Price hikes coming to Xbox Series X and Game Pass

[Daniel Sims]

Bottom line: The Xbox Series X will see a price increase of around 10 percent in most regions in August, but not in the US. Additionally, pricing for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and console tiers will rise slightly in all territories starting next month.

Microsoft has told The Verge that starting August 1, it will raise the price of the Xbox Series X in most countries except for the US, Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. On July 6, the Xbox Game Pass console tier will rise from $9.99 a month to $10.99 globally, while Ultimate will increase from $14.99 to $16.99. PC Game Pass and the Xbox Series S pricing will remain unchanged.

The Xbox Series X price increase mirrors the one Sony enacted for the PlayStation 5 last summer, increasing by £30 and €50. In October, Microsoft admitted that Xbox price hikes were inevitable.

Market	Xbox Series X (old price)	Xbox Series X (new price)
Europe	€499.99	€549.99
UK	£449.99	£479.99
Canada	$599.99	$649.99
Australia	$749.00	$799.99

Market	Currency	Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (old price)	Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (new price)	Xbox Game Pass Console (old price)	Xbox Game Pass Console (new price)
Argentina	ARS	899	1449	599	1199
Australia	AUD	15.95	18.95	10.95	11.95
Europe	EUR	12.99	14.99	9.99	10.99
Brazil	BRL	44.99	49.99	29.99	32.99
Canada	CAD	16.99	18.99	11.99	12.99
Chile	CLP	7990	8990	5990	5990
Colombia	COP	29900	33900	19900	21900
Czech Republic	CZK	339	389	259	269
Denmark	DKK	99	109	79	79
Hong Kong SAR	HKD	79	85	59	65
Hungary	HUF	4190	4790	3000	3190
India	INR	499	549	349	379
Israel	ILS	39.99	44.99	27.99	30.99
Japan	JPY	1100	1210	850	935
Korea	KRW	11900	13500	7900	8500
Mexico	MXN	229	249	149	159
New Zealand	NZD	19.95	21.95	12.95	13.95
Norway	NOK	125	139	99	99
Poland	PLN	54.99	62.99	40	42.99
Saudi Arabia	SAR	39.99	44.99	29.99	29.99
Singapore	SGD	13.99	15.9	9.99	10.9
South Africa	ZAR	119	129	79	85
Sweden	SEK	135	155	99	105
Switzerland	CHF	14.99	16.99	12	12
Taiwan	TWD	299	338	199	219
Turkey	TRY	44.99	120.99	29.99	79.99
UAE	USD	9.99	11.99	6.99	7.99
UK	GBP	10.99	12.99	7.99	8.99
US	USD	14.99	16.99	9.99	10.99

Microsoft said that the changes were in response to competitive market conditions, but it's likely facing the same problems that influenced Sony last year. The industry is still feeling the effects of supply chain disruptions, which have probably increased manufacturing costs. Inflation may also play a role. Nintendo hasn't hinted any plans to raise the price of the Switch.

In related news, Microsoft recently expressed disinterest in VR/AR in light of Sony and Apple's latest efforts in the sector. In a Hollywood Reporter interview, Xbox Game Studios top executive Matt Booty said the audience for headsets like PlayStation VR2 and Vision Pro is too small for the kinds of games that sell multiple millions of copies, which the company's in-house development studios are prioritizing.

Booty also downplayed the size of the cloud gaming market, likely as part of Microsoft's effort to assuage concerns surrounding its attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Regulators in the UK blocked the $69 billion deal over fears that exclusive rights to franchises like Call of Duty and Diablo would cement Microsoft's dominance in the cloud sector. Booty suggested the company's cloud service is still experimental while highlighting deals it entered with competitors like Nvidia.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99158-price-hikes-coming-xbox-series-x-game-pass.html

 

[Watzupken]

I feel MS is capitalising on the game lineup showcase earlier and increasing prices in anticipation of higher demand for their console. But in my opinion, there is little reason for buying an Xbox when the same game will also be available on PC. Therefore I feel the increase in price is going to reduce demand for their console further.

 

[DSirius]

Ha, ha. And Microsoft is doing this before buying Activision. Picture now what will happen if FTC is not stopping Activision acquisition. And Microsoft will dominate gaming market. Gamepass will skyrocket than.
Also, it is quite strange how Microsoft mentions increased manufacturing costs and inflation as causes while they have records profits. They have $69 billion to buy Activision. So greed corporation is the primary cause for increasing price of game pass, the rest is smoke screen.

 

[Phyrino]

Ha, ha. And Microsoft is doing this before buying Activision. Picture now what will happen if FTC is not stopping Activision acquisition. And Microsoft will dominate gaming market. Gamepass will skyrocket than.
Also, it is quite strange how Microsoft mentions increased manufacturing costs and inflation as causes while they have records profits. They have $69 billion to buy Activision. So greed corporation is the primary cause for increasing price of game pass, the rest is smoke screen.

Even with the ABK acquisition, Sony will be bigger.

 

[DSirius]

Even with the ABK acquisition, Sony will be bigger.

