Not long ago, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was the best value in gaming, and while the monthly price hike is an obvious problem, the bigger misstep is the absence of a cheaper annual subscription option.
A month of Game Pass Ultimate is $20 USD, and a month of PlayStation Plus Premium, Sony’s top-tier gaming subscription plan, is $18.
These are negligible differences, but unlike Game Pass, PlayStation Plus still offers annual rates. Yearly plans save over monthly subscriptions, and they put less pressure on both the company, and the consumer, to make the most of the service each month.
While 2025 is looking promising for Game Pass, with Obsidian’s Xbox console-exclusive RPG coming to the service in February, dedicated genre fans will complete Avowed within a month.
This leaves eleven months of Game Pass Ultimate needing to justify the $20 asking price. If a PlayStation Plus subscriber picked up a year during one of the promotional periods where the annual rates were discounted, their effective monthly cost is much lower.