Xbox Game Pass is getting MAJOR changes, with a new tier without day one games, and a range of price increases

[Windows Central]

Xbox Game Pass is getting major changes today per Microsoft, with a sizeable price increase on Ultimate, and changes to the basic console tier.

Xbox Game Pass is getting MAJOR changes, with a new tier without day one games, and a range of price increases : Read more

 

[NoLifeDGenerate]

********. They screwed Gold members for years with garbage indie titles. Now jack up the price again just because Sony raised their core service. Why can't we keep the same price and just NOT have free games? Some of us never wanted anything to do with gamepass.

 

[fjtorres5591]

The price increase to $20 is no shock.
Not with cumulative inflation since the pandemic totalling 25%.
And with the added value of the ABK catalog an increase was expected.

That only a small portion of console subscribers are on Game Pass console we'll have to take on faith but it is somewhat reasonable given the tight spread between core, console, and ultimate's old price.

They really want to drive subscribers to ultimate and if the nextbox and handheld are, as rumored, to be Windows game compatible, Ultimate will be the clear choice and grandfathering existing console subscribers will make sense as Standard now resembles LIVE GOLD but updated.

Of note: still no cloud-only tier, even at the core level.

Also: we now have a good idea when the (bulk of) the ABK catalog should be on Game Pass.

 

[fjtorres5591]

********. They screwed Gold members for years with garbage indie titles. Now jack up the price again just because Sony raised their core service. Why can't we keep the same price and just NOT have free games? Some of us never wanted anything to do with gamepass.

25% inflation not enough justification?
Look at the 70's inflationary history for what sustained inflation does to prices.

At least they're not jacking up console prices...
...yet.

Steel yourself for the nextgen price points. They will not be friendly.

 

[NoLifeDGenerate]

25% inflation not enough justification?
Look at the 70's inflationary history for what sustained inflation does to prices.

At least they're not jacking up console prices...
...yet.

Steel yourself for the nextgen price points. They will not be friendly.

I'm still waiting for the goddamn pre-orders for those 2TB consoles to go live so I can buy a 2nd Series X. It's not about the money. It's the principle. I don't give a **** about their free games. I don't want gamepass. I just want basic online MP.

 

[fjtorres5591]

I'm still waiting for the goddamn pre-orders for those 2TB consoles to go live so I can buy a 2nd Series X. It's not about the money. It's the principle. I don't give a **** about their free games. I don't want gamepass. I just want basic online MP.

I'm the exact opposite: I care nothing for online gaming but the deep catalog has value to me. I only wish it were deeper (360 and OG-wise) and cloud gaming offered PC games. I go back to the first XBOX and hate having to dig it out to get to Raven XMEN games.

And I couldn't afford every good OG and 360 game so I like catching up.

 

[condor]

I'm confused. Either I'm reading this article wrong or it's clickbait...

Assuming you always subbed Xbox Live Gold with the yearly subscription. Gold subscription was $60/yr ($5/mo) and is going up to $75/yr ($6.25/mo).

Originally you had to pay $5/mo for Gold and $15 for Gamepass with day-one access. So $20/mo.

Now you have to get Gamepass Ultimate which has Gold subscription and day-one access for the same $20/mo. And you now have all the added benefits of having the Gamepass Ultimate instead of the regular one.

Sounds like you're getting more bang for your buck and a less confusing bill.

 

[fjtorres5591]

I'm confused. Either I'm reading this article wrong or it's clickbait...

Assuming you always subbed Xbox Live Gold with the yearly subscription. Gold subscription was $60/yr ($5/mo) and is going up to $75/yr ($6.25/mo).

Originally you had to pay $5/mo for Gold and $15 for Gamepass with day-one access. So $20/mo.

Now you have to get Gamepass Ultimate which has Gold subscription and day-one access for the same $20/mo. And you now have all the added benefits of having the Gamepass Ultimate instead of the regular one.

Sounds like you're getting more bang for your buck and a less confusing bill.

GamePass for console used to be $10 originally without online play. Gold offered two "free games" a month for $6 or so.

Then they converted Gold to Core for $10, GP console was $11 and Ultimate $17.
GP console did not include online so they've been deemphasizing it. Most sites, WC included, have been de-recommending console precisely for its lack of online.

