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XBox (Games) Microsoft

Microsoft Asks Many Game Pass Subscribers To Pay More For Less 63

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: For years now, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass has set itself apart by offering subscribers launch-day access to new first-party titles in addition to a large legacy library of older games. That important "day one" perk is now set to go away for all but the highest tier of Game Pass' console subscribers, even as Microsoft asks for more money for Game Pass across the board. Let's start with the price increases for existing Game Pass tiers, which are relatively straightforward:

"Game Pass Ultimate" is going from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
"Game Pass for PC" is going from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
"Game Pass Core" (previously known as Xbox Live Gold) is going from $59.99 to $74.99 for annual subscriptions (and remains at $9.99 for monthly subscriptions).
Things get a bit more complicated for the $10.99/month "Xbox Game Pass for Console" tier.

Microsoft announced that it will no longer accept new subscriptions for that tier after today, though current subscribers will be able to keep it (for now) if they auto-renew their subscriptions.
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Microsoft Asks Many Game Pass Subscribers To Pay More For Less More

Microsoft Asks Many Game Pass Subscribers To Pay More For Less

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  • That $3.5 trillion valuation demands more money, more ms accounts and more ads. But we will keep shutting down the studios we acquired and push Xbox into 3rd place.

    • As a PC gamer, I don't understand the concept. It's not like games go quick and you can start and finish in a day or week. It means you're sort of paying for the privilege of a demo, and then pay for the game itself if you like it and want to keep playing even if the game pass stops offering it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by UMichEE ( 9815976 )

        I have Game Pass and play on XBox and PC. For me, Game Pass has been the best thing that ever happened with games, but I paid ~$5/month for it. I end up trying all kinds of games that that I wouldn't have tried otherwise. It turns out that I like the Paradox grand strategy games, but I probably wouldn't have tried them if they weren't included in Game Pass. I probably wouldn't have played Control or Doom (creepy/gory), but I ended up really enjoying them. I probably wouldn't have tried City Builders li

        • I use Bing and Bing rewards. It covers the cost of Game Pass 90% of the time for my daughter. :D

          That's not free. I'm exchanging some privacy for it, but I assume any other search engine would be similarly milking privacy anyway, so I don't feel any loss.

      • personally I love it. you don't need to start or finish a game in a day or a week. At a minimum they are their for months. saves me a fortune for gaming compared to what I used to spend and frankly I so rarely used to go back to old games that the very very few I do go back to I still save money long term by only buying those.

    • more ms accounts and more ads.

      That's OK, I'll just use Linux and if I absolutely have to OpenShell [github.io].

  • Found a way to make everything complicated everywhere. Awesome. Not only is their enterprise licensing complete fuckery, they have done the same to consumer things. Bang up job idiots.
    • Not only is their enterprise licensing complete fuckery, they have done the same to consumer things. Bang up job idiots.

      Have to justify their exorbitant salaries somehow.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      Here is the thing tho, those complications ar not for your benefit ( I know shocking right), and their working just as intended, the more confusing they are the easier it is to upsell resulting in more money for MS

  • Please don't say that silly 'enshitification' thing again. And aside from just plain "greedy." What's the proper word for "got the suckers on a permanent payment plan, now we will increase the monthly rate while decreasing the service" thing that's happening across the software world, across the streaming world, across the gaming world, across the car world in some cases? One word that means, "pay me more, peasant, and I will give you less in return."

    If I were to write an album about it, I'd call the album

    • Serfdom, as in Microserfs. Or Catch 22, " they can do anything you can't stop them from doing ", but in the novel, the flyers were conscripted and had no way of quitting. Nobody is really forced to use Micro$oft's products, except maybe for exclusive games if you're hooked, but there are lots of other games around which are enough to satisfy most people.

    • What's the proper word for "got the suckers on a permanent payment plan, now we will increase the monthly rate while decreasing the service" thing that's happening across the software world, across the streaming world, across the gaming world, across the car world in some cases?

      Rent Seeking. [wikipedia.org]

      • What's the proper word for "got the suckers on a permanent payment plan, now we will increase the monthly rate while decreasing the service" thing that's happening across the software world, across the streaming world, across the gaming world, across the car world in some cases?

        Rent Seeking. [wikipedia.org]

        Rent seeking always struck me as increasing prices for the same quality. The continual decay while increasing prices seems something a bit more egregious to me. An evolution in rent seeking.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anil ( 7001 )

      no different from what happened years ago with pay-TV.
      Was there a term for that? just price hiking. not really a monopoly in this case or cable's case; as, even with pre-streaming cable, there was still the option to get back to an antenna for OTA tv.

    • Cory Doctorow called this enshittification [wikipedia.org] - or more politely, platform decay.

    • And aside from just plain "greedy."

      I find it hard to call this greedy. A year's subscription to Gamepass for PC costs less than 2 AAA titles, and you get *A LOT* of games very likely including said AAA titles for that price.

