game Pass, the tier didn’t receive any details regarding its launch date or the prevalence of ads. According to The Verge’s original report, players can allegedly play for one hour each session and receive five hours each month for free. Two minutes of pre-roll ads were also reported.

Microsoft is reportedly planning to start with a public beta, much like it did with Project xCloud, and transition to an official launch in the months after. While only “some” owned titles are supported, players can apparently take advantage of Xbox Retro Classics and Free Play Days on PC, Xbox consoles, web browsers and handheld devices (likely including the recently-released ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X).

October 24th will see the launch of Super Fantasy Kingdom into Game Preview for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers. Halls of Torment follows for all subscription tiers (sans Core) on October 28th and The Outer Worlds 2 on October 29th.

Getting an early start on announcing next month’s line-up is the news that 1000xResist will be available for Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass on November 4th. It coincides with the PC and console versions of Football Manager 26. As day-one launches, they’ll be available only for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Only three titles are being removed from the service on October 31st, but they’re fairly significant. Check them out below.

• Jusant (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Metal Slug Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Return to Monkey Island (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Edition arrive for PC on October 9th for the same tiers, while Supermassive’s The Casting of Frank Stone is available on October 14th. Ball x Pit is next on October 15th for Ultimate and PC Game Pass with The Grinch: Christmas Adventures.

Eternal Strands also debuts for Premium subscribers on the same day. It’s joined by He Is Coming for PC (Game Preview) and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Pax Dei exits early access on October 16th and will be available for Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Double Fine’s Keeper arrives on October 17th for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, while Evil West debuts on October 21st for the same tiers (plus Premium). Finally, Ninja Gaiden 4 arrives on October 21st for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Check out the three titles leaving the service on October 15th:

• Cocoon (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Core Keeper (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed (Cloud, Console, and PC)

The ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X created some positive buzz in August during Gamescom. Then, in September, another price hike for the Xbox Series X/S impacted the US market. You could now spend $800 on an Xbox Series X 2 TB Galaxy Black Edition – $50 more and technically less powerful than a PS5 Pro, that too for a console that’s only seen declining revenue in recent years. Make it make sense. Oh, and the Xbox Ally and Ally X cost $600 and $1000, respectively.

But hey, at least the minds at Microsoft Gaming have Game Pass, right? Surely they wouldn’t do anything to ruin its sole shining beacon. You would think, but as soon as October began, the company revealed a revamp of the service and a new tagline, “This is how we play.” Game Pass Ultimate is now $30 monthly, up from $20; Game Pass Standard is now Premium and costs $15; and Core has become Essential, costing $10. Is there irony in using Premium as the second-highest tier when PlayStation Plus considers it the highest? Surely not.

All tiers now have access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, which has officially left beta, and Ultimate subscribers get the best quality. That’s on top of all the other benefits – Fortnite Crew, EA Play, online multiplayer, over 75 day one titles per year (which isn’t bad considering this year’s output), and access to over 400 titles currently available. Perhaps the biggest change is that Premium won’t receive Xbox-published titles on the day of their launch. Instead, subscribers will receive access within a year. Could be in a month, two months, 364 days – roll the dice and find out.

Obviously, there’s plenty of backlash to Ultimate’s price increase and Premium’s second-tier status, especially in the wake of Xbox president Sarah Bond revealing Game Pass’s success, with $5 billion in sales from the last fiscal year alone. But the timing of all this is pretty blatant, not just because three big Xbox-published titles are out this month with Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, and The Outer Worlds 2, but also because Ultimate subscribers get early access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta.

Of course, they receive the full game in November. Yet it feels like Microsoft is taking advantage of the FOMO around beta codes to push its now-more-expensive Ultimate subscriptions.

That’s not all – it recently came to light that subscribers, regardless of tier, no longer receive discounts on DLC and add-ons in the Xbox Store. It probably doesn’t make much sense for older titles like Forza Horizon, but think about the “now.” Indiana Jones and the Great Circle recently received a paid story expansion in The Order of Giants. Anyone who thinks of subscribing and enjoying the base game will now have to pay full price for the expansion. The same goes for those who might want to jump back into Starfield with its next expansion. It may be as bad as Shattered Space, but Microsoft is charging full price from everyone this time.

