* Soon, Xbox Game Pass for console will be shuttered for new users only. Those already using Game Pass console with existing subscriptions will not be required to cancel.
* Users currently on Xbox Game Pass for console will be allowed to maintain their subscription, as well as day one games.
* New users on Xbox Game Pass in the near future will be greeted by a new Xbox Game Pass "Standard." This is more like EA Access, which includes Xbox's back catalogue, and doesn't include day one games. This will be priced at $14.99 per month, and will also include Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer (now known as Game Pass Core, confusingly). It doesn't include Xbox Cloud gaming. Game Pass Standard is launching in September.
* Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will not be changed, but it will get a price increase. It will still include PC Game Pass, day one games, and hundreds of back catalogue titles, as well as cloud gaming. But, it is getting a price increase. The new price will be $19.99 per month.
* PC Game Pass is also getting a price increase, from $9.99 per month to $11.99.
* Xbox Game Pass Core (Xbox Live Gold multiplayer) gets an annual price increase to $74.99 from $59.99, but it will remain $9.99 per month.
It's terrible naming scheme imo. Now the STANDARD Gamepass tier doesn't have the most important feature of Gamepass, which was all first party games day 1.
Clippy is so legendary - would've been successful if that was the character for their voice assistant instead of Cortana, and could now have been powered by CoPilot/GPT.
I'm not a fan of these changes. There should be two tiers overall - Standard and Ultimate. Get rid of Core and PC.
* Standard should include PC and Xbox Game Pass.
* Ultimate adds Cloud Gaming and EA Play.
* Day one releases should be included in both - that's literally been part of the game's trailer if it's launched on Game Pass.
* Ultimate needs to be the same price - these subscribers aren't getting any new benefits!
I get they're going for your typical marketing ladder here. But I'd love to see their take rates on their current tiers.
To be fair, Windows has recently been more streamlined than whatever MacOs names their stuff - oh and don’t forget Sony’s headphones / earphones / phones in general.
But yeah, xbox naming sucks big time (like why name an xbox one x/s and later release an xbox series x/s, people not paying attention could be easily buttfucked) and gamepass was also confusing af, core? gold? ultimate? there isn’t one common denominator among those names.
>Xbox just can’t come up with good names for shit
I am inclined to agree. However...
...what *would* you call a tier with a big vault+multiplayer, a tier with a small vault + multiplayer, and a tier with everything?
Right now it is Standard/Core/Ultimate. Any suggestions?
Bronze Silver Gold. Wait nvm, those were the old ones for Xbox Live before it was cut down to just Gold.
EDIT: I swear on my nan's grave that Bronze existed.
Yep, and like every service, the "something" was baiting people in with something good, then making it worse.
This fed things like cutting heavily into physical game sales and generally getting people into the ha it of permanently renting their content. Now, the long-expected rug pull has come.
I got Game Pass while fully expecting this, and I'll be dropping it.
Gamepass lite.
They really need to fix this as they must know parents of kids aren't gonna understand anything and just get fed up of hundreds of dollars of subscriptions.... This is coming to an end even for me honestly...
So PC Gamepass still gets day one releases and still has EA Play, making it a way better deal and $3 cheaper than Gamepass Standard. Why buy an Xbox if you need to pay for multiplayer and still be worse off than the PC counterpart.
MS is doing their best to kill the Xbox sales and eventually the GP sales. They have the competency of a 5 years old. All their recent decisions educate users to sell their consoles because they are treated better (even by MS) on every other platform.
Every decision they make seems geared towards moving people from console to PC. Maybe those NextBox rumors are true and next gen is a Microsoft version of the Steam Machine
Yeah I think this is enough for me to just buy games. Half the games I play on GamePass end up going on sale anyways, and Xbox doesn’t have enough first party exclusives to justify “day on GamePass” for me.
So wait, if someone has console now, will they get grandfathered into the day 1 games and get access to Gold/Multiplayer or will they have to manually switch over to the new subscription to get multiplayer as part of console and sacrifice their grandfathered day 1 games?
If you buy physical versions of games which go on fire sales quite often $240 can get you like 15-20 games. I just got resident evil 4 for $10 by waiting. Gamepass is not worth it to me anymore. Now if you need to play day 1 games I guess you can justify it but like you said, how many quality day 1 games does Microsoft even put out in a year?
Even with a steady output I probably am done. Betting MS will see more of that as Game Pass growth has slowed a good bit and will likely change course in the not-so-distant future. It seems like a great deal. And hell, it really is. But the issue is time. Unless you have no real responsibility, family, friends, etc. it can be near impossible to get enough time. This is a common thing I have heard a lot in the last few months. People saying they just do not have time to get the value. They realize that they could get all the games they want to own and play for the cost. Because you can play those again whenever without continuing to pay. Many are on sales.
It really is something that I find has lead me personally to realize I will cancel if my time runs out. The yearly cost will buy so much. Between sales on digital, physical games, etc. And by the time I can play most stuff sale prices are not bad at all.
Another thing for me is online gaming. There was value at one time in Live. That could be factored in. But honestly, I can play on PC and do a lot. Played a lot of cross platform games with family and friends on PC in the last year. PC online has never been something I pay for. Never was huge on subs and renting content either.
My new strategy is to play what is on Game Pass now since I have a sub if I have time. I have so many games to play that I own. And by the time I get to whatever it is the game will be cheap. Way too much to play to consider keeping Game Pass and having to keep paying if I want to play. Or still buy them anyway. And I rarely feel the need that I need to play day one at this point.
The honest biggest value Game Pass has had for me is made me realize I spent too much. I would buy so many games day one. Never enough time to play them. They would be half that price, often less, before I got to playing them. So now I spend so much less and still get to play the games.
Time is actually what's making me consider cancelling. Most competitive games are f2p, I'm already so behind on single player games. I can likely save money by just waiting for sales.
I'm a patient gamer with a huge backlog of purchased games on multiple platforms, and at $240 / year, I could buy a hell of a lot of games to *own* on sale at 5-10 bucks apiece from those I might play on Gamepass.
And for that reason, I'm out.
I'm a casual gamer who only goes through a handful of games a year. For £240, I could buy all the games I actually play and have plenty left over.
This may be ok for people who spend hours and hours playing all the new games, but for casual players, this is too much.
I’m wondering if that will go up too. I have like 110,000 Microsoft points. I think I’m going to cash out and get 9 more months of game pass before that increases too.
"This price change allows us to continue to bring you more value and great games for the very best gaming experience."
Why is a price increase necessary for them to give me the same thing with no additional value added? (rhetorical)
I think what they meant to say is that this change allows them to give you the same service at a higher price so that they can keep their numbers up for the next QR and continue on this road of unsustainable growth.
#Holup
**From September 12, 2024, Microsoft will only allow users to stack Xbox Game Pass for Console users for up to 13 months, using pre-paid cards and the like, which will continue to function. If you have more than 13 months stacked already, you won't be impacted.**
Am I reading this correctly? So you can’t renew + stack 2 yr(s) codes anymore? The conversion rate is going down again?
> Am I reading this correctly? So you can’t renew + stack 2 yr(s) codes anymore? The conversion rate is going down again?
Yes, but they seem to indicate it's only for Game Pass for Console.
They have a support page up now
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/game-pass-updates-july-2024
That confirms that the 13 month stacking limit is only for Game Pass for Console which is going away. (Confirmed because it's only mentioned explicitly under the changes for that tier)
This statement is only specifying Console Game Pass, though, which is basically being discontinued. I think it’s still to be seen how the GPU conversion will be affected
Xbox Console Users kinda getting shafted here, there should be a PC GamePass equivalent tier for console. Would much rather have the Standard tier include Gold + Day One games but no EA Access, Cloud Gaming or PC GamePass, I barely use those aspects in GPU anyway. Now it's either all or nothing if you want day one games.
It's the story of the generation man. I swear sometimes it just feels like Xbox Console Users are treated like second class citizens by Microsoft. In this instance, they literally want us to pay $3 more than a PC User for much less.
