GameStop is openly dismissing Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike, promising to keep selling subscriptions online and in-store at the old $19.99 per month rate, as reported by GamesRadar. The offer came just a day after GameStop joked "own nothing" when the price increases were announced earlier this week.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, GameStop announced, "We will continue to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99/month in-store and online." A photo included in the post adds, "You're welcome."
We will continue to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99/month in-store and online. pic.twitter.com/EAPGaud7cYOctober 1, 2025
How exactly GameStop is able to continue offering Game Pass Ultimate at the old price is unclear. What is clear is that GameStop is listening to the complaints about the price hike. In contrast, Microsoft is reportedly attempting to smooth things over by considering a free, ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Gamers canceled their Game Pass subscriptions in droves when the price increases were announced earlier this week, the most egregious of which was the new $29.99 per month rate for Game Pass Ultimate. Even Game Pass PC went up from $11.99 per month to $16.49 per month. At these prices, it's difficult to justify effectively renting a game through a subscription rather than just buying it outright, especially with Game Pass Ultimate.
Take pricey new releases like The Outer Worlds 2, for example. You may have been planning to use Game Pass to dodge its $70 price tag, but you're not really saving any money now considering that just a couple months of Game Pass Ultimate are the same price as simply buying the game. Plus, when you play on Game Pass, your save files are effectively locked behind a subscription, meaning you'll need to start a new save if you ever decide to buy a Game Pass game elsewhere.
GameStop's commitment to the old Game Pass Ultimate price (at least for now) offers a bit of a reprieve for gamers who don't want to pay an extra $10 per month. You can also currently still get subscription codes at the old price on Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Loaded (formerly CDKeys).
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