While they might or might not have reasons to raise prices, those people who cancelled their subscriptions definitively had their reason.
Yeah, it’s too expensive.
I would never give Microsoft money for their shitty subscription, so it is kind of fun for me.
Lol, but here’s one anyway. - Microsoft
Except your CEO the boardroom and the shareholders
Canceled.
I need to rewatch Muppet* Treasure Island at some point. Such an awesome film.
You’re selling an underpowered console that spies on the home for 800usd. Stfu about the price being tough on the company
Where is Xbox $800?
There’s a special edition for $730+tax so maybe they mean that.
But starts at $380, less for return.
I remember when GamePass was first announced and everybody lauded Microsoft for being “pro-consumer” and outright cheered when they started buying up independent studios.
I remember being downvoted to oblivion for pointing out the very obvious 5 year plan for GP and the fact that it would go… exactly the way it’s currently going.
I never understood the praise at all. It’s literally turning DRM into a business model.
Lol that’s always been the business model
It’s because it was pretty much the Netflix of video games. Pay a subscription and you get access to a collection of games.
When it was 5.99 it was a no brainer. I think I cancelled mine around 13.99, though not because of the price but because I always forgot it existed and it tied me to windows. Switched to Linux and cancelling was a part of that transition.
At the time, I predicted you were probably right - but it would still be a good value for the time that the price stayed low.
Exactly, it was great at 11.99 IMO. As soon as I got the email saying a 50% increase, I cancelled. Surely they knew there would be cancellations but I’m not sure they knew there would be that many.
Yep. Same thing with netflix.
The average consumer is a moron, so their complacency is irrelevant in determining what’s a good deal.
Yep in this thread I’ve been arguing with someone who is saying consoles have to charge for online because it is so expensive… Yet, on PC for platforms like Steam and Epic despite also hosting game downloads and having multiplayer games they don’t charge.
Just goes to show how some consumers after being so used to not having flexibility and lack of restrictions when it comes to products become convinced it is necessary.
I feel like I responded to this exact comment on Reddit years ago saying the same. The thing people don’t realize, is subscriptions give you zero control of ownership and it’s always in the best interest of the corp to bait and switch.
I’ve been in the fuck subscriptions camp. Sony locking multiplayer behind PS+ was wha5 led me to dropping consoles as my primary gaming system, since I refused to pay for multiplayer.
Tbf when Xbox first launched console multiplayer there was a monthly fee too.
That was anti-consumer from the get-go but it was also there from the start.
I don’t mind subscriptions for ongoing infrastructure as much. My problem is with using a subscription to replace ownership.
If they are charging to multiplayer why wouldn’t they want to replace ownership too so they get money every month.
Platform infrastructure like PSN costs an inordinate amount of money. People owning games they paid for does not cost you any money.you already made your money back by selling them the ownership.
Sounds like excuses when PS3 and Nintendo Wii, WiiU, and Nintendo DS had free multiplayer and it was after Sony decided to start charging Nintendo also jumped onboard because they saw peope like you were easy to take their money.
I don’t even know why you’d have a problem with Xbox charging more for their subscription when you already argue for paid online.
Yes, charging customers for a product that costs you money to maintain is an excuse, and a valid one. Sony and Nintendo were giving away an expensive service for free to the user. It was generous, and a way to reduce friction with onboarding new users.
They jumped on board because maintaining that infrastructure has become exponentially more expensive to maintain today than it was 20 years ago.
I don’t even know why you’d have a problem with Xbox charging more for their subscription when you already argue for paid online.
Because unlike paid user services, game ownership is not something that costs them any money. They aren’t recouping their costs for a service they provide, it’s just rentseeking.
Yeah I don’t buy it. Nintendo does free across multiple hardware then when they saw they were the only one decided they’d start taking money too, since it is in a companies nature to maximize profits exponentially.
And then there’s Steam. Also in the hardware business and hosting games and mods and a bunch of other services even Epic with their Fortnite money hasn’t matched. Yet online is free.
You just sound like a consumer who iust accepts whatever methods companies try to exploit consumers and defend as necessary. More a stockholder than a consumer.
No doubt in my mind M$ employs obfuscated layers of (contracted) marketing to astroturf, including downvotes of your cautionary comments. The line between a fanboy and astroturfer is blurred.
Gaining subscribers/customers while bleeding money, then charging more money once your competitors are forced out of the market or investors want to cash out, is a basic strategy… I doubt Game Pass was ever profitable, it was all an illusion propped up by accounting tricks and obfuscated/discounted internal operating costs (where M$ can shift xbox costs to money-printing cloud services division).
No doubt after years of failed xbox, that Phil Spencer is just a corporate suit executing the vision of M$ as a whole (in which Games is just an inconvenient detail). Expect more of the same, bundling of other services, no actual good in-house games. Activision acquisition in part of this strategy to pump up Game Pass, since M$ internal studios have not produced anything noteworthy this generation. I expect the next xbox to have cheaper hardware to undercut ps6, but to have increased game pass incentives to make up for it. maybe a random bundle with netflix. you gotta think outside of the (x)box for whats coming next.
Sacrifice the future for a temporary revenue/profit go up
No, it will work out for them. They just made a 50% profit increase. I doubt if even 10% of subscribers cancel.
It worked for Netflix, Disney+, Hulu… People just need to stop buying shit, but they won’t.
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Even though I personally never used it I was astonished at how quickly so many people blindly trusted it. What I’m more astonished with is how quickly Microsoft has managed to destroy that brand trust.
They’re also upping the sub price for some home user office plans. Apparently it’s milk the customer time at microsoft.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ve been paying just for some spare OneDrive space but I think I’ll cut it if they’re raising the price
My boss showed me the article yesterday, but apparently it’s the old news from earlier this year. It went from 70 to 100 back in Feb.
That’s still a giant increase from whatever you would have paid last year.
Oh yeah that was when they announced you’d get copilot credits or whatever as part of Office 365 and bumped up the price.
Part of the problem is that most of the people making these decisions have been seeing their incomes and net worth increase steadily over the past decade. They don’t truly understand their subscriber base.
But they do understand “charge what the market will bear”. It’s all about short term profit.
Thank you captain obvious?
So, if there had been no cancellations and their customers had just paid their bills without comment or criticism, they’d still have been telling us how terrible they felt about the whole thing?
Bovine Excrement.
Especially for the companies who disappear because they were too greedy.
I’m trying to think of a single example and I’m struggling
EA just had to sell to avoid continuing their downward spiral
McDonald’s is the most clear cut example, although that’s ongoing
There’s been countless little companies that sent themselves into death spirals with a price hike, but when they’re big their remains are pounced on, or they experience a slow decline before collapsing to a failed pivot
They’ve made very clear that they’re reducing functionality, dropping products including their gaming companies, and raising prices across the board to somehow come up with billions for AI. They no longer care about their customers or employees, only this holy grail quest for money that will evaporate. Dump Microsoft.
And they’ll get away with it because of how many businesses chose to become dependent on microsoft.
So a dumb question: last email stated, if there be any changes in costs, they will notify me 60 days prior but I still haven’t got anything from M$… Aren’t they running head first into an giant lawsuit in Europe? Still going to cancel the subscription though
Yeah, £15 was pushing it, I don’t play as much as I’d like, big benefit was cloud gaming facilitating couch co-op, but at the minute it’s mostly my kids playing Minecraft, cheaper just to buy that.
