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

M16

Member
Did these idiots think people wouldn’t complain about a price hike? They could have raised the price by five cents and people would flip.

Make a decision and stick with it. This backlash was predictable. If you didn’t anticipate it, there are larger issues. If you did anticipate, still went for it, then backed down... Come on.
theyre not idiots. they knew what they were doing.
increase price, it makes gamepass more tempting. if theres backlash, reverse price increase + add in free f2p, look like good guys.
it was actually a good strategy with a fail plan ready.
 

Self

Member
Is there really a big "backlash" or "people raising hell" against Nintendo pricing when 6 years old games like Mario Kart which are still being sold for $60 continue to make the top 10 best sellers list almost every single month and year?.

Fair point mate. You can clearly see within this thread that Xbox gamers stood up and outright called MS out for this shit move (apart from some hardcore jerks), but Nintendo fans are the worst. They even compliment and defend Nintendo for their shit prices and gladly pay the 'extra fee' for age old revamped stuff. This people a clearly victim to the stockholm syndrom... horrifying.
 
I think we’re all missing something here in the thinking. Not totally sure what it is, but my work touches on this area and there is always a lot of thought given not just to pricing, but how people buy.

I think I’m right in saying Gold has always been $9.99 per month if you subscribe through the console? This could have been a botched attempt to bring code cards in line with that pricing, rather than a real world price increase (although how they couldn’t see the way it would play I have no idea).

Which actually makes sense (for them) because auto renew is the holy grail of subscriptions, not scrabbling around in Target or on CDKeys for a code that is time limited. You want to try and reduce the number of people making a purchasing decision every few months if at all possible. And you also want the best deal in the place where you get to keep all of the money (no third party retailers).

I know this will be too much to read and understand for the die hard zealots, so I am aware I will probably be mocked for defending Microsoft with this post (which I’m actually not, but nuance is lost on them) but just wanted to share a thought that I hadn’t seen expressed. Worth it. Doesn’t matter any way because they came to their senses. I think they need to find a way to make the best deal auto renew through their store, but this absolutely wasn’t it. Gamers are rabid, and while Netflix and Hulu can get away with it you’ll get savaged in this business :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

gundalf

Member
Geez I don't know, there is something fishy about this, I mean why announce a substantial price hike on a rather obsolete service which is seen by the majority as simply a paywall and than to immediately do an u-turn? All of this doesn't make any sense to me.

Also just to bring some perspective, simply doing some window shopping on the microsoft store for 3 to 5 minutes generates much more traffic and load on the backend system than using the core Xbox Live system for an entire year.
 
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Well, I guess unless you a market leader you cannot pull the stunts like that.

They do need to retire Xbox Live Gold though. Maybe merging it with a regular GamePass (not Ultimate) and increasing it by like 1$ will do a trick.
 
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reinking

Gold Member
I think they expected some backlash and that is why they tried to make the move going into the weekend news cycle with a post on their site. I do not think they expected so much backlash from their typically loyal social media influencers and it blew up way way bigger than they expected. Glad they realized this wasn't going to fly and reversed course.
 
S

Sidney Prescott

Unconfirmed Member
I'm happy they reconsidered. It's about time Free-to-Play games were made available to all on Xbox also. PlayStation have always been able to play them without Plus, it was always a very weird thing to see.
 

ripeavocado

Banned
Xbox management is a joke.

They had great passionate and smart people until Kinect, Phil is a snake oil salesman that is only able to fool the few fanboys they have left.
If Xbox is still standing they can only thank MS famous money pit and the fact that are willing to do anything to push for gaming as a service.

xbox Itself is dead, we are witnessing the alien from MIB wearing its skin.

luckily this generation it can be revived, they have a good hardware and ditching the Series S will be easy, it’s going to take years though, assuming they want to do it
 

Desudzer10

Member
I'm trying to be somewhere between complete idiotic move and a PR stunt, but either way you look at it it was at the worst possible time to do that. People still can't get XSX consoles, covid is still affecting incomes, and they shove gamepass in your face all the time about how it's a great deal(which it is) even though they HAVE to be losing money with all the games they put on there.

So I'm leaning towards they increased the price to move people towards gamepass and it backfired completely. I'm a fan of all consoles but I'll admit i lean more towards my xbox, but this whole situation is ridiculous. At least we finally get to play F2P games for free now, but that still doesn't make up for this. They better have some hard hitters coming to gamepass soon to justify any of this.
 

