Remember when Xbox raised the price for their Game Pass Ultimate plan? It’s now going from $19.99 to $29.99 a month, a 50% increase. Annually, that’s about $360 a year. That’s more than the launch price of the Xbox Series S console.
Remember when I said that players needed to decide if they felt it was worth the price hike? Well the people have spoken! By canceling their subscriptions en masse and demanding boycotts!
What Players Are Angry About
Across the internet there’s been scathing criticism over these changes. Only Ultimate subscribers get day-one access to new games. Worse, this is going into effect right before Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases on November 14. Players who wanted to subscribe are pissed CoD won’t be available on the cheaper Essential or Premium plans. Casual gamers are not impressed with the addition of Fortnite Crew or Ubisoft Classics either.
The whole point of Game Pass is that it’s an affordable way to play certain titles you couldn’t afford or you didn’t think were worth $70. The new price is making the service just as expensive as buying full games outright.
International Gamers Pay the Steepest Price
While $29.99 might sting for U.S. players, international gamers are getting hit the hardest by these price hikes. In the UK, the price is £22.99. In Canada, around CAD 20. In other regions like Brazil, India, or Turkey, local taxes and exchange rates make Game Pass cost as much as a full game. Add in global economic stress like the cost of living crisis in the UK, and the whole thing is beyond frustrating. Some gamers can not justify paying so much for a subscription service when your bills are due.
Gaming Is Getting Too Expensive
The Game Pass backlash shows that gamers are tired of everything getting so expensive. Consoles are going up in price. The Switch 2 was $450 at launch, which is ridiculous for a handheld console. Speaking of ridiculous prices for handhelds, ASUS’ ROG Xbox Ally is being sold for $550, with the ROG Xbox Ally going for almost $900. Xbox console prices are insane, with the Xbox Series X being over $800. Publishers keep trying to make $80 games the new industry standard. There’s rumors that GTA 6 could cost up to $100.
How Will This Affect Xbox’s Future?
Xbox built its reputation around the idea that gaming could be accessible to everyone. Now they’re alienating the very people that made Game Pass successful: cost-conscious gamers who couldn’t justify buying every new release.
Competitors like PlayStation Plus have slightly better pricing with a better library. Many ex-subscribers of Game Pass have vowed to switch over to PC. Free-to-play titles on mobile are gaining traction. Ananta is supposed to be really good and it’s free-to-play. If Ananta lives up to the hype, the entire industry will be flipped on its head. If a free-to-play title can deliver a better experience than a AAA game, why should you have to spend so much?
Enough Is Enough
Gamers are tired of the endless price creep. This isn’t about one subscription service. It’s about an industry that keeps raising prices while insisting players should just accept it. Microsoft may have thought that adding new features would shield them but players’ response shows otherwise. Gaming is now out of reach for many and people are finally putting their foot down. Enough is enough.
