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Microsoft asks many Game Pass subscribers to pay more for less (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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For years now, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass has set itself apart by offering subscribers launch-day access to new first-party titles in addition to a large legacy library of older games. That important "day one" perk is now set to go away for all but the highest tier of Game Pass' console subscribers, even as Microsoft asks for more money for Game Pass across the board.

Let's start with the price increases for existing Game Pass tiers, which are relatively straightforward:

  • "Game Pass Ultimate" is going from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
  • "Game Pass for PC" is going from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
  • "Game Pass Core" (previously known as Xbox Live Gold) is going from $59.99 to $74.99 for annual subscriptions (and remains at $9.99 for monthly subscriptions).

Things get a bit more complicated for the $10.99/month "Xbox Game Pass for Console" tier. Microsoft announced that it will no longer accept new subscriptions for that tier after today, though current subscribers will be able to keep it (for now) if they auto-renew their subscriptions.

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[-] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 105 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This shouldn't come as a surprise. MS has been offering game pass at a good value for a while now to entice users and grow their platform. Now it's time to start squeezing value. Standard enshitification cycle stuff here, and a good reason not to play their game.

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, it was pretty obvious that this was going to happen sooner or later. It doesn't meet the definition of "enshitification" though. The platform, Xbox Live, isn't losing functionality it's just getting more expensive. There's also no obvious shift to favor business customers.

It's a pretty standard price hike with a small side helping service tiers changing features.

I'm not HAPPY about it of course.

[-] pixel_prophet@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

It absolutely is enshittification, they tiered the service taking away features from the lowest plan and hiked the prices.

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 3 points 1 month ago

"Enshittification" isn't simply raising prices and moving features between service tiers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

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this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
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