Good point but I think that the real battle is on cloud gaming, and there Sony is already the looser. Microsoft raises prices now for many reasons. Much will depend on how many successful games Microsoft gaming studios will manage to release in the near future.

 

[3volv3d]

Is it just a UK cost of living crisis... I'm sure there's worse off countries than our over priced crap hole.

Stop fleecing your customers.

Maybe Microsoft missed the bad publicity they just had, when there controller disconnected from the submarine it was controlling and lost a billionaire.

 

[yukka]

I feel MS is capitalising on the game lineup showcase earlier and increasing prices in anticipation of higher demand for their console. But in my opinion, there is little reason for buying an Xbox when the same game will also be available on PC. Therefore I feel the increase in price is going to reduce demand for their console further.

Depends on your use case. If you don't mind sitting at a computer to play your games, or don't mind rigging up your computer to the TV in the front room then generally a PC will see all the games you need except Sony exclusives. If you want to play games easily on a TV with multiple profiles for your kids and partner then a console is better. Also you dont' need to understand windows updates, driver uploads etc etc.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Oh hey look, the thing that will never happen is happening again. Funny how that works.

 

[godrilla]

Oh hey look, the thing that will never happen is happening again. Funny how that works.

As long as their is paid trolls promoting it everything is as planned. The only thing it's good for is binge gaming a bunch of games for 1 month max imo.

 

[kira setsu]

I hate to be the devils advocate but from what I'm seeing, 17 dollars a month to play all these games is pocket change.

3 months of gamepass is less than a full priced game.

theres really no winning on either side of this hobby, gamers want cutting edge games for cheap and devs want money to not starve, so now were here with subscriptions and neverending battlepasses on 70 dollar games.(actually 70 is the entry fee).

gaming, its f**ked up in every way.

 

[toooooot]

I hate to be the devils advocate but from what I'm seeing, 17 dollars a month to play all these games is pocket change.

3 months of gamepass is less than a full priced game.

theres really no winning on either side of this hobby, gamers want cutting edge games for cheap and devs want money to not starve, so now were here with subscriptions and neverending battlepasses on 70 dollar games.(actually 70 is the entry fee).

gaming, its f**ked up in every way.

Some people simply don't bu that many games. And they know it. That means single purchases and no gamepass for us.

 

[texasrattler]

Good point but I think that the real battle is on cloud gaming, and there Sony is already the looser. Microsoft raises prices now for many reasons. Much will depend on how many successful games Microsoft gaming studios will manage to release in the near future.

But Sony isn't bigger cause if they were they'd have money to buy Activsion but they dont.

 

[dangh]

Even with the ABK acquisition, Sony will be bigger.

No way, is Sony bigger than MS?? Is Sony profit bigger than ms profit? Does Sony have 70 billions free to throw away for one of the branches?

Please do not confuse single division and whole company. And this is really anticompetitive when biggest company in the world uses funds from other monopolistic branches to undercut prices in one area where they still do not have monopolistic position and working hard to get it.
SIE is successful, but achieved this mostly with their own effort, with planning, with much less studios, focused development, not because cloud and os divisions pumping resources to under process and buy established studios with whole portfolio.

Sony is much smaller than ms. They have less studios, less resources, less branches. SIE is much smaller than xbox. They simply doing better work, and don't sell their work for 1 dollar which allows them to get bit better revenue. Funny how xbox continue to be lazy with new games not releasing nearly anything new for last 10 years, and providing service aiming at undercutting competition for 1usd a month (I have friends who used numerous ways to extend their subscription for this price to 2025), buys any publisher they want for money made by then and mostly other divisions and complain they do not make money now and they need to buy even more publishers...

 

[OortCloud]

Personally I still think Game Pass is still great value. As usual if you don't think it's worth it don't buy it!
If you play just five or six games a year from the huge line up you are saving money. I'm surprised it took them this long to get to this sort of pricing given how much the service must cost.

 

[scavengerspc]

Its a small price hike, and the first since gamepass came out 6 years ago.

But get some codes now to avoid the hike. Microsoft, Newegg and Amazon often run sales, and sites like CDkeys have 3 and 12 month Ultimate codes for $29 and $99.

 

[scavengerspc]

Some people simply don't bu that many games. And they know it. That means single purchases and no gamepass for us.

So its better to pay $60-$70 to buy one game? Rather than use that money to get 4 months of Game pass and access to hundreds of great games?

Interesting.

 

[toooooot]

So its better to pay $60-$70 to buy one game? Rather than use that money to get 4 months of Game pass and access to hundreds of great games?

Interesting.

I play for a long time when I like a game. And they are those with high replay value.

 

[scavengerspc]

I play for a long time when I like a game. And they are those with high replay value.

So do I. And I also get to play a choice of hundreds of other $60 games, and replay those.
I have been off and on with State of Decay 2 for 5 years. Along with Sea of Thieves, various and the newer Fables, the latest AoE, Monster Hunter Rise, A Plague Tale: Requiem, various AC games, all the Forza games, NFS Unbound, Redfall, Atomic Heart, and I just started Amnesia: The Bunker. Those are just this year.

EDIT - And yes brother, the last year I have probably played more games than I did the previous 5 because of an accident that has left me with a lot of free time.