Gaming IndustryMicrosoft responds to the FTC, argues its Game Pass price hike is actually a good deal for gamers because the new cheapest tier includes multiplayer nowWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustryMicrosoft responds to the FTC, argues its Game Pass price hike is actually a good deal for gamers because the new cheapest tier includes multiplayer nowWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
“Earlier this month, Microsoft announced changes to its gaming subscription service, Game Pass, to provide consumers valuable options at different price points,” the letter begins. “Microsoft is offering a new service tier, Game Pass Standard, which offers access to hundreds of back-catalog gamesand[emphasis theirs] multiplayer functionality for $14.99 a month.
“It is wrong to call this a ‘degraded’ version of the discontinued Game Pass for Console offering. That discontinued product did not offer multiplayer functionality, which had to be purchased separately for an additional $9.99/month (making the total cost $20.98/month). While Game Pass ultimate’s price will increase from $16.99 to $19.99/month, the service will offer more value through many new games available ‘day-and-date.'”
Whether or not Microsoft’s logic holds up in court, as a gamer, it’s crazy-making to see the company trumpet multiplayer as a great value replacement for day one game access. The word “gaslight” gets thrown around too much these days, so I’ll say they’re pissing on our collective leg and telling us it’s raining. Online multiplayer is a basic functionality we just get for free on PC, and the fact that Sony and Microsoft gate it behind a subscription service feels like some kind of barbaric anachronism—what is this, 2006?
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While Xbox is not anywhere near in danger of bankruptcy, it faces an equally dangerous and far more nebulous challenge: justifying its big bets on Game Pass and billions of dollars of studio acquisitions to shareholders and Microsoft brass, even as both have shown questionable returns. I worry about this because so much of the industry, including studios I love like Obsidian, is tied up in Xbox now, and Microsoft has already demonstrated an alarming eagerness to shutter beloved studios and lay off vast swathes of developers.
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