You can pick up three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $35 via Woot, which is a discount of $10 and close to a record low price. Single months are also on sale for $12, instead of $17.
Game Pass Ultimate is, well, the ultimate way to access the service. You can play hundreds of games on Xbox consoles, of course, but this membership also allows for cloud gaming on other devices like PCs and tablets. It even includes a free EA Play membership, which opens up even more games.
The reason why Game Pass has been so successful is that the catalog isn’t filled with shovelware and ancient relics, like the gaming equivalent of $1 Blu-Rays in the back of a Walmart somewhere. The catalog is overstuffed with actual games, from AAA exclusives to indie gems. Wanna check out the expansive JRPG Octopath Traveler and its sequel? They’re both on Game Pass, in addition to the indie equivalent Sea of Stars. The same goes for Minecraft, Forza Horizon 5, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and just about every EA sports title. It’s a pretty deep bench.
Game Pass is also the home to Xbox first-party titles, and most of these release on the platform at launch. This means the catalog includes Bethesda games like Starfield and the Rare pirate-sim Sea of Thieves. This also means that subscribers will be able to play upcoming titles the day they release, like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and a little war sim named Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox just had a fantastic showcase of upcoming games and many of the announced titles will be day one Game Pass exclusives.
Game Pass is the best subscription service around. PlayStation Plus Premium is decent and does its own share of day one launches, but the catalog just isn’t as exciting. Nintendo Switch Online is, uh, great for people who want to play a middling SNES port once every three months.