A common argument against GamePass is that “one day the price will go up”…
At what price would you stop subscribing?
For me, once Activision hopefully goes through, I’d be happy to pay up to $30 a month, which is still extremely cheap for this hobby, assuming the current variety of GamePass remains and even increases due to more subscribers/more reoccurring revenue coming in for MS.
If Xbox can get a steady roll out of first party games every 2-3 months and frequent day one third party drops I’d easily pay 25 dollars a month without really reconsidering. I dont think Xbox will go beyond 20 a month though.
Im probably going to be a major outlier on this, but if they continue to buy developers and IP at the rate they have been and monthly game additions continued to escalate the way they have (there is already ton of stuff I play every month) I would be willing to go much higher than it currently is. Id say in the neighborhood of $40 USD or more.
The way I see it just this month, as far as games I am completely in on, I got Grounded, Prodeus, and Deathloop. Next month I get Scorn, Plague Tale, and I might dabble with Persona 5 just to see if it grabs me. That is already an absurd value.
$40 would be about the same as I pay per month for just Netflix and HBO Max (and those aren’t the only streaming services I have. Obviously I know they price will never get that high as a subscription model has to have a mass market price, but since the question is what would I personally be willing to go up to, that is my answer, without question.
That would be $480 dollars a year, I already spend far more than that in any given year on game purchases.
if just regular gamepass was 25 i mite go back to just waiting for sales for everything like i do on playstation. the family plan is worth it if everyone chips in or if you just have a lot of kids who all game on xbox. I will always fight every increase as a consumer
Completely agree, but I am happy to engage the hypothetical. Honestly just bouncing it around in my head Its kind of striking how good of a value it really is.
Especially since it got me thinking about video streaming services. I have currently have:
Netflix
HBO Max
Disney Plus/Hulu Ad Free Bundle
Youtube Premium
YouTube TV (I only subscribe during College/NFL Football Season)
Apple One Premium (have a Mac/iPhone/Apple Watch)
Amazon Prime
Shudder
And I use Game Pass more than pretty much all of those combined.
Yeah, I really need to trim the fat. I don’t even use the Netflix account. My best friend and his wife use it because their kids like a bunch of the kids shows on it. So in exchange they just feed me twice a month or so. It is a fair trade.
I don’t use the Disney Plus account for anything but The Simpsons, so I let my nieces use it instead.
My favorite out of all of them is Shudder and it is the cheapest one.
I think it’s clear that even if GamePass was $30 a month, it is way way way better value than any of the other subscription services based purely off use time
While I can fully see the value of Gamepass for those with gaming as thier main hobby or for families whith kids who are into playing games, for me personally Gamepass is too expensive as is. I buy few games, only when they are heavily discounted, and replay old games quite often.
I was much more into playing games when I was younger, but having a career, other hobbies and a social life outside gaming means that I play at the most 4-6 hours a week.
Gamepass has had it’s desired effect one me - it made me buy a Series S, and get into gaming again. I now am excited for games that were never ever going to work on my Switch, and me and my mates play weekly as a social event, so that’s that sorted as well.
Anyway, it’s interesting, because whilst I don’t use Netflix, Disney+ or any of that anywhere near the levels of Gamepass, they are used by my partner and my kids, so it’s not like I can shed them.
As for a price, I’d say GPU going to £20 would make me reconsider. Probably.
I think an increase of the Game Pass ultimate price in Western Europe is likely in the near future. It’s currently 13 Euro a month where I live (Sales tax included) with the current fluctuation of the Euro and the current inflation it wouldn’t surprise me if they raised it to 15 Euro a month.