Microsoft has dropped prices for its Xbox subscription services — Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold — across the board in India. Both Xbox Game Pass for Console and Xbox Live Gold now cost Rs. 489 per month apiece, instead of the earlier Rs. 699 each. Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) is now down from Rs. 329 to Rs. 249 per month. And lastly, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate — which bundles the aforementioned three — is now available at Rs. 699 per month, unlike Rs. 999 previously. All these prices are before taxes, as usual. That’s an effective price drop of 24–30 percent. The new prices came into effect earlier this week on Wednesday, as we had previously reported.
The price cut for Xbox subscription services in India is applicable to the quarterly, half-yearly, and annual plans as well, wherever available. With Xbox Live Gold — equivalent to PlayStation Plus on Sony’s PS4 — for instance, the six-month plan is now Rs. 1,049 rather than Rs. 1,493.33, and the 12-month plan is down to Rs. 2,799 instead of Rs. 3,999, which we had revealed back in December. With Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) — it gives access to over 100 PC titles — gamers can now pick up a three-month subscription for Rs. 739, down from Rs. 989 earlier. Both Xbox Game Pass for Console and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate are only available monthly.
This is the first India price change in nearly three years for Xbox Live Gold, and the first-ever India price change for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which launched in June last year. It’s unclear what the reasons are, with Microsoft India refusing to comment despite repeated requests from Gadgets 360. Microsoft had cited currency fluctuations in increasing the Xbox Live Gold price in early 2017, but that’s clearly not applicable here since the Indian rupee has fallen further against the US dollar. It’s possible that Microsoft is trying to make Xbox subscriptions more appealing in India, a market where it has largely failed to gain any sort of foothold.
And with a new console — the Xbox Series X — launching later in 2020, this is as good a time as any.