Do I need Xbox Game Pass?

I find Xbox's website kind of confusing. Can you all help me out and ELI5?

I'm looking at picking up a Series X for The Woman and I. We're very casual gamers (like 3 hours a week tops) and the only games we're interested in are Halo: Master Chief Collection, Battlefield V and maybe 2042. We'd like access to play online multiplayer though.

Do we need a GamePass and/or EA Play subscription for this, or are those just subs to access a game library?

 

Yes if you want to play online multiplayer.

 

There’s a trick that works to save a little money. You buy a year subscription to the basic service and activate it. Then you buy a month of the premium subscription and it upgrades you for the whole year. Only works one time though.

 

Ugh. I'm so sick of having to pay subscriptions for everything.

 

To also clarify, it would be Game Pass Core that would only qualify for online multiplayer and a select amount of games you can play for "free". Ultimate would open up their online library and allow cloud gaming and such.

If you already have H:MCC and Battlefield, the core would be all you need but if you want to play those games specifically from the online library, Ultimate will get you there.

 

I’ve lost track of all the crap I’m paying subscription fees on.

 

Unfortunately, that's the point.

 

At least Netflix did me a solid and cut my adult kids off a while back since they don’t live with us. Now I can cancel it without getting in trouble with them .

 

@Outbound - looks like you are shit out of luck with the free Netflix.