Xbox fans across Xbox One and Xbox Series X seem mightily unimpressed with the current state of Xbox Game Pass. Exactly, one month ago, Microsoft raised the price of Xbox Game Pass again. As a result, the Ultimate tier, which is the tier with the day-one games, costs $30 a month. This is a pretty penny.
To ease the pain of the two price increases since the summer of 2024, Microsoft has announced it will have more day-one games available going forward. To this end, Microsoft recently announced nine day one Xbox Game Pass games all on the same day. However, none of them are overly impressive or appealing, minus maybe one or two. In fact, they are all smaller budget titles. And they haven’t left subscribers impressed.
“RIP Game Pass”
Over on the Xbox Game Pass Reddit page, the top post this week is a post declaring the subscription service dead and claiming the quality has not increased to justify back-to-back price increases.
“RIP Game Pass,” reads the title of the post. “It was nice while it lasted. $360 a year [for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate] is just unjustifiable. The quality has not increased nearly as fast as the cost. Essential, it is – hopefully they don’t try to price hike that too.”
In isolation, an isolated criticism of Xbox Game Pass isn’t that noteworthy, but it is the top post on the XGP Reddit Page this week. To this end, it has nearly 2,000 votes up, which is a ton for this particular Reddit page. Meanwhile, the majority of the comments reinforce the sentiment.
“Today marks the last day of my subscription as well. I share your pain,” reads one of the top comments. “I’ve chosen not to go with any tiers for now and to just play local games for the near future while I mourn these ludicrous decisions by Microsoft as of late.”
A second comment adds: “Good things always come to an end.” Meanwhile, a third comment further drives the point home: “Definitely not worth it anymore for me.”
While Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers have not shrunk as a result of cancellations, they also aren’t growing. They are pretty stagnant, which is not sustainable. There were always questions about the sustainability of the subscription service, and the suspicions are looking more and more justified by the day. If there is a future for Xbox Game Pass, it probably does not include day-one games, a huge cost of running the subscription service, yet this is the main appeal of Xbox Game Pass. Suffice it to say, Microsoft is now in a tough position.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum.
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