A few years ago, Microsoft offered some of the best deals in gaming. The spartan Xbox Series S was well-priced at $300 (and you could often find it even cheaper if you hunted for deals). A $15 monthly subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offered a vast catalog of games new and old. But my, how things have changed in 2025.
The nearly five-year-old Xbox hardware lineup got not just one but two price bumps this year; the Series S with 512GB of storage now costs a whopping $400, while the Series X starts at $600 for a digital-only model or $650 with a disc drive — $150 and $100 than they retailed for just a few months ago. Adding insult to injury, Microsoft also jacked up the price of Game Pass Ultimate by 50 percent this week — it will soon cost $30 a month, up from $20. And that’s hardly the only price bump it has received recently — it was only $17 as recently as July of last year. It's a positively wild move.
Sure, Microsoft isn't alone in increasing console pricing — Nintendo is charging more for the ancient original Switch than ever before, and the Switch 2 is no bargain at $450. Sony also increased PS5 pricing this year, albeit to a less dramatic extent. It's not a huge shock given the roller-coaster ride of uncertainty that is the US economy in 2025 (and for at least a few more years to come), but Microsoft's approach feels egregious.
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And that was before the Game Pass bump. It seems Microsoft is betting that increased revenue from die-hards will offset the inevitable losses from people who decide that the new price isn’t worth it. Subscriber inertia is definitely a real thing, and devoted Xbox owners who get a lot of use out of Game Pass may not bat an eye (or may forget to check their bank statements).
$30 for hundreds of games, as well as high-profile launch day availability for titles that would normally cost $70 or more each, is totally reasonable. By the same token, $30 or $40 for something like Apple Music would be more than fair when you consider how much purchasing a single album costs. (Not to mention fair compensation for all the artists involved in making music, or games, but that’s a story for another time.)
But in a desperate effort to get people signed up for music streaming, $10 a month became the industry standard. Sure, streaming services cost a few bucks more than that now, but they've thus far avoided the big price jumps we're seeing in video and now game streaming. As the first big company to offer a subscription gaming catalog, Microsoft had a chance to set market rates — but to get as many people on board as possible, it seems like it aimed too low and is making up for it now.
And those who used to pay $15 or $18 or even $20 a month for Game Pass for years will likely struggle with this bump, no matter how devoted an Xbox gamer they are. A year of Game Pass now costs more than double the annual rate for a PlayStation Plus Platinum subscription. And while Sony still has no plans to bring high-profile, first-party studio games like Ghost of Yotei to its service on day one, the various PS Plus plans offer a ton of value without that. Especially for people who don't need to play the hot new game the week it comes out.
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