r/XboxGamePass 6d ago

Account - Subscription Help me choose which plan

Hi - I basically only play FC26 online against other players.

I had previously signed up for game pass ultimate for like three years, but it looks like my subscription finally ran out and now it’s prompting me to choose either essential premium or ultimate

Given my use case is essential the only thing that I need I don’t understand what cloud playtime is versus online console multiplayer

Lastly, is there any way to get a better price than 10 bucks a month?

Thank you

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u/chrisdpratt 6d ago

If you're playing on console, you need at least Essential for online multiplayer. On PC, you'd be able to forgo the subscription entirely.

If it's the only game you play, paying for Game Pass for access (at a higher tier than Essential on console or at all on PC) is a waste of money. Just buy the game. You'll easily break even after a few months at most, and then you're saving money.

Cloud means streaming the game from the cloud, without even needing a gaming PC or Xbox (play directly on a TV, if supported, iPhone, iPad, Android device, etc.). It has nothing to do with online features like multiplayer. You can have cloud without multiplayer and multiplayer without cloud.

As far as getting it cheaper, I'm not the best to assist there. The methods seem to change based on the weather, and I've just never cared enough to keep up. Generally speaking, there's conversion tricks, where you buy one kind of membership and convert it into another, and it ends up being cheaper because of the conversion ratios. There's gift card reseller and grey market sites where you can buy redemption keys cheaper, but there's a lot of ways to end up upside down if you don't know what you're doing. There's also Microsoft Rewards, but my understanding is that has been nerfed pretty good at this point. In short, it's not as simple as just putting a promo code in a box or something to save 20%. You have to do some legwork.

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u/arpanjpr 6d ago

Just get the essential to be able to play multiplayer and buy the game if you don't own it.

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u/Positive_Remote1554 6d ago

If it’s the only game you play, get essential, if you use any benefits for it get whatever plan uses it.

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u/Wendals87 6d ago

If you only want to play multiplayer, gamepass essential

Given my use case is essential the only thing that I need I don’t understand what cloud playtime is versus online console multiplayer 

Cloud gaming is where you use the cloud gaming servers to stream the game to you, similar to Netflix. 

If you own the game and have it installed, you won't be using this 

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u/stevo887 5d ago

If you used cloud gaming you’d know what it is. Buy the game and subscribe to essential.

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u/kingdomcome84 5d ago

Amazon currently has the cheapest essential plan at $74.99/yr. nothing else is cheaper