Say More Mashable Selects Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Only 4 percent of subscribers will be affected. Xbox is making a change to Game Pass that probably won't have very many defenders online.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The best value in gaming is about to get a lot more expensive, at least if you don't play on expensive local hardware. For all its struggles in the last few years, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass represents a pretty phenomenal value as a subscription service. And you can take advantage of it even if you don't have an Xbox or a gaming PC, giving it great accessibility. Well, Microsoft already undercut the value of the subscription. According to a short and sweet update preceding the reveal of its new disc to digital service, Xbox has announced that Game Pass subscribers will no longer have access to unlimited streaming games.

After getting some ideas from The Full Nerd, this week's Boost Mode newsletter is all about Game Pass. How can it stay relevant and valuable, as gamers feel the crunch of higher and higher prices? On last week's episode of The Full Nerd podcast, we talked a lot about Game Pass. It got me thinking: What would Microsoft have to offer to get me to subscribe, regularly, not just in passing to try out an interesting new title? And how long might it stick around if things keep going poorly?

Is Microsoft's first ever handheld Xbox console worth the wait? For almost two decades, rumours have swirled about a handheld Xbox console to rival Nintendo and PlayStation. The ROG Xbox Ally has been released worldwide, putting an end to the speculation. It works natively with Xbox's Game Pass subscription service out of the box, meaning members will start off with hundreds of games in their library. But its big trick is that it's really a portable computer running Windows, meaning most digital PC games people already own will work too - so long as they don't need a keyboard and mouse to play.

Xbox users in the US face price increases up to 50 percent on their monthly gaming subscription, making it a great time to check if you're on the right tier or if you even need to subscribe at all. Like it or loathe it, we live in a subscription economy. Music, movies, meal boxes, and more are no longer things you buy once. Gaming is no exception, and while every major player in the sector has some form of sub for players--from PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online for consoles to Apple Arcade on phones--none of them offered quite as much for a modest monthly fee as Xbox Game Pass. Depending on the subscription tier, the service gave players access to a significant library of titles and was available on Xbox consoles, PC, or via cloud gaming.

Fans have reacted angrily after Microsoft announced price increases to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service. The company announced that the most popular tier of its Netflix-style video games system - available to PC and Xbox players - would rise by more than 50% from £14.99 to £22.99 per month. Reacting on social media, loads of fans said they had cancelled their Game Pass subscriptions, with some reporting the service's cancellation page had crashed due to demand. BBC Newsbeat has asked Microsoft if the outage was linked to a surge in visits. In a blog post detailing the changes to Game Pass, Microsoft said it would offer three tiers - Essential (£10 per month), Premium (£14.99) and Ultimate (£22.99).

The top price of new video games is suddenly a hot topic, with many publishers pushing for a higher 80 price tag just a year or two after 70 suddenly became commonplace. Notably, Nintendo's price ceiling for Switch 2 games like Mario Kart World is 80. Microsoft had planned to jump on this particular bandwagon starting with The Outer Worlds 2, but now seems to have reversed course. Back in May, Microsoft had announced that base prices for its biggest games for the 2025 holiday season would be increasing to 80 (or 79.99, if you ask the marketers). Today, The Outer Worlds 2 social accounts announced that it would get a preemptive price cut, down to the current 69.99 standard for new, heavily-promoted triple-A games. Microsoft confirmed to Windows Central that its first-party games for PC and Xbox will remain at the 70 USD level this year, with similar pricing in other markets.

Xbox Game Pass is a pretty sweet deal for gamers, especially if you don't want to buy a console or gaming PC. The subscription library is basically the easiest way to get access to a huge amount of titles for a fairly low monthly charge, Netflix-style, and streaming options make them accessible on devices from a laptop to a VR headset. But how much is Microsoft spending on those games? The company has spent upwards of one hundred billion dollars over the last few years, gobbling up developers and publishers across the industry, most notably Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, and Minecraft maker Mojang. All of those purchases bolster the game and streaming catalog of Game Pass. Those require content deals with other companies before they appear on Game Pass, again, very much like TV shows or movies that pop up on streaming services.

Are you tired of paying more and more for video games? Game prices have been creeping up from major publishers for the last few years, with plenty of gamers spotting a recent jump in Nintendo's first-party prices. Microsoft's Xbox brand is following suit, and it's not even waiting for a new console launch to do it. As of today, US prices of every current Xbox game console have shot up. IGN reports that the base model Xbox Series S with 512GB of storage is now 380 (up from 300), and the Series X gets a 100 bump across the board, with the top-end 2TB model going from 600 to 730.

Monday's ID@Xbox indie showcase included release dates for a few upcoming games we've been tracking. All three will be on Game Pass on day one. Get ready to run like hell in 33 Immortals, which Engadget's Mat Smith previewed at Summer Game Fest 2023. The multiplayer roguelike top-down action game inspired by Dante's Inferno and has charmingly retro graphics -- not pixel art but more like old-school animation, a la Space Ghost. It supports up to 33 players per 25-minute raid.