A sudden, drastic price change of Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold in the middle of a period of economic uncertainty is an unexpected move from a company that’s built a track record of doing right by gamers.
"Existing Gold subscribers on a 6- or 12-month membership will continue to have their memberships renewed at the old rates. I suspect that’s most of the people reading this, but again, punishing new players at the start of a generation in which Microsoft is looking to regain some of the marketshare it lost to Sony last generation is (say it with me) not a good look."
Crucial point. This was an Xbox One level mistake. If Sony is smart they will let Microsoft dig their own grave with this and refuse to hike prices. Time will tell.
Even considering this as example for Sony, they've allowed f2p on PlayStation since day-one offering f2p. Likewise PS+ has never been as required as XBLG which seems to need to be shamed and self-embarrassed into removing things like f2p from behind their paywall.
Microsoft are just another of the insidious 'big tech' American conglomerates,no better than Apple, Google or Amazon. They're too big and wealthy and think they control us - and they kind of do...just look what happened to Parler!
Time for a change. And Microsoft pulling an 'Xbox 180' on this particular issue doe NOT make it okay. If the sheeple kept their mouths shut, they'd be ripping off people as per the plan - only the fear of an Xbox One launch-style backlash and how that might impact their coffers has made them do an about face.
This shows they've learned nothing since X1 launch fiasco. They can't even pretend to keep their nose clean and they don't deserve our support.
"Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold Price Hike Isn't a Good Look"
Just might be the understatement of the year so far.
"built a track record of doing right by gamers"
How though? I get the gamepass angle and I agree with that for sure, but Last gen? Just a poor showing of games compared to the competition. Sony released amazing award winning exclusives all gen and in 2020 before the new consoles launched, while MS has next to nothing in 2020 for their console in comparison. The end of the 360 life-cycle was the same, when their competition were releasing amazing exclusives right up unitl the end. Look at their launch titles for Series X and compare to PS5. See their mapped out 2021 and compare to Sony's mapped out 2021. It's just not even close.
I'm not saying their future doesn't look a little brighter with their aquisitions, but don't act like they've done right by gamers who really, only want to play great games and lots of them.
Geez, if MS has "built a track record" then Sony own the blueprints and building materials MS used to build the damn 'track record'.
Here you are again, no Xbox but complaining about it anyway. As you quite rightly said in the comments on the other story, people are outraged about this... there just all PlayStation owners 😂
Seriously though, the move is admittedly anti-consumer, no arguments with that. But it’s clear that they’re looking to phase out this subscription model in favour of gamepass. As a Series X owner, I’m currently enjoying 3 months of it for £1, and with the amount of rewards you get from unlocking achievements it’s unlikely I’ll need to pay too dollar any time soon (plus £10.99 a month is pocket change in the grand scheme of things).
As mainly a PC gamer in my opinion those playstation owners are your biggest allies. I don't have any social media accounts but hopefully they go on to twitter and facebook and make all the noise they can because MS is literally asking Xbox gamers to bendover and... well you know where I am going with this
I’ll give the gaming community their props for forcing a multinational corporation into a reserving a major business decision. As a gamepass ultimate subscriber, I has no effect on me either way.
I’m not sure its healthy for people to still be finding negatives from the outcome though. People who spend all day on the internet spreading negativity are the absolute dregs of society.
I don’t understand the point of raising the price of Gold. Shouldn’t it be Gamepass receiving a price hike? Subscription services that rely on licensing are low profit. I can easily afford the raised price of live gold, but I find doubling the price of gold to be ludicrous. Microsoft is also probably decreasing the profit margins of first party titles by encouraging people to rent instead of buy.
They are only jacking up the price because it includes Gamepass something I don't want and I don't want crammed down my throat. I just want Gold that's it should have kept that option as well I would have paid to renew another year. As it stands in April 2021 I don't think I am renewing my membership and just go back to Playstation.
This is a terrible look, and pretty much guarantees that I won't be playing online on an Xbox of any kind. Also, I couldn't care less about Game Pass from my own personal point of view. I don't need 100 games, and have no desire to play that many video games in a month, or even in a year.
I purchase the games I want to play, and in terms of new games, that might be 2 or 3 games per year. I'm alright with paying full price for a game I really like on day one. I don't want to be on a subscription, and I personally think that Xbox has missed a golden opportunity to make Xbox a really attractive platform by making online play free, attracting a massive amount of players to the platform, while offering Game Pass as an optional subscription with exceptional value for younger demographics, which I'm sure would do well on its own merits.
I have gotten a game ultimate twice. My issue with it is that I don’t have the time, nor interest to play most of the games in the subscription. I would rather buy titles like psychonauts 2 and Halo:infinite outright as discs since I like to collect. Plus, I buy many physicalgames on sale [often new] to add to my collection.
Same topic, different thread, same feelings, so I’ll just repost.
