So, lets make one thing perfectly clear: I am a dedicated Console Peasant, and my two consoles of choice are the Nintendo Switch, and more recently the Xbox Series X. PC gaming is just too damn expensive anymore, and I can get all the entertainment I could want for much less on these console devices.
Now that may immediately make you think that I will thus be automatically drawn to defend Microsoft for their recent announcement of a rather steep price hike on their Xbox Gamepass service. You would be mistaken, actually. I was very disappointed in Microsoft in this decision, and generally think it was the wrong move. People play consoles for convenience and because they can’t afford to keep up with the constant need to upgrade computers for gaming. Increasing the price of the top tier of their flagship online service by 50% (or more in some countries), when people can’t afford to keep up with grocery prices, after previously announcing price hikes on your hardware… Well, that was just plain dumb.
Microsoft had to know they would face a revolt from the Xbox community, and that is precisely what they got.
Then Microsoft came out and (in my opinion, anyway) made things worse by trying to make this cost increase seem like a bargain for the player base, and something fans were asking for. Well, unless you play “Fortnite” on your Xbox all day, not a single change to the Gamepass tiers was a real bargain.
That’s why I took my subscription to Gamepass Ultimate (currently $20/month, rising to $30/month) and downgraded it to Gamepass Essentials ($10/month), as of October 13th, when my subscription renews. Yes, I’ll lose access to a vast majority of the Gamepass library, and I certainly won’t be playing Gamepass games day one on release unless I buy them outright, but that’s fine.
I have only played one Gamepass game on release, and that was “Starfield”, which was the game I bought my Xbox Series X for. I bought the game outright three days later, to ensure I would have access to my now favorite video game of all time, even after it someday leaves Gamepass.
You see, that’s what I’m used to doing. If I like a game, I will buy that game. Everything from “Cyberpunk 2077” to “Balatro” has ended up that way. The majority of the games I play on my XSX I own outright, and that will continue to be so after my account downgrades to Essentials tier. I’ll just play “Stardew Valley” instead of “Avowed”.
No, I’ll probably end up buying “Avowed”. It’s pretty damn fun. But you get my point.
Anyway, this was supposed to be an article in Defense of Xbox, right? So where are the arguments in support of the changes, you ask?
Well, I really only have this: The economy sucks for everyone, even Microsoft. While I think the company has made a grievous error in raising the Gamepass Ultimate price so much, not to mention raising the console prices five years into their lifecycle, I also kind of get where they are coming from.
Hear me out for a moment.
Microsoft is a publicly-owned corporation, who have to answer to their shareholders. As with all such companies, the shareholders expect that the value of their stocks will always go up, as well as the dividends those stocks entitle them to. Personally, I think this is actually insane, as there is no way a company can always see their valuation rise year after year after year. If every company always rose in value every single year, eventually the whole system would collapse.
Did no one learn a lesson from 1929? Really?
Nevertheless, the company officers at Microsoft are required by law to always work in the interests of shareholders, just like every other publicly-traded corporation. They are not there to look out for the Xbox customer base. I’m sure they don’t want to upset, let alone anger said customers, but if that is what must happen to keep Microsoft always making more money, quarter after quarter, well…
That’s how you get a 50% increase in the price of Gamepass Ultimate. I don’t like it, but I get it. That said, Microsoft has made a huge mistake here, and I expect they will see a rather sharp decline in the number of people subscribing to Gamepass Ultimate, which in turn will hurt their stock price. Charts will show numbers go down, instead of up. Shareholders will be unhappy.
Someone is going to lose their job over this, eventually. The customer base is not Microsoft’s personal ATM.