MS tried making PC players pay for online via Games for Windows Live, but PC gamers protested it. That's why we still have free online on PC till today.
It makes no sense. PC gamepass will be cheaper than Gamepass Standard, still have day one games, and it has EA Play included. It's like theyre trying to push people to PC.
but microsoft hardly benefits directly if you buy a PC.
microsoft doesnt make gaming PCs. third party OEMs do, and the vast bulk of your spent money goes to them for the hardware. microsoft might profit from selling a windows 11 license to the OEMs for each PC built with it, but windows 11 keys dont cost much. certainly not as much as having your own ecosystem with 70 dollar games and a store that sells dlc and mtx.
maybe if all PC gamers used the microsoft store on PC, then sure microsoft would benefit immensely from pushing people over. cuz then they'd get a cut of all transactions. but the vast majority of PC gamers use steam and epic. so microsoft doesnt benefit from the software side of things either, unless you buy one of their own titles from steam. at which point they only keep 70 percent of the transaction as opposed to 100 percent on their own store. idk what their gameplan is here. maybe shoving more ads into windows 11 to profit that way?
if they started making xbox-branded gaming PCs or had market dominance when it comes to PC game distribution then that would be a different story.
Exactly, a lot of people just don't take the store into consideration for some reason. The real money in gaming has always been in being a platform holder since you get a cut of every game sale. This is why so many companies tried their hand at being a console maker in the 80s/90s and on PC why there are so many different storefronts. Microsoft trying to push people to PC doesn't actually make any logical sense.
Why would PC players ever pay for online? They aren't locked into a silly gated garden like people are on consoles. If a service started charging for online, it die quickly lol
It’s honestly insulting. I have a decent gaming PC with Xbox Game Pass and an SXS that my wife uses. Feels like Microsoft is just trying to push people away from Xbox onto PC
This is the thing that makes me the most pissed. I often top up my 3 years every Black Friday. This change is infuriating & I may just stop subbing at some point when my years run out. This feels like an even greater squeeze on consumers.
Edit: It’s unclear if the 13 month stack limit is just for GamePass Standard to prevent large conversions or if it applies to all levels. I’ve seen differing reporting.
It's insane how much they are chasing a PC community that, quite frankly, cannot be bothered to care.
I'm a console gamer, so I really don't understand a lot of small weird things about PC gaming in general. But like, it's shocking how many PC gamers aren't even willing to switch launchers for a majority of games. Like, you could buy every game via the Microsoft/Xbox Store and get most of those titles also on your Xbox (via Play Anywhere program). But the Microsoft launcher sucks so people can't be bothered!
Steam so utterly and completely dominates the PC market that even games like Fortnite (or piles of free games that Epic gives out) can't get people to use the Epic Games Launcher consistently lmaooo
Steam is the only one that's genuinely good software. Epic is decent
The Microsoft Store and Game Pass programs are terrible and integrated into Windows horribly. Windows treats any downloads through those services as OS updates and caps your download speeds, and many users find that the workarounds people use for genuine Windows updates don't fix video game installs through the store or Game Pass.
In the case of Microsoft's own programs, Microsoft is just incompetent
The speeds I get in the store/Xbox app is on par with Steam for me. Most people who have issues with those tended to run those “de-MS my windows” random powershell scripts that tear out services those rely on and cause them to fail or run terribly I’ve found. I still hit some issues but running stock and turning off some settings for privacy using normal UI seems to be much better in terms of not fucking your windows store/xbox app up.
I think they expect to make the most money from console off game pass. My understanding is that there aren’t a lot of PC players on PC game pass, so any change they might make won’t really increase their profits and too much change will just have people dropping it. Having two different tiers on Xbox means that they want people to pay more for the standard service but think they’re getting a premium service. It’s artificially inflating the value of game pass
I love game pass, but I also buy a good number of the games that I play. At some point the math doesn't work out compared to how much I can actually* play. If it wasn't for paid online play, I would almost certainly be out.
This isn't a knock on game pass, only a look that situationally it can price itself out of being the no-braniner that is has been for many to date.
Now toss in a WoW sub and some stuff like that, and I'll pay for an even higher tier. Again, it comes down to value and what one person can realistically play.
I cancelled it because I just didn't use it enough. The day one games are good but there haven't really been any worth the price of admission since Starfield which I bought anyway.
I only sub to GamePassUltimate if the month line-up will get a game I’ve been wanting to play or a Day1, otherwise I just stick to core for online.
Feel like that’s the most economic system.
I see most of you are fine with price increases, but I’m not. Starting to get sick of subscriptions. And it’ll go up again soon. It’s a disgrace considering we’re living in a cost of living crisis and inflation keeps going up.
Even then, it will be just like preordering games, which is, giving money BLINDLY before knowing if a game will be really good on release.
First-party is not always a promise of quality, and nit every game will be in your genre.
When did we decided it was ok as a consumer? Would you pay your fridge in advance and pay monthly for the upcoming oven…?
Microsoft just succeeded at what they do best…turning their practices into false good ideas into the head of their consumers…
The entire Xbox games library has been in dire straits since the tail end of the 360 era. There's been no system sellers since Halo 3. Genuinely great first party titles have been few and far between since then
Yeah it’s not worth it. People are doing the math like “$240 that’s 3 $70 games, great deal!”. But realistically I’m still buying a ton of games even with my gamepass. I really only get a handful of free ones that make it worth it now
Same. I've mostly become a part of /r/patientgamers for SP games and for movie/tv media I self-host everything. Saves a lot of money and I really don't miss much of anything.
I think the surprise is that it’s coming before CoD drops on GamePass. I would have expected it afterwards. Looking at the price difference between $20/month and $70 one time purchase for CoD doesn’t have the same impact as $15/mo. Bad business move by MS to increase the price this early.
Also if the “standard” plan doesn’t include CoD day 1 it’d be stupid enough to qualify as self-sabotage.
They have this so picked apart, I'd assume they focus tested both scenarios and users found the price increase before the big guns more palatable than after. Perhaps it hitting before a big influx of new users means they (new users) won't feel as impacted by the price increase as they would if it happened after they came on board. "See no evil"
I only play 3 or 4 new games a year and I'd rather just buy them anyway. Even when I had gamepads I barely played any games on there because I owned 75% of GP games.
Im just going to say it, but the whole "games that are day one on ultimate may be added later on to standard" language is concerning. I think this means the xbox big three (forza/halo/gears) will not be made available on standard and Bethesda/Activision games will also skip that tier.
I am also a bit concerned about day one third party games. If you are fracturing the userbase this badly, the incentive of putting your game on the service day one is kinda lost as less people will have easy access to the games... and this concerns me specifically for more niche genres on xbox like jrpgs. I just dont see many jrpgs signing up to do day one drops if the ultimate userbase isnt big enough to justify the xbox port/losing out on sales through traditional means... idk, this isnt shaping up to be a good move for xbox. They should of just gone the ps plus route of three tiers where they easily define what each one offers, and can guarantee what day one drops will be going where etc.
Microsoft could never get away with charging PC players to play online they already tried that once, and it backfired spectacularly.
I've recently switched to PC, and there is no looking back. I own a lot of games on Xbox, but staying there because of that is a sunken cost fallacy at this point.
I hate so much what Microsoft did bring to console gaming…
I gamed online fir 2 gens before they added that….and more subs was just the logical follow-up from Microsoft…
Well they passed the cost of CoD down to everyone and I won't pay for it anymore. I'll just buy the games I want or resort to other means - as many others will, too
Been a member of Xbox live and each iteration since 2007. Will no longer be subscribed after my subscription ends. I’ll save more buying the games I want to play instead of paying a potential $270 to not even touch most games offered. What a shame.
yep, same.
Game Pass was a "nice to have" not a "need to have" for me. I was never "saving" $70 on games like Starfield or Forza because, quite frankly, I likely wasn't stoked enough on them to buy them in the first place. The same way that I treated cool new shows on Netflix before I canceled that too.
