(Rumour) Big changes to Gamepass, including a free/cheaper tier with ads

[Rekkapryde]

See I told them that those day 1 releases were not going to always be on that $20 a month plan. Even reading the cloud gaming and you see that there is a waitlist to stream based on what tier you're playing. So you're getting booted off games if you're paying $5 a month or they'll be heavily advertising to push you too a higher plan.

 

[Redguard]

So let's recap

• Increased hardware prices TWICE in one year
• Increased gamepass prices to boot
• Releasing a 600 and 1000 dollar handheld
• Retailers starting not to carry your product

And Phillip W Spencer still gets to continue to keep his job.

He has to be some Microsoft Executive or shareholder's drinking buddy to have this type of job security.

 

[duncanthetall]

Yeah $30/month is wild for my uses. Can't speak for no one else.
I'd have to double check but in the last year I think the only GamePass game I've played is Doom the Dark Ages, and Expedition 33 is on there but I bought it for PS5 anyway. So what's that? $360 sub or pay $120 for those 2 games. What's that shake out to in terms of purchasable games for the year? $360/$70 = 5 games.
Yeah. I think I'ma do like Nino in New Jack City.

Same. They just made me sit down and actually think about it for the first time in a minute. Got me looking at my XSX like a Switch 2 dock would look aite there

 

[Scaaar]

Yeah $30/month is wild for my uses. Can't speak for no one else.
I'd have to double check but in the last year I think the only GamePass game I've played is Doom the Dark Ages, and Expedition 33 is on there but I bought it for PS5 anyway. So what's that? $360 sub or pay $120 for those 2 games. What's that shake out to in terms of purchasable games for the year? $360/$70 = 5 games.
Yeah. I think I'ma do like Nino in New Jack City.

Yeah essentially it's more economical to just outright buy the games at that point. Which is why I kept saying that adding the AAA games day 1 was a bad business structure especially once they put COD in the mix. The Xbox community doesn't buy games because they're expecting them to release on Gamepass and it's depressing overall sales. This has led them to releasing games on PS5 to recoup some of that development money. But it doesn't solve the problem that they created that their base has been trained to not buy games. So they had to raise game pass prices to make it make sense. Which is what I kept telling the deniers and now they've unfortunately pushed people away from due to the price increase. Just bad business all around lol

 

[Rekkapryde]

Paying hundreds of dollars to play your games online is stupid as hell

and guess who started it

 

[Diondon]

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

Yeah essentially it's more economical to just outright buy the games at that point. Which is why I kept saying that adding the AAA games day 1 was a bad business structure especially once they put COD in the mix. The Xbox community doesn't buy games because they're expecting them to release on Gamepass and it's depressing overall sales. This has led them to releasing games on PS5 to recoup some of that development money. But it doesn't solve the problem that they created that their base has been trained to not buy games. So they had to raise game pass prices to make it make sense. Which is what I kept telling the deniers and now they've unfortunately pushed people away from due to the price increase. Just bad business all around lol

Game Pass is still more affordable than buying the games outright, This is just some of the 2025 offering:

Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Ninja Gaiden 4
Black Ops 7
Outer Worlds 2
Silksong
MGS3 Delta
Doom The Dark Ages
Gears 1 Remaster
Oblivion Remake
Metaphor

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Xbox Stan math been incredibly off all gen

 

[CoolinInTheCut]

and guess who started it

Nobody should be doing it.

It's more consumer friendly and there's more money in giving everyone access to online (and buying MTX), than only enthusiasts willing to pay a subscription to play online.

 

[rdj]

Nasty work cause this isn't even its final form

Two years from now nikkas going to look back and say damn 30 dollars was a deal!

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Game Pass is still more affordable than buying the games outright, This is just some of the 2025 offering:

Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Ninja Gaiden 4
Black Ops 7
Outer Worlds 2
Silksong
MGS3 Delta
Doom The Dark Ages
Gears 1 Remaster
Oblivion Remake
Metaphor

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 $50
Ninja Gaiden 4 $70
Black Ops 7 $70 (many would argue that the free to play portion is what is driving COD at this point)
Outer Worlds 2 $70
Silksong $20
MGS3 Delta Not available on GamePass
Doom The Dark Ages $70
Gears 1 Remaster $40
Oblivion Remake $40
Metaphor $70 (came out 2024)


Total = $430 at full price
GP for the year = $360
That's a $70 difference if you bought each at full price. (Keep in mind these games go on sale often within a year so there's a little wiggle room in that $430 to be closer to $400).
Me? I'm cool with the $70 more in this specific scenario to keep the games vs renting. Just in your example alone, I'm not buying Black Ops 7 anyway so there goes the $70 dollars and I had 0 interest in Gears 1 or the Oblivion Remake. The math is harder to math in favor of GamePass when you look at buying the major games within their release windows. For people interested in those major games plus all those lesser known games then it's still cool. It just isn't for me. I probably complete around 8 games a year and play a bunch online. After 30+ years of gaming I have a 100% success rate with knowing if I'm going to like a game and buying it outright without regret. Renting to me makes more sense if I didn't know whether or not I was going to like a game.

 

[daze23]

paying for online is such a scam

especially now that they already got people buying most games digitally from their store, and locked into other services. probably why both MS and Sony have rolled it into their other services, so it kind of seems like it went away. maybe why they didn't talk about PC-only Gamepass in their press release today. didn't want players to see the "console tax"

 

[THE 101]

Sega's death was more dignified than this. Quick and clean vs whatever this shyt is.

 

[duncanthetall]

The cancellation page is down brehs. Been tryna cancel for 10 mins

 

[Scaaar]

Game Pass is still more affordable than buying the games outright, This is just some of the 2025 offering:

Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Ninja Gaiden 4
Black Ops 7
Outer Worlds 2
Silksong
MGS3 Delta
Doom The Dark Ages
Gears 1 Remaster
Oblivion Remake
Metaphor

That's the point. Look at each of those games and think of the cost to make them individually. They're not getting half of their development money back having those on the service day 1 at $20 bucks a month. Hell $30 bucks is still not enough. It can go up to $38-$40 within the next six months especially since 2026 is the year all of those developers they published should start dropping games