🔗 Share this article

Over the last few weeks, we have been sharing weekly recommendations for the games we are enjoying on the Game Pass service. It's an opportunity for us to spotlight hidden gems or simply to talk about our preferred titles. For this week, though, we need to begin by addressing the elephant in the room: the latest unfavorable changes to the Game Pass subscription.

Starting October 1, the company revealed a bevy of changes to its subscription service, the most significant affecting the Ultimate plan — that provides the largest game library plus day-one access to new games from Xbox Game Studios. It'll now cost $30 monthly, up from $20. Understandably, users expressed dissatisfaction, with many being vocal on online platforms and in comment sections about how they were going to cancel their plans.

This marks the conclusion for Game Pass as the once celebrated gaming bargain is no more. Instead, players must consider if $360 a year for Game Pass's top tier provides value to them, especially as daily expenses gets more expensive.

Should you maintain your membership, or seeking justifications to keep it active, check out our current picks. They include one of the best exploration-platformers of recent years, a potential award-winner from 2025, and a delightful JRPG sequel. Alternatively, if you're inclined to cancel your subscription, see our guide on how to change or cancel your membership.

The Lost Crown: A Prince of Persia Adventure

If you do happen to stick with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you might require additional reasons to use it. A strong argument for the higher fee is that it includes to a suite of Ubisoft+ Classics. This provides multiple Assassin's Creed games and Far Cry games for your $30 a month, but the best perk is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

The 2D Metroidvania makes fantastic use of the series, taking it back to its platforming roots in a trap-filled labyrinth that’s a thrill to mantle around. Pair that with some of the deepest, most varied combat the category includes, and it creates a top-shelf Metroidvania. Add in both Hollow Knight: Silksong and The Rogue Prince of Persia and the value becomes clear on a quarter of your annual fee.

Blue Prince

This investigative puzzle title Blue Prince launched with impressive numbers and a dedicated community on Steam, but console adoption was supported initially by membership programs (it was also available on PlayStation Plus). The word of mouth combined with its simple availability eventually helped the game attract two million users.

Trying a title for several sessions to discover if it's your jam or not is one of the core appeals of Game Pass, and those seeking immersion in a puzzle should check out Blue Prince. You take the role of the heir to an estate and significant wealth, but only if you can find the mansion's secret room. The challenge? The building's design is ever-shifting, making Blue Prince a roguelike with new information to uncover regularly. I've spent a few hours with it and have been drip-fed secrets and hints related to the enigma at the core of the story, and I'm curious to see where the game goes as I uncover more.

The Prince's Edition: Ni no Kuni 2

Am I recommending Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom just because the edition available on the service is the Prince's Edition and that makes it tonally consistent with our previous selections? That remains unconfirmed. What I will tell, though, is that Ni No Kuni 2 is delightful follow-up to a top role-playing game of recent memory. Despite the whimsical Ghibli aesthetic and focus on younger characters, Ni No Kuni 2 doesn't shy away from serious themes, beginning with an apparent terrorist attack on a contemporary metropolis before immediately throwing the protagonist (the literal president) into an other world where they end up smack in the middle of a historical power struggle. Unlike its predecessor, the combat is more action-focused — resembling a Tales game than a turn-based title — and includes a genuinely deep and detailed simulation in which you have to manage a kingdom. It might be the Prince's Edition, but that sounds more like king shit to me.