GriffinCorp

Member
I feel like this was to test the waters but 3 months after a rocky console launch, that still needs more games to get people bite (myself included -Halo, etc), more inventory for online and in-stores. They want to raise the prices? I don't understand Xbox and then the release the " We made a mistake, it's on us, sorry - PR statements" just makes me want to walk away from Xbox, from over promising to under delivering they have it all.

Starting all last year and before I was 100% going with Series X, they hyped Halo up for years. I was so excited for the event in the summer and that was when they turned into a house of cards for me, showing off Halo and seeing how it looked the same and nothing like the E3 trailer. So disappointed. I'll have to wait for the games, at least Perfect Dark was announced so that is something I have been hoping for forever. I feel like I have to keep Xbox at a distance until they can deliver on the games.
 
Gamepass simply isnt sustainable. Especially when their AAA games that cost $100 million start to come out and they lose out on hundreds of millions because everyone is happy with subbing for a month for a dollar. Their first party division is going to be bleeding money and something's gonna have to give.

DOUBLING the price of xbox live gold is not something you do. a $10 price hike wouldve made more sense but clearly they are hurting and need far more than just $10 more a year from their userbase.
This is not true...

Gamepass is profitable by volume, the more people they can get to subscribe the more money they will make.

Most causal gamers buy only a couple of games every year but getting people to sign up for gamepass actually gets people to spend money they probably would not have spent.

Also keep in mind that some games don’t stay in Gamepass which means some people will buy a game at a discount if they like it and want to keep the game if it’s leaving game pass.

Game pass does this:

1. It gets people to pay MS a subscription every month which creates a recurring revenue for MS.
2. It gets people to try and play more games that they probably would not have tried before.
3. It increases the likely hood that gamers will buy more games if they play something in game pass and decide to own the game since some games don’t stay in games pass.
4. First party games can still make money because of dlc and in- game purchases and they might actually make more money because more people will play the games because the barrier to the games are no longer $65-$75.
 

sircaw

Banned
I really love a lot of the people's comments here praising Microsoft for their so-called listening and doing the right thing haha.

The company just tried to screw you guys, not by a few bucks but for double the amount. (with no reasons lol) They knew exactly what they were doing, and tested the water, people complained and they changed it back and now you think they are Hero's hahah.

And some people wonder why they call it a cult.
 
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Moonjt9

Member
How many times does MS need to try and pull absolute anti consumer bullshit and then walk it back before people realize that MS only cares about milking ignorant gamers for as much money as possible? They don’t care about actual games anymore. Fucking shit company, shit management, shit games, and shit for the industry. The sooner people collectively tell them to fuck off the better for us all.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
MS must really be treading on thin ice and seeing their ROR on all those investments slowing or not growing as much as they want. They will make money but maybe not as much as they expected. Still dont know how PS has been there this long, has really done nothing for them.
 

Xaero Gravity

NEXT LEVEL lame™
tumblr_o0pfzrJVew1txfbxwo1_540.gifv

They change their mind too soon.....now I have nothing rage about.
I'm sure you'll think of something
 
S

Sidney Prescott

Unconfirmed Member
I really love a lot of the people's comments here praising Microsoft for their so-called listening and doing the right thing haha.

The company just tried to screw you guys, not by a few bucks but for double the amount. (with no reasons lol) They knew exactly what they were doing, and tested the water, people complained and they changed it back and now you think they are Hero's hahah.

And some people wonder why they call it a cult.
You can still be happy with the decision either way. It wasn't a good move, and it is good they reversed it. I'm mostly just happy for the Xbox users. I have a couple of friends that game on Xbox and only play free games like Fortnite and Warzone. This will be a big deal for them, Gold was essentially not worth it. I know one friend would have likely cancelled his subscription if this went through as he has been playing less anyway.
 

sublimit

Banned
This is why competition is good and we need both Sony and MS to be strong (Nintendo as well but they play in a separate field). Can you imagine if your only option was Xbox? Do you think that MS (or Sony) would have given a fuck about the backlash if they knew that you had no other option except their platform. It would have been so easy for them to force you whatever they wanted.

Yes there's also the option of PC but there are millions of people out there who don't like to play games on PC (for various reasons).
 

sircaw

Banned
You can still be happy with the decision either way. It wasn't a good move, and it is good they reversed it. I'm mostly just happy for the Xbox users. I have a couple of friends that game on Xbox and only play free games like Fortnite and Warzone. This will be a big deal for them, Gold was essentially not worth it. I know one friend would have likely cancelled his subscription if this went through as he has been playing less anyway.
Nope sorry, i can't be happy with a company that just changes its subscription prices on the fly by double the amount and they don't tell you why.

