What Is Xbox Game Pass Everything You Need To Know
Here’s everything you need to know about Xbox Game Pass, including what games you get and how much it costs.
If you are a big console or PC gamer, it might be worth buying Xbox Game Pass. This is a digital subscription service that gives you access to an ever-expanding catalog of over 250 games, plus exclusive discounts and deals.
You can buy Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. There’s also a subscription tier called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that supports Android phone and tablets from the cloud.
We’re going to explain everything you need to know about Xbox Game Pass, including what games you get and how much it costs.
What Are The Best Game Pass Games
Halo Infinite: Coming Dec. 8, 2021
Where to get started when you have Xbox Game Pass? Id go with Halo, a timeless classic. The art direction, the music, and the gameplay all endure and are as iconic as everdespite some poorly aged missions . The original Halo: Combat Evolved remains an essential game that kickstarted dual-stick console FPS games. After that, you can experience the entire series and the most recent entries in preparation for the much-anticipated Halo: Infinite.
Gears of War is a classic series that put cover-based shooting and chainsaw bayonets on the map. Every title is available, including the great Gears Tactics as well as the original game and its remastered version for the purists. Gears 5 puts the series in a new direction, making it as good a time as ever to get into it.
The Forza series has been a staple of the Xbox Catalog for seven entries, and five in the arguably better Forza: Horizon spin-off titles. If you want gorgeous visuals, fantastic driving, and beautiful a beautiful open world, Forza Horizon 4 is ready to scratch that itch, and the fifth entry is just on the horizon .
Coming Nov. 9 Forza Horizon 5
The Cheapest Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Deals In October 2021
Find a great saving on your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership
Bagging a great Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deal can turn an already strong investment into an incredibly high value one. Considering you’re getting a massive library of free games many of which we’ve looked at in our list of the best Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games securing a cheap membership can save you some serious money.
If you’re new to the service and just want to test it out, the first place you need to go is direct to Microsoft. Their current Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deal offers a $1 / £1 trial price for the first month. If Microsoft decides to repeat a previous offer, we expect to see this extended to three months as part of their Black Friday deals.
If you can’t get that, the usual three-month Game Pass Ultimate price sits at $44.99 . You can also choose to pay monthly at a recurring cost of $14.99 a month. If you’re already using Xbox Live Gold for online play, then, you’ll be better-served upgrading to a Game Pass Ultimate. This bundles together the online play and expansive games library into a single monthly cost.
Fancy it? Scroll down for the best deals on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for this month. If you have some time left on your membership, there should be some even better offers in this year’s Xbox Black Friday deals.
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Xbox Is Lowering The Price Of Game Pass In Chile Hong Kong And Israel
Image Credit: Microsoft
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Microsoft is dropping the price of Game Pass but only in certain territories. The company is responding to market conditions in Chile, Hong Kong, and Israel, and that means charging significantly less in those regions for the game-subscription service. These price reductions have more to do with local currency and consumer spending power than with a change in strategy at Microsoft. And that means you should not expect a similar price cut in other countries.
In addition to Game Pass, Microsoft is also cutting the price of Xbox Live Gold and the PC/console-specific versions of Game Pass in Chile, Hong Kong, and Israel. And the company plans to inform subscribers of the price cut tomorrow.
Heres how the new pricing works.
In Chile, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate sells for 11,990 Chilean pesos , but Microsoft is cutting that to 7,990 pesos. That is closer to $10 per month for Ultimate. Hong Kong is paying 119 Hong Kong dollars for Ultimate, but gamers in that region will begin paying 79 Hong Kong dollars. Again, that puts it at right around the equivalent of $10. Israeli gamers are paying 55 shekels for Ultimate. Under the new structure, those same subscribers will now pay 40 shekels, which is approximately $12.45.
What Is The Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass is basically Netflix for Xbox games. Its a subscription service that lets you download and play a selection of over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. You can access it as a channel with the Xbox Game Pass Lounge.
Big first-party games like Halo 5 and Gears of War 4 are available on it. Amazingly, upcoming games from Microsoft Studios will be available on Xbox Game Pass the day they launch. That means you wont have to shell out $60 for games like Halo 6 or Gears of War 5 when they come out. Youll be able to download them as soon as they become available at no additional charge beyond an Xbox Game Pass subscription.
