Xbox Please Change Games With (Fools) Gold Into Something Valuable

COG writes: COG Considers what kind of value Games with Gold brings Xbox Live Gold subscribers and what kind of changes could be beneficial.

[SpadeX]

I feel like they're trying to find a way to shut the feature down in favor game pass ultimate without having to deal with fan outrage.

It's way too obvious they're focusing in bringing more games to game pass than to put effort into games with gold, but generally, that value of games with gold brings compared to PS Plus (even though both are roughly at the same price) is quite terrible and they can't be excused for that.

[SullysCigar]

Agree on all points.

They'll to need to be very careful if they try this. I expect Gamepass is due a price hike soon, so they're going to have a hard time demonstrating an attractive value proposition.

[DJStotty]

Careful of what?

According to gamers, games with gold is soooooo bad every month, a cancellation of the feature would be welcomed would it not?

[TheProblem]

@DJStotty

GWG is terrible!

But people don’t want to see a cancellation. They want to see an improvement.

[RgR]

@DJspotty

I think you're forgetting the online aspect. Games with gold for a year is far cheaper than game pass ultimate.

Gamers dont want to pay more for it and they would much rather the offerings improve or if they remove the offerings that they reduce the price to 20$ or 30$ a year.

They want to remove it so that players will be forced into game pass ultimate and pay more. Then remove gwg permanently and then you'll see the value of game pass go down.

[DJStotty]

"I feel like they're trying to find a way to shut the feature down in favor game pass ultimate without having to deal with fan outrage."

Even if they did stop GWG, how can fans be outraged at free games? Xbox live gold is purchased and subscribed to for online multiplayer.

I do not think anyone buys gold just for games with gold lol.

[SpadeX]

I think it's sort of if they keep the same price that they'll have to deal with the outrage if games with gold does shut down, either this or the fact that there are gold subscribers who can't subscribe to game pass and they find it too expensive for their budget, which makes them want games with gold to offer more value than what it already has. Just my two cents.

Right now you have to shell out $100-120 to get Gold officially from Microsoft which is insane. But other websites are offering the year-long membership for around $60.

[DJStotty]

Yeah i agree, the decision by Microsoft to no longer sell 12 months of gold is purely to make Gamepass Ultimate the more attractive option.

If i remember correctly, i do not think they increased the price when they started games with gold, here in the UK 12 months of gold has always been around £39.99 (with some retailers pushing to £49.99), so them removing it should bear no backlash.

Yeah i think i broke down the costs of each option in another comment :-

XBLG - £39.99 (12 months until codes run out, then £59.98 for 2 x 6 months @ £29.99 each)
XBLG/Gamepass - £150.00 (both subs - 12 months)
Gamepass Ultimate - £130.00 (1 sub - 12 months)

This is of course current pricing and is subject to change in the future.

[DJStotty]

Edit: I typed the cost of both @ £120, it is £150 for both seperately for XBLG/Gamepass.

[SpadeX]

Not sure why Microsoft's UK pricing a lot cheaper than US, but I do get what you're saying. I believe Microsoft released games with gold to justify the $60 price of Gold in comparison to other services such as PS Plus, especially since many fans were complaining pre-GWG that the $60 price is too expensive yet it offered nothing to justify it except online play and exclusive discounts. (I honestly was one of those fans lol)

[DJStotty]

I think you are correct on Microsoft's store pricing, i think 12 months of gold is around £59.99 when bought through the xbox directly, but i very rarely go direct through MS lol. Currently £49.99 at Amazon, and £39.99 at CDKeys.

I recently upgraded to Ultimate as i was paying for both subs seperately lol

[alb1899]

The value to have an xbox is in the subscription to Gamepass so it makes a lots of sense that almost no one cares about games with gold.
Where did you read that Gamepass subscription will go up?
Just speculation.
Eventually it will as Netflix, Spotify and the 70 dollars games that you are buying from next gen did.

[SpadeX]

Where did I say that it will go up? I understand Game pass offers more value than gold in general but as I said earlier, it can be a lot more expensive to afford in the long run for some people, which is why Gold would be the better more affordable option for the time being.

[alb1899]

Sony doesn't have a subscription where you can play new releases so it is understandable that sony gives value to ps plus.

[SpadeX]

They do offer PS now, which is the more ideal competitor to Game Pass, obviously it's no match yet in terms of offered value though.

[alb1899]

Im talking about new releases.

[esherwood]

Gamepass will ultimately be a bad deal there just trying to get people into it. I guarantee they got a 10 year plan to work in more and more micro transactions. I’m switching to Sony this generation because I’m hanging on to the $60 for games as long as I can.

[TheEnigma313]

GWG is a complete embarrassment

[DJStotty]

Therefore i think they should cancel it.

Why not?

[TheEnigma313]

Or do better

[DJStotty]

I do not understand all the stick GWG gets, the games are FREE, if you do not like them, do not download.

Gamers are so entitled these days where they expect things for free, and then start crying in their cornflakes when they do not like the games.

I check the games out every month, some i do not bother with, others i do, i do not get offended if there is a bad month (lets be honest, how can any month be bad when the games are free?)