Pretty clear they want to do just core and ultimate but don't want to scare newcomers with the $20 price so they keep the limited standard as an upsell step up.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

Price increases are always sad, but as fjtorres5591 pointed out, inflation sinks all ships.

My question: is there any sense that we'll be getting a family plan? I've been avoiding all the GamePass plans in the hope that would be coming. I have multiple kids, each with their own Xboxes (plus my own), and can't get GamePass for one without getting it for all, which is too expensive. So no GamePass for any of us until there's a family plan. I keep hoping.

 

[Ron-F]

It seems my plan (GamePass without online play) is being dropped and I've never liked the idea of paying for online gaming. I'm not a big fan of PC gaming but Microsoft is tempting me to return to my roots.

 

[righteouszealot]

I've had ultimate since it was available and honestly the games have rarely been interesting to me. I have done the math and it's cheaper for me to buy the games I'm interested in playing on my PC and just stop using my Xbox all together

 

[floaty]

It seems my plan (GamePass without online play) is being dropped and I've never liked the idea of paying for online gaming. I'm not a big fan of PC gaming but Microsoft is tempting me to return to my roots.

I can understand the sentiment about paying for online gaming, but it didn't make any sense for MS to have Core w/ online multiplayer, but not including it with the Console only plan.

If PC gaming wasn't just a pain in general (I become to loathe Windows OS), I'd probably downgrade from Ultimate to PC game Pass.

 

[floaty]

Price increases are always sad, but as fjtorres5591 pointed out, inflation sinks all ships.

My question: is there any sense that we'll be getting a family plan? I've been avoiding all the GamePass plans in the hope that would be coming. I have multiple kids, each with their own Xboxes (plus my own), and can't get GamePass for one without getting it for all, which is too expensive. So no GamePass for any of us until there's a family plan. I keep hoping.

MS was testing the family plan in a couple countries, but decided not to roll it out globally.

 

[NoLifeDGenerate]

I can understand the sentiment about paying for online gaming, but it didn't make any sense for MS to have Core w/ online multiplayer, but not including it with the Console only plan.

If PC gaming wasn't just a pain in general (I become to loathe Windows OS), I'd probably downgrade from Ultimate to PC game Pass.

Been running linux for years. Never wanted anything beyond Windows 7. Still don't. PC gaming always annoyed me, and it never improved. You can still install a game from Steam, click "play," and nothing happens. No error or indication why it's not running. That's really the best we can do in the 21st century? Every AAA game being ported to PC results in more bloated GPU driver updates. Isn't all that **** supposed to be handled by DirectX anyway? Consoles don't need firmware updates for every game that releases. The devs somehow manage to color between the lines and make everything run on there. Why does PC have to be such a **** show? Especially when most of the games are using the same few engines anyway!

 

[GraniteStateColin]

MS was testing the family plan in a couple countries, but decided not to roll it out globally.

When they stopped the test rollout in select countries they said (not aware they ever changed this) they had gathered enough data and would now work on a global rollout. Of course, the fact that they haven't done it more than a year later fits with your statement, but I thought MS' last official statement was that they were planning a global rollout of the Family Plan.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

Been running linux for years. Never wanted anything beyond Windows 7. Still don't. PC gaming always annoyed me, and it never improved. You can still install a game from Steam, click "play," and nothing happens. No error or indication why it's not running. That's really the best we can do in the 21st century? Every AAA game being ported to PC results in more bloated GPU driver updates. Isn't all that **** supposed to be handled by DirectX anyway? Consoles don't need firmware updates for every game that releases. The devs somehow manage to color between the lines and make everything run on there. Why does PC have to be such a **** show? Especially when most of the games are using the same few engines anyway!

Only for masochistic Linux users. No problem running them on Windows. I say that as someone who greatly respects and uses Linux for server applications, but never for a desktop OS or for personal use. That's just self-inflicted trauma.

