Done With PC Game Pass for Good

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Aywren

PC Game Pass used to be a subscription plan I championed and appreciated. Back when it was less than $10 a month. Those days are long gone, it seems, and I doubt I’ll ever return to the service again.

Dodging a Bullet

Earlier this year, I wrote about how I had activated a free 3 month subscription for Game Pass Ultimate that I got when I purchased a new laptop last year. I hardly used it, and I regret that somewhat. When time came for me to decide to keep the subscription or let go, I was unable to fully cancel (at first), because I’d downgraded it to PC Game Pass (which still is much cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate).

I don’t need Ultimate because I don’t have an Xbox console in this house. I’d downgraded to PC Game Pass thinking the cost was still $9.99 a month. When I found out that no, they’d raised the price to $12 a month since I’d last used the service, I noped out of that and found a way to unsubscribe even after I’d been charged. That was a nice turn of events, and it seems I dodged a bullet.

Game Pass Price Hike

Last night I discovered that most Game Pass packages were renamed, and some got a fairly substantial price hike. PC Game pass jumped to $16.50 (before extra taxes/fees), which is a huge NO WAY from me. But then there’s Game Pass Ultimate that jumped from $20 to a ridiculous $30 a month!

What are they even thinking?

• Xbox Game Pass Essential (formerly Core) -- $10/month (no price change)
• Xbox Game Pass Premium (formerly Standard) -- $15/month (no price change)
• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate -- $30/month (was $20/month)
• PC Game Pass -- $16.50/month (was $12/month)

-Source of price changes from GameSpot

PC Game Pass, which used to be cheaper than the standard Xbox Game Pass, is now the second most costly subscription of the bunch, and received no additional features to offset that cost. As a person who does not own an Xbox, I have no interest in paying for this subscription at this price.

The beauty of Game Pass used to be that you had a very nice library of games to try out, often with a number of new titles rolling in each month. Back when I used the subscription (from 2020 – 2023), it saved me a good chunk of money due to the fact I could try out a $50 game, play it for hours, and determine I was too rubbish at it to want to own it (true story).

So, for the price of $10 a month, I found the subscription worth it. I even beat a number of games back when I used to use it, and had a whole topic section of this blog dedicated to the games I tried there. But now the price has increased from $120 a year (before extra fees) to $198 a year (before extra fees) and… well. Nah. Not happening.

$16.50 is more than the price of a number of good indie games on my Steam wishlist. It’s better off spent on a Steam sale, supporting a small game developer directly. Also, the game I purchase on Steam doesn’t have a time limit or just get rolled off the platform, pressuring me to hurry up and finish it before it disappears, which has happened often with Game Pass.

I’m a little sad to swear off Game Pass. The reason I left it was because I just had too many games on my plate between Steam, Switch, and the free games I get from Amazon Prime every month. I couldn’t justify paying for a service I just didn’t have time to use, even if I really liked that service. I wanted to come back to it in the future, but not for $16.50 a month.

Seeing how Xbox is going – hiking prices of consoles and services while cutting costs at the expense of its workers – I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about walking away from this. I know everything is getting more and more expensive now days, but there’s got to be a line that we all draw and do not cross.

So, farewell for good, PC Game Pass! I had fun back in the days – thanks for the good gaming memories.

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