Microsoft has announced a price increase for the Xbox Game Pass. This has caused anger among the player base and led to numerous cancellations. However, one company wants to stick to the old price.
What does the change look like? On October 1, 2025, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Game Pass is going to be more expensive effective immediately. The price increase affects all subscription models – you can find a detailed overview in a dedicated article on MeinMMO.
Currently, many players from the community are upset about the change and have caused a wave of cancellations of the service in the past few hours. The influx was so strong that the website where the Game Pass can be canceled was overloaded for a while (via thegamer.com)
In the midst of the discussion about whether the price increase is justified, another company has now spoken out: GameStop.
GameStop to the rescue?
What does GameStop say? The American company, which has been in the video game trade for 25 years, reacted to the situation in a post on x.com. It states:
We will continue to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99/month in-store and online.
The aforementioned Ultimate Pass now costs $29.99 (26.99 €) instead of the previous $19.99 (17.99 €). This is a price increase of 9 €, which is quite a lot. GameStop thus offers players the option to purchase the Ultimate Game Pass at the old price. This offer is available both in-store and online.
Other retailers such as Amazon are also still offering the product at the old price but have not yet commented on whether it will remain that way.
What does the community think? On Reddit, the news is already being discussed by players. User Soggy-Wave3743 suspects that GameStop acquired a stock of Game Passes for 17.99 € in the past and is now slowly depleting it. This would allow them to stick to the old price, which particularly applies to physical cards – as the amount is printed on them. Once the stock is exhausted, the price may change in the future, the user writes.
Under the original post on x.com, the news is mostly received positively.
- “I never thought I would see the day when I would root for GameStop,” writes CraigStillborn.
- “Damn GOATS, now I have a reason to come,” says Sevi.
- “GameStop’s new slogan should be: ‘More power to the player,'” says nmayfield28.
That GameStop is offering a lower price in this matter seems to surprise some users. In the past, the company has been criticized for reselling used games at high prices.
With this action, GameStop has regained some favor with certain players. Now it remains to be seen how long the company will stick to its current pricing policy. And whether Microsoft will respond to the numerous cancellations from subscribers. One of the most anticipated titles of 2025 will launch directly in Game Pass at the beginning of September – meanwhile, the servers on Steam crashed: Hollow Knight: Silksong celebrates release, but Steam’s servers are down
