I have long championed Gamepass as a great value, but as of this week that now comes to an end. Your mileage may vary here, but their newly announced price hike to bring the service to $30 a month firmly tips the scales out of balance with any value I’ve gotten from the service.
I went and took a look at the games I’ve played through Gamepass this year (significant time, not just a 5-10 min peek), and I then added up their full, day-one retail costs assuming I had simply bought them outright. The cost roughly broke even with what I paid for the year of service, and in a tie I’m willing to give Gamepass the win just to recognize the convenience it afforded me to try games to see if I was into them.
But at $30 a month, I no longer feel confident that I’m going to play enough of the games they offer for the price to make sense, and we’ve now crossed the threshold where I’m better off buying the few games I want directly from the publisher (and owning them outright, which has never been a big concern of mine, but it doesn’t hurt).
I actually stacked my Gamepass subscription last month (bought a year’s worth of EA Play subscriptions, and converted them to Gamepass Ultimate), so I’ll have the service until late 2026. But after that point, unless something changes in the next year (and the fact that the ‘change subscription’ page for GamePass has been crashing all afternoon suggests enough people are canceling to perhaps influence change), me and Xbox will be pretty much done.
Better to own the game and contribute directly to the game creators so they make more of the quality games you’re willing to spend money on.
yeah, well on one hand it wouldn’t have stung that much if it weren’t for the reports all the time how Microsoft is making record earnings and how profitable Game Pass is. Add to that massive layoffs which also increases profits.
Then again it’s how a pal of mine said. Increase the price by 50%. 20% of subsrcibers leave… you still have 30% profit. It’s a gamble they will most likely win.
I feel like they kept the price below profitability level, to get everyone hooked before they jacked it up.
Hey Tim/Comment Section, are the comics Analouge and D-Pad and Starcaster now Patreon only?
I recall that at least one was decided to be Patreon-only, but I’m unsure if all the story comics are on Patreon now. Thanks for the info in advance!
“Sir! The cow is out of milk!”
‘Increase suction.’
Let’s make games that mainly are though to be played on line. To have access to the online gaming service let’s make the players pay. Let’s raise the prices of the subscriptions.
Perfectly designed…
Microsoft saw that poll on Monday and was mad they were too high up the list.