Every time they increased prices, it became more of a value question. Since Ultimate went from $15 to $20 (and likely will go higher), that's essentially another $60 a year... a brand new game purchase.
So that will be $240 a year for ultimate. That's roughly 4 new releases at 59.99. I barely play any of the games on the service now. There really aren't any day one releases that I am excited over. The three franchises that I love are Earth Defense Force, Dragon Quest, and Ys. None of those are coming to gamespass.
I'm thinking it's time to cancel.
$14.99 for standard is absolutely wild and only there to try and upsell people to ultimate/soften the blow when ultimate gets another price hike down the road.
They basically just said if you want to keep paying near the same amount for Game Pass we will take away THE feature that makes it worth it and you can.
It feels like Xbox has a vendetta against their own console base at this point. We’re second class citizens.
If I want all of the features of Gamepass just on console I have to pay extra for Ultimate, which includes a bunch of shit I don’t need since I don’t have a PC.
If I want all of the features of Gamepass on PC I just buy PC Gamepass, which is almost half of the price of Ultimate.
Why the fuck do I have an Xbox?
I play on both systems but you are absolutely correct. I assume one reason for this is the massive strength of Steam which would render the Windows store useless if it wouldnt come with all the features.
Imo this could have been a chance to get behind consoles again and push hardware sales by limiting Day 1 releases to Xbox only.
But no console users get shafted.
I think they’re ready to pull out of the console hardware business at this point, and just want to be a publisher who also has a cloud streaming app. Sell one more console generation to make money back on the R&D they’ve already been doing, and then call it quits.
I feel sorry for the hardware team who knocked it out of the park with the Series X, only to have to watch it be let down in every other area for the past 4 years
Even beyond that, is there any indication that PC Game Pass has been successful at all? It seems extremely shortsighted to push all your console users to PC when that more likely than not means pushing them to Steam instead of the Xbox store and Game Pass.
£14.99 - so an increase of £2 a month
Thank god for the strong pound I guess? Though I guess it only partially makes up for us being screwed on game and hardware pricing.
So ppl fought back against price increase last year.. The marketing team was like, "Just change the name of Xbox live and try again in 1 year."
I feel like Xbox Live, being 59.99, is what was drawing ppl towards Xbox. Like counter culture. Now all loop holes patched and price increased to near sony
They'll give you a 10 year old game and advertise it like it's a big deal when they don't have any new games coming out.
The upcoming year with xbox first party games is huge, but with games taking 5/7 years to produce, the next 5/7 years are going to be like the previous years, fuck all for half the generation like how the series started out.
Agreed, at this price range they should have the entire back catalog of already released games available on Gamepass, and they should also include games from OG Xbox, and the 360. I don't care if they shutdown the backwards compatability team, at this price, and how much they paid, they should make that content available.
It's crazy because they are fumbling their last big chance to get a major Game Pass push.
Finally getting one of the biggest games, on the entire planet, under your corporation. Want COD users to switch from PlayStation? Or, god forbid, love the rest of the Xbox library enough to play a bunch of your other games? Make it exciting and cheap to get them hooked!
Instead, they just cranked up the prices on everybody and will likely lose total active subs over this. Long-time subs had to wait through a bunch of lean months and were waiting for it all to finally pay off.
This is all just fucking stupid and a huge waste of money at this point. I'm over these dumbass subscriptions and extra requirements just to play online from time to time.
Give Sony whatever shit you want, at least they don't treat their own user base as 2nd class citizens. It is pathetic that the PC Gamepass is so much cheaper and more value than the actual Xbox Gamepass. Literally a slap on the face of people who have supported the console from day 1. Kinda done with this and will just build a PC next gen.
Game pass is seriously not what it used to be.
It’s a bloated mess and while you can argue the value of it is good, it’s overwhelming and they only put mid games on it anyway.
Now they double down on aggressive monetisation. Will people still spout its a good deal when this all kicks in?
Paying for Xbox Live is what eventually has pushed me more into PC gaming. It's ridiculous to be charged for such a basic, and almost necessary, requirement these days. Especially so because I can play all basically any multiplayer Xbox game on PC without having to pay the extra fee.
I'd be more willing to pay for something like the basic Game Pass tier if I didn't also have to pay extra for the multiplayer functionality.
It was ridiculous on day one to pay for such a basic feature as "playing online"…but somehow, marketers/psychologists succeed in letting this idea enter into kid's minds of those first years of a console world with Microsoft in it…
This comes down to if you think the 240 a year is worth it.
If personally rather wait for a complete edition of a game that goes on sell for 20 bucks. All the bugs and glitches are cleaned up and all the extra contbent is added.
I just don't play enough of the service and end up buying things not on it like Dark souls Trilogy and Elden Ring
No more for me
Yeah, they'll slowly price their customers out of their services, and overall they'll lose subscribers, revenue, gamepass and xbox attractivity for players, and then partnerships attractivity for developers, but for a brief moment in time, number will go up a bit. And all will be well.
I've got about 14 months left in my 3 year sub, and when that one expires, it'll be a sad day but they'll get the same treatment as all the other subscription services over the year. Instead of being subbed all year round a be a stable revenue source, i'll pop in a month evrry now and then, because ONE game will be interesting.
And just like the other platforms, it'll happen once, maybe twice, and then never again because i'll realise that i don't actually *need* it.
---
I'm salty but also struggling the understand what the long term game is for them. Most of us want multiple good games, not COD and Diablo 4,and then no more budget for the rest. It's absurd.
Core is going up from $59.99 to 74.99 that's Messed up what are they thinking are they trying to get members to move over to Playstation or Nintendo? With prices like this people will go to ps.
Microsoft just killed Gamepass for me and is actively pushing me away from their ecosystem. I have been predominantly on Xbox for years. I've been subbed to GPU since probably early 2018. I did the 36 month 1:1 conversion trick twice in that time span. The last time was right before they sunsetted it. I'm locked in until April 2026. After that I'll probably be out and just get Core for online functionality. I'm not paying $240/year.
From this point on any game that is third party I will now buy on PS5. Then factor in PS5 and Switch's first party games. The only thing for me on Xbox anymore is my catalog of purchased games and any first party titles in the future. Titles that I will buy outright if I really want to play them (possibly by waiting and getting them once they come to PS5).
COD is/was the "hail mary" to try to save what is an otherwise unsustainable business model. Without it I don't think they could justify a price increase.
Personally I don't think it will work. I think it will drive more ppl away than bring ppl in. I honestly can't recall a bigger masterclass of shooting ones self in the foot than what Xbox has done and continues to do. It's fucking wild.
That's what I'm saying. Why can't there be a tier just for people who mainly play on console? Just give me a tier with online play and day one games, that's it. Don't need EA Access, Cloud Gaming, PC GP and all the extra perks from GPU. Instead Microsoft wants me to pay $3 more than a PC user for no perks, no EA Access and no day one games, $10 for just online play or $20 for everything. Like c'mon man.
Exactly. A standard console generation is what? 6-7 years? 7 years of Gamepass at $240 a year and a $500 console is $2180. Might as well upgrade or build a pc at that point.
Edit - I didn’t realize the amount of people who enjoy throwing money away on subscription services. No wonder they keep raising the prices, so many people are lining up to bend over.
Which makes it all the more baffling.
I love my Xbox, but my identity is not wrapped up in a piece of plastic that I have fun on lmao.
The world's most valuable company didn't need to raise the Core price by $15 a year, for example. There's really no need to charge for online matchmaking at all. Every computer in every business or university on the planet uses Microsoft Office. Not sure why gamers are being asked to cover the acquisition cost of Activision Blizzard.
All the usual criticism for price increases applies here but what stands out is yet another shot at Xbox console owners.
It's almost as if they want to kill the platform.
Not surprising really, but will it get another increase at some point? I really don't think Gamepass is the system seller everyone says it is
Edit - Wait am I reading this correctly? No day one games unless you have Ultimate? Jesus, idk how they are going to spin that one, they were so happy to shout "Games Day 1 one Gamepass" from the roofs
Also, Xbox please stop making everything confusing
I'm actually surprised they're enacting it before BO6 launches. When, you know, they get all those players hooked on gamepass with the day one thing. Then maybe announce this after Christmas exactly on new years after people have multiple games in their backlog and are enjoying them.