If it was an extra buck here or there to cover, administration costs or something else fine, just explain it, but going from 60-120 and having no explanation, that is pretty damn low.

I understand your point, but i have a feeling Microsoft are up to something, this has been done on purpose to test something, i feel this is a dishonest take from them.

something feels off in the way they did this to me.
 
That's awesome that they're not just backtracking saying oops but also proving that they messed up by giving people what they ask for.
 

FrankWza

Member
I know this will be too much to read and understand for the die hard zealots, so I am aware I will probably be mocked for defending Microsoft with this post (which I’m actually not, but nuance is lost on them) but just wanted to share a thought that I hadn’t seen expressed. Worth it. Doesn’t matter any way because they came to their senses. I think they need to find a way to make the best deal auto renew through their store, but this absolutely wasn’t it. Gamers are rabid, and while Netflix and Hulu can get away with it you’ll get savaged in this business :messenger_tears_of_joy:
You could have been a ventriloquist.
something feels off in the way they did this to me.
they’ll get their pound of flesh eventually. Anyone invested in that infrastructure best get up to speed on things and start complaining about what they don’t want now because wherever this money is coming from may not be so easily reversible in the future. My guess is this has to do with recouping some of the zeni money since that deal is soon to be finalized.
 
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Lone Wolf

Member
Nope sorry, i can't be happy with a company that just changes its subscription prices on the fly by double the amount and they don't tell you why.

If it was an extra buck here or there to cover, administration costs or something else fine, just explain it, but going from 60-120 and having no explanation, that is pretty damn low.

I understand your point, but i have a feeling Microsoft are up to something, this has been done on purpose to test something, i feel this is a dishonest take from them.

something feels off in the way they did this to me.
But you hated them before all this anyway.
 
There is no way Spencer did not sign off on this. Now he might have been forced to because he had to show a certain profit and he's gone on a spending spree of late. He couldn't raise the price of the console because that would kill it. He couldn't raise the price of Game Pass since that is their golden goose that they are trying to grow. Xbox Live Gold was the only thing left.

Now the question is "How will MS make up the money that they were projecting to make with this increase?" These price hikes weren't done out of the blue for no reason. I think they'll have to monetize Game Pass somehow. For example Game Pass games might show an advertisement on loading, while bought games wouldn't. Amazon has shown that this is a pricing model that people will accept.
Don't they still get 30% from mtx? So giving free online to f2p might be the margin they're looking for.
 
Microsoft: We're gonna double the price of the thing! The thing we historically have been doing since Live was created is to slowly raise prices so consumers don't really notice, but fuck it, let's "leak" a gold card and announce this massive unprecedented increase in pricing!

Everyone:
giphy.gif


Microsoft: We're not gonna do that thing we for sure were going to do, and we're doing it for you!

Everyone:
giphy.gif


Gee I wonder if this could have been the plan all along?
 
S

Sidney Prescott

Unconfirmed Member
This was a publicity stunt for PR
I doubt it. They could have just made a post saying all 'Free-to-Play' games are now unlocked or something similar yesterday. Just a very badly thought out move.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Nope sorry, i can't be happy with a company that just changes its subscription prices on the fly by double the amount and they don't tell you why.

If it was an extra buck here or there to cover, administration costs or something else fine, just explain it, but going from 60-120 and having no explanation, that is pretty damn low.

I understand your point, but i have a feeling Microsoft are up to something, this has been done on purpose to test something, i feel this is a dishonest take from them.

something feels off in the way they did this to me.
This comes after they cut the 12 months subscription option too.
 
What does that have to do with anything?

They just tried to screw xbox users, i hope you can see that?
They tried to screw gold-only xbox users. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there aren't a whole lot of those on this site.

Frankly, it seems pretty strange to buy gold by itself when you can easily get GPU for the same price.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
They tried to screw gold-only xbox users. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there aren't a whole lot of those on this site.

Frankly, it seems pretty strange to buy gold by itself when you can easily get GPU for the same price.

I dont think they tried to screw gold users at all, this wasn't the plan. Especially considering they were not raising the price for renewals. I think they just wanted to bring in new users at that price so they would choose game pass ultimate instead. And or eventually convert all gold to a $10 month gamepass that included one play.
 
I dont think they tried to screw gold users at all, this wasn't the plan. Especially considering they were not raising the price for renewals. I think they just wanted to bring in new users at that price so they would choose game pass ultimate instead. And or eventually convert all gold to a $10 month gamepass that included one play.
Seems pretty risky at double the price. Looks like they overplayed their hand lol
 
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