Xbox Game Pass Gets ‘Enshittified’: Pay More, Get Less

Karl Bode was just talking through some of the changes that Netflix is making to its subscriptions, most of which revolve around charging more for same or lesser service. In the case of Netflix, this means raising subscription rates while injecting advertisements where once there were none. This so-called “enshittification” process — a word I have very much come to love — follows a predictable track. Instead of writing that track out, I’ll just post Karl’s opening paragraph from the post above, as it’s perfectly written.

We’ve illustrated repeatedly how as streaming subscriber growth has slowed, streaming giants have had to pivot to some bad industry habits to ensure Wall Street gets those sweet improved quarterly returns. That’s included everything from utterly pointless layoff-creating mergers and price hikes, to annoying new restrictions and a steady increase in ads (that you have to pay more to avoid).

That. All of it. Which brings us to Xbox’s Game Pass service. Game Pass has long been something of a gold standard in video game streaming programs for a couple of reasons. First, it operates quite well. I’m a subscriber and use it several times a week and, anecdotally at least, it’s great in its current form. Second, the subscription tiers were both fairly limited in number and simple to understand, as well as coming with great features, such as day-1 access to Xbox first-party titles.

But because the enshittification process is so predictable, Xbox Game Pass will shortly be enshittified. Microsoft is making changes to the program in the form of new tiers, discontinuing existing tiers, price increases, and the removal of some features from existing or replacement tiers. Let’s start with the price increases:

• “Game Pass Ultimate” is going from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
• “Game Pass for PC” is going from $9.99 to $11.99 per month.
• “Game Pass Core” (previously known as Xbox Live Gold) is going from $59.99 to $74.99 for annual subscriptions (and remains at $9.99 for monthly subscriptions).

This follows the common track, as the new subscriber rates for Game Pass as a whole have slowed. With that slowing down of adoption, the investor class sitting behind the product has to have stock gains driven by something other than new subscribers. That comes from simply collecting more revenue for the service as a whole. Hence the price increases. There’s no real new benefit to speak of here, mind you. This is just more cost for the same (at best) service.

Then there’s the removal of certain subscription tiers.

Things get a bit more complicated for the $10.99/month “Xbox Game Pass for Console” tier. Microsoft announced that it will no longer accept new subscriptions for that tier after today, though current subscribers will be able to keep it (for now) if they auto-renew their subscriptions.

In its place, Microsoft will “in the coming months” roll out a new $14.99 “Xbox Game Pass Standard” tier. That new option will combine the usual access to “hundreds of high-quality games on console” with the “online console multiplayer” features that previously required a separate Xbox Game Pass Core subscription (“Core” will still be available separately and include access to a smaller “25+ game” library).

Except that the Console tier had the access to the day-1 releases we mentioned earlier. The Standard tier does not seem to have that. So here again, we have the new program including increased cost, but this time with a decrease in what you get for that cost. To get those previous features, you have to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate for $20/month. That’s almost double the cost of what was on offer through the Console tier, just to get what has been a core feature of Game Pass to begin with.

So, as the enshittification process dictates, Xbox gobbled up subscribers with a good offering at a good price, and is now seeking to extract as much money for as few features as possible now that the gobbling phase has run its course.

Including first-party titles with cheaper, console-focused Game Pass subscriptions probably seemed like a good idea when Microsoft was still trying to attract subscribers to the service. But Game Pass subscriber growth is starting to slow as the market of potential customers has become saturated. Microsoft now needs to extract more value from those subscribers to justify Game Pass cannibalizing direct sales of its own first-party games.

And let’s not forget Activision, which Microsoft recently spent a whopping $69 billion to acquire after lengthy legal and regulatory battles. Recouping that cost, while also offering Game Pass subscribers launch day access to massive sellers like Call of Duty, likely forced Microsoft to maximize Game Pass’ revenue-generating opportunities.

“Forced” is certainly a choice of words, but not one I would have picked myself. I can’t say I know for certain that some flavor of this was always Microsoft’s plan for Xbox Game Pass, but given how closely this follows the brunchlord playbook, to borrow Karl’s phrase, it sure feels that way. These were all choices made by Microsoft.

Whether customers will continue to choose to subscribe to Game Pass, on the other hand, is an experiment we’re about to witness in action.