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The Game Pass Ultimate Difference: Breadth And Depth
For its intended purpose, Microsoft has unmatched advantages over competitors for several reasons. The company has a long history in gaming — Microsoft Flight Simulator launched 40 years ago and the Xbox 20 years ago — and it owns the DirectX graphics programming interface used by both Windows and its Xbox consoles. It has well-established game development studios and gobbles up more independent studios every year, plus it has relationships with every important game developer. And it operates a huge network of state-of-the-art data centers optimized for serving cloud applications: Xbox Cloud Gaming is as much about Azure as it is about fun.
The key here is “intended purpose,” because XGPU is only one of our two cloud-gaming Editors’ Choice Awards: The other is Nvidia GeForce Now. XGPU is great if you don’t already have a big library of games or if you want to play them on any device, making it a good choice for almost anyone. GeForce Now is great if you already have a big library of PC games and want to play them on any device at high quality and frame rates, making it a good choice for more veteran gamers.
The two complement each other more than they compete, and they require the least adaptation work for developers, ensuring fast growth in the numbers of supported games. It probably takes longer to get the licensing agreements signed than to ready a game for either service.
Xbox Cloud Gaming lets you take your Game Pass games to other devices.
How Much Does Xbox Game Pass Cost
Every Xbox Game Pass kicks off with a 14-day free trial. After that, you can continue your Xbox Game Pass subscription for $9.99 per month.
That amounts to roughly $120 per year, which is just about the cost of two brand-new games. And since Microsoft gives its first-party games away to Xbox Game Pass members, youll get more than your moneys worth each yeareven if you ignore the 100-plus other games available on the service.
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How Do I Cancel Xbox Game Pass
Go to account.microsoft.com and select Services & Subscriptions> Xbox Game Pass> Manage> Cancel subscription.
Alternatively, you can adjust your membership from this page, like changing your payment method or bulk buying months of Game Pass upfront to get a discount.
Related: How to Cancel Your Xbox Game Pass Subscription
The Best Xbox Game Pass Deals
While the service itself is awesome, Xbox Game Pass deals can still be pricey – especially if you go for a full year’s subscription. With that in mind, we’ve hunted down the cheapest offers from across the internet to save you money. These are updated every 30 minutes, so be sure to check back in every now and then if you can’t see a bargain today.
Would you rather get Xbox Live instead? Don’t forget to check out the best Xbox Live deals. We have a feeling the money you save there will come in very handy if you’re on the lookout for Xbox Series X deals. Not only that, but we’re expecting plenty of discounts over the next few weeks, courtesy of Black Friday Xbox Series X deals.
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Scope Of Surveillance By Public Institutions
As part of the broader it was revealed in September 2013 that the American and British intelligence agencies, the and , respectively, have access to the user data on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. They are reportedly able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, emails, and notes. In January 2014, further reports revealed the intelligence agencies’ capabilities to intercept the personal information transmitted across the Internet by social networks and other popular applications such as , which collect personal information of their users for advertising and other commercial reasons. GCHQ has, according to , a -style guide of different apps and advertising networks, and the different data that can be siphoned from each. Later that week, the Finnish Angry Birds developer announced that it was reconsidering its relationships with its advertising platforms in the light of these revelations, and called upon the wider industry to do the same.
Leaked documents published by WikiLeaks, codenamed and dated from 2013 to 2016, detail the capabilities of the to perform electronic surveillance and , including the ability to compromise the operating systems of most smartphones .
What Is Xbox Game Pass And Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Games Pass gives you access to well over 300 games to download and play on your Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S for one monthly fee.
If you upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you also get Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass for PC, EA Play and access to Xbox Cloud Gaming , all for the same price.
You can download the games and play them as often as you like, as long as you continue to pay the monthly fee. Some titles might become unavailable as others are added, but you also have the option of buying any of the collection outright at discounted prices.
Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games are part of the line-up, the latter two through backward compatibility, so there are plenty of top titles to choose from.
Microsoft adds releases of its own and many third-party games on the same day they are released in stores. This will include Halo Infinite and Bethesda’s new, forthcoming sci-fi RPG, Starfield.
The included Xbox Live Gold also gives subscribers exclusive discounts on many games on the Xbox Store.
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How Much Does The Xbox Game Pass Subscription Cost On Black Friday
Will Xbox Game Pass be on offer for Black Friday 2021? Microsoft has not yet announced the Xbox Black Friday discounts at> but based on the promotions of the past few years we can make some deductions.
