Xbox consoles are about to get a price hike in the U.S., effective from tomorrow (October 3rd), and it’s not the only thing Microsoft is overhauling. Yesterday, Team Xbox announced some big changes to Xbox Game Pass that will affect how much customers will have to pay for the service, notably bumping the price of its Ultimate tier from $19.99 to $29.99 a month.

As you’d expect, the 50% price increase for the highest tier has drawn some negative attention. However, there’s some good news, as GameStop announces it will continue to sell Ultimate gift cards for $19.99 a piece. This goes for both in-store and online purchases; for how long, we can’t be sure.

The new Xbox Game Pass tiers

Xbox Game Pass is now split into three tiers: Essential, Premium, and Ultimate. The cheapest ($9.99) tier nets you access to 50+ games on PC, console, or the cloud, but you’ll need to upgrade to Premium ($14.99) for newer Xbox-published games within the last year (excluding Call of Duty titles), or Ultimate ($29.99) for all the latest Xbox-published games on day one. So, you’ll need the most expensive tier to jump straight into upcoming Black Ops 7.

So, if you don’t want to pay the new $29.99 price tag, then you should turn to alternative retailers. Physical video game sales, much like other entertainment media, have fallen out of favor in the age of subscription services, but it seems like GameStop is making full advantage of Xbox’s price hikes. The brick-and-mortar retailer has been busy on social media, pointing out that you can own games forever by buying a physical copy. But if you want to stick with a subscription service, go grab yourself a gift card instead – in-store or online.

As you can see above, GameStop also confirms that there will be no hidden charges once you come to redeem your gift card. We can’t be sure how long the $19.99 price will remain in stores, however, as we suspect the full $29.99 price tag will be rolling out with newer shipments of revised gift cards – we’re happy to be proven wrong, though.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.