https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-plans-to-expand-xbox-game-pass-and-merge-pc-game-pass-with-another-tier-more-third-party-service-bundles-may-be-on-the-way-too

https://www.theverge.com/tech/874303/microsoft-xbox-roadmap-2026-notepad


"In addition to potentially testing free Xbox Cloud Gaming soon for a possible launch later in 2026, Microsoft is also looking to "expand" Xbox Game Pass, and "is in the early stages of exploring ways" to do so."  

"Specifically, Warren says that the firm might be planning to merge the PC Game Pass tier with another, such as Xbox Game Pass Premium; Windows Central can corroborate this with our own sources. He also notes that Microsoft is looking to bundle more third-party services with Game Pass memberships."

"Microsoft is looking at ways to bundle third-party services with Game Pass subscriptions and potentially even merge Xbox Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass together."


This reads like:
So Gamepass will like be bundled with more stuff, and get a small increase in price.
PC Gamepass with Day1 access, will be gone, you will need to get "$29.99 a month Ultimate" tier for that.
Imagine if there is a tier that has like Netflix + Gamepass together, for slightly cheaper, than getting both seperately..... that might be a thing?

From Resetera, it seems "3 month" pc gamepass codes are no where to be found anymore.


If you where enjoying the better value of PC gamepass..... that is probably about to go away.
The good news (for console users), is a free w/ ads version of gamepass of somesort might be in the works (though, likely with very few games if any).

Edit:   This is unlikely to happen until late 2026 or early 2027.

They were never going to keep PC gamepass that much cheaper than ultimate with day one games. Especially as the next Xbox devices will all run windows.

The new essential and premium tiers also working on PC was another sign that PC Gamepass wasn't long for this world.

The PC price always seemed too good, compared to the console one.
That and the rumors of the new Xbox being a pc/hybrid thingy possibly just running windows.... yeah, they need to fix that before the launch of the new console.

So it makes alot of sense that this would happen, and the time frame as well.
I'm inclined to believe this rumor is true.

Exploring ways to increase prices by bundling more 'value'. It's already nearly $200 a year ($16.49 a month). Still too cheap.
Ultimate is now $360 a year, the price consoles used to be. Actually Switch is still cheaper than that, $340 for the standard version.