The year was 2017; Xbox was still struggling with its brand identity coming off of the Xbox One launch. The team at Xbox launched what I had considered to be the best value in gaming. The “Netflix” subscription model was being introduced to gaming, pay a set price, play a large catalog of games. It made me a subscriber on day 1. Over the years since launch, Xbox had worked to continuously impress with the value they were able to provide at a very reasonable cost to consumers. It seemed that they were hoping that the good will of Game Pass would help it better position itself in the market after that disastrous console launch in 2013. They appeared to be making a ton of great moves; they started beefing up their first-party studio count, they focused on great features including backward compatibility and quick resume, and the leadership was becoming endeared to the fans, including me.
Fast forward to 2025 and all the good will has finally run out. I’ve owned a console in almost every Xbox generation since it was unveiled by Bill Gates and The Rock, but I think those days are gone. I had already skipped out on the Xbox “Series” generation because I had become a PC gamer, mainly because all Xbox games were going into Game Pass day 1 and I could play them on PC. I didn’t need to purchase their hardware since I had my own. This year has finally tested me as an Xbox gamer and I’m not sure how I, nor any other consumer, can trust their brand again. Between layoffs, game cancellations, and multiple price hikes on hardware and software, I feel as if I have no other place to look other than their competition.
This week, the team at Xbox decided to hike the price of their Game Pass subscriptions, albeit by adding some interesting perks while at the same time reducing the benefit of others. I’m not surprised that the “day 1” game initiative was finally placed behind a higher price point. I was always surprised they were able to include that at such a low price point. But today if you want “day 1” games, then you are going to have to choose the “new” Game Pass Ultimate tier which costs an eye-watering $30, PC Game Pass which is now $16.49, or just buy the individual games you wish to play when they launch. From now on, if there is an Xbox game that is released, I’ll probably purchase it on PC as an individual title rather than playing through their subscription. Also, I’m just gonna make that purchase through Steam or another platform, just to make sure I won’t be purchasing in the Microsoft Store anymore.
I also have a PS5 and Switch 2, which will definitely be getting the majority of my time now. Yes those companies are not without their issues. Nintendo is charging $80 for some games, however Microsoft tried that with The Outer Worlds 2 but relented after fan backlash. Playstation has raised the prices of their consoles as well and their subscriptions are higher than they used to be. But PS Plus Premium is still only approximately half the annual cost of the Ultimate tier of Game Pass now. It just seems that everything Xbox has done this year is to stick it to the customers that are still using their platform. Unfortunately the more they hemorrhage users like me, the more they will need to charge to stay in business or to line their greedy pockets even more than they currently are.
Despite all this, for those of you that are sticking with Xbox, or Game Pass in particular, I’d love to know why. Genuinely, feel free to start a chat about it in the comments. For anyone who has decided to give up on Xbox, I’d love to hear your reasoning too. I just finally feel like the brand that we all once loved is now just in it for the profits, players be damned.