A gamer plays soccer title Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 on an Xbox console.
Sezgin Pancar | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Microsoft is raising the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription price by 50% to $29.99 per month, effective immediately, the company announced Wednesday.
The $10 spike comes with a slew of changes to all its Game Pass plans, though its Essential and Premium plans will remain the same price at $9.99 and $14.99, respectively.
The Game Pass Core tier will no longer exist and instead will be rolled into the Essential tier, while Standard subscribers will move to the Premium tier.
“As we continue to evolve Xbox Game Pass, we’re focused on delivering more value, more benefits, and more great games across every plan,” the company said in a release. “Whether you play on console, PC, cloud – or all three – there’s a Game Pass option designed to fit your playstyle.”
The new Ultimate tier would cost $359.88 over the course of a year, with the Premium tier at $179.88 yearly and the Essential tier at $119.88 yearly.
Comparatively, PlayStation Plus Premium’s highest tier is set at $159.99 annually, with the Extra tier at $134.99 and the Essential tier at $79.99.
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Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will now have access to over 400 games and more than 75 day-one releases each year, with over 45 new titles added on Wednesday.
Ubisoft+ Classics is joining the Ultimate tier to offer a selection of Ubisoft games, including “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown,” “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”and more. Users will also see improved streaming quality up to 1440p and a new rewards program.
Premium subscribers will also get an expanded library of over 200 games, while the Essential tier will receive over 50 titles. Both will additionally gain unlimited cloud access, which was previously only available through the Ultimate plan.
Microsoft previously reported a record 34 million Game Pass subscribers in 2024 and a total revenue of almost $5 billion over the last fiscal year. Gaming accounted for 8% of the software giant’s total revenue in 2025, company data showed.
Growth in gaming has been bolstered in recent years by Microsoft’s landmark $75.4 billion acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard in 2023, the largest deal in the company’s history.
However, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S are still struggling to compete against Sony‘s PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch 2.
The company reported decreasing console sales in FY 2025, with Xbox hardware revenue down 25% over the last year.
Several Xbox consoles will see price hikes in the U.S. starting in October for the second time this year. The Series X and Series S will increase to $699 and $399, respectively.
Two Amazon Prime Air MK30 drones collided with a crane on Oct. 2, 2025 in Tolleson, Arizona.
Courtesy: 12News
Amazon is facing federal probes after two of its Prime Air delivery drones collided with a crane in Arizona, prompting the company to temporarily pause drone service in the area.
The incident occurred on Wednesday around 1 p.m. EST in Tolleson, Arizona, a city west of Phoenix. Two MK30 drones crashed into the boom of a stationary construction crane that was in a commercial area just a few miles away from an Amazon warehouse.
One person was evaluated on the scene for possible smoke inhalation, said Sergeant Erik Mendez of the Tolleson Police Department.
“We’re aware of an incident involving two Prime Air drones in Tolleson, Arizona,” Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said in a statement. “We’re currently working with the relevant authorities to investigate.”
Both drones sustained “substantial” damage from the collision on Wednesday, which occurred when the aircraft were mid-route, according to preliminary FAA crash reports.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident. The NTSB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The drones were believed to be flying northeast back-to-back when they collided with the crane that was being used for roof work on a distribution facility, Tolleson police said in a release. The drones landed in the backyard of a nearby building, according to the release.
The probes come just a few months after Amazon, in January, paused drone deliveries in Tolleson and College Station, Texas, temporarily following two crashes at its Pendleton, Oregon, test site. Those crashes also prompted investigations by the FAA and NTSB. The company resumed deliveries in March after it said it had resolved issues with the drone’s software, CNBC previously reported.
Amazon says its delivery drones are equipped with a sense-and-avoid system that enables them to “detect and stay away from obstacles in the air and on the ground.” The system also allows the aircraft to operate without visual observers over greater distances, the company said.
For over a decade, Amazon has been working to bring to life founder Jeff Bezos’ vision of drones whizzing toothpaste, books and batteries to customers’ doorsteps in 30 minutes or less. But progress has been slow, as Prime Air has only been made available in a handful of U.S. cities.
Amazon has set a goal to deliver 500 million packages by drone per year by the end of the decade.
Aravind Srinivas, chief executive officer Perplexity AI, during a news conference at the SK Telecom Co. headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, Sept.4, 2024.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Perplexity AI on Thursday announced that its artificial-intelligence-powered web browser Comet is available worldwide, and will be free to users.
The Comet browser is designed to serve as a personal assistant that can search the web, organize tabs, draft emails, shop and more, according to Perplexity. The startup initially launched Comet in July to Perplexity Max subscribers for $200 a month, and the waitlist has ballooned to “millions” of people, the company said.
Tune in at 8:10 a.m. ET Friday as Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas joins CNBC TV to discuss the release of its AI browser Comet to users for free. Watch in real time on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.
Perplexity’s decision to provide Comet for free could help it attract more users as it works to fend off rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic that have their own AI browser offerings.
In September, Google rolled out Gemini in its Chrome browser, Anthropic announced a browser-based AI agent in August and OpenAI announced Operator, an agent that uses a browser to complete tasks, in January. Perplexity made an unsolicited $34.5 billion bid for Google’s Chrome browser in August.
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Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine that gives users simple answers to questions and links out to the original source material on the web. After the company was accused of plagiarizing content from media outlets, it launched a revenue-sharing model with publishers last year.
The company also introduced Comet Plus in August, which is a subscription that gives users access to content from “trusted publishers and journalists,” according to a blog post. Perplexity said Tuesday that CNN, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Le Monde, and Le Figaro are its inaugural publishing partners.
Perplexity said additional features are also on the way. The company teased a mobile version of Comet and a feature called Background Assistant, which can work on multiple tasks simultaneously and asynchronously.