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EA Play subscription prices increase by 80% as Xbox plugs Game Pass loophole-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
Game Pass is limiting the ability for gamers to buy cheaper subscriptions from other countries, as EA Play subscriptions rise to £36 a year.
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EA Play just got a lot more expensive (Picture: EA)
Game Pass is limiting the ability for gamers to buy cheaper subscriptions from other countries, as EA Play subscriptions rise to £36 a year.
Over the last few years, it’s slowly become clear that video game subscriptions are not the industry-changing concept that many originally thought they might be. They’re popular and lucrative but nothing that is going to replace normal game sales.
There’s no indication that any of the various services are going to be shuttered but Electronic Arts has announced a major price increase for EA Play, which will now be up to 80% more expensive.
At the same time, Xbox has moved to cut off a loophole that enables people to buy subscriptions at up to half price from other countries.
The Xbox move is perfectly reasonably, as the cost of subscriptions varies wildly from country to country. In India and South Africa, for example, it’s almost half the price of the UK, and so it’s become relatively common for people to change their country setting and buy from elsewhere.
Rather than change the pricing, what Microsoft has done is make it impossible to stack memberships in certain countries, where previously you were able to buy up to 36 months in advance. (The UK has already had this restricted to just 13 months.)
The countries affected by the change are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and Turkey.
Why these have been targeted over others isn’t entirely clear, as according to Xbox-Now Mexico is actually more expensive than the UK, although Argentina and Turkey are certainly much cheaper than here.
Similar restrictions exist for EA Play but they’re not consistent, with Argentina and Turkey limited to just 13 months, but the other countries in the Game Pass list still set at 36 months.
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Either way, EA Play is currently undergoing a major price increase and one that so far Electronic Arts has not explained.
In the UK, the monthly price will rise from £3.99 to £5.99, while an annual subscription will increase from £19.99 to £35.99.
That is a massive increase, of 80%, for the annual fee and yet there is no explanation from EA as to why there’s been such a drastic change.
The already more expensive EA Play Pro, which allows access to all new games from day one, is also due to get a price hike, but not as severe. The monthly price will increase from £14.99 to £16.99, while a yearly subscription will rise by 22%, from £89.99 to £109.99.
The new prices are already being advertised on the official website, while existing customers should be getting notifications by email this week, with the new prices coming into effect on May 10.
Although Game Pass and PS Plus have also seen price increases recently, with Sony’s service suffering a rise of 35%, this is well beyond any other service, with no indication of any change in what the subscription offers.
Prices are going up everywhere (Picture: Microsoft)
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