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I love Game Pass Ultimate, but I don't love seeing the amount it costs me every month, especially when Phil Spencer insists on a price increase seemingly every single month. That said, when big releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hit the Game Pass library, I'm reminded of the sheer value this subscription gives me compared to buying those sorts of games individually.
The good news is, with every price increase I start to notice the discounts on three-month Game Pass Ultimate vouchers getting better and better. For instance, you can go to CDKeys right now and get a 3-month code for Game Pass Ultimate for just $27.89, down from the usual price of $49.99. Back in October for Amazon's Big Deal Days, I recommended a discount down to $29, and this has somehow beaten that offer with no real occasion to celebrate.
Keep in mind that Game Pass Ultimate is the priciest tier of Microsoft's big video game streaming service, and paying monthly will cost you $20/£14.99 every thirty days. Needless to say, this offer trounces that three-month total of $60 by over half. Even with Black Friday Xbox deals coming over the horizon, this is a deal worth jumping on immediately if you're an existing subscriber, or you're just trying to find the cheapest way to play Black Ops 6 and you're yet to start a subscription.
Should you subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate?
If you haven't already bought into Xbox's true ecosystem, it's my duty to tell you why it's worth considering. Now I know, it may sound like sacrilege for a hardware editor to recommend against buying a console, and I want to make it clear that's not what I'm doing. Owning an Xbox console is a great thing, especially when it can be so much more affordable than Sony's PS5 Pro. But as someone who always tries to find the best value for people who can't usually afford a lot of gaming gear, I do frequently ask myself what the point of owning an Xbox console is these days. A Game Pass Ultimate subscription gives you all the access to Microsoft's gaming library on PC, or on-the-go via cloud streaming - and even Amazon Fire TV sticks can make use of that now.
I'm honestly not a big lover of what Game Pass as an entity has done to the video game industry's economy - it makes it very tricky for developers and publishers to actually turn a profit and gives all the power to the biggest corporations in the space. Still, I'm not one to turn my nose up at a massive library of modern and classic video games I can dip my toes into whenever I see fit. When brand new games like Black Ops 6 that would otherwise cost full price hit the service on day one, it's hard to keep my developer-allied hat on.
Then you have the benefits of Game Pass Ultimate over the lower tiers. Game Pass Ultimate lets me go between my Series X, gaming PC, or Cloud Streaming app on my phone and continue my progress in every game I play, seamlessly. If that isn't great value, I'm not sure what is.
Of course, the biggest drawback to paying a full Ultimate subscription is the rising cost. Luckily, when deals like this come around, you can cheat the system a bit.
Also keep an eye out for Black Friday Meta Quest deals, Black Friday gaming PC deals, and Black Friday Xbox controller deals.
