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"Xbox Game Pass Standard" is launching in September

I don’t think you can “downgrade” from Ultimate to plain Game Pass Console.

Since they’re taking away the GP Console option tomorrow, when your Ultimate sub reaches its end your only options will be Core, Standard (w/ no day one), or Ultimate.

Bryan Cranston Reaction GIF
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I’m locked into GP ultimate until late 2025, I wonder if I can switch to standard month to month and still get the cheaper rate…

Honestly I think I may just be done with GP and just buy the games I want

Will probably be cheaper anyways

Ah.....ok. Pretty sure you can't downgrade. I'm paying for GPU with rewards points only so as long as I can do that then it is fine, but I may end up selling my Xbox (again) and just doing PC Game Pass at some point.

Microsoft is damn determined to pull the carpet out from under their consoles.
 
Ah.....ok. Pretty sure you can't downgrade. I'm paying for GPU with rewards points only so as long as I can do that then it is fine, but I may end up selling my Xbox (again) and just doing PC Game Pass at some point.

Microsoft is damn determined to pull the carpet out from under their consoles.

XSX the last Xbox console I buy. I hope they start doing day and date on ps5 for everything soon
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
adamsapple adamsapple - where are you bro? 😛 You said multiple times that they will neither increase the price nor introduce a new tier before COD drops, like I kept telling you all that they would.

What happened here? 🥹

20153f84-db44-48fc-8708-40206fa75e56_text.gif



ps I don't think I've ever said there will never be a price increase, kinda impossible for any sub service to stay static for years regardless of any big releases / acquisitions.
 
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Bridges

Gold Member
Fuck that sucks. I'm an Ultimate subscriber but yeesh, $20 a month is pretty brutal. I expected a price increase but I was hoping it wouldn't be until next year. Get everyone on the hook with CoD and then raise on 'em.

Day 1 going away is major. Is that just for 1st party or is it for Day 1 3rd party as well?
 

Power Pro

Member
People are getting tired of ever increasing subscription services and are starting to cut back.

I got it! Let's increase the price and make the lower tier less enticing! Give people less for more!
 

Nydius

Member
My ultimate subscription end in August, should I get codes now?
If you can still find them cheaply, sure. Nothing’s really changing with Ultimate except the price. But if you can still find it cheaper than retail between now and the day it goes up for existing subscribers, go for it.
 
some insightful tib-bits form Tim dog... Man oh man. Xbox deserves to go under only because some dumb people still see Phil Spencer as a good executive trying to save gaming.
 

bigdad2007

Member
What happened to the family plan test run? Because this is getting out of hand if you have multiple people with gamepass in a household.
 

laynelane

Member

Things started out really rosy for console subscribers with great deals and ways to get Game Pass for 'free'. I wonder if the change occurring now towards console customers will eventually be directed at PC users too. I suspect it will.
 
Late to the discussion but I want to commend the lot of you for actually getting to the real implications of Microsoft showing their hand and further confirming they want out of the hardware business. Investors won't let Microsoft remove themselves from revenue generating business without a compelling growth and profitability case. This can go two ways: success and now they have increased profits, or poorly and they continue to withdraw from hardware and reposition themselves as a publisher.

This is the one part that I really care about ATM, because it's 100% confirmation that the next wave of Xbox devices will not be traditional consoles. That January Discord leak continues to deliver on so many levels, the most OP (non-ransomware) leak in modern gaming history IMHO.

Keeping Game Pass for new users "limited" to just PC Game Pass should more or less indicate exactly what direction they are taking the next hardware. That will be very interesting to see manifest, all things considered.

They have been saying for years their platform is Game Pass (and xCloud, but lol at that). Microsoft is finally showing their hand and taking real action to this end.

I subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, so it seems nothing changes for myself except the price, but this really isn't the clear messaging they needed here.

Game Pass Core
Game Pass Standard
Game Pass Console
Game Pass PC
Game Pass Ultimate
Game Pass Vista
Game Pass Enterprise
Game Pass Community
Game Pass One

Hijacking the Game Pass name and fucking up the messaging; Microsoft is back in charge of Xbox. Confusing naming, confusing offerings, confusing prices - that's the classic Microsoft playbook. Phil may have kept the brand alive, but he had to sell its soul to do it. Pappa Microsoft wants their ROI and they're not asking nicely anymore.

This is 100% driven by Microsoft. I have said it a million times and I'll continue to beat this horse dead - Microsoft is awful for the gaming industry. It operates itself as an enterprise software company, which is the very essence of enshittification. How many times has Microsoft tried to rugpull its own customers? We just saw them do this recently with their plan to double the cost of Xbox Live Gold. That backfired, but showing their intent to do so should have been enough for the fanbase - instead I see barely anyone talking about this.

And now they decide to drop this news after business hours on a Tuesday, with prices going into effect within hours for anyone with lapsed subs. That's not the kind of thing a confident market leader does.

Its not. Its garbage at this moment.
The value not worth it. 20$ is alot of money. Might as well get PC gamepass and transition to PC only.

I know it seems like PC Game Pass is now some kind of secret value. You'd think it would be like Steam, but a subscription. Turns out the service itself is absolute ass. I subbed a few years back with the initial GPU deal and stacked like 2 or 3 years for very little cost. It was worth it for me to try things out at minimal expense, but by the end of my trial I even though the low price I paid was too much.

