Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hikes won't affect some subscribers — but there's a catch

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike has not gone down well with gamers, who were so eager to cancel their subscriptions that Microsoft's cancellation page broke. Now Microsoft has confirmed that some existing subscribers in select countries won't be affected by the price hike. At least, not yet.

Subscribers in Germany, Ireland, South Korea, Poland and India have reported receiving emails from Microsoft confirming that this change is currently only affecting new Game Pass subscribers. Meaning anyone who has an auto-renewing subscription will still be paying the old price.

However, there is some bad news here. For starters, Microsoft has confirmed to The Verge that subscribers in the U.S. and U.K. are not included here — meaning they're going to have to pay the higher subscription fees regardless of how they pay for Game Pass. Unlike those other regions, it seems our local regulations don't require as much advanced notice of subscription price hikes.

Microsoft confirmed that anyone in the affected regions who cancels their subscription, only to resubscribe later, will be treated like a new Game Pass subscriber. Which means those people will end up paying the new price.

Naturally, it doesn't affect Game Pass gift cards, which you can buy at physical stores. But if you're lucky, you may still be able to get those cards at the old price and stack them onto your account. This is something GameStop has been capitalizing on over social media.

But auto-renewing your subscription isn't going to work forever. Microsoft hasn't ruled out an eventual price increase, but notes that it will "provide advance notice before price adjustments take effect in these countries."

That advanced notice will be "at least 60 days," and means affected regions will retain the same Game Pass Ultimate subscription price for at least two more months. Sadly, it's just a little too late to pull out your Irish credit card and get subscribing, since the price hike for new users already went into effect last week.

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