Microsoft Update: Microsoft reverses course on XBL Gold - no price hike, F2P games now actually free

[osxmatt]

 

[Paperclyp]

So like - honestly what the FUCK?

 

What possibly occurred that they didn’t anticipate? I do not understand how a company of their stature DOUBLES the price of their online service, decides in a matter of 12 hours or so that oopsie daisy we made a little mistakey poo sorry everyone, and also makes good on some shit they should have years ago (free to play stuff). 
 

I do not get it. 

[The def star]

11 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

So like - honestly what the FUCK?

 

What possibly occurred that they didn’t anticipate? I do not understand how a company of their stature DOUBLES the price of their online service, decides in a matter of 12 hours or so that oopsie daisy we made a little mistakey poo sorry everyone, and also makes good on some shit they should have years ago (free to play stuff). 
 

I do not get it. 

I guess they saw the backlash and said we made a mistake.

[Keyser_Soze]

44 minutes ago, osxmatt said:

 

 

Well we can all ignore crispy now.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

So like - honestly what the FUCK?

 

What possibly occurred that they didn’t anticipate? I do not understand how a company of their stature DOUBLES the price of their online service, decides in a matter of 12 hours or so that oopsie daisy we made a little mistakey poo sorry everyone, and also makes good on some shit they should have years ago (free to play stuff). 
 

I do not get it. 

You have never worked for a big company before 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Idiots

[crispy4000]

7 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Well we can all ignore crispy now.

Well, they reversed course now.  I was wrong about the PR not getting to them.

 

I am surprised, but glad, this was all it took.  Thought that some F2P publisher backlash would have been needed first.  Could still be there was behind the scenes.

[BloodyHell]

I just can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want Gamepass Ultimate instead of Gold.

[BloodyHell]

8 hours ago, The def star said:

I guess they saw the backlash and said we made a mistake.

Which is what makes them the best gaming company out there. MS has NEVER been afraid to admit their mistakes and backtrack. Sony and Nintendo are pretty much the opposite.

[crispy4000]

8 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Which is what makes them the best gaming company out there. MS has NEVER been afraid to admit their mistakes and backtrack. Sony and Nintendo are pretty much the opposite.

They’re all willing to backtrack when they fuck up enough.  3DS’s launch price.  PSN getting hacked.  Etc.

 

It just depends on the magnitude of the mistake.

[BloodyHell]

6 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

They’re all willing to backtrack when they fuck up enough.  3DS’s launch price.  PSN getting hacked.  Etc.

 

It just depends on the magnitude of the mistake.

3DS launch price was because of poor ass sales, not because of fan anger, and I don’t know what backtracking Sony did with the hack, at all. All I remember is them giving out a game or two while trying not to take the blame.

[crispy4000]

8 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

So like - honestly what the FUCK?

 

What possibly occurred that they didn’t anticipate? I do not understand how a company of their stature DOUBLES the price of their online service, decides in a matter of 12 hours or so that oopsie daisy we made a little mistakey poo sorry everyone, and also makes good on some shit they should have years ago (free to play stuff). 
 

I do not get it. 

I feel like we need more context for the decision.  Maybe they were planning on keeping their first party games to $60 for the entire gen.  Or not price hiking Games Pass for a couple of years.

 

Something prompted them to say that in this one area, they needed to go there.  Probably should have put their eggs in more baskets.

 

 

[crispy4000]

15 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

3DS launch price was because of poor ass sales, not because of fan anger, and I don’t know what backtracking Sony did with the hack, at all. All I remember is them giving out a game or two while trying not to take the blame.

It was poor sales due to the price tag and launch library.  They dropped the price and gave a ton of free Virtual Console games to initial buyers in response.  Nintendo execs also took pay cuts.  Sony did a mia culpa on the E3 stage if I remember correctly.  Fixed the problem in addition to giving away free games.

 

You can’t say that’s not admitting their mistakes.

[Keyser_Soze]

I remember when I got Sly Cooper 2 for free because that demo disc wiping out memory cards.

 

Didn't wipe out mine but I sure took that Sly Cooper.

[TheLeon]

43 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I just can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want Gamepass Ultimate instead of Gold.

My brother in law plays his Xbox constantly, but it’s only the same few games. When I told him about Game Pass Ultimate, he said something along the lines of “that’s cool, but I already have Gold, I just buy the games I want, and I don’t play on PC”. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

15 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

If you are ugly, then yea. You get the attractive’s scraps. 