Naturally, this also applies to all add-ons and premium currency in Call of Duty. It’s yet another step to maximize returns on Black Ops 7, potentially because sales of last year’s title saw a significant drop due to Game Pass. Isn’t this just Microsoft trying to solve a problem that it fought tooth and nail to create?

Don’t worry, though, because it allegedly has something for everyone who feels that these pricing models aren’t worth it. And that is, according to The Verge’s Tom Warren, a free version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. With ads, naturally.

Reportedly in testing, it allows for streaming certain titles without needing Game Pass, including those that the player owns and Xbox Retro Classics. But before that, you’ll apparently need to watch two minutes of pre-roll ads, and there’s a limit of one hour per session. This is all subject to change, including the amount of “free” hours provided each month, but it will be available for PC, Xbox, web browsers, and, of course, the company’s upcoming handhelds.

Many questions come to mind when considering all this, but one of them isn’t why Microsoft is doing this if Game Pass is so profitable. It’s because of the profits that it’s going in this direction, further monetizing the heck out of a solid revenue stream. All these price hikes seemingly feed into Call of Duty in one way or another, and since it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle with day-one Game Pass access, you can bet it’s going to try to squeeze every last bit of cash out to make up for any lost sales.

Also, is it any surprise that Ultimate is $10 more, the proposed increase to its $70 first-party triple-A titles before it backed down? I wouldn’t be surprised if it commits to the $80 price point next year, saying it’s justified with games like Fable, Gears of War: E-Day and Forza Horizon 6. And if you can’t afford it, hey, Game Pass Ultimate is only $30. Then you’ll wake up one day and suddenly it’s $40, but that’s still a better deal, right?

You would think I’m trying to make Microsoft look bad, especially since all those moves are to ensure even more profit on top of all the sales thus far. Honestly, the company itself is doing a fantastic job of that with its messaging, presenting these deals as a better value and pushing yet another soulless slogan to try and stand out. Maybe I’d be less bitter about all this if I knew all this wasn’t funding Microsoft’s larger AI push. Then again, maybe not.

At the end of the day, this isn’t about a subscription service with multiple times its value costing more now than it did before. It’s also not about criticizing a major corporation for pursuing profits – you might as well browbeat a shark when it senses blood in the water. Rather, it’s about the bigger picture – how Microsoft sacrificed first-party game sales for the sake of Game Pass, torpedoed its own console (and the previous generation) multiple times over, released shoddy products while attempting to save face in the most asinine ways, laid off employees and shuttered studios when its own management is lacking, and so on. And instead of investing in some kind of goodwill, or at the very least, trying to keep its current base satisfied in the sole area that it’s done so thus far, it wants to fleece them further.

It’s a bold strategy, and like many that Microsoft has pursued thus far, I’m not sure how well it will work out in the long term. But at this point, it’s in too deep to really do anything else but keep digging.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The Verge’s Tom Warren reports that this tier allows accessing certain owned titles without a Game Pass subscription, including those available via Free Play Days and Xbox Retro Classics. However, it will feature ads, with sources reporting two minutes of pre-roll ads following a recent test. While there’s currently no limit, Microsoft is allegedly experimenting with offering five hours free monthly and allowing one hour per session.

The plan is to launch this free Xbox Cloud Gaming tier through a public beta with a full launch supposedly coming months later. Alongside supporting PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, it will apparently be available for web browsers and handheld devices. As always, stay tuned for a proper announcement in the meantime.

These include the addition of Hogwarts Legacy, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Skull and Bones and many other Ubisoft-published titles exclusively for Ultimate. Premium gains access to titles like Abiotic Factor, Against the Storm, Ara: History Untold, Diablo 4 and more, many previously available only in the Ultimate tier.

As for Essential, the lowest tier, it receives four new titles – Cities: Skylines Remastered, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hades, and Warhammer 40,000 Darktide. All titles in the Premium and Essential tiers are playable for Ultimate subscribers.

This marks the second notable price increase for Game Pass Ultimate, with Microsoft raising prices from $16.99 to $19.99 in July 2024. Of course, this follows recent price hikes on all Xbox Series X/S hardware in the United States, which you can read more about here.