 

[Lurking_Lurker_Lurks]

Okay so the basic price increases makes sense to me, especially with Ultimate. I always assumed post ABK they'd justify raising to a smooth $20 a month. I mean just comparing value and ignoring subjectivity (because it does matter what type of entertainment you prefer), the amount of hours of content and entertainment you can get from a single game (and as such a game library subscription) is pretty crazy compared to something like Netflix. I also understand them moving day one releases to ultimate only. Because let's be honest they started day one releases back when they were an ity bitty baby of a publisher. Even before their studio purchases for Xbox Game Studios really took off and LONG before they owned freaking all of Bethesda and ABK. As a publisher they've become one of the most profilic. And again for the individual user subjectivity matters and Xbox certainly doesn't have the beloved history of other publishers and even COD may not be worth it to some, but those games still cost a lot of money to make. I think it was completely sustainable at $10 a month pre inflation when they had like one game a year if any. Now their first party studios are PUMPING them out and they're not exactly all smaller AA games and then there's all the games XGS partners with to publish.

What starts to scratch my head is going down from there. So like first off, PC gamepass has way too much value compared to core and the upcoming "standard" for what they offer. Especially with PC keeping day one games and EA play and no console tier other than Ultimate having either. This isn't me saying to make PC Game Pass worse, but there needs to be some leveling off here. Then there's the proposed mobile game store coming this month and I had expected they'd introduce a Mobile Game Pass to watch Google and Apple Arcade. Xbox Cloud Gaming also needs a standalone service if they ever want it to really take off. That all gets very muddy with how the console and core tiers are positioned functionality wise and priced.

It's just looking more and more like paying for online doesn't fit in the subscription future and holding onto it is holding things back. Ideally I'd just like to see a game pass tier for every platform priced at $11.99 (console, PC, cloud, mobile) with a $20 ultimate tier that comes with bonuses like the perks and priority cloud gaming access. If they really want to they could also include a $7.99 ad tier for each platform as well (don't ask me how that'd work for the non-cloud tiers) or instead of ads they could just make it more like EA play as in only games older than a year (probably more like 2 years with how much they own) . Then throw in a gosh darn family plan for ultimate at $35 a month. Online play on console should just join cloud saves and be standard free.

In a way it feels like Xbox is growing too big and is growing away from its users with moves like this. Like they're trying to exist across every platform imaginable AND are now like THE biggest gaming publisher by employee count alone (their studios as well and the number of games they're either developing or partner publishing are also nothing to scoff at). It doesn't matter that they're still third place in the console market. They just no longer are the "little guy underdog" and in some ways that's great, but honestly the underdog is the easiest one to pet.

 

[Lurking_Lurker_Lurks]

When they stopped the test rollout in select countries they said (not aware they ever changed this) they had gathered enough data and would now work on a global rollout. Of course, the fact that they haven't done it more than a year later fits with your statement, but I thought MS' last official statement was that they were planning a global rollout of the Family Plan.

I personally choose to hope that it's coming shortly after this next price increase. I mean it's worth noting that since they tested it, the price of GPU has increased twice now. I also think the ABK purchase was unexpected for them since it was ABK who approached them. At the very least no way the financial teams in charge of making sure the GPU family price didn't lose them money didn't expect that. So hopefully (and I say hopefully) the family plan is still coming, but just needs Ultimate to stabilize both in price and offering

 

[GraniteStateColin]

I personally choose to hope that it's coming shortly after this next price increase. I mean it's worth noting that since they tested it, the price of GPU has increased twice now. I also think the ABK purchase was unexpected for them since it was ABK who approached them. At the very least no way the financial teams in charge of making sure the GPU family price didn't lose them money didn't expect that. So hopefully (and I say hopefully) the family plan is still coming, but just needs Ultimate to stabilize both in price and offering

I love that explanation. It certainly sounds plausible. I hope you're onto something with that.

 

[fjtorres5591]

Looking at the current tiers, it may be the family plan if it ever comes will be based off the Standard tier.
Big if.

The problem with the plan as tested was that it was friends and family, not just family. Family alone is hard enough to police but allow "friends" and the chance for coops and freeriders grows out of control.

A global release that works will require a tight verification system and limits on how many games are active at once. Allowing the same game at once on all registered machine makes sense. Beyond that? What about single player games? Recent releases?

They have yet to define what the lag will be with new releases for standard. That would also have an impact on the rules for a family plan. I wouldn't expect one this year. Too many things to be finalized before it can be introduced.