Hogwarts Legacy Surprise Free Download Leaves Gamers Divided

Hogwarts Legacy fans have been left scratching their heads in confusion this morning, following the announcement that the game will be making its way to one of the most popular gaming subscription services.

The news has been pretty inescapable over the past 24 hours, so you’ve doubtlessly already heard about the fallout surrounding Microsoft’s decision to increase the price of Xbox Game Pass.

If you somehow dodged this one, here’s the cliffnotes: Microsoft announced yesterday that they are introducing “three upgraded Game Pass plans”, dubbed Essential, Premium, and Ultimate.

You may be a little confused by that last one, because Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has been around for a while now. In fact, not much is really changing as far as the subscription tier is concerned… other than the fact that it’s gotten way more expensive.

The Ultimate tier has now increased from $20 a month to $30 a month, with the only difference being that there are some new games and access to Fortnite Crew. Oh, hey, that brings us neatly to Hogwarts Legacy.

As the official blog post revealed, several new additions are now available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The thing is, if you take a look at the list itself, the majority of these are Ubisoft titles, due to the fact that the Ubisoft+ Classics subscription is now bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

There was one big non-Ubisoft title in there, however, and that’s Hogwarts Legacy. The target audience for this one, like the folks over on the r/HarryPotterGame subreddit, don’t seem to be particularly impressed by its addition.

"Still not worth the cost of 30 a month for Game Pass," commented user Wicked_Black.

“Their Core (Now 'Essential') is the only tier I'm sticking with, and I only get it a few months out of the year,” replied user gizmoglitch.

“Who is paying $30/month to play online? May as well buy a PC and rebuy your library in Steam at that point.”

Perhaps the most baffling thing about its addition to the service is that this is inarguably the most expensive way to play the game.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is $30 a month. PlayStation Plus Extra, which currently includes Hogwarts Legacy, is $14.99 a month. The game is currently available on Steam for £9.99. You can buy a physical copy of the game on Xbox from some retailers for less than $30 for crying out loud.

Or, you could pay the entire price of the game to simply rent it for a month. C’mon, Microsoft. Make it make sense.