The problem is that GPU uses Windows Store games, and they're awful. The app itself and the selection of games is tied to Windows updates. If you are on a more stable channel or defer updates for any reason, you won't get the latest games. Even better - when you do update, often times there will be problems installing or launching the games! Even worse, controller support sucks. My experience with Halo:MCC was the worst - they released the games on PCGP individually and I had to redownload the app, uninstall and reinstall multiple times in order to get things working. A couple times I needed to run shell commands to delete and resync the Windows Store cache. This is not a big deal for me and probably many of you, but if I'm a normie paying a sub and have to fucking battle my OS just to access the games I'm subbing for, I'm out. it felt like I went backward in time to PC gaming of the 90s and early 2000s where it was downright painful to get things working. Not worth the money, just buy what you want when it goes on sale from Steam.
 

Alan Wake

Member
This was inevitable. But 20 USD for day one releases... I've been these since it launched but I'm getting awfully close to dropping out now.
 
PC game pass is also a small price increase, but I still believe Microsoft is ripping of XBOX players. I just don’t understand why the PC game pass is in comparison so cheap, considering it also includes all day one games.
 

bender

What time is it?
PC game pass is also a small price increase, but I still believe Microsoft is ripping of XBOX players. I just don’t understand why the PC game pass is in comparison so cheap, considering it also includes all day one games.

They aren't going to let go of their pay-to-play online subscription money.
 

whyman

Member
Haha I knew they would eventually try to pull something like this. Hell no, im out.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will not be changed, but it will get a price increase.

We are in a global economic downturn, stop being anti consumer. (as you also raise prices during good economic times)

FU MS.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Wow. I think multiple users (including me though not blowing my own trumpet) had the same summary in numerous threads here on GAF.

If only I were this good at predicting those damn lottery numbers.
 

Esca

Member
PC game pass is also a small price increase, but I still believe Microsoft is ripping of XBOX players. I just don’t understand why the PC game pass is in comparison so cheap, considering it also includes all day one games.
Because the whole experience on PC is dog shit
 

OppaiNinja

Banned
Hey MS! Let me help you have your cake and eat it too..

Kill off Game Pass Core in its current form with the whole Curated 25 games list and the need for the Online Multiplayer paywall. Pretty much all the top played Multiplayer games are already F2P.

Have the tiers as follows:

  • Game Pass Core PC, (PC only, no Day One) - Monthly only $7.99
  • Game Pass Core Console (Console only, no Day One) - Monthly only $9.99
  • Game Pass Standard (Console, PC, No Day One) - Monthly $14.99, Yearly $119.99
  • Game Pass Ultimate (Console, PC, Cloud, and Day One) - Monthly $19.99, Yearly $179.99
 
Nah back in the day when Rewards points made it super easy to get a month of GPU for nothing. I knew those days wouldn't last long.

Well TBF, of course they weren't. But (and this is just something I've noticed in light of the news) it just seems for a lot of people, Game Pass being "the best deal in gaming" hinged A LOT on getting for super cheap or free. The quality wasn't the factor.

Otherwise we wouldn't be seeing so many now questioning cancelling or letting their sub lapse over a $4 monthly increase to Ultimate, for instance. But the ones saying that because of changes to Xbox Game Pass no longer getting Day 1 games AND getting a price increase...yeah, I can understand those sentiments. Paying more while getting a whole lot less, never fun.
 
PC game pass is also a small price increase, but I still believe Microsoft is ripping of XBOX players. I just don’t understand why the PC game pass is in comparison so cheap, considering it also includes all day one games.
PC has so much competition, if MS raised prices on PC players they would all just unsubscribe and go back to Steam
 

panda-zebra

Member
If people here and in the media think this just adds more confusion yet again, same as when Core launched, you're not wrong and it's working as intended. it's all lube along the way to their end goal that would have been far too unpalatable and resulted in uproar if it was forced out in one fell swoop. Eroding away the lowest form of Game Pass resulting in a subscription service that locks people in but content that is more spliced up than ever, games with day one or follow-up expansions, premium additional content editions, fomo-exploiting "early access" which is effectively just a middle finger to the loyal users who pay up front without any real guarantees what they'll get in return, this list goes on. They'll execute that final form streamlining soon enough and it won't be pretty when GPU ends up even more expensive and all tiers having fuck all in the way of worthwhile stacking options and loyalty schemes to exploit.

The best value in gaming.

xbox-boss-phil-spencer-sees-the-funny-side-in-yakuza-phil-meme.large.jpg
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
How many price increases have they done?

Deffo feels like rhis was inevitable. Everyone's been increasing prices.

The annoying thing seems to be you can't stack more than 13 months now?
 

bitbydeath

Gold Member
PS+, Game Pass and GameFly is still the best combination in gaming. “Owning” games is for suckers.
Nah, reducing spending sounds great on paper but it can cause huge negative impacts on the industry. When Game Pass closes I hope PS+ follows suit.
 

bender

What time is it?
How many price increases have they done?

Deffo feels like rhis was inevitable. Everyone's been increasing prices.

The annoying thing seems to be you can't stack more than 13 months now?

One about a year ago and now this.

PS+, Game Pass and GameFly is still the best combination in gaming. “Owning” games is for suckers.

You are getting awfully close to $60 a month in subscriptions. I think I'd rather go the sucker route and own 10-12 games a year instead.
 
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It’s worth noting that premium doesn’t get you day one either as almost every big game they publish has an edition that gets you “play x days early” bonus
 

BigLee74

Gold Member
£14.99 a month in the UK?

Pretty much the ceiling for what I’m willing to pay. They don’t have much wiggle room left before I drop a tier or two and go back to the old way.
 

StueyDuck

Member
Well who could have guessed this was going to happen 😜.

I'm surprised it's not such a huge increase, I expect more increases to come
 

Denton

Member
I have GPU until 2026, by then most of big MS games will be out, once it runs out I will either find another deal where it costs me 4 bucks a month, or cancel.
 
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