I guess they're *that* unconfident BO6 won't give a decent boost in subscriptions?
Remember when those of us who said MS would either increase the price of gamepass, or not include COD as a day one release on the standard tier were downvoted and told neither would happen?
And now they both did 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah I’m out. We all saw the Game Pass price increase coming, but increasing the price of Game Pass Core to $75, which I only have to play online with Xbox Live, really pisses me off. Been seriously considering dropping console altogether and building a gaming PC for a while now and this convinced me. Having to pay a subscription just to play online multiplayer in this day and age is ridiculous
>From September 12, 2024, Microsoft will only allow users to stack Xbox Game Pass for Console users for up to 13 months, using pre-paid cards and the like, which will continue to function. If you have more than 13 months stacked already, you won't be impacted.
This is a massive bummer, I've always been able to reup to three months through various competitions/promos/rewards/deals. It now means that those become essentially worthless.
This was always going to happen. When the subscriber base fails to grow and meet expectations, the next step is to extract more money from the current base to make up the difference. Thing is, this price increase is likely just a taste. The true price where it needs to be to make up for the disparity between reality and expectations on subscriber count is probably much higher. But they won't do that all at once, else face the wrath from their current subscribers. Slowly boil the frog.
Price increases will always happen over time. Extracting more money from your current lot is a timed honoured thing, but for them to price increase and cut back on features for the standard tier? Yeah, that's because the subscriber base is no longer growing. They wanna push people from standard to move onto Ultimate and make more from the Ultimate subscribers.
How the hell can anyone sit here and be "OK" with a price hike like this? Absolutely insane. Not to mention if you want cloud gaming you have to have the $20 one. . .This is absolutely BS and there is no reason for it. . .Allways got to try and squeeze out a little more huh? I've had a sub since day 1 of the gold days. With how the economy is right now I actually will probably just unsubscribe entirely. Considering a lot of the games are just fluff games as well. .This sucks. What was once a fair product for a fair price is being milked now that they got the monopoly. .Most of us probably got multiple subs to other things as well. I know it might not be a big deal to some but to me it is. Just why?
Here in NZ the increase is 31.89% - The value is no longer there.
I cancelled last year after redfall, just felt like we were being made fun of. I signed up for a month to check out starfield and something else I can't remember, got bored after a couple weeks and gave up, cancelled and done. I may buy xbox games now and then in future but GP was a good time while it lasted no longer for me...
Meh. A new tier for COD would be better tbh, or like someone here said, allow to customize sub and pay accordingly.
Brazil Xbox players got fucked big time btw. They limited how much we can get from stacking to 13 months. This sucks ass.
we all knew this would happen, but the fact that they did all this before they could manage to finally start rolling out a steady stream of AAA content to justify it, is hilarious.
when they acquired both bethesda and then activision, I knew a price increase was coming and I said 20 dollars is my max.
If they ever increase it more, I’m out.
"PC Game Pass is also getting a price increase, from $9.99 per month to $11.99."
"PC Game Pass will also continue to get day one games."
Game Pass was almost the only thing that dragged players to Xbox. But now, even Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation. So, why even own Xbox anymore? For exclusives? They're coming to PC and PS. For GamePass? Nah it's not worth paying that price just to not even play most of the games offered. Just get a PlayStation for it's exlusives or a PC and stop being treated as a 2nd class citizen. It'll be much better at this point.
I don't know if Gamepass was a mistake, but letting a bunch of idiots run key franchises into the dirt for years, buying studios that do not have games even in the prototype stage and taking on their costs, and spending 70 billion on call of duty while trying to make Gamepass profitable was definitely a series of mistakes
This is getting annoyingly convoluted. Amongst all the other annoying subscription increases by companies that profit in the billions every year, I'm probably just going to cancel Ultimate altogether and go back to standard gold.
Here they go now botching their products again.
Literally the whole point of gamepass is to have games on release day 1.
This price increase is too much imo.
This is actually the issue with subscriptions it’s never going to get cheaper so you’ll always be paying more and more for the same service each year.
It’s better to buy physical or buy the game outright if you can. Most of the stuff on gamepass can be bought for quite cheap anyway.
This is the nail in the coffin for me. You have to at least give kudos to PlayStation. Their subscription service is easy to understand AND you can subscribe for 12 months at a time to save money ON ALL TIERS.
So my Game Pass Ultimate ends tomorrow - I have two years of Xbox Gold purchased.
I am assuming the conversion rate will be slightly less favorable (not 3:2 but something lower) but it still will be the cheapest way forward? Also seems like only worth getting two years of Xbox Gold now since they are capping it at 13 months?
* Soon, Xbox Game Pass for console will be shuttered for new users only. Those already using Game Pass console with existing subscriptions will not be required to cancel. * Users currently on Xbox Game Pass for console will be allowed to maintain their subscription, as well as day one games. * New users on Xbox Game Pass in the near future will be greeted by a new Xbox Game Pass "Standard." This is more like EA Access, which includes Xbox's back catalogue, and doesn't include day one games. This will be priced at $14.99 per month, and will also include Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer (now known as Game Pass Core, confusingly). It doesn't include Xbox Cloud gaming. Game Pass Standard is launching in September. * Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will not be changed, but it will get a price increase. It will still include PC Game Pass, day one games, and hundreds of back catalogue titles, as well as cloud gaming. But, it is getting a price increase. The new price will be $19.99 per month. * PC Game Pass is also getting a price increase, from $9.99 per month to $11.99. * Xbox Game Pass Core (Xbox Live Gold multiplayer) gets an annual price increase to $74.99 from $59.99, but it will remain $9.99 per month.
It's terrible naming scheme imo. Now the STANDARD Gamepass tier doesn't have the most important feature of Gamepass, which was all first party games day 1.
Xbox just can’t come up with good names for shit
Microsoft in general, tbh.
RIP, Office Communicator.
Clippy was one of the few “inventive” names
Clippy is so legendary - would've been successful if that was the character for their voice assistant instead of Cortana, and could now have been powered by CoPilot/GPT. I'm not a fan of these changes. There should be two tiers overall - Standard and Ultimate. Get rid of Core and PC. * Standard should include PC and Xbox Game Pass. * Ultimate adds Cloud Gaming and EA Play. * Day one releases should be included in both - that's literally been part of the game's trailer if it's launched on Game Pass. * Ultimate needs to be the same price - these subscribers aren't getting any new benefits! I get they're going for your typical marketing ladder here. But I'd love to see their take rates on their current tiers.
To be fair, Windows has recently been more streamlined than whatever MacOs names their stuff - oh and don’t forget Sony’s headphones / earphones / phones in general. But yeah, xbox naming sucks big time (like why name an xbox one x/s and later release an xbox series x/s, people not paying attention could be easily buttfucked) and gamepass was also confusing af, core? gold? ultimate? there isn’t one common denominator among those names.
Xbox 360 and Xbox Live was just simpler better times. Their naming schemes now just feel so corporate. No personality anymore.
>Xbox just can’t come up with good names for shit I am inclined to agree. However... ...what *would* you call a tier with a big vault+multiplayer, a tier with a small vault + multiplayer, and a tier with everything? Right now it is Standard/Core/Ultimate. Any suggestions?
Bronze Silver Gold. Wait nvm, those were the old ones for Xbox Live before it was cut down to just Gold. EDIT: I swear on my nan's grave that Bronze existed.
That makes too much sense
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Idk. I've always got ultimate but I don't use computer. Maybe I should switch to game pass for console. Lol.
Cause they don't want it to be a standard feature. It bleed sales.
Day 1 game purchases have taken a huge hit on Gamepass titles, so TBH they had to do something to fix it.
Yep, and like every service, the "something" was baiting people in with something good, then making it worse. This fed things like cutting heavily into physical game sales and generally getting people into the ha it of permanently renting their content. Now, the long-expected rug pull has come. I got Game Pass while fully expecting this, and I'll be dropping it.
