Microsoft Raises Xbox Game Pass Top Subscription 50% To $30 Monthly (hollywoodreporter.com)
- Reference: 0179615336
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/10/01/1515205/microsoft-raises-xbox-game-pass-top-subscription-50-to-30-monthly
- Source link: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/xbox-game-pass-price-how-much-does-it-cost-asus-rog-ally-x-1236390793/
Game Pass generated nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue with 34 million subscribers in 2024. Console hardware prices are also increasing, with the Xbox Series X rising $50 to $649.99 starting October 3.
[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/xbox-game-pass-price-how-much-does-it-cost-asus-rog-ally-x-1236390793/
Xbox has been disappearing... (Score:4, Interesting)
Xbox (and accessories) are now gone from Costco and Target, whats the strategy?
Re:Xbox has been disappearing... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that they're just trying to kill off the XBox brand at this point. Their product strategy is suicidal. For example, the XBox Series S is now almost 5 years old. This is the point in the product lifecycle, they should be discounting the product and getting it's replacement ready. Instead, they increased the price from $300 to $379 without making any hardware upgrades to the unit.
Who on earth would be willing to pay that much for a 5 year old gaming console? Nobody. Which explains why Costco and Target aren't selling them anymore.
re: Killing it off (Score:2)
I hadn't even considered this, but I think you're right. Microsoft doesn't really stand to lose anything by getting rid of the console hardware at this point. They probably realized the income brought in by selling the hardware isn't even worth the marketing costs, the need to provide warranty coverage, etc. etc.
Everything they sell to play on X-Box can run just fine as a native Windows PC game, and there's a convenient Microsoft Store included in every copy of Win 11 for people to shop in and download the
Re: re: Killing it off (Score:2)
Plus all the handhelds either out now or on the way. Competition on hardware is getting fierce. A nice steady revenue stream from subscriptions is a lot less hassle and risk.
The strategy is Windows (Score:1)
Xbox is becoming the gaming component of Windows.
They aren't getting much of a share in consoles because they don't have much of a presence in other countries. On the other hand Windows is available and used worldwide. They are folding Xbox into Windows, and you can see the beginnings of this in the Xbox ROG Ally portables. Improving the gaming experience in Windows is the future for Xbox because there is no growth for them in the console space.
Their next console's dev kit is just a Windows dev kit and dist
Probably the same thing games workshop does (Score:2)
You've got people that all their community and friends are tied up with that hobby so you soak them like crazy.
So like 40K is up to five bucks a pop for a basic space Marine. And you can't really just buy the cheap starter sets to army build like you could back in the day because of the selection in the set is set up to make it so you can't do that.
But it's hard to quit because it's been your main hobby for years.
I think that's going to be the same thing here we've got lots of people that have t
It's the Xbox $360 per year (Score:2)
Microsoft can't drop the crack pipe of subscriptions. At some point customers are going to say "screw it" and these companies will suffer the fate of Sears.
Re: (Score:2)
Sears? Microsoft is going to bought out by vulture capitalists who will sell all the real world assets to a holding company they own and then charge microsoft rent on their on buildings at inflated prices while giving themselves huge bonuses with the money they got looting the company? Then they will force microsoft into bankruptcy by forcing the stock to be delisted by short selling it beyond a 100%? knowing when it goes bankrupt they won't have to pay back the shorts they have?
Brilliant!
Re: (Score:2)
Another moment of silence for Sears.
Fell behind even though they started successfully all those decades ago as 'The Sears Roebuck Catalog' and never chased or bothered to continue with internet dominance until it was way too late. Then their bones were picked clean by a Vulture claiming 'I am here to help'.
They actually owned the land their buildings were built upon instead of amassing huge ongoing debt with the modern Lease model.
