Xbox: "Price Increases Are Never Fun For Anybody"
Meanwhile Xbox execs:
Canceled.
They're also upping the sub price for some home user office plans. Apparently it's milk the customer time at microsoft.
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.
But they do understand "charge what the market will bear". It's all about short term profit.
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
Look at that added value, tho
Sacrifice the future for a temporary revenue/profit go up
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.
Never fun for anybody
Meanwhile, at Microsoft:
No, but, but, think of the shareholders! Nobody ever thinks about the shareholders! :(((
Infinite growth is impossible, so they switched to squeezing something until it breaks, then identifying the next thing to squeeze. Eventually, they run out of things to squeeze, and switch to squeezing the people directly.
And it started with convincing console gamers it is necessary to pay for multiplayer. Whole ecosystem has been about trying to squeeze consumers for all the money they have. Even the locked proprietary hardware feeds into it of normalizing lack of control over hardware.
But, it is Microsoft at the top so not surprising.
It's fun for the people making more profit.
Raising the price of hardware twice since May and now raising the price of game pass by 50% is not something a company would do 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.
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?
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.
I've been in the fuck subscriptions camp. Sony locking multiplayer behind PS+ was wha5 led me to dropping consoles as my primary gaming system, since I refused to pay for multiplayer.
I don’t mind subscriptions for ongoing infrastructure as much. My problem is with using a subscription to replace ownership.
If they are charging to multiplayer why wouldn't they want to replace ownership too so they get money every month.
Platform infrastructure like PSN costs an inordinate amount of money. People owning games they paid for does not cost you any money.you already made your money back by selling them the ownership.
Sounds like excuses when PS3 and Nintendo Wii, WiiU, and Nintendo DS had free multiplayer and it was after Sony decided to start charging Nintendo also jumped onboard because they saw peope like you were easy to take their money.
I don't even know why you'd have a problem with Xbox charging more for their subscription when you already argue for paid online.
Yes, charging customers for a product that costs you money to maintain is an excuse, and a valid one. Sony and Nintendo were giving away an expensive service for free to the user. It was generous, and a way to reduce friction with onboarding new users.
They jumped on board because maintaining that infrastructure has become exponentially more expensive to maintain today than it was 20 years ago.
I don't even know why you'd have a problem with Xbox charging more for their subscription when you already argue for paid online.
Because unlike paid user services, game ownership is not something that costs them any money. They aren’t recouping their costs for a service they provide, it’s just rentseeking.
Yeah I don't buy it. Nintendo does free across multiple hardware then when they saw they were the only one decided they'd start taking money too, since it is in a companies nature to maximize profits exponentially.
And then there's Steam. Also in the hardware business and hosting games and mods and a bunch of other services even Epic with their Fortnite money hasn't matched. Yet online is free.
You just sound like a consumer who iust accepts whatever methods companies try to exploit consumers and defend as necessary. More a stockholder than a consumer.
You don’t buy… the fact that infrastructure that has to scale to millions of users globally, and the salaries of the many employees who maintain it cost money…? Buddy that shit costs literal millions a year.
Nintendos online user services were never free. They went from not having them, to having them and charging money.
And yes Steam is eating a metric shit ton of costs to give you those services for free. Because PCs are an open platform, they have to compete to keep you on their storefront. They eat all those costs because you don’t have to buy new hardware in order to switch.
These are very, very simple concepts you’re failing to grasp.
Youre failing to grasp the fact that Sony didn't need that infrastructure in the first place. Things worked great before they charged simply for you to play online.
Steam is a perfect example, they don't charge for anything except a #% fee or tax on the game when you buy it. As well as their market fees.
I understand your point, though I agree with OP, it was foolish to start paying PS in the first place when literally every other console had free multi-player. It's why I left XBOX and never got a PS. PC is just free after you pay your internet bill
It's console brain basically of just never wanting to admit the cons. How many generations and decades went by before they finally admitted 60 fps and above is ideal after years of arguing 30 fps is enough.
Difference for me was I too move over to PC after the PS4, since why would i accept paying more for what is free on another platform.
Lol, but here's one anyway. - Microsoft
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
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?
Especially for the companies who disappear because they were too greedy.
I'm trying to think of a single example and I'm struggling
EA just had to sell to avoid continuing their downward spiral
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.
Except your CEO the boardroom and the shareholders
Thank you captain obvious?
While they might or might not have reasons to raise prices, those people who cancelled their subscriptions definitively had their reason.
Is it fair to blame 343 Studios' incredibly, laughably incompetent handling of the Halo franchise for this? And by this I mean the obvious death of the Xbox as a gaming platform. Or, from a different perspective, could Halo have actually saved the Xbox if the games had been amazing, or even just good?
You're selling an underpowered console that spies on the home for 800usd. Stfu about the price being tough on the company
Where is Xbox $800?
There's a special edition for $730+tax so maybe they mean that.
But starts at $380, less for return.
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