Gamepass lite. They really need to fix this as they must know parents of kids aren't gonna understand anything and just get fed up of hundreds of dollars of subscriptions.... This is coming to an end even for me honestly...
So PC Gamepass still gets day one releases and still has EA Play, making it a way better deal and $3 cheaper than Gamepass Standard. Why buy an Xbox if you need to pay for multiplayer and still be worse off than the PC counterpart.
>why buy an Xbox This has been my reaction to practically every decision Microsoft has made over the past like 6 months
6 months....or 6 years? All blending together with the poor decisions they've been making since 2017.
This was my thought back in like 2019
MS is doing their best to kill the Xbox sales and eventually the GP sales. They have the competency of a 5 years old. All their recent decisions educate users to sell their consoles because they are treated better (even by MS) on every other platform.
Every decision they make seems geared towards moving people from console to PC. Maybe those NextBox rumors are true and next gen is a Microsoft version of the Steam Machine
PC was already better. Nothing is really changing here.
Obviously, but now they’re making the Xbox even more absolute
I think you mean obsolete, not absolute.
The old price for Core (XBL Gold) is $59.99, not $55.99.
Jez must have made another typo, i updated it! Thank u
Yeah I think this is enough for me to just buy games. Half the games I play on GamePass end up going on sale anyways, and Xbox doesn’t have enough first party exclusives to justify “day on GamePass” for me.
So wait, if someone has console now, will they get grandfathered into the day 1 games and get access to Gold/Multiplayer or will they have to manually switch over to the new subscription to get multiplayer as part of console and sacrifice their grandfathered day 1 games?
240 a year is something. Hopefully they actually get consistent output from their heavy hitters studios and IPs
Shit I could buy like 5 - 10 good games a year with that money. Does Xbox even make 5 - 10 good games a year? Not really.
If you buy physical versions of games which go on fire sales quite often $240 can get you like 15-20 games. I just got resident evil 4 for $10 by waiting. Gamepass is not worth it to me anymore. Now if you need to play day 1 games I guess you can justify it but like you said, how many quality day 1 games does Microsoft even put out in a year?
They probably could if they didn't keep giving their ips to the wrong studios or closing studio with potential
Soo... they could if it was a totally different company essentially.
Even with a steady output I probably am done. Betting MS will see more of that as Game Pass growth has slowed a good bit and will likely change course in the not-so-distant future. It seems like a great deal. And hell, it really is. But the issue is time. Unless you have no real responsibility, family, friends, etc. it can be near impossible to get enough time. This is a common thing I have heard a lot in the last few months. People saying they just do not have time to get the value. They realize that they could get all the games they want to own and play for the cost. Because you can play those again whenever without continuing to pay. Many are on sales. It really is something that I find has lead me personally to realize I will cancel if my time runs out. The yearly cost will buy so much. Between sales on digital, physical games, etc. And by the time I can play most stuff sale prices are not bad at all. Another thing for me is online gaming. There was value at one time in Live. That could be factored in. But honestly, I can play on PC and do a lot. Played a lot of cross platform games with family and friends on PC in the last year. PC online has never been something I pay for. Never was huge on subs and renting content either. My new strategy is to play what is on Game Pass now since I have a sub if I have time. I have so many games to play that I own. And by the time I get to whatever it is the game will be cheap. Way too much to play to consider keeping Game Pass and having to keep paying if I want to play. Or still buy them anyway. And I rarely feel the need that I need to play day one at this point. The honest biggest value Game Pass has had for me is made me realize I spent too much. I would buy so many games day one. Never enough time to play them. They would be half that price, often less, before I got to playing them. So now I spend so much less and still get to play the games.
Time is actually what's making me consider cancelling. Most competitive games are f2p, I'm already so behind on single player games. I can likely save money by just waiting for sales.
I'm just going to switch to PC. I already play a lot of games on PC as it is.
I'm a patient gamer with a huge backlog of purchased games on multiple platforms, and at $240 / year, I could buy a hell of a lot of games to *own* on sale at 5-10 bucks apiece from those I might play on Gamepass. And for that reason, I'm out.
I'm a casual gamer who only goes through a handful of games a year. For £240, I could buy all the games I actually play and have plenty left over. This may be ok for people who spend hours and hours playing all the new games, but for casual players, this is too much.
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*waits to see if the MS points auto redeem amount changes...*
I’m wondering if that will go up too. I have like 110,000 Microsoft points. I think I’m going to cash out and get 9 more months of game pass before that increases too.
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Yes. I got a price increase email today, even though I’m good for a while and don’t pay monthly. I don’t even use it.
"This price change allows us to continue to bring you more value and great games for the very best gaming experience." Why is a price increase necessary for them to give me the same thing with no additional value added? (rhetorical) I think what they meant to say is that this change allows them to give you the same service at a higher price so that they can keep their numbers up for the next QR and continue on this road of unsustainable growth.
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They just need to buy one more publisher...
Take Two......
Bingo
#Holup **From September 12, 2024, Microsoft will only allow users to stack Xbox Game Pass for Console users for up to 13 months, using pre-paid cards and the like, which will continue to function. If you have more than 13 months stacked already, you won't be impacted.** Am I reading this correctly? So you can’t renew + stack 2 yr(s) codes anymore? The conversion rate is going down again?
> Am I reading this correctly? So you can’t renew + stack 2 yr(s) codes anymore? The conversion rate is going down again? Yes, but they seem to indicate it's only for Game Pass for Console.
They have a support page up now https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/subscriptions-billing/manage-subscriptions/game-pass-updates-july-2024 That confirms that the 13 month stacking limit is only for Game Pass for Console which is going away. (Confirmed because it's only mentioned explicitly under the changes for that tier)
This statement is only specifying Console Game Pass, though, which is basically being discontinued. I think it’s still to be seen how the GPU conversion will be affected
Xbox Console Users kinda getting shafted here, there should be a PC GamePass equivalent tier for console. Would much rather have the Standard tier include Gold + Day One games but no EA Access, Cloud Gaming or PC GamePass, I barely use those aspects in GPU anyway. Now it's either all or nothing if you want day one games.
PC players dont even have to pay for online and yet the fact that microsoft charges them less than they charge console users for GP is insulting.
It's the story of the generation man. I swear sometimes it just feels like Xbox Console Users are treated like second class citizens by Microsoft. In this instance, they literally want us to pay $3 more than a PC User for much less.
MS tried making PC players pay for online via Games for Windows Live, but PC gamers protested it. That's why we still have free online on PC till today.
Jesus imagine having to use Games for Windows Live AND having to pay for online play 🤮
It makes no sense. PC gamepass will be cheaper than Gamepass Standard, still have day one games, and it has EA Play included. It's like theyre trying to push people to PC.
Hint: They are. They don't have to subsidize a $500 box if they get us all on PC where we have to buy our own hardware.
but microsoft hardly benefits directly if you buy a PC. microsoft doesnt make gaming PCs. third party OEMs do, and the vast bulk of your spent money goes to them for the hardware. microsoft might profit from selling a windows 11 license to the OEMs for each PC built with it, but windows 11 keys dont cost much. certainly not as much as having your own ecosystem with 70 dollar games and a store that sells dlc and mtx. maybe if all PC gamers used the microsoft store on PC, then sure microsoft would benefit immensely from pushing people over. cuz then they'd get a cut of all transactions. but the vast majority of PC gamers use steam and epic. so microsoft doesnt benefit from the software side of things either, unless you buy one of their own titles from steam. at which point they only keep 70 percent of the transaction as opposed to 100 percent on their own store. idk what their gameplan is here. maybe shoving more ads into windows 11 to profit that way? if they started making xbox-branded gaming PCs or had market dominance when it comes to PC game distribution then that would be a different story.
Exactly, a lot of people just don't take the store into consideration for some reason. The real money in gaming has always been in being a platform holder since you get a cut of every game sale. This is why so many companies tried their hand at being a console maker in the 80s/90s and on PC why there are so many different storefronts. Microsoft trying to push people to PC doesn't actually make any logical sense.
