Microsoft have raised their prices for the Xbox Game Pass.
As reported by The Verge, the price changes came in last night (July 9), with the price of Game Pass Ultimate going up from £12.99 per month to £14.99 per month in the UK, or £49.99 to £54.99 per year. The PC Game Pass is also rising from £7.99 per month to £9.99 per month. All these price changes are currently only for new customers, not existing ones who are already subscribed.
While this may seem like a fairly standard price increase, Microsoft did claim during its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King last year that buying the Call Of Duty studio wouldn’t lead to an increase in subscription fees. While its wording didn’t rule out a price increase entirely, only stating one wouldn’t happen directly because of the deal, fans are still annoyed.
Another change to the overall promise of Game Pass, is the new Standard tier. This is currently priced at $14.99 a month and won’t include cloud gaming or day one access to the first-party games Microsoft puts on Game Pass. This feature was arguably the biggest draw to the service, as it meant people would be able to play the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at no extra cost when it launches later this year.
A lack of access to cloud gaming for this tier is also a knock to the value of the service. It allows gamers to stream games directly to their consoles without having the need for large installs.
In other news, House of the Dragon actor Abubakar Salim has spoken out about the abuse he received online after launching a game about the grief he felt following the death of his father.