    • "got the suckers on a permanent payment plan"

      No. No you don't. You can walk away from that plan any time you like. As far as I know, MS doesn't even offer any kind of lock-in option - say, two years subscription but you get a discounted XBOX.

      It's not permanent. At all. It's month to month entertainment.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Please don't say that silly 'enshitification' thing again. And aside from just plain "greedy." What's the proper word for "got the suckers on a permanent payment plan, now we will increase the monthly rate while decreasing the service" thing that's happening across the software world, across the streaming world, across the gaming world, across the car world in some cases? One word that means, "pay me more, peasant, and I will give you less in return."

      If I were to write an album about it, I'd call the album The Spiral of Rent-Doomification. But that's not snazzy enough for our ad infused world. I know it's a form of greedflation, but it's a specialist form of greedflation that deserves its own silly made-up confluence of words. I'm sure something will come to me right as I'm on the verge of sleep that I won't remember tomorrow.

      Enshitification is exactly what this is called, but if you're going to be a prude about it, you can use the BBC friendly term and call it "platform decay" (erm... BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation... not what you were thinking although I do recommend a Cajica from the other BBC).

      Also this is Jacks surprised face, nooooo-one ever predicted this happening.

      I certainly didn't, definitely not from the start.

      It would be inevitable that Microsoft would get sick of funding the games and entertain

      • Enshitification is exactly what this is called, but if you're going to be a prude about it, you can use the BBC friendly term and call it "platform decay" (erm... BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation... not what you were thinking although I do recommend a Cajica from the other BBC).

        Not so much a prude, I just think that's a terrible newfangle word. I'm a fan of making up nonsense words to describe things, and a fan of swearing in general. Hell, most people blush when they read my fiction the first time from the profanity. Granted, I'm writing about space sailors, so, you know.

        I'm also a big fan of BBC (the network, not as much the other), though I haven't watched much of it the last couple years.

        I do have to wonder if there's a point where profit above all ceases to be the normal ope

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )
          Then the term "platform decay" is for the same thing and is likely to be more used in academic circles. Should do for you I'd think.

          BTW, the other BBC I refereed to is the Colombian brewery Bogota Beer Company which produces a nice honey based beer called Cajica Miel (Cajica honey).

          • Then the term "platform decay" is for the same thing and is likely to be more used in academic circles. Should do for you I'd think.

            That'll do for the moment.

            BTW, the other BBC I refereed to is the Colombian brewery Bogota Beer Company which produces a nice honey based beer called Cajica Miel (Cajica honey).

            Sounds lovely.

    • It's called the house of cards is falling down now that the market capture(specifically the console market) plan didn't work out. The entire point of Day One GP was that it would take major market share away from Sony/Nintendo and that all that market share and the secondary transactions going through the MS ecosystem would make up for the cost of running the service and the loss of profit on outright game sales. Predictably, this did not happen.

  • I have been subscribed for a year. Ever since i cancelles my subscription i am a much happier person. I play only ganes i really want, and life is busy so you don't have rime to play everything on game pass anyways. Without gamepass i am no longer mentally handcuffes "to play only games i have already paid for" in gamepass, but actually choose titles woth good ratings that i want to try

  • When did everything go to crap?!?!?!

    At least World Of Tanks is 100% free to play sans xbox gold and ps plus.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      I am a bit ambivallent about that. On the one hand, playing online used to be free. Nowadays though, more of the game actually runs on the server and not on the clients for plenty of reason. So you need to keep these up and that cost cloud money and probably a little bit of admin time for patches and stuff.

      So while I think they should just release server code and let you run your own. I kind of see it is necessary.

      • OK, I see. So, based on that, they should reduce the price of the game and increase the cost of the monthly subscription, right?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by godrik ( 1287354 )

          Game prices have been going down for decades. If you look at the cost of games adjusted for inflation, their cost have been going down dramatically. Prime games for Genesis and SNES were at about $50-$60 early to mid 90s. Occarina of time released at $60 in 1998. Tears of Kingdom released at $70 last year. Games are getting WAY cheaper.

          I don't know who "they" is in your comment. But many games are essentially made available as a subscription services. most MMORPGs are like this. Look at the starcraft broodw

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Game Pass isnt an online play service. It's a monthly subscription that gives you free access to a select library of games without having to purchase them. The games play online exactly the same on Game Pass as they do if you buy them off Steam.

      • Do you see how we've been conditioned?

        > It's a monthly subscription that gives you free access

        That's a really funny statement in itself...
        I do know what you mean, but the access isn't free.

        • Re:Playing online used to be free (Score:5, Insightful)

          by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2024 @02:41PM (#64616493)

          No, you're just jumping to absurd conclusions. All I was doing was expressing the fact that the subscription fee takes the place of purchasing the game or in other words, the games are free after paying the subscription fee.

          This is like those folks who will butt into a conversation to point out that a free service provided by the government isnt free because our taxes pay for it when everyone already understands this fact.

          • > It's a monthly subscription that gives you access to...

            the free doesn't change the meaning of the statement in any way.

            That's like saying a Netflix subscription provides you free access to content. It's pure marketing.

