I assume they still ship new consoles with a free month or two of Game Pass Ultimate. I never used my previous one but I will need one for Starfield's early access, otherwise I'll have to use Game Pass Console for a month.
Somehow I need to time it about two weeks before September, so that I can try some of the digital-only games before all my time goes into Armored Core VI then Starfield. It's why I strictly avoid sub services when I can, as I have little interest arranging my schedule around them just to get good value.
Xbox pricing continues to be nonsensical though: They already missed a good chance to cut the price of the old Series S model and offer the new one at a competetive price, they're increasing the price of Series X which is already being undercut by PS5 sales, increased the price of Game Pass.. now they've missed an opportunity to add multiplayer to Game Pass Console and offer Game Pass Core for much cheaper.
They're really banking that Starfield is a generation defining title, unless they enjoy being outsold on a margin of 3/4 to 1 by their competitors in the console space.