Ok that is straight up ridiculous. This is more than a price hike. This is a price explosion. Doubling the price? Not something like a $5 here increase and a $3 there increase. They went from “Hi, my name is” to “I think you’re pregnant” instantly. I said a while ago Microsoft WILL get their money back from the Zenimax deal. Didn’t think they’d gouge the crap out of us this fast to get it. Think of it this way, they doubling the revenue from subs overnight. Before this they hypothetically went from 5 million subs to 10 million. “Sir in 10 years I expect our revenue to double from subs to live” “I need that money back in half that 😠” “🤔 Not a problem. There’s a reason we waited a few months AFTER the release of our newest consoles to play this card. Now they’re already invested.... operation rape... BEGINS!”
They really aren't helping themselves lately. Are they trying to push people to gamepass? You'd think with the last few months they would want to acquire a more favourable public image. Near doubling the price (for new players) of a service does the opposite.
This is them realizing they're not beating Sony or Nintendo so they will have to find different avenues to raise their earnings. This generation was already over so this doesn't matter.
I've said before and I'll say it again, Microsoft's gaming division needs to just shut down because everytime they take 5 steps forward, they take 10 steps back. Ridiculous!
Every single time for some reason or another, this company always tries to grab the steering wheel of the industry and drive it in terrible directions. There are commonplace things right now that nobody likes that were the direct result of MS doing that. When they were first in the console space to have online, they made a subscription mandatory to play, which resulted in Sony and Nintendo copying them years later. Everything they do is done to make more money for themselves at the cost of the buyer, but it's funny because I haven't seen Sony abuse their leader position even once this gen outside of that censorship thing, but that wasn't to make them more money I can safely say.
This is like the 5th time I've seen them try to play chicken with everyone to see what they can get away with.
gold has been garbage for years, coincidentally, around the same time they started pushing gamepass
what's also strange to me is, they have done away with the one year option to buy gold, which means they can change the price every 6 months, what i mean is they have the option to change the price every six months instead of on a yearly bases, obviously not right know, but it leaves the way for further more frequent price increases
If Sony keep their prices and provide the diverse library of games then it's a clear dominance for them and might even push them higher when the Playstation 5 become available to all.
Why is it that Microsoft need a public outcry to course correct each every time, they are not consumer friendly company they most recently have been made out to be. folk need to realise when they have got a big enough user base they will hike the gamepass subscription prices up.
“unexpected move from a company that’s built a track record of doing right by gamers.”
I would like to see this track record. Over the past generations they lost heavy studios for the few 1st party games/exclusives they had, disrupted the market with paid demos and timed exclusives, introduced pricing models for network services and tried to use the overall console market as a platform to introduce windows as a media hub into the living room with little care regarding games... if anything it’s been argued that Microsoft has attempted to nearly destroy console gaming all together..
Agreed lol. They've been doing okay since the Xbox One X was announced but this is the same company that introduced paid online, was responsible for RROD, and tried to shove Kinect down people's throats.
"Existing Gold subscribers on a 6- or 12-month membership will continue to have their memberships renewed at the old rates. I suspect that’s most of the people reading this, but again, punishing new players at the start of a generation in which Microsoft is looking to regain some of the marketshare it lost to Sony last generation is (say it with me) not a good look."
Crucial point. This was an Xbox One level mistake. If Sony is smart they will let Microsoft dig their own grave with this and refuse to hike prices. Time will tell.
"Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold Price Hike Isn't a Good Look"
Just might be the understatement of the year so far.
"built a track record of doing right by gamers"
How though? I get the gamepass angle and I agree with that for sure, but Last gen? Just a poor showing of games compared to the competition. Sony released amazing award winning exclusives all gen and in 2020 before the new consoles launched, while MS has next to nothing in 2020 for their console in comparison. The end of the 360 life-cycle was the same, when their competition were releasing amazing exclusives right up unitl the end. Look at their launch titles for Series X and compare to PS5. See their mapped out 2021 and compare to Sony's mapped out 2021. It's just not even close.
I'm not saying their future doesn't look a little brighter with their aquisitions, but don't act like they've done right by gamers who really, only want to play great games and lots of them.
Geez, if MS has "built a track record" then Sony own the blueprints and building materials MS used to build the damn 'track record'.
I don’t understand the point of raising the price of Gold. Shouldn’t it be Gamepass receiving a price hike? Subscription services that rely on licensing are low profit. I can easily afford the raised price of live gold, but I find doubling the price of gold to be ludicrous. Microsoft is also probably decreasing the profit margins of first party titles by encouraging people to rent instead of buy.
They are only jacking up the price because it includes Gamepass something I don't want and I don't want crammed down my throat. I just want Gold that's it should have kept that option as well I would have paid to renew another year. As it stands in April 2021 I don't think I am renewing my membership and just go back to Playstation.
This is a terrible look, and pretty much guarantees that I won't be playing online on an Xbox of any kind. Also, I couldn't care less about Game Pass from my own personal point of view. I don't need 100 games, and have no desire to play that many video games in a month, or even in a year.
I purchase the games I want to play, and in terms of new games, that might be 2 or 3 games per year. I'm alright with paying full price for a game I really like on day one. I don't want to be on a subscription, and I personally think that Xbox has missed a golden opportunity to make Xbox a really attractive platform by making online play free, attracting a massive amount of players to the platform, while offering Game Pass as an optional subscription with exceptional value for younger demographics, which I'm sure would do well on its own merits.