Xbox increases price of Game Pass and consoles

Microsoft follows other companies in hiking prices of online subscriptions

US Microsoft Xbox Starfield (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Microsoft has hiked the price of Xboxes and its Game Pass offering, adding significant cost to both buying and playing its consoles.

The price of an Xbox Series X will increase in almost every country, by different amounts. And the Xbox Game Pass subscription will increase in cost for the first time since it was released in 2017.

It makes Microsoft just the latest company to up the prices of its monthly subscriptions. Netflix has gone through range of price hikes, for instance, and other video and music streaming services have also recently increased the cost of their monthly payments.

Xbox’s Game Pass allows players access to a library of games for a monthly fee. The company has repeatedly suggested that it sees such online subscriptions as the future of gaming.

The Game Pass service launched in 2017. Since then, it has stayed at the same price, though Microsoft has added more expensive options in the form of its Ultimate offering.

Xbox will move the Game Pass Ultimate offering, which adds Xbox Live Gold and other features to the normal Game Pass subscription, from $14.99 per month to $16.99, or £12.99.

The normal version of Game Pass will go from $9.99 to $10.99, or £8.99.

The changes will go into effect from 13 August for existing subscribers, Microsoft said, though annual subscribers will be safe until their next bill arrives. For new subscribers, the new prices will be in effect from 7 July.

Almost every country will be affected by the price increase.

The Xbox console itself will also be hit by a price rise. In almost every country apart from the US, Japan, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, the price of an Xbox Series X will go up considerably, though the cheaper Xbox Series S will not be affected.