Subscription services, once heralded as the replacement for old-school cable TV, have slowly but surely become way more expensive for no particular reason. Xbox is just the latest of them all, increasing its tiers by as much as $10, which angered fans to a degree rarely seen in gaming.
Recently, Xbox has made the decision to increase the price of its Game Pass subscription service, one used by millions across PC and console. The increase is a substantial one and has even brought along fundamental changes to some of its tiers. For example, two of the tiers will not feature Day One releases despite having their price “adjusted,” with this feature reserved only for Game Pass Ultimate, now costing $30 per month, or $360 per year.
Now that's a return of the Xbox 360 I never would have dreamed of.
But you've probably already heard about this whole ordeal and how Xbox went about it. However, the company issued a response in a conversation with The Verge, saying “price increases are never fun for anybody,” but cancelling subscriptions sure seems like it is.
Since these new prices were announced, Game Pass users flocked to their Microsoft accounts to cut and cancel any and all ties to the subscription service, so much so that the Microsoft account management website went completely offline under load. Masses of players were abandoning ship, unwilling to fork over 30 bucks a month and hundreds per year, especially with the global economic situation being how it is.
Over on social media, especially Reddit, negative reactions to this move have been more than abundant, with players calling Microsoft and Xbox greedy, their moves unjustified, and overall just wondering what the long-term strategy was with these increases.
“Is Xbox trying to speedrun its way out of the video game market?” one user asked. “They priced me out,” said another. Another accused Microsoft of “milking” the player base to the utmost, arguing the company probably isn't “growing” anymore. This last could have a grain of truth in it, since many Microsoft-published games haven't really been the biggest titles ever. Even if we do count Activision in there, Microsoft's gaming division isn't the brightest diamond.
Regional prices saw substantial jumps as well. In Brazil, the price of the Game Pass nearly doubled, while my own Montenegro got hit with a 30 percent uptick. In economically disadvantaged countries, these hikes are literally barring people from the platform, as lower and more equitable regional pricing existed because of those disadvantages in the first place.
Game Pass can still be purchased at the older price in places like GameStop, though corporate stores seem to be abandoning ship, too, with the likes of Costco removing Xbox from their shelves.
Whether Microsoft will retract this “unfun” decision is unclear, but the damage has already been done.
Like our content? Set Destructoid as a Preferred Source on Google in just one step to ensure you see us more frequently in your Google searches!
The post Xbox fans cancel Game Pass subscriptions en masse, react to ‘unjustified’ company move appeared first on Destructoid.
