this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I remember when GamePass was first announced and everybody lauded Microsoft for being “pro-consumer” and outright cheered when they started buying up independent studios.

I remember being downvoted to oblivion for pointing out the very obvious 5 year plan for GP and the fact that it would go… exactly the way it’s currently going.

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

Lol, but here's one anyway. - Microsoft

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Especially for the companies who disappear because they were too greedy.

[–] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

I'm trying to think of a single example and I'm struggling

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 29 minutes ago

McDonald's is the most clear cut example, although that's ongoing

There's been countless little companies that sent themselves into death spirals with a price hike, but when they're big their remains are pounced on, or they experience a slow decline before collapsing to a failed pivot

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 points 51 minutes ago

EA just had to sell to avoid continuing their downward spiral

[–] fuzzywombat@lemmy.world 21 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Raising the price of hardware twice since May and now raising the price of game pass by 50% is not something a company does if they're interested in competing against Sony or Nintendo. Clearly Microsoft has thrown in the towel on XBOX. Only thing left for Microsoft to do is announce cancellation of next gen console altogether and do layoffs. I don't know when that will happen but it's inevitable at this point.

[–] rozodru@piefed.social 7 points 4 hours ago

yup they'll go the route of Sega. The writing has been on the wall with the Xbox Division for awhile now that I'm honestly surprised they're still trying to "make it work".

Xbox was a weird one. I haven't used one since the 360 and honestly I couldn't even begin to tell you what the next console in the line was after the 360. was it the series x? was it the one? I dont' know. I mean after buying like 5 360s because of red ring or whatever why would I continue that idiocy?

[–] vateso5074@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Raising the price of hardware twice since May and now raising the price of game pass by 50% is not something a company does if they're interested in competing against Sony or Nintendo.

But when Sony and Nintendo are doing the same thing...?

[–] RiverRabbits@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

got any source for that on the nintendo side? Idc about sony.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Nintendo have also bumped their flagship game price up to 80 USD. I recall Sony doing the same (and see articles to that effect) but it looks like their games are still mostly at the 70 USD point?

Similarly, it is well worth noting that the Switch 2 announcement/deep dive videos specifically did NOT list the price or had vague reference to prices being announced regionally. This was primarily attributed to Liberation Day Tariffs but limited analyses do argue that the "base" price of the Switch 2 is higher than the Switch 1 which is consistent with increased engineering and overhead costs.

To my knowledge, Microsoft is the only platform ones who is bumping up their subscription fee cost. In large part because that seems to be all they have (in the gaming space). But all projections and leaks are that platform hardware costs are going to be significantly higher next generation (so like 2026/2027) and game prices are similarly expected to re-stabilize with "full" games being 80 USD as a baseline and all discount prices shifting accordingly.

Like, fuck Microsoft and this reeks of trying to grab the bag before closing (the xbox) shop considering how precarious everything is. But realize this is more bad optics and timing than anything else.

In large part because development is getting more and more expensive and game prices mostly have stagnated for decades (until semi-recently bumping up to 70 and now 80 USD).

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 minutes ago (1 children)

They tried to push w11-xbox compatibility to push all consoles aside, and I can't say if it works and if it means stonks, but I can see the current lead not being enthusiastic about R&Ding and producing new hardware, exclusive games. OEM software is a stable bird feeder, and AI integration is their next big king, so they just fixed their position in gaming market by buying several big companies and seemingly quit plans on console market. They are too big and to diverse to fall, but I think ditching a brand equal to sweaty Halo parties of the past and all these long-going console holywars wouldn't bring much in the perspective of years, not several quarter past today.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 minute ago

The merging of xbox and windows is actually a REALLY REALLY good idea.

But I think it is less about being enthusiastic about R&D and more about... consoles are increasingly just computers. And mostly the R&D boils down to asking AMD (because Jensen is too busy burning benjies to soften his latest jacket) what APU they have in the pipes. And I would be shocked if the PS7 generation isn't basically "here is a NUC with egpu support and a nice plastic case"... assuming we still have home computing then (that is a different and much darker conversation).

So it really does make perfect sense for MS to try and merge their Windows and XBOX OSes and, were they in a better position, I could see basically "just" selling Steam Machine style HTPCs as early as 2027.

Whereas Sony and Nintendo kind of ARE stuck still making actual consoles. Maybe Sony could bundle "Playstation" streaming and even light local gaming into a Bravia TV but... why would they?

But yeah. I will be amazed if the XBOX Brand/division exists (meaningfully) by as early as 2029.

