this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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[–] fonix232@fedia.io 44 points 1 week ago

Good. Then reduce the price and remove the useless parts of it.

Interestingly, Apple made their One subscription pick&mix (you can choose to e.g. only have the iCloud expansion + Arcade in it, reducing the monthly cost), and it drove subscriber numbers up.

Microsoft could do the same. Offer the service at a fair price, allow users to choose what parts of a conjoined service stack they want, and you'll have users.

Force them to go all-or-nothing (which was what the restructuring of Game Pass led to), and jack up the prices 3-4x, and watch them go away by the millions.

[–] dmtalon@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My son disagrees with my decision to leave after that price hike. But, I set aside the annual amount in an "envelope" for him to buy games outright on steam etc vs renting them on Gamepass

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

YES. This will actually show him the value of saving for owning something vs a subscription that is never guaranteed to not increase in price (in fact its almost guaranteed it will go up in price).

This is a really good move.

[–] tiltmachine@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Except you're not really owning anything on Steam. Their policy might change, the CEO might go... Granted it probably won't happen anytime soon but you're not really owning anything on Steam too.

There are people who buy hundreds of games on Steam who don't really play 90+% of their library, and people qho subscribe to Game Pass who "rent" and are able to play the latest games. Neither of them are wrong.

[–] ferrule@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The one upside with steam is that you can access the files. If the company was going down or changing policy you can take the latest installers/game files and back them up.

There are a few games I've bought on steam and installed on my retro console because of this setup.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

That's an oversimplification.

For starters it depends on the game and there is zero information in Steam about whether that works or not for a game before you buy, so you can't make an informed buy there if you care about that.

Further, for many games you have to install something like the Goldberg Emulator which is an implementation of the Steam API DLL that doesn't in fact talk to Steam.

Without this some games will stop working because the Steam application is not present or the game has been started offline too often.

Even then it's not guaranteed to work, especially if you have DLCs for that game.

Disconnecting an installed game from Steam or backing up and later using a cached installer is a technically more demanding process and with a higher rate of failure than just downloading and backing up a GOG game's installer that you later use for installing the game - it's actually GOG's Unique Value Proposition that you're guaranteed to at a later date you're still able to install a the game in a system compatible with the installer (in my experience only a problem when trying to run an installer over a decade old in a more recent OS, but emphasized because even without phone-home related limitations, there are still possible hurdles due to evolving technology and insufficient backwards compatibility) so it makes sense that their process is seamless and works for all products.

[–] ferrule@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

Totally agree. None of these are great solutions. I buy mostly from GOG as they tend to be the best backup option. I would never do a game subscription.

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

I can still access the files and easily play the games offline in that scenario though AND not have to pay for playing over my own internet connection.

I always check GOG first for this reason but many games are not on there so I have to use steam but difference is on PS or Xbox once they stop supporting something or ban me I'm SOL unless I wait for a jailbreak which on the newest ones could be 10+ years away

On steam I just simply crack the steam DRM in 2 easy steps and boom. You own it.

But you are correct that on steam you only get a license.

[–] emmanuel_car@k.fe.derate.me 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe consider introducing him to GoG as well, I love Steam and buy most of my games through them, but you are just buying a license which they can revoke or delist games. At least with GoG you own the game. Granted this depends what your son likes playing…

legally you have the same arrangement. GoG can revoke your license too, they just say they never will.

[–] FullPenguin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To be fair, Gamepass had 34 million subscribers before the price hike, so as long as they drove away less than 11 million, Microsoft still comes out on top after their 50% hike while having to provide services to fewer accounts.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Yeah, but from a business perspective the whole reason they raised the price was to make more money, not the same amount they made before. Their projected profits were probably based on current users so breaking even or not reaching those projected profits would be considered a huge failure.

[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

They’d have taken a certain level of loss into consideration when they made the change.

They definitely wouldn’t want to break even on profits though.

[–] liking625@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are they really that naive and stupid?

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

Have you seen the state of Windows?

[–] moxymarauder@thelemmy.club 9 points 1 week ago

Subscription inflation, in general, has been a massive wake up call for me on the importance of ownership.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

/me patting myself on the back for avoiding subscriptions like the plague since the 90s.

[–] Thteven@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

It wasn't just the price increase, it's also that my fucking series x wasn't an upgrade in experience at all, (fuck off loading time bullshit).

[–] W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago
[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

The fact that I need a game pass to play LAN games is what drove me away.