Why would PC players ever pay for online? They aren't locked into a silly gated garden like people are on consoles. If a service started charging for online, it die quickly lol
> there should be a PC GamePass equivalent tier for console. No, you get to pay 25% more and lose Day One access.
Xbox console users have been getting the shaft since 2013 in some way or form. I just assumed we liked it at this point.
It’s honestly insulting. I have a decent gaming PC with Xbox Game Pass and an SXS that my wife uses. Feels like Microsoft is just trying to push people away from Xbox onto PC
these mf can't get the naming scheme for anything right.
time to stack 3 years / horde codes before theyre totally gone from retailers and cdkeys ect
Just did - currently cheap on CDKeys
They probably will nerf the conversion rate even further lmao.
This is the thing that makes me the most pissed. I often top up my 3 years every Black Friday. This change is infuriating & I may just stop subbing at some point when my years run out. This feels like an even greater squeeze on consumers. Edit: It’s unclear if the 13 month stack limit is just for GamePass Standard to prevent large conversions or if it applies to all levels. I’ve seen differing reporting.
How long do the codes last, without using them, before they expire? My sub ends in november next year, so I can't stack until then...
PC Game Pass gets day 1 games. Xbox Game Pass standard does not. We continue to be second class citizens on our own console.
It's insane how much they are chasing a PC community that, quite frankly, cannot be bothered to care. I'm a console gamer, so I really don't understand a lot of small weird things about PC gaming in general. But like, it's shocking how many PC gamers aren't even willing to switch launchers for a majority of games. Like, you could buy every game via the Microsoft/Xbox Store and get most of those titles also on your Xbox (via Play Anywhere program). But the Microsoft launcher sucks so people can't be bothered! Steam so utterly and completely dominates the PC market that even games like Fortnite (or piles of free games that Epic gives out) can't get people to use the Epic Games Launcher consistently lmaooo
Steam is the only one that's genuinely good software. Epic is decent The Microsoft Store and Game Pass programs are terrible and integrated into Windows horribly. Windows treats any downloads through those services as OS updates and caps your download speeds, and many users find that the workarounds people use for genuine Windows updates don't fix video game installs through the store or Game Pass. In the case of Microsoft's own programs, Microsoft is just incompetent
The speeds I get in the store/Xbox app is on par with Steam for me. Most people who have issues with those tended to run those “de-MS my windows” random powershell scripts that tear out services those rely on and cause them to fail or run terribly I’ve found. I still hit some issues but running stock and turning off some settings for privacy using normal UI seems to be much better in terms of not fucking your windows store/xbox app up.
I think they expect to make the most money from console off game pass. My understanding is that there aren’t a lot of PC players on PC game pass, so any change they might make won’t really increase their profits and too much change will just have people dropping it. Having two different tiers on Xbox means that they want people to pay more for the standard service but think they’re getting a premium service. It’s artificially inflating the value of game pass
I love game pass, but I also buy a good number of the games that I play. At some point the math doesn't work out compared to how much I can actually* play. If it wasn't for paid online play, I would almost certainly be out. This isn't a knock on game pass, only a look that situationally it can price itself out of being the no-braniner that is has been for many to date. Now toss in a WoW sub and some stuff like that, and I'll pay for an even higher tier. Again, it comes down to value and what one person can realistically play.
I cancelled it because I just didn't use it enough. The day one games are good but there haven't really been any worth the price of admission since Starfield which I bought anyway.
Honestly, I’d rather buy first party games than pay forever to rent them. I never had an issue buying games, Microsoft had issues producing them.
Exactly. That's why they did away with gold. People like us would drop to it and never touch Gamepass again.
I only sub to GamePassUltimate if the month line-up will get a game I’ve been wanting to play or a Day1, otherwise I just stick to core for online. Feel like that’s the most economic system.
Yeah, that math is mostly why I’ve stuck with Core - I just don’t play enough from the catalogue every year to justify the extra cost
I see most of you are fine with price increases, but I’m not. Starting to get sick of subscriptions. And it’ll go up again soon. It’s a disgrace considering we’re living in a cost of living crisis and inflation keeps going up.
It’d be one thing if MS was knocking first party releases out of the park, but that’s not the case right now
Even then, it will be just like preordering games, which is, giving money BLINDLY before knowing if a game will be really good on release. First-party is not always a promise of quality, and nit every game will be in your genre. When did we decided it was ok as a consumer? Would you pay your fridge in advance and pay monthly for the upcoming oven…? Microsoft just succeeded at what they do best…turning their practices into false good ideas into the head of their consumers…
The entire Xbox games library has been in dire straits since the tail end of the 360 era. There's been no system sellers since Halo 3. Genuinely great first party titles have been few and far between since then
Imo they’re not even adding interesting third party games at this point
Yeah it’s not worth it. People are doing the math like “$240 that’s 3 $70 games, great deal!”. But realistically I’m still buying a ton of games even with my gamepass. I really only get a handful of free ones that make it worth it now
Same. I've mostly become a part of /r/patientgamers for SP games and for movie/tv media I self-host everything. Saves a lot of money and I really don't miss much of anything.
To no surprise at all.. people should've been expecting this the moment COD got announced day one on gamepass
I think the surprise is that it’s coming before CoD drops on GamePass. I would have expected it afterwards. Looking at the price difference between $20/month and $70 one time purchase for CoD doesn’t have the same impact as $15/mo. Bad business move by MS to increase the price this early. Also if the “standard” plan doesn’t include CoD day 1 it’d be stupid enough to qualify as self-sabotage.
They have this so picked apart, I'd assume they focus tested both scenarios and users found the price increase before the big guns more palatable than after. Perhaps it hitting before a big influx of new users means they (new users) won't feel as impacted by the price increase as they would if it happened after they came on board. "See no evil"
I only play 3 or 4 new games a year and I'd rather just buy them anyway. Even when I had gamepads I barely played any games on there because I owned 75% of GP games.
Wait do I now have to pay 75 dollars a year just to play online?
Yes for the annual billing. The monthly billing remains 9.99
You know who to thanks…the company that bring online fees to consoles…and all those people that defended it…like it would never go wrong…
Im just going to say it, but the whole "games that are day one on ultimate may be added later on to standard" language is concerning. I think this means the xbox big three (forza/halo/gears) will not be made available on standard and Bethesda/Activision games will also skip that tier. I am also a bit concerned about day one third party games. If you are fracturing the userbase this badly, the incentive of putting your game on the service day one is kinda lost as less people will have easy access to the games... and this concerns me specifically for more niche genres on xbox like jrpgs. I just dont see many jrpgs signing up to do day one drops if the ultimate userbase isnt big enough to justify the xbox port/losing out on sales through traditional means... idk, this isnt shaping up to be a good move for xbox. They should of just gone the ps plus route of three tiers where they easily define what each one offers, and can guarantee what day one drops will be going where etc.
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Microsoft could never get away with charging PC players to play online they already tried that once, and it backfired spectacularly. I've recently switched to PC, and there is no looking back. I own a lot of games on Xbox, but staying there because of that is a sunken cost fallacy at this point.
I hate so much what Microsoft did bring to console gaming… I gamed online fir 2 gens before they added that….and more subs was just the logical follow-up from Microsoft…
Well they passed the cost of CoD down to everyone and I won't pay for it anymore. I'll just buy the games I want or resort to other means - as many others will, too
Been a member of Xbox live and each iteration since 2007. Will no longer be subscribed after my subscription ends. I’ll save more buying the games I want to play instead of paying a potential $270 to not even touch most games offered. What a shame.
yep, same. Game Pass was a "nice to have" not a "need to have" for me. I was never "saving" $70 on games like Starfield or Forza because, quite frankly, I likely wasn't stoked enough on them to buy them in the first place. The same way that I treated cool new shows on Netflix before I canceled that too. Every time they increased prices, it became more of a value question. Since Ultimate went from $15 to $20 (and likely will go higher), that's essentially another $60 a year... a brand new game purchase.
