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.
Xbox: "Price Increases Are Never Fun For Anybody"
Meanwhile Xbox execs:
It's fun for the people making more profit.
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
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.
Yep. Same thing with netflix.
The average consumer is a moron, so their complacency is irrelevant in determining what's a good deal.
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.
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.
Never fun for anybody
Meanwhile, at Microsoft:
No, but, but, think of the shareholders! Nobody ever thinks about the shareholders! :(((
Raising the price of hardware twice since May and now raising the price of game pass by 50% is not something a company would do if they're interested in competing against Sony or Nintendo. Clearly Microsoft has thrown in the towel on XBOX. Only thing left for Microsoft to do is announce cancellation of next gen console altogether and do layoffs. I don't know when that will happen but it's inevitable at this point.
yup they'll go the route of Sega. The writing has been on the wall with the Xbox Division for awhile now that I'm honestly surprised they're still trying to "make it work".
Xbox was a weird one. I haven't used one since the 360 and honestly I couldn't even begin to tell you what the next console in the line was after the 360. was it the series x? was it the one? I dont' know. I mean after buying like 5 360s because of red ring or whatever why would I continue that idiocy?
Lol yeah the naming was incredibly bad. But I'm pretty sure it was 360 -> one -> series. I only owned the original one (not the One one) and a 360 which luckily was unaffected by RRoD.
I think the 360 was really good all things considered, it was a good console at the time and MS actually helped getting smaller studios their stuff into the store with summer of arcade. It also captured a lot of interest from third party studios. All in all pretty solid. Damn shame that the RRoD tainted the console so much.
Segmenting the market after into S and X was a really dumb move in my opinion. The other one was trying to turn it into an entertainment machine instead of a game console (TV, TV, TV, sports...)
Lol, but here's one anyway. - Microsoft
Especially for the companies who disappear because they were too greedy.
I'm trying to think of a single example and I'm struggling
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're also upping the sub price for some home user office plans. Apparently it's milk the customer time at microsoft.
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?
Microsoft was never going to make gaming affordable. The entire goal of GP is like any subscription service, to get you hooked so they can increase the prices. Microsoft is not and never was a pro consumer company. And GamePass is Microsoft’s attempt at making a hardwareless console. It’s a BYOD walled garden. It’s bad for consumers and bad for developers and publishers. Consumers will own nothing and studios are beholden to MS gatekeepers. Some account manager basically decides how much the devs will be financially compensated before the game is even released, instead of letting the market decide. Remember those court documents which showed how much they under valued Baldur’s Gate 3. If you think the standard 30% store cut is outrageous GamePass is on another level of bad. Sure they are currently showering devs in cash, but once MS has a significant chunk of the market they are going to turn off that tap. We’ve seen it with Netflix and Spotify. Like even the most popular artists earn fractions of cents per user.
but we're trying to reinforce by adding more value to these plans as well."
Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics
So if you don't play Fortnite and aren't interested in 15 different Assassin's Creed titles, fuck you I guess
Imagine, if you will, the possibility of NOT increasing prices 50% to give us the "additional value" of shit we don't want.
I was happy paying for games, but suddenly I'm extremely willing to get back into piracy. Fucking weird, right?
Apparently those titles are as or more valuable than half of the entire catalog, how can you not be excited‽
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.
Canceled.
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.
You're selling an underpowered console that spies on the home for 800usd. Stfu about the price being tough on the company
It's something we don't take lightly, and we're listening to the feedback of players and the community to try to provide them with more of what they’re asking for.
God they will never understand that we see right through their bullshit corpo-speak answers will they. Everything they just said is nothing. They don't take it lightly. They are listening. They will try. There is nothing concrete in that wet paper towel of an answer.
Except your CEO the boardroom and the shareholders
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.
I need to rewatch Muppet* Treasure Island at some point. Such an awesome film.
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