Sorry, but Xbox Game Pass prices just went up

Bad news, everyone: Game Pass just got a bit more expensive.

Microsoft has adjusted the pricing of its admittedly massive (and excellent) game library from £10.99 per month to £12.99 for Game Pass Ultimate, which lets you play titles from the library on both PC and Xbox consoles.

The console-only tier has increased too, from £7.99 to £8.99 per month.

That means the 25 million of you who currently pay some form of Game Pass subscription are now shelling out more.

Game Pass debuted with an aggressive acquisition strategy, offering tantalising free trials and three months for $1 deals. Times have changed a bit since those halcyon days, and the events of the intervening years have made just about every product or service that bit more expensive.

Xbox Consoles also saw a price adjustment on 1 August, which is a businessy way of saying the Xbox Series X costs £30 more than it did. The MSRP’s increasing from £449.99 to £479.99.

When Microsoft first revealed this planned price hike back in June, Xbox head of communications Kari Perez told The Verge: "We've held on our prices for consoles for many years and have adjusted the prices to reflect the competitive conditions in each market."

Which is certainly succinct.

Sony also increased their console pricing by exactly that much in August 2022, from £449.99 to £479.99. PlayStation Plus, Sony’s own subscription-based library, had a major overhaul in early 2022 and also saw a sharp price increase.