Microsoft hiking Xbox Game Pass prices by up to 25% - Pay up, goy!

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6 days ago
By Tom Gerken, Technology reporter


Microsoft has announced big price rises for Game Pass, its Netflix-style subscription service for games.
The gaming giant, which purchased studio Activision Blizzard for a record $69bn (then £56bn) in 2023, says monthly charges for PC Game Pass will rise by £2 to £9.99, while its premium service, Ultimate, will go up by £2 to £14.99 per month.
It is also replacing its standard subscription tier on Xbox consoles in September, meaning Xbox gamers will now have to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate if they want access to new games on the day they are released.
It comes after Microsoft announced in May that its most eagerly awaited new title - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - would be available straight away to Game Pass subscribers.

Analysts said that represented an attempt to shake-up the industry, which has long been dominated by sales of physical games.
Game Pass, much like Sony's rival PlayStation Plus service, lets console and PC players play hundreds of video games for a monthly subscription fee.
Both can be seen as a "Netflix for games", though gamers can download many of the games available to play, rather than streaming them.
There are around 34 million Game Pass subscribers worldwide - all of them will now have to pay more.
The price increases for the UK are:

• Game Pass Ultimate: Monthly will go up from £12.99 to £14.99
• PC Game Pass: Monthly will go up from £7.99 to £9.99
• Game Pass Core: Annual will go up from £49.99 to £55.99

The changes will take effect immediately for new subscribers, but existing members paying recurring fees will see their bills change in September.
Xbox gamers who currently have a basic subscription on their console will be able to keep it until it expires.
Subscribers to this tier will still get access to hundreds of games, but this will exclude those which have just been released, as well as a few extra games only available to Ultimate subscribers.
Microsoft said in its announcement that "some games" available on Game Pass Ultimate on launch "may be" added to the standard subscription at a later date.
The price changes mean the most expensive Game Pass price is now costlier than Sony's PlayStation Plus Premium, which is £13.49 per month in the UK.
The price rises and attempts to push console users to move to a more expensive tier appear linked to the decision to release the latest Call of Duty straightaway on Game Pass.
At the time, observers questioned how Microsoft could afford the move, with GamesIndustry.biz head Christopher Dring telling the BBC he wondered if the firm would "introduce higher tiers to Game Pass or other monetisation techniques" to mitigate it.
Call of Duty has sold more than 425m copies across the series, and made tens of billions of dollars in the process.

 

[Toji Suzuhara]

We all knew that this model with these prices was not built to last, altough just three-odd years is a very short period for a gamble like this, even more so knowing that their consoles aren't doing too hot

 

[WelfareNiggerQueen]

The nigger cattle will continue to cheer about how great a deal this is. Look at all these games that they aren't going to play and don't own, wowza.

2:01

 

[ZazietheBeast]

This is exactly why I prefer digital downloads and CD burners. Games that require always online is the path to hell.

The nigger cattle will continue to cheer about how great a deal this is. Look at all these games that they aren't going to play and don't own, wowza.
Terry's ultimatum.webm

Terry, while nuts has named so many things that run clownworld. Glow in the Dark, Nigger cattle. He really is touched by God.

 

[augment]

The nigger cattle will continue to cheer about how great a deal this is. Look at all these games that they aren't going to play and don't own, wowza.
Terry's ultimatum.webm

They find it praiseworthy, owning large lists of sales-acquired games that they won't ever play due to lack of time and/or interest. It was one thing when collectors owned walls, literal walls of freaking action, rpgs, shooters, racing sims you name it. Now that it's all a hosted centralized subscription rental service I cannot fathom why they would bother. What's the point of not really owning anything.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

It will never happen because Microsoft has Rareware chained up in the sex dungeon but it would be a godsend if Rare could go over to Nintendo.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Now just make games people actually want to play, and stop being woke faggots I'd rather not give a penny to.

 

[Whiskey]

They could make these games cost a million dollars or one dollar and it wouldn't change my desire to play them. I'm honestly torn on if I'm just getting old and like older games I grew up with or if new games are really just all shit. I've enjoyed the odd indie here and there but for the most part I'm just emulating ps2 games.

 

[Cuckoman]

Anyone that buys digital games deserves this. I hope all of these digital game faggots get caught up for saying the N-word somehwere, like Discord, and they get banned from the game service and all their purchased games become unavailable.