Microsoft is still thanking you for your participation.
So that will be $240 a year for ultimate. That's roughly 4 new releases at 59.99. I barely play any of the games on the service now. There really aren't any day one releases that I am excited over. The three franchises that I love are Earth Defense Force, Dragon Quest, and Ys. None of those are coming to gamespass. I'm thinking it's time to cancel.
🤷🏾♂️just bought a steam deck.
$14.99 for standard is absolutely wild and only there to try and upsell people to ultimate/soften the blow when ultimate gets another price hike down the road.
Gamepass without day one games seems kinda ass tbh
“Coming day 1 on game pass!! Uhhhh. We mean… Gamepass standard!! Wait that’s not right. Coming day 1 only to game pass ultimate!”
They basically just said if you want to keep paying near the same amount for Game Pass we will take away THE feature that makes it worth it and you can.
I'll just stick to Game Pass Core and buy whatever new games I want
it's insane that they cranked up the yearly price on Core, too. $15 extra a year just to have online services. Make it make sense to me.
It feels like Xbox has a vendetta against their own console base at this point. We’re second class citizens. If I want all of the features of Gamepass just on console I have to pay extra for Ultimate, which includes a bunch of shit I don’t need since I don’t have a PC. If I want all of the features of Gamepass on PC I just buy PC Gamepass, which is almost half of the price of Ultimate. Why the fuck do I have an Xbox?
I play on both systems but you are absolutely correct. I assume one reason for this is the massive strength of Steam which would render the Windows store useless if it wouldnt come with all the features. Imo this could have been a chance to get behind consoles again and push hardware sales by limiting Day 1 releases to Xbox only. But no console users get shafted.
I think they’re ready to pull out of the console hardware business at this point, and just want to be a publisher who also has a cloud streaming app. Sell one more console generation to make money back on the R&D they’ve already been doing, and then call it quits. I feel sorry for the hardware team who knocked it out of the park with the Series X, only to have to watch it be let down in every other area for the past 4 years
No one uses pc gamepass.
Even beyond that, is there any indication that PC Game Pass has been successful at all? It seems extremely shortsighted to push all your console users to PC when that more likely than not means pushing them to Steam instead of the Xbox store and Game Pass.
Kind of sucks how we're getting squeezed EVERYWHERE. The price of everything is nuts. $10.mo was a stretch as it was, I'm out boys.
Does anyone know about UK price increase?
£14.99 - so an increase of £2 a month Thank god for the strong pound I guess? Though I guess it only partially makes up for us being screwed on game and hardware pricing.
So ppl fought back against price increase last year.. The marketing team was like, "Just change the name of Xbox live and try again in 1 year." I feel like Xbox Live, being 59.99, is what was drawing ppl towards Xbox. Like counter culture. Now all loop holes patched and price increased to near sony
That’s fine but I expect the activation library now
They're going to dripfeed it horrendously, aren't they...
100%. It should've happened by now
They'll give you a 10 year old game and advertise it like it's a big deal when they don't have any new games coming out. The upcoming year with xbox first party games is huge, but with games taking 5/7 years to produce, the next 5/7 years are going to be like the previous years, fuck all for half the generation like how the series started out.
As a non-weeb, I get pissed every time I see they added another 2D pixel art anime game.
Agreed, at this price range they should have the entire back catalog of already released games available on Gamepass, and they should also include games from OG Xbox, and the 360. I don't care if they shutdown the backwards compatability team, at this price, and how much they paid, they should make that content available.
I expected that 3+ months ago. Now they're increasing the price again there is no damn excuse.
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It's crazy because they are fumbling their last big chance to get a major Game Pass push. Finally getting one of the biggest games, on the entire planet, under your corporation. Want COD users to switch from PlayStation? Or, god forbid, love the rest of the Xbox library enough to play a bunch of your other games? Make it exciting and cheap to get them hooked! Instead, they just cranked up the prices on everybody and will likely lose total active subs over this. Long-time subs had to wait through a bunch of lean months and were waiting for it all to finally pay off.
Seeing a great thing like Gamepass go down the drain bc you know this is just the beginning of these type of “changes”
This is all just fucking stupid and a huge waste of money at this point. I'm over these dumbass subscriptions and extra requirements just to play online from time to time.
This is just be beginning, the next increase is just around the corner.
Give Sony whatever shit you want, at least they don't treat their own user base as 2nd class citizens. It is pathetic that the PC Gamepass is so much cheaper and more value than the actual Xbox Gamepass. Literally a slap on the face of people who have supported the console from day 1. Kinda done with this and will just build a PC next gen.
I don't think Xbox community has enough resilience to stomach more bad news. I guess they are pushing everyone to PC in the long run.
The beatings will continue until morale improves!
The Netflix of gaming has followed the same arc as Netflix, it was fun while it lasted
Game pass is seriously not what it used to be. It’s a bloated mess and while you can argue the value of it is good, it’s overwhelming and they only put mid games on it anyway. Now they double down on aggressive monetisation. Will people still spout its a good deal when this all kicks in?
Paying for Xbox Live is what eventually has pushed me more into PC gaming. It's ridiculous to be charged for such a basic, and almost necessary, requirement these days. Especially so because I can play all basically any multiplayer Xbox game on PC without having to pay the extra fee. I'd be more willing to pay for something like the basic Game Pass tier if I didn't also have to pay extra for the multiplayer functionality.
It was ridiculous on day one to pay for such a basic feature as "playing online"…but somehow, marketers/psychologists succeed in letting this idea enter into kid's minds of those first years of a console world with Microsoft in it…
This comes down to if you think the 240 a year is worth it. If personally rather wait for a complete edition of a game that goes on sell for 20 bucks. All the bugs and glitches are cleaned up and all the extra contbent is added. I just don't play enough of the service and end up buying things not on it like Dark souls Trilogy and Elden Ring No more for me
Can’t wait for next year when the lowest tier gets ads included
Can't wait to buy a PC
Yeah, they'll slowly price their customers out of their services, and overall they'll lose subscribers, revenue, gamepass and xbox attractivity for players, and then partnerships attractivity for developers, but for a brief moment in time, number will go up a bit. And all will be well. I've got about 14 months left in my 3 year sub, and when that one expires, it'll be a sad day but they'll get the same treatment as all the other subscription services over the year. Instead of being subbed all year round a be a stable revenue source, i'll pop in a month evrry now and then, because ONE game will be interesting. And just like the other platforms, it'll happen once, maybe twice, and then never again because i'll realise that i don't actually *need* it. --- I'm salty but also struggling the understand what the long term game is for them. Most of us want multiple good games, not COD and Diablo 4,and then no more budget for the rest. It's absurd.
Core is going up from $59.99 to 74.99 that's Messed up what are they thinking are they trying to get members to move over to Playstation or Nintendo? With prices like this people will go to ps.
Super, super confusing naming method and tier structure
That's the Microsoft way
The good old “less for more” strategy
Microsoft just killed Gamepass for me and is actively pushing me away from their ecosystem. I have been predominantly on Xbox for years. I've been subbed to GPU since probably early 2018. I did the 36 month 1:1 conversion trick twice in that time span. The last time was right before they sunsetted it. I'm locked in until April 2026. After that I'll probably be out and just get Core for online functionality. I'm not paying $240/year. From this point on any game that is third party I will now buy on PS5. Then factor in PS5 and Switch's first party games. The only thing for me on Xbox anymore is my catalog of purchased games and any first party titles in the future. Titles that I will buy outright if I really want to play them (possibly by waiting and getting them once they come to PS5). COD is/was the "hail mary" to try to save what is an otherwise unsustainable business model. Without it I don't think they could justify a price increase. Personally I don't think it will work. I think it will drive more ppl away than bring ppl in. I honestly can't recall a bigger masterclass of shooting ones self in the foot than what Xbox has done and continues to do. It's fucking wild.
Best to have a PC now.
