Tech giant Microsoft is making some changes to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. 

In a post on Xbox Wire, the company revealed that it was altering the branding of some of the tiers in its platform; Core is now Essential, while Standard has been rebranded as Premium. Both are retaining their prices of $10 per month and $15 per month, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is going up by $10 to $20 per month; Microsoft is justifying this decision by saying that more titles will be entering this tier of the subscription service on day one, with subscribers will also have access to the Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics.  

Finally, PC Game Pass is $16.50, up from $12 per month. 

"Since launching in 2017, we’ve steadily grown our subscriber and creator satisfaction – and today, creator participation and player engagement in Game Pass are at an all-time high," the company wrote. 

"But we have the opportunity for Game Pass to help more players find the creators and games they love.  

"We know not everyone wants the same thing in their Xbox experience, so we’re evolving Game Pass to offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players, whether you love day one releases, discovering hidden gems, or playing across multiple devices and screens and across Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud." 

At last official count, Xbox Game Pass had attracted 34 million subscribers.