I think @SheepDip put it best "Like they tried giving players the white glove treatment, while other companies nickel and dimed their fans, and were rewarded with seeing their console market share shrink to nothing… "
It’s not hatred. Microsoft isn’t alive with a beating heart. It’s pragmaticism. Xbox tried giving the most value to their console users, and they market chose to reward Sony and Nintendo doing the exact opposite all while media mocked Xbox or screamed bloody murder at them. The consumers in an industry determine EVERYTHING and unfortunately those in gaming made it clear that they didn’t want the value Xbox was offering. And we can blame whatever. We can say that Xbox didn’t have the games, but okay still with that logic why would Xbox make expensive exclusive games (or not exclusive) AND do all the other pro consumer stuff when Playstation and Nintendo don’t?
Had Xbox Game Pass actually really taken off and led to more console purchases from the start (even just this generation) then Microsoft would still be invested in maximizing the value given to consumers. But that’s not the case and instead Microsoft is seeing that the entire console market has stagnated and now it makes more sense financially for them to maximize money earned from console users with less of a care for offering the most value.
The hate you feel is more like the hate the entire Industry has for Xbox. This is what the Xbox Tax really means. If Sony is winning gamers over with a strategy that nickel and dimes them, then you best believe Xbox will doo the same. Even more so if Nintendo gets praised for doing it. This is also just the cold economic machine. Businesses either raise prices or spread costs over more consumers. Xbox console isn’t really getting more consumers, but Xbox PC and cloud are. So on console we get higher prices and less benefits.
It. Sucks. It really, really does. If I had three wishes one would be for people to just have judged Xbox with a neutral eye and consider all the value an Xbox console offered in that post 2015 era (especially the start of this Gen). If I could, I would compell everyone in the world to buy an Xbox Series S. Every decision we don’t like that is being made on console, is being made because the numbers aren’t there to support investing on the platform more. It’s just tragic how the console market and Xbox console sales ended up, when they kicked this generation off with the best hardware (X) and best budget (S) consoles and the most value through Game Pass, a stupid generous rewards program, free cloud saves, quick resume and smart delivery for free upgrades. But people. Didn’t buy into those games enough (especially non-Xbox gamers), so here we are.
So, how to you think the current price of this new subscription for ultimate is gonna last? I give it a month or two till they backtrack, cause i expect many are just not gonna be in it unless they managed to use rewards to get them.
I would be fine with the price if they dropped paid multiplayer period and lowered GPU by $5. And hey maybe that’s the strategy. Make everyone angry and then “lower” the price to a new price that’s still higher than it was before.
I still feel like this is utter garbage. I will probably relocated from ultimate and go premium as its similar to the previous ultimate, now whether the current ultimate changes price sometime soon is up in the air but i gave my own opinion but am not gonna wait to find out. If you do not like the move respond with your wallet that will make them listen, which is what is gonna occur by the end of this week.
My ultimate doesn’t expire until December 2026, so there’s no responding with my wallet. I’ve been a sub long enough to have benefited from the initial 3 year 1:1 GP conversion and then I kept stacking and did it again when they were lowering conversion values.
Hopefully they dont remove being able to gameshare gamepass. I haven’t paid for gamepass in a long time. I got 1 or 2 years when I bought my series x and so did my brother. I used mine first then he used his and then he’s been paying ever since it ran out. I can definitely see him cancelling over the price increase though
Actually for a lot of consumer this doesn’t work as intended. I can’t share both my games and my subscription at the same time for the moment while it was possible before (see megathread on Xbox support Reddit, there is a pinned post)
I wish they had just left the previous tiers and created new ones, I have no interest in Fortnite. The Ultimate at 25 I think would have been easier for many to take but that 30 was so sudden. I’m still sticking with mine.
I’ve been sharing with my brother since this whole Gamepass thing started. Wonder though if it all heads to PC, will it still work? I don’t remember seeing Home Xbox anywhere on the PC Xbox app.
You sign in donor account into MS Store and Recipient account into Xbox App, You should have a warning about account mismatch in the Xbox App. Xbox app should have access to content, including subs, from MS Store account, while Xbox App account is used for save sync and achievements.
EDIT: I soloed Project Winter achievement that required 7 people using 1 (maybe 2, can’t remember) GPU, 2(3?) xboxes and muliple PCs (some borrowed from family).
Am waiting around a day to a week to see if anything changes, cause if nothing really changes, especially in my country, i will just cancel the subscription and focus on my backlong of games. If i buy a game i will just focus on play anywhere games.
Xbox App user has access to MS Store app user content. Possible sideffects include not having access to content from an account that is not signed into MS Store. Only one account can be signed into MS store at the time.
This is a bigger issue than I think Microsoft wants to acknowledge. The tiers are a mess. There’s no console only GP library and not everyone wants cloud, console, and PC. Also I’d rather if they kept ultimate, upped it to $25, and then added a “plus ultra” where you can choose an additional subscription from a list for free. Like I don’t get any use out of Fortnite, but I’d love to bundle ESO Plus with my GPU for an added $5 (to bring the total new price for the plus ultra tier to $30).