This post is a vent on the Game Pass price hike and a write-up of my personal history with the service. I won’t be talking in depth about the difference between the tiers or analysing value for money.
Last week, Microsoft announced a 50% increase in the price of Game Pass subscriptions. The Ultimate tier price will go up from €18 to €26,99 per month in my local currency. They also introduced changes in their tiers – now, there are the Essential, Premium and Ultimate tiers, with some variation in how many titles are available in each one and some other features.
My first console as an adult was an Xbox I bought back in 2022. When I decided to take on gaming as a hobby, I wasn’t sure what console to get. My personal computer is a MacBook and getting a PC was too big of an investment. The Xbox seemed like a great option because of Game Pass, and the Series S was an easy pick since it was more affordable than the Series X and I didn’t own any physical media. (For those who are unfamiliar with Xbox, the Series S is an all-digital console, unlike the Series X)
I got the promotional Game Pass period (first month for €1) and started exploring the library.
And I tried out so many games that first year. Through Game Pass I played some video games that I absolutely love, like Unpacking, Stardew Valley, Overcooked 2, Lake, Coffee Talk 1 & 2, Vampire Survivors, Omori, Life is Strange: True colors, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and the list goes on. But equally important, I played many games I did not like. The service let me explore different genres and styles when I didn’t have a clue about what I liked just yet.
Believe it or not, I didn’t even know what a gaming backlog was. Game Pass and my “play later” list was pretty much my backlog, up until I decided to purchase a few titles outside of its catalog.
Microsoft kept changing the service every year. In 2023, they created the Core tier to replace what was called Xbox Live Gold, and I saw the first price increase since I got my Xbox; Ultimate became €12,99. In 2024, a new Standard tier was created to replace what was called “Game Pass for console”. There was another price increase then, but Ultimate was still “just” €14,99. Even as a primarily indie gamer, it was still worth it for me when I put down on paper how many games I was playing versus how much it would’ve cost to purchase them. But the community knew this probably wasn’t going to be the end of the price increases, when considering Microsoft’s recent purchase of Activision Blizzard that was completed in the end of 2023.
At some point in 2024, I stopped my subscription. In late 2024 I got my Steam Deck and started building my Steam library, and nowadays I play mostly on the Deck even though I also have a library of games on my Xbox.
I have no idea how many people experienced a similar gaming journey to me, but it just pains me that future gamers won’t be able to use Game Pass as a discovery tool because it’s simply so damn pricey now.
Gaming as a whole is becoming more and more expensive and Game Pass felt like an accessible way for people who wouldn’t be able to afford gaming otherwise, or that would need to save for months to be able to play a new release. A 50% price hike just leaves me at a loss for words to describe the level of disrespect for the consumer and it’s no surprise that after the increase announcement, the Game Pass cancellation page crashed due to too much traffic.
I wish I could finish this post on a good note, but it seems that once a service reaches a certain level of adoption, “enshittification” is unavoidable. The same service that made gaming accessible to many is pricing out the people who needed it most and leaving new gamers with the old anxiety of buying blind. I’m sure that Game Pass will remain as a good option for some, but what made it groundbreaking and special in my opinion is gone with this insanely disrespectful price hike.
-Luna
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