Winners and Losers: Stray comes to Xbox, as Apple increases iCloud fees

It’s the first weekend of July, which means it’s time for us to wrap up our final Winners and Losers from the month of June. 

This week was a big one for smartphones, as we shared our final verdict on the compact Asus Zenfone 10 and Google’s first foldable, the Pixel Fold. 

Keep reading to learn which companies we named our winner and our loser this week. 

Winner: Microsoft 

One of 2022’s cutest post-apocalyptic third-person adventure games is officially coming to Xbox. 

Stray will be available to play on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Xbox One consoles from August 10, over a year after it first launched last July as a PS5 timed exclusive. 

The RPG invites you to traverse the neon alleys of a decaying city populated by robots and machines. Slowly, you unravel the mysteries of this cyber world with the help of a small flying drone called B-12. Oh, and you’re a stray cat. 

One of the most unique aspects of this game is the way in which players are able to interact with their surroundings. 

“See the world through the eyes of a cat and interact with the environment in playful ways. Be stealthy, nimble, silly, and sometimes as annoying as possible with the strange inhabitants of this mysterious world,” reads indie developer BlueTwelve Studios’ synopsis. 

If you like the sound of Stray but don’t have a PS5 at home, this could be your chance to finally get your hands on the game. 

(And if you don’t have an Xbox yet, you have until August 13 to catch the Series X before the console’s scheduled price hike). 

Loser: Apple 

Our loser this week is Apple after the company quietly announced that it would be increasing the price of its iCloud+ storage plans in the UK. 

Going forward, the 50GB plan will rise from 79p a month to 99p a month, while the cost of the 200GB plan will increase from £2.49 a month to £2.99 a month. The 5GB tier will remain free. 

By far the biggest price hike here goes to the 2TB plan, which is set to rise from £6.99 a month to £8.99 a month. That’s a huge 29% increase in the cost of the top-tier plan, forcing subscribers to fork out an additional £24 over the course of a year. 

It’s also £38 more per annum than the price of the top plan when iCloud first launched back in 2011, though it is worth noting that the highest tier available back then was only 50GB. Then again, pretty much everything on our phones took up less storage back then with no 4K video, large image files and Netflix downloads for our phones to contend with. 

iCloud+ isn’t just about the storage boost. The service also includes Safari’s Private Relay security feature Hide My Email to keep your real email address off mailing lists, the ability to create a custom email domain and support for HomeKit Secure Video, none of which is available with the free plan. 

Every iCloud+ account tier also gives you the ability to share these perks with up to five family members, making this the perfect time to take a look at your iCloud storage usage. If you and your partner are both barely making a dent in your 2TB allowance, it might be worth downsizing to a shared 200GB plan to save yourself a good lump of cash going forward.