And it gets even better. Instead of up to 33% leaving, say 50% of that group convert to Premium instead of Ultimate. That isn’t any lost revenue since the price is going up to what Ultimate used to be. So that cushions their numbers even more.

One could imagine that conveniently, Microsoft's online support pages and the amount of support staff were designed to only handle hundreds of thousands of cancelations at a time.

Now factor in the cost savings from a lower server load and less staff to run the back end, and possibly the smaller licensing\use costs for the games available to play since less people would be accessing those games.

I'm not a licensed math surgeon, but I think your math is wildly optimistic in favor of Microsoft due to how the subscription totals are actually distributed per price tier.

I don't doubt that they did a lot of math to figure out an acceptable level of churn for this change, I just don't think it's nearly as generous and wide as you're calculating.

There probably is a very real churn limit that they're trying to avoid, and my hunch is that there exists a breaking point that could be hit with an aggressive and sustained boycott / cancellation spree, but again, I'm not a math surgeon so I could be wrong. That's just my gut feeling.

silksong isn't on sale.

Not that the harm hasn't already been done, but I did just see this: https://thisweekinvideogames.com/news/microsoft-pulls-azure-services-from-israeli-military/

Once upon a time, the idea with subscriptions like this was to have customers set it and forget it. Charge them a small/reasonable amount and they'll keep giving you money forever. Giving people a reason to think about - or worse, evaluate the merits of - the monthly deposit they're giving you used to be a sin for companies.

But here we are, seeing the difference between "companies" and "corpos".

The missus and I sat down about a year ago and tabulated up how much all of the various streaming subscriptions were costing us per year (it was close to $1,000 when including YouTube Premium).

We cancelled every single one, and put that money towards building a home NAS and filling that up with downloaded media. No more ads, stupidly low bitrates, or TV shows & movies disappearing because a license expired.

The server has more than paid for itself at this point, and every additional spare dollar is being put aside for our kids’ tuition.

ETA: Consider doing the same, your kid’ll likely thank you in the long run!

PS: Never too late to introduce them to all of your favourite classic games, either - though that one may be a bit harder to get them onboard 🤣

Between that, this, and Disney+ cancellation page "accidentally" going down during that fiasco, this is exactly why I've switched to using only virtual cards for subscriptions. Pause/Cancel the virtual card, voila, no more subscription.

they dont want SA or kushner to hold an EMPTY bag, but i suspect they will get alot of cancellations in the future. wish they seperate westwood so a proper CNC can be revived.

Good thing I never signed up for one.

Any Steam game that requires an EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, whatever account is a total non-starter for me. I’ve looked at some of the newer Battlefields when they’re on sale for like $2 and I still can’t be convinced. Likely never will.

Ok with me, there’s lots of other publishers out there, both independents and studios, that I’d much rather give my $2 to.

This link has a pretty good comparison between the new and old gamepass features/prices. The cheapest tier is actually better than it used to be, but it looks like the more expensive ones are getting bundled with shit most people won't want just so they can justify increasing the price.

There are four tiers to the gamepass: Core, Standard, PC, and Ultimate. The first two were exclusive to Xbox, the PC version was obviously exclusive to PCs, and Ultimate was available for both. All tiers aside from the PC gamepass are now being bundled with xbox's cloud gaming, with higher tiers having shorter wait times and better quality.

This is all US pricing, so take it with a grain of salt considering the OP said their prices doubled:

1. Core, now called Essential, is a $10 tier that will now have double the games (from 25+ to 50+) and is newly available on PC as well with no price increase.
2. The $15 Standard tier, now called Premium, is likewise not seeing a price increase and will now be available on PC. However, it looks like Call of Duty will no longer be included in this tier, which I imagine is one of the biggest sellers of gamepass.
3. The previously $12 PC tier is increasing in price to $16.50. Looks like the only new "benefit" is it will come with Ubisoft+ classic (40+ games) now. Still exclusive to PC.
4. Then there's the previously $20 Ultimate tier. It's price is increasing to $30 a month, and it's the one everyone's upset about. The only new benefits are cloud gaming, Ubisoft+ classic, and a Fortnite subscription.

It varies by location. But for me on brazil at least every single subscription doubled in price. PC Game Pass was 36 BRL, it is now 70. Ultimate was 60 BRL, now it's 120. I cannot justify this shit.

Ehh... PSN isn't really any better. Their Game Pass competitor is a hot mess. Better to just buy games outright, especially during sales.

It's the Microsoft way. They hide security features that should be standard behind higher subscription tiers. It's entirely bullshit.

I've never gone away from buying physical media, but I could understand exactly why you would want to return to it.

Then they cut staff anyways, because why leave free money on the table?

if costco stop selling xbox(a series) its a bad sign.

Nope. Nobody uses them.