The company mentions that this change is due to an increase in the number of Microsoft Rewards points needed to be eligible for an Xbox Game Pass subscription, which brings us to

Taking a look at the "redeem" section of Microsoft Rewards here in the UK, the current method of redeeming a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for 12k points and PC Game Pass for 7.75k points is still available as part of the "auto redeem" feature, but there are two new versions that have just appeared for 17k and 10.5k points respectively.

Some Microsoft Rewards users are receiving official emails indicating an upcoming price increase for Xbox Game Pass redemptions.

So, sure, GamePass is reasonably successful for what it is — but it definitely hasn’t changed the world like Netflix did to Hollywood. People are still mostly buying new games, sometimes even still on a disc from Best Buy or Walmart. Streaming a game to your phone or TV over the cloud remains pretty niche.

The Xbox Game Pass content catalog receives two more February 2025 titles, only one of which is available on the Standard tier.

If you use Microsoft Rewards to pay for Xbox Game Pass, the bad news is it's soon going to cost you a lot more of your points.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass get EA Sports F1 24 on February 2024. Standard tier and up subscribers get Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader on February 20 and Watch Dogs: Legion on February 25.