Me, my several thousand physical games collection will still continue to work. Even if a faggot at MS or SONY decides I am a bad person for saying NIGGER FAGGOT.
Here you go if you missed the first time : NIGGER FAGGOT.
Try to disable my physical library. Faggot.

 

[mlanguishi]

Damn, Hamill is a straight up piece of Satan of Earth.



I'm throwing my personalized stuff I got with him in person and over time in the trash.

 

[The Last Stand]

Does that XGP code conversion trick still work? No way I'm paying $20 a month for games.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

And this is why I refuse to sign up for game subscription services - This act right here is my irrevocable proof of why it will NEVER be a good deal to use these services over just buying a game. If the service today is good enough that the value proposition says "This is cheaper than buying the games on the service I want to play directly", then you are shoveling that money away to sustain that 'bargain', right up until the day the pricing changes, and the value proposition becomes "Its cheaper to buy the games than it is to subscribe". At that moment, any and all money you've spent on the subscription service is just sunk cost, never to be reclaimed, and you will lose access to the entirety of the games immediately. They have all your money, you have nothing, get fucked.

Meanwhile, if you buy a copy of a game today based on "The value is good for what I'm getting", then that value and deal is locked in. Five years from now, with rare exceptions, you will still have the game and will not have paid any extra for that. If a game is not a good value at this time, sales and the progress of time will likely move it towards being good value - $80 is a ripoff for a lot of games, but by next year they'll be 66% off in the steam summer sale and then its probably a good deal. Assuming the game is actually something you want to play, odds are it will eventually be offered at a price you're happy with.

Put simply, at any point subscription services can go from bargain to scam, and you'll have nothing to show for the money you spent. A game that's owned has a much harder time doing that to you.

 

[Gangstalker #32194]

 

[Spud]

but by next year they'll be 66% off in the steam summer sale and then its probably a good deal

You're forgetting that buying it through Steam comes with needing to agree to the EULA that has the purchase stated as merely a license to access the game rather than outright ownership of a copy. The subscription is just cutting the bullshit and paying a fee for the same level of access that "buying" it through Steam grants you.

 

[CircuSphere]

> Be me, car fag
> Like to go around in circles faster than other fuckers online
> Play 2 gorrilion hours of Forza 7
> Forza 2023 comes out
> Pay exorbitant price to own complete game with DLC pass
> Game is a hot broken mess
> Runs like dog shit in the sun
> Half of content (tracks, cars) cut
> Furious and disappointed
> Get drafted into Space Vietnam War, quit Forza, cancel gamespass.
> Space Nam gets old, return to racing
> DLC car $5 "free with games pass!"

Fuck you niggers! What part of $120 complete edition do you fuckwits not understand?! Go suck a soft micro dick!

 

[frozen_runner]

You're forgetting that buying it through Steam comes with needing to agree to the EULA that has the purchase stated as merely a license to access the game rather than outright ownership of a copy. The subscription is just cutting the bullshit and paying a fee for the same level of access that "buying" it through Steam grants you.

True.

But fuck that legal gobbledygook. I buy cheap Steam games because it's convenient and the service is solid. If I'm locked out of any of those games I paid for, I will pirate them with a clear conscience. I don't care what copyright law says about that.

 

[Spud]

True.

But fuck that legal gobbledygook. I buy cheap Steam games because it's convenient and the service is solid. If I'm locked out of any of those games I paid for, I will pirate them with a clear conscience. I don't care what copyright law says about that.

You'd be better pirating in the first place tbh, if buying isn't owning then how does pirating mean stealing?

 

[Fellen]

You're forgetting that buying it through Steam comes with needing to agree to the EULA that has the purchase stated as merely a license to access the game rather than outright ownership of a copy. The subscription is just cutting the bullshit and paying a fee for the same level of access that "buying" it through Steam grants you.

That's why I'm not much of a PC gamer. Games that are singleplayer on PC I'll just pirate, the only games (which is not a lot, not even 20) I buy on Steam are multiplayer games that would be impossible on console. Although console gaming is on the decline I'd much prefer to own a physical copy of a game.

 

[Hitman One]

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of me playing the Ace Combat series for the 7,327,986th time. New games, you say? Are they Ace Combat ones?

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

Pay pigs will cope about how that is a good thing.