That's what I'm saying. Why can't there be a tier just for people who mainly play on console? Just give me a tier with online play and day one games, that's it. Don't need EA Access, Cloud Gaming, PC GP and all the extra perks from GPU. Instead Microsoft wants me to pay $3 more than a PC user for no perks, no EA Access and no day one games, $10 for just online play or $20 for everything. Like c'mon man.
It's too simple!!
Exactly. A standard console generation is what? 6-7 years? 7 years of Gamepass at $240 a year and a $500 console is $2180. Might as well upgrade or build a pc at that point. Edit - I didn’t realize the amount of people who enjoy throwing money away on subscription services. No wonder they keep raising the prices, so many people are lining up to bend over.
It's not that they love subs, it's that they love being brand fanatics and pretending the world's most valuable megacorp is a bullied underdog.
Which makes it all the more baffling. I love my Xbox, but my identity is not wrapped up in a piece of plastic that I have fun on lmao. The world's most valuable company didn't need to raise the Core price by $15 a year, for example. There's really no need to charge for online matchmaking at all. Every computer in every business or university on the planet uses Microsoft Office. Not sure why gamers are being asked to cover the acquisition cost of Activision Blizzard.
All the usual criticism for price increases applies here but what stands out is yet another shot at Xbox console owners. It's almost as if they want to kill the platform.
Game Pass is done, $20 bucks a month is more than most games in a good sale.
This is so confusing, so if I want Day One, Back Catalogue and MP I'm forced into Ultimate even though I never play games on my PC?
You already were, weren't you? If you want multiplayer and gamepass, you're already getting ultimate, even before the change
Not surprising really, but will it get another increase at some point? I really don't think Gamepass is the system seller everyone says it is Edit - Wait am I reading this correctly? No day one games unless you have Ultimate? Jesus, idk how they are going to spin that one, they were so happy to shout "Games Day 1 one Gamepass" from the roofs Also, Xbox please stop making everything confusing
Sometimes I feel like they are trying sooo hard to kill their own brand.
Wow. Losing day one games is fucking greedy.
I'm actually surprised they're enacting it before BO6 launches. When, you know, they get all those players hooked on gamepass with the day one thing. Then maybe announce this after Christmas exactly on new years after people have multiple games in their backlog and are enjoying them. I guess they're *that* unconfident BO6 won't give a decent boost in subscriptions?
$23 Canadian for ultimate 😂
Remember when those of us who said MS would either increase the price of gamepass, or not include COD as a day one release on the standard tier were downvoted and told neither would happen? And now they both did 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Instead they did both lol
Yeah I’m out. We all saw the Game Pass price increase coming, but increasing the price of Game Pass Core to $75, which I only have to play online with Xbox Live, really pisses me off. Been seriously considering dropping console altogether and building a gaming PC for a while now and this convinced me. Having to pay a subscription just to play online multiplayer in this day and age is ridiculous
>From September 12, 2024, Microsoft will only allow users to stack Xbox Game Pass for Console users for up to 13 months, using pre-paid cards and the like, which will continue to function. If you have more than 13 months stacked already, you won't be impacted. This is a massive bummer, I've always been able to reup to three months through various competitions/promos/rewards/deals. It now means that those become essentially worthless.
I'm subbed to GPU until March 2025. Is there a way for me to stack onto my current sub?
Yes, but it’s at a rate of conversion so shitty that it’s barely worth it
Shouldn’t Game Pass be cheaper for console? I mean you pay for a console? PC users get significant discount.
This was always going to happen. When the subscriber base fails to grow and meet expectations, the next step is to extract more money from the current base to make up the difference. Thing is, this price increase is likely just a taste. The true price where it needs to be to make up for the disparity between reality and expectations on subscriber count is probably much higher. But they won't do that all at once, else face the wrath from their current subscribers. Slowly boil the frog. Price increases will always happen over time. Extracting more money from your current lot is a timed honoured thing, but for them to price increase and cut back on features for the standard tier? Yeah, that's because the subscriber base is no longer growing. They wanna push people from standard to move onto Ultimate and make more from the Ultimate subscribers.
How the hell can anyone sit here and be "OK" with a price hike like this? Absolutely insane. Not to mention if you want cloud gaming you have to have the $20 one. . .This is absolutely BS and there is no reason for it. . .Allways got to try and squeeze out a little more huh? I've had a sub since day 1 of the gold days. With how the economy is right now I actually will probably just unsubscribe entirely. Considering a lot of the games are just fluff games as well. .This sucks. What was once a fair product for a fair price is being milked now that they got the monopoly. .Most of us probably got multiple subs to other things as well. I know it might not be a big deal to some but to me it is. Just why?
Here in NZ the increase is 31.89% - The value is no longer there. I cancelled last year after redfall, just felt like we were being made fun of. I signed up for a month to check out starfield and something else I can't remember, got bored after a couple weeks and gave up, cancelled and done. I may buy xbox games now and then in future but GP was a good time while it lasted no longer for me...
Meh. A new tier for COD would be better tbh, or like someone here said, allow to customize sub and pay accordingly. Brazil Xbox players got fucked big time btw. They limited how much we can get from stacking to 13 months. This sucks ass.
what a mess
we all knew this would happen, but the fact that they did all this before they could manage to finally start rolling out a steady stream of AAA content to justify it, is hilarious.
when they acquired both bethesda and then activision, I knew a price increase was coming and I said 20 dollars is my max. If they ever increase it more, I’m out.
"PC Game Pass is also getting a price increase, from $9.99 per month to $11.99." "PC Game Pass will also continue to get day one games." Game Pass was almost the only thing that dragged players to Xbox. But now, even Xbox exclusives are coming to PlayStation. So, why even own Xbox anymore? For exclusives? They're coming to PC and PS. For GamePass? Nah it's not worth paying that price just to not even play most of the games offered. Just get a PlayStation for it's exlusives or a PC and stop being treated as a 2nd class citizen. It'll be much better at this point.
I knew this was coming all the way. I said it and i say it again. Gamepass was a mistake.
I don't know if Gamepass was a mistake, but letting a bunch of idiots run key franchises into the dirt for years, buying studios that do not have games even in the prototype stage and taking on their costs, and spending 70 billion on call of duty while trying to make Gamepass profitable was definitely a series of mistakes
Wait, PC have day one games for 12$ and console gamer must pay 20$ for day one? Really MS? FO
This is getting annoyingly convoluted. Amongst all the other annoying subscription increases by companies that profit in the billions every year, I'm probably just going to cancel Ultimate altogether and go back to standard gold.
Because giving big budget AAA games away day one stops making sense when Gamepass hits a wall in growth.
So between this and CoD Day 1 on GamePass, they've now lied at least twice in order to get the Activision acquisition through.
They’re putting their games on PlayStation and increasing the price of their subscriptions? I think I’m reaching my breaking point with Xbox.
How to kill a good thing: increase the price without actually adding value
Sounds awful. "Play it on game pass, but not that tier, no not that tier either."
"You gotta buy the most expensive one that comes with all the other shit you won't use" we have come full circle back to TV
Here they go now botching their products again. Literally the whole point of gamepass is to have games on release day 1. This price increase is too much imo. This is actually the issue with subscriptions it’s never going to get cheaper so you’ll always be paying more and more for the same service each year. It’s better to buy physical or buy the game outright if you can. Most of the stuff on gamepass can be bought for quite cheap anyway.
I really appreciate the price rise. I barely play my Xbox, but have been paying for ultimate. This makes it much easier to cancel the service.
This is the nail in the coffin for me. You have to at least give kudos to PlayStation. Their subscription service is easy to understand AND you can subscribe for 12 months at a time to save money ON ALL TIERS.
So my Game Pass Ultimate ends tomorrow - I have two years of Xbox Gold purchased. I am assuming the conversion rate will be slightly less favorable (not 3:2 but something lower) but it still will be the cheapest way forward? Also seems like only worth getting two years of Xbox Gold now since they are capping it at 13 months?
Why not a cloud tier? You just got people excited about the firestick app, but now they have to subscribe to the most expensive tier to use it.