In all likelihood the Xbox Game Pass offer for three months will return to one euro, very popular on the occasion of the end of the year holidays, we cannot exclude discounts on the annual subscription to Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate, with a price cut on the 12-month subscription so as to make it more attractive during Black Friday.
In the case of subscriptions and digital content, retailers cannot act independently and therefore any promotion on Xbox Game Pass will depend on Microsoft. In the US, an offer has been launched that includes 75 days of Crunchyroll Premium as a gift to new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers, this promo is not valid in Europe but who knows that there may be no news on this precisely for Black Friday.
This very rich month for subscribers, among the new Xbox Game Pass games for November we find Minecraft Java and Bedrock Editions, It Takes Two, Football Manager 2022, Forza Horizon 5 and GTA San Andreas Definitive Edition, just to name a few of the new releases on Xbox, PC and Cloud.
Choose The Plan That’s Right For You
Devoted to PC gaming? Committed to your console? Theres a plan for you.Or, with Ultimate, get it all including playing games from the cloud, Xbox Live Gold, and more.
Have a code or gift card? Redeem.
BEST VALUE
Get your first month for $1,then $14.99/mo.
Subscription continues automatically. See terms.
- Play over 100 high-quality games on console, PC, and mobile devices
- New games added all the time
- Xbox Game Studios titles the same day as release
- Exclusive member discounts and deals
- Play games from the cloud
- Free Perks including in-game content and partner offers
ALSO INCLUDES:
Xbox Live Gold includes Deals with Gold, Games with Gold, and console multiplayer
A library of top Electronic Arts titles on console and PC, exclusive rewards, and member-only content
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How Much Is Xbox Game Pass
So what is the Xbox Game Pass price? There are several different subscription options available. You can choose the Xbox Game Pass for consoles, or Xbox Game Pass PC alone for $9.99 per month, or the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate version for $14.99. If you prefer not to have a monthly subscription, you can also choose to purchase a Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 12 Month, 3 Month or 1 Month digital code through .
How Much Is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $14.99 per month, with no annual plan available. This is still an incredible bargain. Because it combines various console and PC services, youre saving about $20 a month by getting Game Pass Ultimate instead of paying for each service on its own. Plus, theres the cloud gaming feature which is only available as an Ultimate subscriber.
You can also purchase one- or three-month digital codes for the service on Amazon. Click the button below to learn more.
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Disney+ On Game Pass Ultimate
To help early adopters make the most of their new Xbox Series X console, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will receive a 30-day free trial of streaming TV service Disney+. If you’re unfamiliar with the service, you can read up on it here. You’ll find the trial in the Perks gallery on the Xbox consoles or via the Xbox app. You can claim your 30-days right up until 31 January 2021. Given the second season of The Mandalorian has just started, it’s quite the bonus. Not to mention all the other Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic content.
What Is Xbox Game Pass
Its easy to think of Xbox Game Pass as a sort of reaction to PlayStation Plus and the many discounts it gives to Sony faithful, but it does go a bit further. For just $9.99 a month, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners gain access to a library of more than 100 previously released games, including Halo 5, Rocket League, PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds, The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, and more. Even better, subscribers can play newly released first-party Xbox games as soon as theyre available, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 4.
You can check out the full list of available games here.
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What Formats Is Game Pass Compatible With
You only have to purchase Game Pass Ultimate once, but you can access it through all the devices in the Xbox ecosystem. This includes the new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles as well as all the devices in the Xbox One family. Xbox games that are also available on PC can be played on PC through your Game Pass Ultimate subscription, too.
You can also log in to Game Pass via your mobile however, Microsoft has yet to branch into providing mobile games through the service. This is a feature we do expect in the future.
Xbox Live Gold: Who Its For
Xbox Live Gold starts at $9.99 per month and is currently required for playing most Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S games online. It also gets you access to a handful of free games every month, as well as exclusive discounts.
If you only play a handful of online titles on your Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S and arent interested in the hundreds of games available on Game Pass, youll technically save a bunch of money sticking with Gold compared to the $14.99 per month Game Pass Ultimate subscription. And since Gold is no longer required to play free-to-play titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, you could get by without paying for either service depending on your game of choice. But its worth considering the long-term value of switching to Game Pass Ultimate.
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