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After hiking Xbox prices twice this year, Microsoft just bumped monthly Game Pass costs by 50%

The move comes just a few weeks after Microsoft hiked the price of Xbox consoles by up to $70.

10/1/25 11:33AM

October is Xbox price hike month.

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that the cost of its top-tier monthly gaming subscription, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, is rising to $30 per month, up from $20. The 50% increase will be followed by an already announced boost to the price of Xbox consoles later this week.

According to Microsoft, the subscription price hike reflects an “expanded catalog, new partner benefits, and upgraded cloud gaming experience.” The company also said that 45 new games are being added to the tier today.

Microsoft doesn’t frequently disclose Game Pass subscription numbers, but estimates put the current figure at about 38 million. That could grow with the launch of Xbox’s new handheld device, the ROG Xbox Ally, on October 16.

The handhelds won’t be cheap, either: the base model will cost $600, while the higher-powered edition will cost $1,000. For context, the Series X console, which launched at $500 about five years ago, will retail for $650 when the latest boost takes effect on Friday.

Microsoft may be more willing to raise prices than its rivals Nintendo and Sony, but all three have bumped the shelf price of some consoles this year amid tariffs.

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Hollywood is developing a film adaptation of the wildly popular Roblox gardening sim created by a 16-year-old

A popular Roblox game being developed for the big screen could test the limits of the recent success of video game film adaptations.

“Grow a Garden,” a gardening sim in which players plant seeds, sell their crops for in-game currency called sheckles, and then use that money to purchase more seeds, is reportedly being adapted as a feature film by production company Story Kitchen (which has adapted other video games for the big and small screen such as “Tomb Raider”). Can we start the awards season buzz now?

The game has become hugely popular, boosting Roblox’s player counts and breaking concurrent user records multiple times in recent months. It was also originally created by a 16-year-old.

No doubt Hollywood, and Roblox, are hoping that every kid-friendly video game adaptation can see the billion-dollar (or close to it) success of Nintendo’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and Microsoft’s “A Minecraft Movie.”

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Thieves are targeting “Pokémon” cards in robberies since they’ve skyrocketed in value

A real-life mishmash of different Team Rocket wannabes is having a lot more success thieving “Pokémon” cards than Jessie and James ever did in their attempts to pilfer Pikachu throughout the anime series.

The Washington Post reports on a string of DC-area heists of “Pokémon” cards, with CGC Cards Vice President Matt Quinn quoted as saying, “Any time you’re carrying around collectibles that are worth money, whether it be gold bars, Pokémon cards, coins, toy trains, or whatever it might be, you have to be vigilant with knowing that you’re carrying collectibles that can be easily stolen from you,” adding that these episodes are happening across the country.

Gotta thieve ’em all is an outgrowth of the massive boom in the value of “Pokémon” cards, with The Wall Street Journal reporting on 3,000% returns earlier this year. Their meteoric rise has been a big boon to GameStop, whose collectibles business has played a critical role in the stabilization and nascent turnaround of its operations.

Both individual cards and unopened packs have been targeted in robberies of stores and personal residences, per the Post report.

Stealing unopened packs of “Pokémon” cards is effectively thieving and buying call options at the same time: an individual pack might not be worth much on its own, but the most valuable cards in the recently released Mega Evolutions set are going for over $1,000. And at about 23 grams per pack and relative differences in security, the logistics seem a lot less onerous than trying to rob a gold dealer.

(Note: I don’t know for sure. I’m not a thief, besides that Klondike bar one time in high school.)

After hiking Xbox prices twice this year, Microsoft just bumped monthly Game Pass costs by 50%

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Hollywood is developing a film adaptation of the wildly popular Roblox gardening sim created by a 16-year-old

Story Kitchen Developing Film Adaptation Of Roblox Game ‘Grow A Garden’

Thieves are targeting “Pokémon” cards in robberies since they’ve skyrocketed in value

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