 

But then YOU are the wingman.

 

Anyway, it's a moot point now lol.

[DarkStar189]

46 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I remember when I got Sly Cooper 2 for free because that demo disc wiping out memory cards.

 

Didn't wipe out mine but I sure took that Sly Cooper.

I remember giving that demo disc to a friend in high school. Neither of us knew about the problem it had and he came back to school the next day and said how he lost all his saves. I think i had just bought the magazine and let him borrow the demo disc to play first. Felt really bad. 

[The def star]

Looks like some F2P games will also be getting free MP access like Fortnite. 

[Keyser_Soze]

12 minutes ago, The def star said:

Looks like some F2P games will also be getting free MP access like Fortnite. 

 

It's weird that you replied right after the tweet that says all this stuff.

[BloodyHell]

2 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

It was poor sales due to the price tag and launch library.  They dropped the price and gave a ton of free Virtual Console games to initial buyers in response.  Nintendo execs also took pay cuts.  Sony did a mia culpa on the E3 stage if I remember correctly.  Fixed the problem in addition to giving away free games.

 

You can’t say that’s not admitting their mistakes.

Yeah, over a month latee, Sony came out at e3. Nintendo reacted monyhs later. MS reversed course in 24 hours. Those aren't the same thing.

[crispy4000]

2 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Yeah, over a month latee, Sony came out at e3. Nintendo reacted monyhs later. MS reversed course in 24 hours. Those aren't the same thing.

 

Never said they were.  It's always better to respond sooner to flubs like this quickly, and they deserve credit for that.  

Not everything can turn on a dime like this.  It's surprising it did, given that the cards were already printed.

[Moa]

This seems like a really bizarre unforced error to come out after MS has seemingly been making decent pro-consumer moves for the last few years.

[Brian]

Take away games for gold and lower the price further. 

[Paperclyp]

15 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

You have never worked for a big company before 

You’re not wrong but even for a big company with not enough corroboration and the possibility of some guy high enough up who didn’t sign off on it, or some guy too high up who forced it to happen when smarter people telling him it’s not gonna go well, etc etc 

 

WOOOF

 

Like going from DOUBLING the price of your, let’s be honest, already expensive and probably exploitative service to being like, oops our bad is REMARKABLE. 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

You’re not wrong but even for a big company with not enough corroboration and the possibility of some guy high enough up who didn’t sign off on it, or some guy too high up who forced it to happen when smarter people telling him it’s not gonna go well, etc etc 

 

WOOOF

 

Like going from DOUBLING the price of your, let’s be honest, already expensive and probably exploitative service to being like, oops our bad is REMARKABLE. 

 

Maybe it went something like this:

 

Sam: Hey I think we should double the price of XBL Gold

 

Jimmy: I don't think that's a very good idea

 

Sam: Well I'm in charge here and I think it is.

 

Jimmy: There will probably be a big backlash if we do this

 

Sam: Well let's change it and if there is we will change it back and say we are sorry

 

Jimmy: Oooookaaay 🙄

 

24 hours later

 

Sam:

[crispy4000]

You don't just attempt double the price of something without taking a hard look at the market factors and numbers.  We might never know what pressured 'Sam.'

 

Hopefully the press does its job and asks Phil what he hoped to accomplish with it.

[Xbob42]

They probably hoped dipshit gamers would just accept the price increase (and indeed defend it) like they did with Sony upping games $10. I mean, we saw plenty of that dumb bullshit on these very forums, where apparently games selling to a dramatically wider population and making more profit than ever while having 600 different ways to monetize the fuck out of you wasn't enough, so now we get all that plus we get to spend $10+tax more per purchase! Gamers are the biggest fucking suckers on the planet.

[crispy4000]

2 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

They probably hoped dipshit gamers would just accept the price increase (and indeed defend it) like they did with Sony upping games $10. I mean, we saw plenty of that dumb bullshit on these very forums, where apparently games selling to a dramatically wider population and making more profit than ever while having 600 different ways to monetize the fuck out of you wasn't enough, so now we get all that plus we get to spend $10+tax more per purchase! Gamers are the biggest fucking suckers on the planet.

We’ve had those forms of monetization for most of the past two generations.  The publishers who could successfully fight inflation an additional gen without a sticker price hike are those who are successful at doing the most of what you hate.  It’s not sustainable for the ‘good guys.’  Not that this is even something avoidable with CoD going for $70.

