Xbox Live has always been a necessary evil for gamers. In order to play online, you need to pay for the service, but at the same time, if you opt to
Xbox Live has always been a necessary evil for gamers. In order to play online, you need to pay for the service, but at the same time, if you opt to play the same game on the PC, there’s no cost.
Microsoft was one of the first platforms to have paid online gaming services and distribution, which was a big deal at the time, as they offered voice chat and matchmaking services to help ease your ability to find someone to play against. It was revolutionary at the time, especially for how well it worked.
Ever since 2002, Microsoft has been offering these services, and occasionally, they hike their prices up, citing that they are charging more due to demand and to improve their services. This week, Microsoft made a misstep.
Essentially doubling their prices, a year of Xbox Live skyrocketed to $120. That would mean $120 to play free-to-play titles or even the titles you already enjoy, simply because you are using their multiplayer component.
You may be asking yourself why they would even do that, but it’s no secret that Microsoft’s Xbox division has been trying to push strong on getting gamers to convert over to their Game Pass Ultimate subscription service with an offering of upgrading your existing Xbox Live subscription for just $1.
This service offers the best of both worlds, in that it gives you Xbox Live access (with the benefit of free games every month) and opens up a catalog of hundreds of games to play on your Xbox, PC, and a mobile streaming service that uses cloud gaming.
The price of Game Pass Ultimate is $180 a year, or triple the price of Xbox Live. This value is something you would have to seriously consider, however, all first-party Microsoft titles come directly to the service for free, so it makes that decision even harder to make.
This doubled price hike didn’t go over well, at all. Fans and critics took social platforms by storm, suggesting that they would be canceling their subscriptions, switching to Playstation, or a number of other options. This made Xbox and Playstation two of the top trending hashtags that day, pushing past even most of the political headlines, due to the uproar.
In a complete 180, Microsoft finally posted their response to the backlash, nearly 13 hours later:
“We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day. As a result, we have decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing,” said Microsoft,
“We’re turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. For free-to-play games, you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.”
“If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months. Thank you.”
This backpedal actually did something further in that now all free-to-play titles will not require Xbox Live to play: something that’s been tough on fans of Fortnite and Apex Legends for some time now, given other platforms didn’t charge to play them.
It’s one thing to push consumers to a different service, but uprooting the system to force them to do so is something else entirely. It seems like Microsoft has learned their lesson for now, but it truly shows that the fans and social media outcry can almost instantly impact bad business decisions, and that’s both an emboldening and scary thought.
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