Trust arrives on foot but leaves on horseback.
Good luck getting those millions of subscribers back again now that you showed your “we will fuck you any chance we get” cards.
One of the big issues MS, and many other, companies will have is that it doesn’t work out like the Goldilocks story.
“Okay. That price was too high. Let’s dial it back just a bit, and it’ll be juuust right. ……Why aren’t people coming back?”
People burned by high prices will find alternatives, and can very quickly settle with the transition issues of those alternatives. The same has been found on conveniences like potato chips.
When I had enough, I researched how to get the games “cost-efficient”. And to my surprise it was very easy, safe and guess what: affordable. Since then I “saved” around 500$ and only spend my money on some Indie Games… Even if the prices should now fall again and become acceptable, the probability that I will buy my games through the conventional way is low.
Exactly. People hate change and when you force them to change they will almost never come back if they find a decent alternative
For me it was Spotify. Their radio mixes were far too repetitive and I got sick of hearing the same songs so I shopped around, and I found out Tidal offers higher quality streaming at a lower price. Extra bonus: Tidal’s radio mixes are far more diverse. Small caveat: not everything is on Tidal; some albums missing, some artists don’t publish to it because Spotify and iTunes are the forerunners with most tech manufacturers supporting them natively (such as the Spotify integration in Bose hardware), whereas Tidal maintains the audiophile niche (only integrated with Sonos and Bang & Olufsen I believe).
The only Microsoft service I was using was Game Pass. For me, it was never cheap… the price was fair for what they offered. But after they doubled it I cancelled immediately and never looked back. And I would not, even if they decided to drop the price back again to what it was. Because now I know it is unreliable, and they will raise the price again as soon as they feel comfortable.
Typical of MS though, so that didn’t surprise me at all. They just can’t keep a reliable and fair priced service for long. As soon as they believe they can fuck people up, they do.
But thankfully nowadays we have so many options, to whatever product Microsoft offers, that’s actually not as hard to get free of them as they might think.
Most people do it as a hobby, something to de-stress. Microsoft just assumes everyone is a 10y old with rage issues and a love for Antebellum South Linguistics.
Like thuy give a fuck, the real question is whether it improved profitability.
Bad news Microsoft, I didn’t just leave gamepass, I left windows.
The same thing happened to me. Gamepass was the last thing holding me to Windows. After the price hike I cancelled, and then had no good reasons left not to try Linux.
Same, though I keep a defanged AtlasOS version on dual boot for the rare things that absolutely require that garbage.
I’ve just axed win10 completely and never ever felt like I’ve needed it the past two years for anything.
That’s my plan. Just making sure everything works on my linux install. Once I’m happy with it I’ll wipe the drive and install AtlasOS for that random one off thing that doesn’t work.
I’m trying to sit on windows 10 on my gaming PC until Valves PC Linux distro releases, just because I hate doing an OS swap more than I have to. I moved my laptop to Mint like a year ago.
I was one of those people. Yes I still have some remaining time left on my Gamepass Ultimate subscription, but I purchased a mid-level gaming pc and a bunch of Steam games. It’ll be cheaper in the long run for me.
I’ve pulled off the Xbox band-aid and even reverting the price hike won’t persuade me to go back. I’ve been a continuous subscriber since mid-360 days.
Welcome friend, even midlevel will open you to a world of gaming.
Remember the order of purchases should be GOG (DRM free games), then Steam, then shittier platforms.
Older games especially, things like the older fallout games you’ll be able to pick up for <$5 and play for 60+ hours
I would put Humble Bundle bundles at the top of the list.
I would put independent developers at the top of the list. Couple examples
Bump for humble. Run it for a year or two and you’ll have a scary backlist in no time. Though I also have a bunch of shit (imo not actually) games from the early days before the pick system that I’ll never play.
Gog top even after their Nazi symbols email recently?
Yes, that was not intentional.
There were lightning bolts that were supposed to be at the beginning and end of a phrase that ended up getting moved side by side.
See I thought that it was just them being super unprofessional and letting the robot do their marketing for them and not even proofreading. Is that not still the case here?
Here’s a question, why have it at all? It was not sent out to Germany with it. Why not just make that version the only one? Leave your emojis out of your subject lines and have your marketing team embed a professional image in the body, thats enough.
Yes. I’ll allow mistakes to happen, one mistake does not erase all of the good they’ve done. They keep doing it, that changes things, but they admitted it and apologized.
Can you name a better option?
I’ve been a PC gamer for decades, but completely stopped being also a console gamer after PS3.
You can have a great time at the mid level, or even lower on PC. I built my mid range PC in 2016, and only just a few months ago did I upgrade my processor from an AMD 1600X to a 5600x and my Nvidia 1060 GPU to a Radeon 6600 XT. Cost me $350 for the both of them. Went the Radeon route because it plays nicer with Linux.
There’s enough great games out there worth playing that I’ll be able to enjoy this system for the next several years.
Same and never going back. They had me since the OG Xbox. Microsoft is an absolute shit show of an anti-consumer company.
Don’t forget to check itch.io for crazy shit indies can come up with, a lot of it free, some paid.
I left after the first price hike.
“Millions”, just how many subscribers in total do they have?
About 35 million last year.
mind that it’s a worldwide service
It’s competitive out there for hardcore gamers and Microsoft is losing. The ones who are buying on a massive scale are their demographic (obviously).
I personally kept gamepass through the price hikes because it’s the only thing I pay for gaming wise. They don’t make much off of me. I pay the monthly fee, play the free games, and occasionally buy a game that’s like 80% off. I will buy games on day 1 but they are usually huge releases like GTA6 or Fable… Games that come out once a generation or longer.
The old price was too high for me. The raised one made me roll my eyes.
I think this is important. Because MS successfully found the upper limit of what consumers are willing to pay. The question is, is it enough, or will they shut it down?
I stopped using Gameapass when I got a Steam Deck
Microsoft doesn’t want me to use their product so I won’t.
That’s why I stopped playing Minecraft, because they don’t want me to. (Bedrock with controller does not work on Linux)
33 minutes and nobody has offered an impractical yet potentiall workable solution(?) yet… maybe it really isn’t possible.
Unfortunately that’s the case with all UWP applications, they’re deep-rooted into the OS
Play java edition is the only possible outcome (not sure if it works with a controller tbh)
I played with using the google play store version, but it kept showing out of date and kept having to log back into google. Not worth my time.
What grossly incompetent leadership.
The change saw Game Pass Ultimate jump 50%, rising from $19.99 to $29.99 per month. PC Game Pass also increased from $11.99 to $16.49, marking nearly a 40% hike.
