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Microsoft is back to being Micro$oft again.
Phil Spencer has been the head of Xbox (now officially the CEO of Microsoft Gaming) for over a decade now. And up until very recently, I'd argue that under his watch, the brand really did put players first, even if Xbox has continued to lose market share to PlayStation. As a reminder: Phil immediately unbundled the Kinect from the Xbox One, removing the $100 albatross weighing the console down. His first big initiative as boss was championing backwards compatibility, which is inarguably a huge success. FPS Boost on Xbox Series later made many of those old games run even better. He dragged Sony kicking and screaming into normalizing cross-play. The Xbox One X one-upped the PS4 Pro by offering true, native 4K. And Xbox gaming has undeniably become more inclusive in the Phil Spencer Era thanks to the Xbox Adaptive Controller as well as laudable ASL features in multiple first-party games. Finally, there's Xbox Game Pass, whose mystery economics continue to make it controversial amongst both gamers and developers alike, but has nevertheless been a tremendous value for subscribers.
Until now, at least. On IGN's Unlocked podcast, I (far too) often make reference to that Simpsons gif where Sideshow Bob keeps stepping on the rakes he's surrounded by. And the reason I do that is because Xbox always seems to find a way to ruin any momentum it builds up, typically through no fault of anyone but itself. Take the month of October, for instance. Microsoft is shipping not one or two but three really exciting new games in the next 30 days: the very-awesome-so-far Ninja Gaiden 4, which revives the beloved fast-action franchise after a dormant decade; Double Fine's promising Keeper, the studio's next project after its Game Awards Game of the Year-nominated Psychonauts 2; and ever-reliable Obsidian Entertainment's RPG/shooter sequel The Outer Worlds 2, which we've loved every time we've seen or played it. That's a potentially huge month for Xbox – particularly when so many Xbox fans remember how it wasn't long ago when we'd be lucky to get three ultra-promising first-party releases in an entire year, let alone a single month.
All three will drop onto Xbox Game Pass on day one – but this is the part where Xbox starts stepping on all those rakes. Effective immediately, you'll need to pay a whopping 50% more for that privilege. Microsoft has raised Game Pass prices for the third year in a row, with the give-me-all-the-day-one-releases tier now setting players back $30 per month. Fourteen months ago, by the way, Game Pass Ultimate was $17. That's how high and how fast the price has risen.
Fourteen months ago, Game Pass Ultimate was $17. Now it's $30. That's how high and how fast the price has risen.
In fairness to Microsoft, the company has added more to Ultimate: Ubisoft+ Classics, Fortnite Crew, and higher-resolution cloud gaming. It's also worth mentioning that multiple likely Game of the Year candidates hit Game Pass Ultimate on day one this year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Blue Prince. But we all know that the biggest appeal of Game Pass are those day-one benefits for Xbox-published games, and this price increase feels directly targeted at that. (For the record, PC Game Pass is going from $12 to $16.49 per month.)
This comes immediately on the heels of the company jacking up Xbox console prices for the second time in the past four months, with the top-end Xbox Series X now carrying an eye-watering price tag of $800. But that $800 almost sounds like a damn bargain next to the much-hyped ROG Xbox Ally X handheld gaming PC, which weighs in at NINE-HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE U.S. DOLLARS. Sure, there's a less powerful, more affordable version for $599, but nobody knows if that one's worth a damn, because Microsoft has only ever let media and influencers get their hands on the more powerful Ally X. Hopefully it proves useful, as the Series S has for the non-hardcore gamer part of the market.
Heck, the only thing the Xbox folks haven't raised prices on are first-party games. Oh, they tried with The Outer Worlds 2, to be clear – and they inevitably will next year when Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, Forza Horizon 6, etc. drop – but the Xbox community wasn't having any of that, and Microsoft relented.
I realize we live in crazy times, and that Sony and Nintendo are not exactly blameless here either after each of them raised prices on their own aging hardware in the past year (with Nintendo also aggressively raising software prices for the Switch 2 generation as well). Blame the Trump tariffs if you want to (heck, Microsoft does), but I'm sorry: at the end of the day, the buck stops with Microsoft. This is a company with a market cap of nearly $4 trillion, who has done layoff after layoff, after spending upwards of $80 million on studio and publisher acquisitions. And it's fair to wonder if those naysayers who question the sustainability of Game Pass and its business model are being proven right with this latest, deepest round of price hikes.
What's worse is that, in the bigger picture, we've reached a sad point where gaming is becoming less accessible to new players rather than more. Historically, console prices go down and the size and quality of the game library goes up over the course of a generation, leading to more units sold and a healthier ecosystem for everyone inside it. And while again, the blame for the absence of that this generation does not rest squarely on Microsoft's shoulders, the actions of Team Xbox are of a company that isn't showing a lot of empathy towards its customers as the cost of groceries, gas, and other bare essentials keeps going up. Again, these larger economic issues aren't Microsoft's fault, and it has to contend with rising development costs too, but they are choosing profit over players.
As such, while I recognize that this Xbox console generation isn't over yet, it's almost certainly going to be remembered first and foremost for Microsoft's greed: two hardware price increases (and counting), three Xbox Game Pass price increases (and counting), one software price increase (so far), and tens of thousands of layoffs as well as multiple studio closures.
It's kind of a monkey's paw situation, really: all Xbox gamers have wanted since the start of the catastrophic Xbox One generation was a steady supply of great first-party games. Well, in 2025 we're finally getting that – and as I've already mentioned, 2026 is shaping up to be a banger too – but it's coming at the cost of, well…practically everything else. But it's not our fault. Instead, Microsoft's greed is to blame.
This Xbox Generation Will Be Remembered for One Thing: Greed - IGN
IGN Senior Executive Editor and Unlocked podcast host Ryan McCaffrey reacts to Microsoft's recent price increases on consoles, software, and Xbox Game Pass and how they fly in the face of the player-first decisions that Xbox had continually made since Phil Spencer took over the Xbox business.