[crazyCoconuts]

You do realize that something cannot be FREE when you pay for it, right?

[darthv72]

Technically they are at no additional cost (aka free). Nobody bought gold for the games. They did because of online multiplayer access.

If a gold member decides to no longer subscribe, they can cancel at any time and the xb/360 games they acquired from the service are theirs to keep. Something plus members cannot do if they decide to no longer pay for that service.

[crazyCoconuts]

If "nobody bought gold for the games" then it stands to reason that nobody will be upset. However, it's a big world out there - gotta accept that people may think differently than you. And maybe the fact that people can keep games forever that they don't want to play isn't enough to make up for the shortfall. Dunno. I wouldn't be happy with it, but that's just me. As long as MS is seeing their subs grow, they must be doing something right.

[esherwood]

Pretty sure I’m paying for it...

[Hawk198666]

Idiot

[Atom666]

I can accept that some kind of fee is necessary to keep XBL services going. Security, anti-cheating, etc., while not perfect, have been worth it over the years. But in my 18 years of subscribing to it, I've never spent $60 a year. I always found deals to get it at $40 or below because that's what I value it at.

When I can hop over to my PC and get online multiplayer for $0, or sub to PS+ instead and get better offerings, they need to do more than just say "you need to pay for online, take these and don't complain."

You can say I'm entitled, but bad deals are bad deals. GPU is a good deal. Xbl is not imo.

I still say cut GWG and slash Live to $20-30.

Or include it in GP, but maybe create a 1st party-only Gamepass tier that includes Live for $5 a month. If you want Live + all GP games like Dirt 5 or Yakuza, $10. If you want PC, Xcloud, Live, and all games, $15.

I don't know. But they can't look at free MP on PC and better offerings on PS+ and just keep up the same underwhelming offerings. Well, they can, but it's not a good look.

[Futureshark]

I think if you took away the free games that come with GWG (no matter how consistently poor they are), there would a huge outcry.

People don't like having something taken from them and paying the same.
So reduce the price of Gold Sub to counter that? With 90 million odd subbers, MS will not reduce the amount of that huge revenue stream. In fact they recently attempted to double it of course.
Push everyone onto Gamepass? Make Gamepass free with Gold Sub and forget GWG, but then what about all the Gamepass Ultimate subbers who have already paid more? The less savvy majority pay full price for this rather then the savvy few who find the 1$ per month or MS rewards deals.

So better to stick with the status quo at the moment, and watch the sub dollars roll in.

[DJStotty]

I think the plan is to keep those that just want gold, paying for gold with the option to get gamepass alongside.

As for GWG, they will not be going anywhere, and Gamepass cost will be frozen until gamers migrate to Gamepass Ultimate. Once the majority of gamers are subbed to Ultimate, gold will be scrapped, with minimal outcry as most will be subbed to Ultimate.

It is definately going that way with the current pricepoints/strategy

[ChasterMies]

Xbox Live has 90M subscribers. Xbox Live Gold does not. PS4 had an install base of 114M consoles and about 47M PS+ subscribers. Xbox players aren’t any different and with an Xbox One install base of about 50M Xbox Live Gold probably has 20-25M subscribers. Microsoft is looking at the 15M GamePass subscribers and seeing a path to turn them and the Xbox Live Gold subscribers into GamePass Ultimate subscribers. There is no place for Game with Gold in Xbox’s future.

[Shiken]

Honestly they should just shut it down altogether, and keep putting all the value in gamepass.

Lets face it, regardless of why online play should be free, it is never going to happen on console. So what they should do is drop XBL Gold to like 15-20 bucks a month, and put all the live benefits into gamepass. Keep gamepass as the premium service and cheapen live to be a low cost entry for online play woth no extra perks.

Right now they are pushing two premium services, and it just looks silly. Especially when gamepass is easily the best deal in gaming right now, while Live GOLD is easily the worst.

[alb1899]

That's what they are going to do, it is a matter of time.

[DJStotty]

I think the reduction will happen once most gamers are subbed to Ultimate, it is by far the current best value out of the options.

[Father__Merrin]

Not everyone wants to pay £10.99 a month for GPU, the standard £6.99 is perfectly fine to play online and have a handful of games per month (2 of which are yours to keep)

[DJStotty]

I know it seems a lot, but to put the cost in comparison, i have just spent £12 at mcdonalds for my dinner.

[Locutus_of_borg]

Dude... I’m not sure which is worse , 12 quid for 4 crap games for gold or a 12 quid on a Maccies ... 😂

[SullysCigar]

Lmao, just wow.

[CardzFan17]

the worst thing about GWG is that it gives anonymous loud mouths behind a computer screen 1 more thing to complain about

[Zeref]

It's going away any time now. There's no need to.

[franwex]

The solution is to scarp Gold and make online playing free.

But who am I kidding. It’s basically free money.

[Destiny1080]

its free on Pc for a reason

[esherwood]

Crazy they were Evan going to increase the cost of gold to. I bet there losing money with gamepass but it’s to soon to hiker up the price