That's asking too much (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not even sure I would pay $20 monthly for it, but $30 per month is $360 per year. That's about the price of buying a new game (that I will own forever) every two to three months. If we're comparing it to PC where I can get games on GOG or during Steam sales for a lot less it's closer to paying for ten or more games per year and not owning any of them. Never mind that if you have a console with a disc drive you can still buy used copies of games, often for prices better than digital copies on Steam would cost. Many libraries even have copies of console games that they lend.
This seems like a good way of losing a lot of customers to end up with barely any additional revenue.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah. I had gamepass for $5 a month (through various deals). It had value at that price. It has no value at 20 or 30/mo because i'd rather OWN the games on Steam and GOG at that point.
Re: (Score:2)
I did the 1$/month promo when it first came out. I played through a single game and canceled it.
Gaming is sadly not nearly as magical as it was when I was younger. I've always been a pc gaming fan, and if feels like consoles peaked at Xbox/PS2 before the always online every game must be connected day 1 200gb patch bullshit. My favorite game of all time is still the OG XBOX softmod and hard-drive lock-key extraction game.
Re: (Score:2)
I used the conversion trick 3 years ago so I wasn't even paying $20 per month. But due to that trick going away and the constant price increases and other reasons, I've made sure recurring billing was off on that subscription long ago. It's finally going to expire on the 11th this month.
30 bucks a month? (Score:3)
30 bucks a month comes out to $360 per year. No thanks, I'd rather stick to the $200-$300 I spend buying games per year and not have to worry about games I'm interested in playing being taken away from me on a whim.
The other tiers don't sound very appealing either.
Re: (Score:2)
The issue is that some (maybe all?) games require an xbox subscription to play multi-player.
This is why I maintain an xbox core subscription, which still comes with game pass.
This saves me $20 a month! Thanks! (Score:2)
My kid doesn't use his XBox very much anymore. Will be cancelling the subscription tonight.
Re: (Score:2)
I've barely touch my Xbox. Most of my gaming is on PC (Steam) now. Much better games from all the small studios.
Ever since i cancelled my subscription i am happie (Score:2)
For the price of subscription you can get pretty sweet deals on games you actually want to play in the store, since the game selection on the pass is very limited. And it's not like you buy that much to spend 20/30 monthly on average. In sun, you pay less, get to play ANY games you like and plus, the developers are not getting ripped off
why is anyone still using Xbox (Score:1)
It became patently clear in the last year that MSFT views its XBox division the way that Broadcom views VMware - just a cow to be milked for every last drop. If you're still using XBox instead of any of the alternatives - Sony, Steam, Nintendo - you're a chump. That's how MSFT sees you. A chump.
Re: (Score:2)
> why is anyone still using Xbox
Because I own one. And it still works. Then again, I'm not the typical gamer they target. The last game I bought within a year of its release was Outerworlds. And I have never, nor will I ever, subscribe to Game Pass. MS may think I'm a chump, but I'm a chump that doesn't give them a lot of money.
I'm sure of one thing (Score:2)
I'm sure that they are offering more for that increase. More games or more time to play them? No? Well there has got to be some reason why.
Greed perhaps?
Sunset of Microsoft (Score:2)
If Microsoft is so eager to die, let them.
The next Xbox is Game Mode in Windows 12 (Score:3)
It's already happening with the Xbox Rog Ally, creating a "console" version would be trivial and would deal with the SteamOS issue by allowing Windows's anti cheat integration. Stand-alone Xboxes don't really have a reason to exist anymore now that mini pcs are basically the same size or smaller as consoles. Microsoft is focusing everything on Copilot anyway so laying off the Xbox division to Windows would allow it to be streamlined.
Simple math (Score:2)
So since they've doubled the price, they should now generate $10 billion in revenue! How can that simple math be wrong?
Re: (Score:2)
This should help you out [1]https://www.autismspeaks.org/ [autismspeaks.org]
[1] https://www.autismspeaks.org/
Re: (Score:1)
please share you steam library sir, excited to see the catalog you keep with your values here
Re: Woke Games. BOYCOTT Microsoft. Anti-Male (Score:2)
What? Lol