Xbox Series S/X: Thread 05

[wakka]

I agree. It feels like Xbox is marking time at present. They might as well suck a bit more juice out of current users. I was honestly surprised that Blops 6 would be made available on GP.

[Lebowski]

'Looking back, it's crazy to think that you could stack 3 years worth of cheap gold codes and pay quid to get the 3 years of ultimate all those games for less than £2.50 a month.

No wonder people are salty, in real world costs this new price is a 600% increase

[nonny]

I'll be honest, whilst I've been a Game Pass Ultimate since it launched I have never paid full price for it.

Through a combination of the stacking tricks, rewards and just plain discounts through sites like cdkeys... I've always grabbed a bargain or free months.

Everyone seems to be going crazy about what is essentially a £2pm increase on Ultimate but that reality is that's still a pretty good deal if you're interested in the content that is coming day one.

I think the real issue is the subscription options outside of Ultimate. Standard now doesn't include day one releases, but also doesn't clarify the timescale content might get added... Core just seems like a throwaway option and PC only is still utter pants because the Xbox PC experience is sub par.

So really it's all about Ultimate, still, and they haven't solved the wider issues with the other options.

I get the feeling they're trying to appeal to the cloud users onboarding with the Amazon fire stick support... But really I wish they just invested in the PC Xbox app at this point and made that as good as it can be.

Given the price rises on (checks notes) everything right now a £2 hike doesn't sound like a major kick in the teeth but the lower end options just feel like an also ran.

It's clear they want you to be an Ultimate subscriber.

[MartyG]

So an extra £24 a year for Ultimate. Probs be able to make that back from codes from third-party sites. Still seems to be plenty of value there at £15 a month for Ultimate given the amount of content I'd personally use compared to Spotify, Netflix or going to the cinema at £12.50 ticket only, so I'll probably continue it and move to PC Game Pass if content drops.

Claiming it's a 600% increase is just nonsense and people need to get a grip.

[hudson]

Okay, Xbox defense force have had their say... Sony boiz? You're up...

[fishbowlhead]

Okay, Xbox defense force have had their say... Sony boiz? You're up...

Sorry can’t talk, busy playing games, ooooh Astrobot.

[MartyG]

Okay, Xbox defense force have had their say... Sony boiz? You're up...

Who's defending anything? I said it's still value for me.

All companies have put their prices up, all of them. And they will put them up again, all of them. That's what companies do, they are not your friend, the line must go up and you need to make a choice for yourself as to whether it's for you.

Microsoft still haven't increased the price by 600%. That is just a simple fact, not opinion.

[Lebowski]

So an extra £24 a year for Ultimate. Probs be able to make that back from codes from third-party sites. Still seems to be plenty of value there at £15 a month for Ultimate given the amount of content I'd personally use compared to Spotify, Netflix or going to the cinema at £12.50 ticket only, so I'll probably continue it and move to PC Game Pass if content drops.

Claiming it's a 600% increase is just nonsense and people need to get a grip.

It's obviously not a real reflection on most people's real world costs, you humorless robot,

It's a well known discount route on here though, hence why I said in jest that we are looking at a 600% increase also it's not even a thing any more as they closed the £1 upgrade loophole last year.

To be serious, the big jump in cost here is the removal of day one from the console only £8.99 package, if you don't use the cloud streaming or the pc gamepass and want to keep day one releases you now need to move to the £14.99 everything pack which is an extra £6 a month.

[Neon Ignition]

That's the key element. It's not the price rise itself, it's the price rise in context of the intentions of the service. MS is done trying to make Game Pass the future.

[MartyG]

It doesn't change anything though - you still have to make a judgement as to whether it's value for yourself and at £15 a month it is still value for me and don't think it's unreasonable at this price. It's still very much BAU here - otherwise Microsoft would have scrapped it entirely. Prices always go up, it's a price adjustment, not a change in strategy.

Microsoft would need to lose more than 4 million subscribers for this not to be an increase for their bottom line, and yes there will be people who moan about it and some will cancel, but I guarantee it won't be anything close to that number any more than it was for Netflix and their 16% Y-o-Y increase after their price hikes and tier changes.

I'd never spend £70 on CoD to play it day one. Never. But I'll take it along with the other content at £15 a month and if I end up playing it for 35 months, then I would have been better off buying it outright - if you're the person paying £15 a month to only play CoD on Game Pass, then yes, you should cancel your subscription right now.

If you're the person playing and enjoying one or two different games on the service every month, then it's still going to work out cheaper for you than buying even one of those games, so long as you're happy with it being the rental service that it is.

I mostly use Game Pass as a try before you buy service. There's lots of content on there that I wouldn't otherwise ever try, such as Sherwood. I played that and decided it wasn't worth a purchase even discounted. YMMV and if the new calculus doesn't work out for you, then the option is there to not subscribe and buy the games instead.

[QualityChimp]

Keep the chat civil, chap!

[Lebowski]

Just to be clear, is it Civil as in engineering?

OK so here is my opening statement

The rise in Xbox game pass costs has a direct knock on effect to the Civil Engineering workforce, public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems pipelines, structured components of buildings and railways will all fail if these price rises are not stopped.

How these two seemingly worlds apart things are linked relates to the little known statistic that 99.9% of civil engineers use Xbox game pass for leisure and relaxation. This rise in price from Microsoft will see many civil engineers go hungry and cause a downturn in the quality and design of essential systems we have come to rely on in our day-to-day lives.

[fishbowlhead]

Extra extra news just in! Xbox gamers confirmed as being tight arses!!!!! Get your copy right here, plenty left on the xbox stand as they won't buy them.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/11/24196361/microsoft-xbox-no-console-required-notepad

Speculation that MS is to abandon marketing Xbox consoles across the EMEA and rely solely on promoting Game Pass, Cloud etc

[Wools]

It’s a big gamble. You could make the argument that Xbox stood for something and back in the 360 days, it was the word in my friendship group to play games as the PS3 was never a thing.

Now there’s no question the Xbox brand is battered and bruised. But without Xbox as a thing, will Game Pass be a term like Netflix or iPlayer?

Time will tell, but from the numbers we’ve all seen at present, Game Pass is going down, not up. In sales numbers, I mean.

My bold prediction is Xbox and Game Pass won’t be a thing in the next 5 years, the Xbox division will simply transition to Microsoft and they’ll just develop and publish games. I don’t see a long term vision of them anymore, they seem desperate and lost. It’s a real shame to see.