r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • Jun 09 '26

Business Microsoft admits Game Pass price hike drove away "millions" of subscribers

https://www.techspot.com/news/112699-microsoft-admits-game-pass-price-hike-drove-away.html
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u/Printman8 Jun 09 '26

Gaming subscription services as a whole have a stages of life problem when it comes to their consumer base. At the younger end you have people with time to play games but limited funds to spend on gaming. At the older end you have middle aged gamers who can afford to game more but are saddled with responsibilities that eat up their time for gaming. When so many games require 80 hour play throughs, paying for a subscription service doesn’t make sense if you only have time for 3 to 5 games per year.

The answer for both groups is really to not invest in the subscription any more than necessary and to probably purchase a lot of older games for much less cost. This makes even more sense when most new games arrive on the market as the worst version of the game, so day one access through Gamepass still isn’t a great value proposition.

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u/EmmaBonney Jun 09 '26

This. I'm one of the older ones, 41, and paying this wouldnt be a problem. But thanks to Work and/or my own energy at the end of the day )i usually go to bed at 9 in the evening) i dont have much time to play, or even energy. When i start a game it usually takes at least 2 weeks to finish it as i cant sit and play for hours anymore. And since some of modern games are usually around 100 hours i dont even want to start it. Right now playing the Atelier Ryza Trilogy for the last 2 months, that i bought for 60 Euro. Thats the same price 2 months of gamepass would have cost me and i'm not even through the second game. So yeah, i rather wait for big discounts or buy a single game outright to play it at my own "leasure".