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No Changes to Xbox Live Gold Pricing, Free-to-Play Games to be Unlocked [Update]

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
They can afford it. Endless warchest and all that gravy! Right?
You can't have it both ways. You assume that they have funding issues and Game Pass price will go up/first party games won't be exclusive in future, but also that they have enough funds to blow money like that? While they are at it they may as well disable paid online.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
You can't have it both ways. You assume that they have funding issues and Game Pass price will go up/first party games won't be exclusive in future, but also that they have enough funds to blow money like that? While they are at it they may as well disable paid online.
Bro, if you haven’t noticed, I’m being cheeky.

I’m not about to fellate them for reversing their initial fuck up(s), however. I will just welcome them into what others already have been doing.
 

Hugare

Member
If there were no backslashes, an Xbox owner would be playing always online, with an Xbox with a Kinect attached to it, paying DOUBLE in order to play online with friends.

This company always try to push the limits of what players can accept as the norm

"Pro customer" my ass. Phil is just better than the others before him with PR.
 
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CitizenZ

Banned
For those not keeping score that was a 5 billion dollar per yr lose for MS. To those thinking this was a PR stunt, you have never been in business. this has probably been in the works for over 1 yr and now with the lose of 5 billion, there goes any $$$ left for MS to buy anything. Also as i said earlier, to me this take back means they are treading on thin ice which means they are not seeing growth or the ROI they expected. I could easily see PS let go in the coming weeks.
 
Xbox gamers need to get down and thank other gamers for making their brand better. I always see countless excuses and support for some of the dumbest policies. Not giving games for their premium service. Hiding things behind Gold that no other company did, including streaming apps and F2P games. Always online DRM. Lacking 1st party support. Raising the price of Gold, cause "who doesn't just have GP Ultimate." Other gamers have to come out in droves to criticize MS's dumb decisions, as well as not buy their products, so they do a 180. You're welcome. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Its clearly their longterm plan. They want Game pass to be the basic yearly sub instead of Live.

They're just not sure how to move everyone over. Its fundamentally about getting $60/year subs to pay $120-180/year. Hence the sneaky scummy moves.

I actually think your idea of keeping online play behind a paywall (except for F2P) and moving online to GP wouldn't have been received that bad. Same basic price increase with the added benefit that GP has never offered discounts for longer terms, but with something of real value added for the customers. I think they could have pulled that off. Instead the PR spin they tried to place on the price hike made things worse.

I think Sony could combine PS+ and PSNow for $10 a month and do okay also.
 
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Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Xbox gamers need to get down and thank other gamers for making their brand better. I always see countless excuses and support for some of the dumbest policies. Not giving games for their premium service. Hiding things behind Gold that no other company did, including streaming apps and F2P games. Always online DRM. Lacking 1st party support. Raising the price of Gold, cause "who doesn't just have GP Ultimate." Other gamers have to come out in droves to criticize MS's dumb decisions, as well as not buy their products, so they do a 180. You're welcome. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Thank them for requesting 1st party games be made multiplatform? Thank them Xbox over heating FUD?
Also no one was excusing this policy.
 

FrankWza

Gold Member
Faith restored. Great move.
This is the exact issue and why anyone who defends Sony is accused of defending whatever they do. When you accumulate a ton of goodwill, it would be difficult for one move to make pretty much every supporter of your brand and ecosystem to want to jump ship or lose faith. That’s what happened yesterday. There’s is no one move, like this move, that Sony can make to shift the large majority side so much. This is what you can’t understand. Msoft, despite all of its monetary advantages, is still a business. They want to make money. You don’t matter to them as a consumer. This reversal wasn’t done for you, it was done so that it could be applied elsewhere. Sheer a sheep more than once....
 
Good that they changed their minds, but what did they expect the reaction to be like with that huge price increase? A price increase is one thing, but when it doubles you just have to wonder what we’re they thinking?
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
This comes after they cut the 12 months subscription option too.
This was my fear when they announced the price increase, but in their ‘turnaround’ statement they specifically stated that 12 month memberships will continue to be available at retail. So they haven’t cut shit, they’ve just stopped selling it themselves.

I have no doubt at all though that their initial plan was $60 for 6 months and stop retailers from selling 12 month cards.
 

cosmicom

Banned
If there were no backslashes, an Xbox owner would be playing always online, with an Xbox with a Kinect attached to it, paying DOUBLE in order to play online with friends.

This company always try to push the limits of what players can accept as the norm

"Pro customer" my ass. Phil is just better than the others before him with PR.

