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Microsoft steeply raises Xbox Series X/S, game prices in response to tariffs

Xbox Game Pass price increases. $30 a month now. Lower tiers available though if you want day 1 games, it is $30. No annual options for a lower overall price. $360 a year for it.
 
Game Pass for PC is also going up from $11.99 to $16.49, with no added perks like the other tiers.

We signed up for GP for PC back when it was $4.99/mo, which is basically the price of 1 brand new game per year. Absolute steal. Now it comes out to about $200/year, which is about 4 games per year. I'd rather buy 4 games per year at this point.
 
I know Microsoft is grappling with a rough economy and all, but it feels like the collective effect might be to price the company out of the gaming market — both in Xbox hardware and at least some Game Pass tiers.

This isn't entirely new — Microsoft's larger business objectives have routinely interfered with its gaming division. The original Xbox team had to fight to avoid it becoming a Windows CE "appliance." And then there's the infamous effect of Steve Ballmer on the Xbox One; he saw it as a Trojan horse for Windows features and services in the living room (see the infamous "TV, TV, TV" intro presentation). The Series X/S was better but still built partly as a vehicle for Game Pass and the cloud.

Sony obviously has other businesses it wants to serve, but after the PS3 it seems to have recognized that there's a core gaming audience it needs to serve. PlayStation Plus is important to Sony, but not so much that it would bet the farm on higher-priced subscriptions. And of course, Nintendo's main business is gaming; it has subscriptions, but even less potential for distractions.
 
Target and Walmart Are Pulling Their Xbox Stock, According to Alleged Staff. Who wants to tell me that Xbox is doing fine?
target and walmart ending Xbox stock.jpg
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Aurelius said:
I know Microsoft is grappling with a rough economy and all, but it feels like the collective effect might be to price the company out of the gaming market — both in Xbox hardware and at least some Game Pass tiers.

This isn't entirely new — Microsoft's larger business objectives have routinely interfered with its gaming division. The original Xbox team had to fight to avoid it becoming a Windows CE "appliance." And then there's the infamous effect of Steve Ballmer on the Xbox One; he saw it as a Trojan horse for Windows features and services in the living room (see the infamous "TV, TV, TV" intro presentation). The Series X/S was better but still built partly as a vehicle for Game Pass and the cloud.

Sony obviously has other businesses it wants to serve, but after the PS3 it seems to have recognized that there's a core gaming audience it needs to serve. PlayStation Plus is important to Sony, but not so much that it would bet the farm on higher-priced subscriptions. And of course, Nintendo's main business is gaming; it has subscriptions, but even less potential for distractions.
Click to expand...

Microsoft would probably save more money by switching to 1-ply toilet paper in their Redmond campus than they would have made from GamePass last year.

Not saying Gamepass is a failing property (it is, but that's not the point) the point is that Microsoft is such a huge company that unless something makes billions of dollars, it may as well not exist. The executives have to look two-or-three zeroes after the decimal to find difference between "sufficiently funded and embraced as an idea" and nothing at all, and "Nothing at all" wastes less boardroom time.
 
ManofGod said:
Alleged Staff? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And yet, I go to their sites and can purchase the consoles.
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But you know what's harder to buy?

Nintendo Switch 2.

Must mean that Xbox is selling more than Nintendo, right? Must mean that Target and Walmart are buying WAY more xbox consoles than Nintendo consoles to sell, right?
 
Steam has more concurrent users than there are people in Canada. Another way of looking it at, Steam had doubled in users since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Xbox isn't being entirely removed from Target and Walmart, just at certain locations. Only certain stores may remove them, like in Kansas City. It's not a good look from Microsoft to raise prices when your competitor who's business model still deeply depends on Windows, and is taking out Xbox.

This business strategy of doing nothing is working out very well for Gabe Newell.
they all crawled back to gabe.jpeg
 
KazeoHin said:
But you know what's harder to buy?

Nintendo Switch 2.

Must mean that Xbox is selling more than Nintendo, right? Must mean that Target and Walmart are buying WAY more xbox consoles than Nintendo consoles to sell, right?
Click to expand...

Was at my local Walmart yesterday evening. Had at least 25 Switch 2's in the case, it was completely full.

I bought both of mine online without issue a couple of months ago. One at BB, one at Target.
 
High prices AA/AAA games do fine, if they're good. But bumping from $60 to $70 and then to $80 again so soon did not sit well with many. When your game is mediocre like say, The Outer Worlds 2 (have not played it myself) I can see that $80 price tag going horribly. They lowered to $70 but as much as I liked the first game I think most people felt it wasn't a great game and that $80 initial pre-order price did not help even if they walked it back. People see that, and decide to check back for a 50% off sale next year.
 
Flogger23m said:
High prices AA/AAA games do fine, if they're good. But bumping from $60 to $70 and then to $80 again so soon did not sit well with many. When your game is mediocre like say, The Outer Worlds 2 (have not played it myself) I can see that $80 price tag going horribly. They lowered to $70 but as much as I liked the first game I think most people felt it wasn't a great game and that $80 initial pre-order price did not help even if they walked it back. People see that, and decide to check back for a 50% off sale next year.
Click to expand...
Outer Worlds 2 was mentioned because it was going to be an $80 game and then they dropped it to $70. I'm not even going to touch the game with a user rating of 6.9 (nice). The main point is that most people don't buy many games to play. Very few people buy one game per month. So if someone bought SilkSong for $25, then it's likely that's the only game they'll buy for a while, or maybe the entire year. With so many good games being around $25, it makes sense that these games don't sell well over $70. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is only $40 through a Steam sale and the game has a very high user rating of 9.6. I don't know why people loved this game but it's gotta be good for a rating like that.
 
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