Microsoft asks many Game Pass subscribers to pay more for less
“Launch day access to first-party titles now restricted to $19.99/month ‘Ultimate’ tier.”
This is exactly what people were warned about with “games as a service” nonsense. No one wanted to listen.
They wouldn’t be doing it if there wasn’t a plan to get consumers to be paying more in the end.
I knew this was coming. I’ve still gotten a lot of value out of gamepass in the interim. I’ll just cancel when the value prop is gone. Thankfully with sites like cdkeys or eneba it’s pretty easy to get a few months of gamepass for 10-20 bucks.
Unfortunately your support has helped bolster the viability of the model, it’ll be the norm eventually and there won’t be a way of getting most games without a paid service. Canceling won’t be an option at a certain point, that’s how these things work.
I’m not so sure, Microsoft seems pretty content to take people’s money however they want to give it. They came back to steam two years after gamepass launched when they didn’t necessarily have to.
But they get more money if people have to rent their games forever than if they can own things. It’s happening with everything really and companies always want the most profit.
Bud AAA’s have been getting worse and worse for over a decade now, the indie scene has never been as fucking good as it is now. Stop buying AAA games if their monetization politics upsets you, I did, and I’ve never been thirsty for a good game.
Agreed. It isn’t a sustainable model. Eventually game companies will want their own proprietary ‘Game Pass service’, and we’ll see a great schism in the next 10 years - the very same that fractured video streaming. Customers will get more choices, but prices will remain high(er) rather than lowering.
For now, depending on the type of customer, Game Pass is a good deal for those that want to try out games or have the time to justify the subscription. For an oldie like me, it’s not a good deal as I prefer to own my games (where possible, considering licenses and DRM).
The only time I even entertained this “game pass” idea was when I first got my vive, they offer infinity so you can play many/most (I havent used their portal since a year into owning the vive) of the games listed as part of it. By the time I had almost convinced myself I realised I already bought and had enough free steam games that it was no longer a good idea, for me.
Oh yeah, I still have the sub. Just reminded me to cancel it lol. Don’t think I’ve used it in about 3-4 months.
LOL. You’re Microsoft’s ideal customer to pay for a service you don’t use. Happy I could remind you to cancel!😃
Yeah, back in 360 days I forgot I had Xbox Live, started playing again after like a year, signed up to Xbox Live, didn’t realise I was paying for the old one as well until another year later.
I’m so bad at that stuff. I get paid, then next day all the stuff comes out, and I just assumed that’s that, forgetting to check if any of it I still use anymore lol
And the enshitification hits game pass. It was only a matter of time
Every now and again I’ll sign up for EA pro, or ubisoft connect and cancel when I’m done with whatever game or games I signed up for. Xbgp is the only one I just keep paying for, despite not playing much via it. When they send me an email saying the price is going up, that will be when it becomes like the others and I will cancel.
Strange. The PC game pass still shows it has access to the latest releases ans is only 12$ ( in the article twitter link )
They won’t even offer a yearly plan? This is awful… please Playstation, do not follow this model. It’s $240 a year compared to the top tier psn plan at $160.
Sony slipped into the chat:
“We heard our name so we came running. We must keep up with our competition. Gamers proved they’ll pay anything, so to stay competitive, we will be increasing our prices in order to stay competitive with our offerings. Sure the publishers are raising their rates, and servers aren’t cheap, but we hope that with this new increase, our profitability margins will increase faster than our operating revenues. We think you’re gonna love it.”
Nooooo!
The best line I have actually heard multiple times whenever a change is made by my company is “we are changing so and so service to this to better align ourselves with industry standards.” And guess what, those standards are always worse for us. Never once seen this where it’s been a positive. I guess it’s ok to do if everyone else does it!
LOL yep. And if you ever work in the traditional corporate office job, you’ll hear these great words mixed in:
- align
- synergize
- innovate
- compete
- streamline
- agile
I work the corporate game, so I use these words myself, but ooh boy it gets tiring. Thankfully I’m agile enough to synergize myself with these new standards, which are aligned best with our competitors.