            • It's pure marketing.

              No, it's substitution. The distinction is especially important in the context of paying Netflix *instead* of buying bluerays and comparing the costs of each.

              The OP suggested that Gamepass didn't come with content, only with online play. They were wrong. Gamepass gives you free access to the entire library - i.e. you don't need to pay extra beyond the subscription.

              You splitting hairs on the english language is only confusing the situation and does nothing to help the OP understand they were wrong.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by skam240 ( 789197 )

              Yeah, I'm not interested in having a dumbshit semantics debate with you. Go bother someone else with your nonsense.

              • Semantics are important sometimes and people going long-uncorrected often leads to annoying interactions such as this one. The word "free" has a meaning and you can't just make one up because you used it improperly. If you are paying to access the library of games, the games are not free. This isn't a hard concept to grasp yet you chose to curl up and die on the hill.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by mjwx ( 966435 )

            No, you're just jumping to absurd conclusions. All I was doing was expressing the fact that the subscription fee takes the place of purchasing the game or in other words, the games are free after paying the subscription fee.

            This is like those folks who will butt into a conversation to point out that a free service provided by the government isnt free because our taxes pay for it when everyone already understands this fact.

            This is the same kind of "technically the truth" twisted semantics behind "Linux is only free if your time is free" and "no such thing as free health care".... We know that these things are true but your attempt at being a barracks room lawyer hasn't changed the meaning of what was originally said, I.E. the NHS was always stated as "free at the point of service", everyone in the UK knows that "free" health care means exactly that, at the point of service. Same with the "free" games on a subscription service

  • After all they are a tiny company with very little money. They need to the money to buy more game development companies . . . so that they can close them down later. You cannot layoff employees you don't have. That's Business 101.

  • I am guessing that people would use that like netflix. They would pay the month they want to play and cancel when they don't use it.
    I mostly play on Switch, but if I could pay $20 a month to try out a bunch of games, I probably would use it here and there. Try a bunch of games I want to give a shot to and cancel afterward. Maybe buy the ones I actually want to play. Could make sense

    If there are prime AAA games included, these fuckers release at $70 nowadays. In a "don't have much else to do month", I could

    • Also GameFly is still a thing, pay per month, get a disc in the mail, return when you are done (or purchase at a used price).

      Back in the PS3 era when i subscribed I used it exactly as you said; get a single player game, spend a couple weeks to beat it, return and repeat.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by godrik ( 1287354 )

        ah! I did not know that GameFly existed! (I think they were most popular before I came to the US.)

        That is an interesting model. The cheap plan is at $11/month. Even if you only play one game a month, it is useful. I'd probably do 2.

        Probably I would use that seasonally. If I expect to have more time, subscribe for a few month and then cancel.

  • You know, usually I am happy to spew hate at corporations, but, well, let's get real for a second.

    Do you want a raise this year?

    Do you?

    Well, I am betting Microsoft employees do too.

    Do you exist on the Planet Earth, in one of what are called by some, "first world countries?"

    So, you have seen that inflation is a thing, Yes?

    Guess what, Microsoft, corporation owned by greedy demons that it is, is also experiencing that inflation.

    So, as the cost of living goes up, EVERY corporation is going to find

    • or increase prices, just to keep up

      Hahahaha, hohohoho, hehehehe.

    • Oh, and further, "I used to live on Cape Cod, where there are tons of non-profits, all owned by people that have really nice mansions on Cape Cod. then they bitch that more people aren't donating... But that's another story." They also rely almost entirely on donated labor, so they can happily keep a large portion of the donations to pay themselves and still be doing whatever good they claim to be doing, as that is also usually done by volunteers.

    • Of course, the 17.65% price increase for the GamePass Ultimate will for sure translate to a proportional raise for Microsoft employees Â_Â

      • that's not what I said, but feel free to create a strawman argument for your own amusement and to try to make yourself feel smug and smart.

  • MS is a for-profit company. Which implies that, every quarter, its goal is to make money for its shareholders the next quarter.Period. Forget about such platitudes as excellence, best service, forward-thinking, vision, etc: there are many ways to make money that do not involve anything like that, especially when a company enjoys a virtual monopoly in some areas.

    MS is doing this because it can, and you are going to like it!

  • Pay More For Less
    Do More With Less
    Seems like a trend with corporations.
    Good job, you get a 0.5% raise this year! We just bought another company for $3 Billion dollars so your raise is not as good as it would have been in say, 2015. Nor is it worth as much either, BTW.

  • I do not like the price increase...

    That being said, telling "they ask more money for less" is disingenuous at best.

    Why?

    They will be bringing that $70 billion ABK back catalog, with the rumored Call of Duty classics next month, and more after that.

    Yes, it is still a price increase, yes, it still hurts, and yes, they promised not to do that.
    But, they did not have access to ABK financials at the time, and after merger, the larger Microsoft accountant group took a look.

  • the day one thing was never really true anyways. games like starfield that purposely pre-sold "early access" that was a whole 1 week before.

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