For the past month, we've been running regular suggestions for what we're playing on the Game Pass service. It's an opportunity for us to highlight underrated titles or simply to talk about our preferred titles. This time around, though, we need to begin by tackling the obvious issue: Microsoft's recent anti-consumer updates to the Game Pass subscription.
On Oct. 1, the company revealed a bevy of changes to its subscription service, with the most notable affecting the service's Ultimate tier — which offers the most games available plus immediate availability to new games from Microsoft's game studios. The new price is $30 a month, increased from $20. Understandably, subscribers were not happy, with many being vocal on online platforms and in comment sections about their plans to terminate their subscriptions.
It's the end of an era for the service as the former “best deal in gaming” is no more. Now, gamers have to contemplate if the annual $360 cost for the premium plan provides value to them, particularly when daily expenses gets more expensive.
Should you maintain your membership, or seeking justifications to continue justifying it, read on for this week's recommendations. These feature one of the best exploration-platformers of all time, a potential award-winner from 2025, and a charming role-playing game follow-up. Or, should you prefer to cancel Game Pass, refer to instructions on modifying or ending your Game Pass subscription.
The Lost Crown: A Prince of Persia Adventure
If you do happen to stick with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you’re probably going to need additional reasons to use it. The best case for paying the extra cash is that it includes to a suite of Ubisoft+ Classics. You’ll get plenty of Assassin's Creed games and Far Cry games for your monthly payment, but the standout benefit is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
The 2D Metroidvania makes fantastic use of the franchise, returning to its origins in a dangerous maze that’s a exciting to explore. Pair that with some of the deepest, diverse battle mechanics the category includes, and it creates a premium exploration game. Add in both Hollow Knight: Silksong and The Rogue Prince of Persia and the value becomes clear on a quarter of your annual fee.
The Blue Prince Mystery
The first-person puzzle game Blue Prince launched with strong sales and a dedicated community on Steam, but console adoption was buoyed at launch by membership programs (it also appeared on other services). Player recommendations alongside its simple availability eventually helped the game attract two million users.
Checking out a game for several sessions to discover if it's your jam or not is a key advantage of the service, and anyone looking to get lost in a mystery should check out Blue Prince. You play as the inheritor of a property and large inheritance, but provided that you can locate the hidden chamber. The catch? The building's design is ever-shifting, making Blue Prince a roguelike with new information to discover every day. After several sessions with it and have been gradually uncovering mysteries and hints related to the enigma at the core of the story, and I'm eager to discover where the game goes as I uncover more.
Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom - The Prince's Edition
Is this suggestion Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom just because the version included on the service is the Prince's Edition version and that creates thematic harmony with our previous selections? I'll never tell. What I can share, though, is that Ni No Kuni 2 is delightful follow-up to a top role-playing game of all time. Despite the whimsical Ghibli aesthetic and focus on younger characters, Ni No Kuni 2 addresses heavy topics, opening with an apparent terrorist attack on a contemporary metropolis before immediately throwing the protagonist (a world leader) into an other world where they end up smack in the middle of a historical power struggle. Compared to the first game, the battles are real-time — resembling a action RPG than a Pokémon one — and includes a truly complex and complex management in which you have to manage a realm. It might be the Prince's Edition, but that sounds more like royal treatment to me.