In Xbox, there´s a balance between interests of corporation and consumers; consumers want to pay less for more, and corporation want to earn more with less services; in that balance is where Xbox Game Pass is, as long as xbox consumers are eager to express their interests, and corporation listens, all will be okay.

Playstation, on the other hand...
 
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quest

Not Banned from OT
Sony prioritizes scummy play to win games over retail?
Which has an added online fee? This goes for both Microsoft and Sony. Retail customers are not as valued by either because they are treated worse. This encourages the scummy mobile model on consoles.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
You and those two other posters (@The_Mike ) keep bringing up the 70$ PS5 games as deflection but that's only for first party games. The rest is still 60$ (Ubi). Multiplatform games that are 70$ on PS5 are also 70$ on Xbox so it's the same. What narrative are you trying to push? The price increase came from T2 and Activision anyway.

Besides, Sony games always drop in price after about 6 months. After a year they practically give them away on Plus/Now or Playstation Hits. It's a non-issue. You can drop the crusade.
that's not an excuse ..i add to the shit ..sony remasters
 
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JackMcGunns

Member
Big wigs: "Phil, GamePass deal is just ridiculous, we need to make money somehow. How about raising Xbox Live Gold?

Phil: I know my gamers, it's going to be a bad idea, I will say I told you so after the backlash.

Big wigs: I don't care, our shareholders want to see the cashflow...Shit Papa Phil, we're getting negative feedback from the community! Help!

StarCraft-2-War-Chests-Offer-Skins-Decals-Other-Cosmetic-Items.jpg


Phil: Haha, told you. Now reverse it and make F2P Games actually FREE. Ok PAPA Phil
 
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Xbox gamers need to get down and thank other gamers for making their brand better. I always see countless excuses and support for some of the dumbest policies. Not giving games for their premium service. Hiding things behind Gold that no other company did, including streaming apps and F2P games. Always online DRM. Lacking 1st party support. Raising the price of Gold, cause "who doesn't just have GP Ultimate." Other gamers have to come out in droves to criticize MS's dumb decisions, as well as not buy their products, so they do a 180. You're welcome. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Shocking, you’re taking a shot at MS and Xbox users. So apparently it wasn’t even Xbox gamers complaining about this and yet MS caved anyway. If only they had the research and awareness of their millions of users like you do.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
The idea that they were doubling the price of gold to "save the day" or "bail out gamepass" is ridiculous.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sony would have told us how valuable the price increase was and encouraged us to be excited.
Or the move would be quietly done and no Sony fans bring it up in a thread. Some people still don't even know cloud saves are behind a PS+ paywall, but it sure seems like everyone knows F2P games need Gold on Xbox.

Another tactic when something looks bad on Sony is the old "but it's a business decision". Trying to sweep it under the rug as a "well, what can you do?" kind of issue so you can't blame the PS brand, but only the behind the scenes bosses.

But when Xbox has had F2P games behind Gold paywall since day one, it's not the same "it's just business" attitude. It's a black mark for the brand.
 
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HF2014

Member
At least they back up, but still suck they tried to do that. Not on next gen yet, im 50-50 doing for PS5 or XBS, and this move, for just trying to happen, made me more careful going forward with MS. Whats the next unwelcomed surprise? Anyway, none of the two console sold me yet, srill have plenty of time to decide.
 

Dolomite

Member
Now that's pressure 💪🏾💪🏾 Good on xbox for admitting they fucked up and tossing in free online for f2p titles to boot. The real heroes are the vocal xbox community for not taking that awful proposition at all
 

kyliethicc

Member
I actually think your idea of keeping online play behind a paywall (except for F2P) and moving online to GP wouldn't have been received that bad. Same basic price increase with the added benefit that GP has never offered discounts for longer terms, but with something of real value added for the customers. I think they could have pulled that off. Instead the PR spin they tried to place on the price hike made things worse.

I think Sony could combine PS+ and PSNow for $10 a month and do okay also.
Because Gamepass includes all future xbox 1st party games day 1, they could get away with requiring Gamepass for online paid multiplayer, if they got rid of Live. It'd be $120/year but people would be more okay with that because they'd be getting lots of new games over the years. The issue is that ($120/year) is a lower price than what Microsoft execs want to sell Live+GP for ($180+/year).