Its possible Microsoft was trying to leverage Gold as a way to keep the price of their 1st party games static.  And not rely as much on the shit you’re complaining about.  Gold subscribers (without Games Pass) would have been the true whales in that scenario.

 

To be blunt about it, they already have been in prior gens, along with PS+ subscribers.

[Mercury33]

23 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

I just can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want Gamepass Ultimate instead of Gold.

I have zero desire to ever get Gamepass and never will. I only use Xbox for my MP games. I play all my single player stuff on PS5 and all my indies on Switch/PC. 
 

Also lol at defending a major corporation as “the good guys” because they reversed their completely fucked up policy a little faster. Lol they all suck. 

[Xbob42]

52 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

The publishers who could successfully fight inflation an additional gen without a sticker price hike are those who are successful at doing the most of what you hate.  It’s not sustainable for the ‘good guys.’  Not that this is even something avoidable with CoD going for $70.

Funny, because the "good guys" generally didn't get to charge full price to begin with, because they rarely make AAA games.

[BloodyHell]

30 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

I have zero desire to ever get Gamepass and never will. I only use Xbox for my MP games. I play all my single player stuff on PS5 and all my indies on Switch/PC. 
 

Also lol at defending a major corporation as “the good guys” because they reversed their completely fucked up policy a little faster. Lol they all suck. 

I mean, how you spend your money is up to you. But gamepass is the best gaming service there is. 

 

You can say MS sucks, but for years now they have done everything possible to make their ecosystem the best deal for gamers, and it is. Its not my primary platform either, but having a huge, ever expanding library at your fingertips, for the price of a netflix account, is about as good as it gets in gaming. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Many people have asked "Why would they do this?".  I'm guessing that it has to do with their most recent business plan not meeting their financial targets -- and Phil was given the task of improving the profitability of the game division.

 

Xbox has gone "all-in" on subscription revenue -- their entire focus, IMHO, is no longer (like Sony and Nintendo) on focusing on getting you to buy GamePass.  I've read quotes from Sony (and other publishers) stating that they don't understand how the financials of GamePass make sense.  And I suspect it doesn't, at least in the short run, but I suspect it does if it gets a VERY high penetration of Xbox users (its only at about 15 million users right now, many of which purchased it at a significant discount), plus a large # of PC gamers.

 

So in a world where Xbox is in a distant third in terms of platform sales.  The big game from Xbox studios (Halo) just got delayed a year.  They just spent another big chunk of change on Bethesda.  They were trying to set it up so that new people to the ecosystem were almost forced to get GamePass -- because the price difference between it and Gold were so close -- and if they don't the financial hit if they buy Gold is much smaller.  It may also be that they were planning an increase to the price of GamePass later this year (or early next year) to help fund the purchase of Bethesda.

[crispy4000]

22 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Funny, because the "good guys" generally didn't get to charge full price to begin with, because they rarely make AAA games.

Yup.  It’s just the reality of game dev now.
 

We cheerlead for these console manufacturers for their supposed fair practice AAA stuff when in reality they’re just subsidizing it through 30% royalties and layered subscription plans.

[AbsolutSurgen]

2 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, how you spend your money is up to you. But gamepass is the best gaming service there is. 

 

You can say MS sucks, but for years now they have done everything possible to make their ecosystem the best deal for gamers, and it is. Its not my primary platform either, but having a huge, ever expanding library at your fingertips, for the price of a netflix account, is about as good as it gets in gaming. 

It is a good deal if you want to play the specific games that are on that service at a point in time.  If your preference is to play different games, it doesn't look quite as attractive.

[Keyser_Soze]

57 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

I have zero desire to ever get Gamepass and never will. I only use Xbox for my MP games. I play all my single player stuff on PS5 and all my indies on Switch/PC.

 

It's like someone gives you a choice of two cars for the same price but one car has air conditioning and the other does not. I mean you can say, "All I do is drive" but there is no harm in taking the one with the AC in case you might want to try it out.

 

Game Pass gives you everything gold has plus the benefit of never having to buy an Xbox first party game (I mean you will be interested when Halo comes out right?) You could play those indie PC games on your PC with game pass, you could totally try out a game you might think you wouldn't otherwise enjoy for a cost of included game pass.

 

The only reason to have no desire for it is to be willfully ignorant of what you get out of it.