[–] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 15 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

but we're trying to reinforce by adding more value to these plans as well."
Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics

So if you don't play Fortnite and aren't interested in 15 different Assassin's Creed titles, fuck you I guess

[–] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

Imagine, if you will, the possibility of NOT increasing prices 50% to give us the "additional value" of shit we don't want.

I was happy paying for games, but suddenly I'm extremely willing to get back into piracy. Fucking weird, right?

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Apparently those titles are as or more valuable than half of the entire catalog, how can you not be excited‽

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Microsoft was never going to make gaming affordable. The entire goal of GP is like any subscription service, to get you hooked so they can increase the prices. Microsoft is not and never was a pro consumer company. And GamePass is Microsoft’s attempt at making a hardwareless console. It’s a BYOD walled garden. It’s bad for consumers and bad for developers and publishers. Consumers will own nothing and studios are beholden to MS gatekeepers. Some account manager basically decides how much the devs will be financially compensated before the game is even released, instead of letting the market decide. Remember those court documents which showed how much they under valued Baldur’s Gate 3. If you think the standard 30% store cut is outrageous GamePass is on another level of bad. Sure they are currently showering devs in cash, but once MS has a significant chunk of the market they are going to turn off that tap. We’ve seen it with Netflix and Spotify. Like even the most popular artists earn fractions of cents per user.

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 84 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Never fun for anybody

Meanwhile, at Microsoft:

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 28 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

No, but, but, think of the shareholders! Nobody ever thinks about the shareholders! :(((

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

MSFT has been lagging behind the S&P this week. I doubt they're super thrilled.

[–] zecg@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

I would never give Microsoft money for their shitty subscription, so it is kind of fun for me.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 58 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

They're also upping the sub price for some home user office plans. Apparently it's milk the customer time at microsoft.

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Part of the problem is that most of the people making these decisions have been seeing their incomes and net worth increase steadily over the past decade. They don't truly understand their subscriber base.

[–] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 7 points 5 hours ago

But they do understand "charge what the market will bear". It's all about short term profit.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for letting me know, I've been paying just for some spare OneDrive space but I think I'll cut it if they're raising the price

My boss showed me the article yesterday, but apparently it's the old news from earlier this year. It went from 70 to 100 back in Feb.

That's still a giant increase from whatever you would have paid last year.

[–] Talaraine@fedia.io 26 points 11 hours ago

They've made very clear that they're reducing functionality, dropping products including their gaming companies, and raising prices across the board to somehow come up with billions for AI. They no longer care about their customers or employees, only this holy grail quest for money that will evaporate. Dump Microsoft.

[–] commander@lemmy.world 35 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Sacrifice the future for a temporary revenue/profit go up

[–] AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

No, it will work out for them. They just made a 50% profit increase. I doubt if even 10% of subscribers cancel.

It worked for Netflix, Disney+, Hulu... People just need to stop buying shit, but they won't.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 points 10 hours ago

Even though I personally never used it I was astonished at how quickly so many people blindly trusted it. What I'm more astonished with is how quickly Microsoft has managed to destroy that brand trust.

[–] Tolstoy@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

So a dumb question: last email stated, if there be any changes in costs, they will notify me 60 days prior but I still haven't got anything from M$... Aren't they running head first into an giant lawsuit in Europe? Still going to cancel the subscription though

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, £15 was pushing it, I don't play as much as I'd like, big benefit was cloud gaming facilitating couch co-op, but at the minute it's mostly my kids playing Minecraft, cheaper just to buy that.

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You're selling an underpowered console that spies on the home for 800usd. Stfu about the price being tough on the company

[–] CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

There's a special edition for $730+tax so maybe they mean that.

But starts at $380, less for return.

[–] EnderLaw@lemmy.world 30 points 12 hours ago
[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 14 points 10 hours ago

So, if there had been no cancellations and their customers had just paid their bills without comment or criticism, they'd still have been telling us how terrible they felt about the whole thing?

Bovine Excrement.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It's something we don't take lightly, and we're listening to the feedback of players and the community to try to provide them with more of what they’re asking for.

God they will never understand that we see right through their bullshit corpo-speak answers will they. Everything they just said is nothing. They don't take it lightly. They are listening. They will try. There is nothing concrete in that wet paper towel of an answer.

How do they think that shit still works?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 16 points 11 hours ago

Except your CEO the boardroom and the shareholders

[–] _lilith@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago
[–] Goun@lemmy.ml 7 points 12 hours ago

Look at that added value, tho