With PS Now, the issue is we have no idea when it will get Sony PS5 games on it. So for now, Sony can only force users to get PS Plus for paid online mp. Sony will probably eventually raise the price of PS Plus and PS Now to $70/year each, as they have with their big games and the dualsense. Then I could see them offering a discount if you buy both, so it's be $70/year for each or $120/year for both. But they'll never force users to buy PS Now for online multiplayer. Different business approaches.

Microsoft want to get rid of Live eventually and have everyone sub to gamepass. Sony on the other hand, clearly still prefers PS Plus as their main sub service, while PS Now is secondary.
 
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Hugare

Member
In Xbox, there´s a balance between interests of corporation and consumers; consumers want to pay less for more, and corporation want to earn more with less services; in that balance is where Xbox Game Pass is, as long as xbox consumers are eager to express their interests, and corporation listens, all will be okay.

Playstation, on the other hand...
To me there's no balance at all

Always online + double the price for Gold is unjustifiable. They are already having insane profits from Gold subscriptions. And they said that GamePass is lucrative.

"Playstation on the other hand" has never tried to introduce an always online console, offers the same benefits from Gold att he same price and didnt try to double the price. So?

"Oh but they've increased prices in $10 for games". K, but I hardly buy more than 2 new releases from them per year ,so its hardly something really bothersome for me. I agree thst this is not cool, but nothing major.

Dont remember Sony trying to implement something so bad for the customers that they had to go to social media to say that they are sorry.



This "we are listening" excuse is such bullshit

People have been crying for YEARS for them to release f2p games from the paywall. They were well aware of that.

Took them a fuck up such as this to make them lift the paywall to try to apease to the public
 
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Tommi84

Member
Or the move would be quietly done and no Sony fans bring it up in a thread.
Uhmm.. you seriously think that Sony would make a similar change WITHOUT informing audience and just... I dunno, hope no-one noticies? They were not hidding the 60 to 70 price increase.

I'm pretty sure that if Sony would've made the same 100% price increase, they'd be unrest/uproar on the internet. Hopefully, we would never have to voice the concern like this in the future.
 

Genx3

Member
About time.
Next step is to sell so many GP subs that XGS can finally say hell we don't need to charge to play online.
 
Uhmm.. you seriously think that Sony would make a similar change WITHOUT informing audience and just... I dunno, hope no-one noticies? They were not hidding the 60 to 70 price increase.

I'm pretty sure that if Sony would've made the same 100% price increase, they'd be unrest/uproar on the internet. Hopefully, we would never have to voice the concern like this in the future.
No, they kinda did try to hide the price increase on games...or at least mask it behind the new gameplay reveals and announcements (including opening up preorders) at the September PlayStation event. You're definitely misremembering that.

However, as I said before Sony at least did it the "right" way (as right as you could for something like this, anyway). For one, it was a relatively small increase (compared to what MS just tried to pull). And more importantly, they basically "shouted" over the news of the price increase with stuff that was actually good news, i.e Demon's Souls footage, more R&C Rift Apart footage, FF XVI trailer, various other game reveals, opening up preorders etc...

..in fact funnily enough them screwing up the preorders and some assumed PS5 exclusives being cross-gen ended up becoming the bad points for them from that event, so most just kind of forgot about the price increase because it probably didn't register as badly as those other two things.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
No, they kinda did try to hide the price increase on games...or at least mask it behind the new gameplay reveals and announcements (including opening up preorders) at the September PlayStation event. You're definitely misremembering that.

However, as I said before Sony at least did it the "right" way (as right as you could for something like this, anyway). For one, it was a relatively small increase (compared to what MS just tried to pull). And more importantly, they basically "shouted" over the news of the price increase with stuff that was actually good news, i.e Demon's Souls footage, more R&C Rift Apart footage, FF XVI trailer, various other game reveals, opening up preorders etc...

..in fact funnily enough them screwing up the preorders and some assumed PS5 exclusives being cross-gen ended up becoming the bad points for them from that event, so most just kind of forgot about the price increase because it probably didn't register as badly as those other two things.
well let's say that Sony, given the strength of the brand and thanks to groups of die-hard fans, can afford to do much more than others ... after all, they completely lied about "we believe in generations", has increased cost of the exclusives by a lot, continues to charge remasters when the competition practically gives them away, continues to mess with the enhancements of next gen games (just look what happened with spiderman) etc etc etc and I don't want to bring up crossplay and other stories. let's just say that the Sony community raises their voices on the mistakes of others competitors instead of make Sony understand what it should fix or stop doing
 
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Barakov

Member

"We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing.

We’re turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. For free-to-play games, you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.

If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months.

Thank you.
See? Bitching works.
 
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