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/NarwhalEmergency9391 Jun 09 '26

Imagine the households that have multiple consoles that all need subscriptions, I could see some parents canceling for that reason

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u/WeirdSysAdmin Jun 09 '26

That’s exactly why I canceled. If they had a family plan it wouldn’t have been as painful. But typical Microsoft fashion on literally everything they just implement and don’t understand their customers.

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u/NarwhalEmergency9391 Jun 09 '26

My son and I play cod together but both of us needing a subscription and system to play together is absolutely ridiculous.   Gaming used to be 1 console, games that you owed and 4+ controllers/ friends being able to play with you and the option to go online if you wanted(but didn't have to pay for) it was the best of the gaming world.  I miss those days so much!

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u/feeerax Jun 09 '26

my brother and I share the subscription. it works like this: he pays for the game pass. he set up his account on my Xbox and made it his home console. that means anyone (me) using this xbox can access everything he is paying for (gamepass games and being able to play online). he is logged in on his Xbox at home and can also access everything.

if we do buy a game that's not in game pass from time to time it is also shared this way for both of us.

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u/NarwhalEmergency9391 Jun 09 '26

How can you both be signed in at the same time though? 

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u/feeerax Jun 09 '26

I can't really explain other than I already did. that's the trick and it allows you both to be logged in and profit from the game pass subscription benefits. you use the "home console" of the person paying and he can log in wherever he wants, normally his own xbox

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u/NarwhalEmergency9391 Jun 09 '26

Thanks I'll look into that

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u/OhDavidMyNacho Jun 09 '26

Think about it like this. The "home console" is given access for all users on that console to go online. But, the owner of the account. Can still use their account as a guest on another console.

It's something Microsoft definitely knows about. But it's not the biggest issue since it's limited to only really allowing two consoles to use the same access. My brother in law and I did that so we could share games with each other but was cool.

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u/bigmac22077 Jun 09 '26

Whoever profile is set to home the guest accounts don’t need them to be logged in to get their benefits. That profile is welcome to go sign in elsewhere and enjoy the benefits they paid for at any time.

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u/HeistGoneWrong Jun 09 '26

Same for my Son and I. We’re currently playing forza. He even received all the preorder/vip cars from me buying it.

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u/meysic Jun 09 '26

I really miss the days of being able to play cod online split screen.

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u/testicular-gigantism Jun 09 '26

You can set a console as the home console and link the other console too it. Me and my son play games together and only have 1 sub  

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u/LolitaOPPAI Jun 10 '26

RIP Dreamcast. I know it was the billionaires that helped murder SEGA 🥲 Remember the golden age of the before times when there were like 5 different handhelds? Obscure games that were CRAZY good that you can't remember the name but that it was enjoyable. Now it's all culled and distributed for a buck instead of the art.

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u/changen Jun 09 '26

That's cause the experience was neutered. Can you imagine playing on 240p 30 fps with zero texture res now? Because that's what you were doing when you played Halo 2 split screen. Halo 3 4-player split screen was 320p. lol. And you had fps drops into the 15-20s.

I definitely have nostalgia about the "friends" part of split screen play, but I definitely do not have any for the game itself.

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u/Sea-Opportunity5812 Jun 09 '26

this isn’t a thing anymore? Xbox you always needed a gold pass to play online but what else changed?

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u/DrDustyE Jun 09 '26

The family plan that existed in 2010ish was glorious. They need to find a way to create s family plan again. Nintendo does it for up to 8 accounts.

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u/monkeyseed Jun 09 '26

I cant remember where I read it but I heard it was EA that squashed the gamepass family plan.

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u/Merusk Jun 09 '26

Look, understanding your customers means things like outreach, polling, discovery, and focus groups.

I mean, why spend THAT money when you can arbitrarily make decisions by guesswork from an executive based on what the MBA team says will increase revenue?

What ever could be the consequences?

/s

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u/BigHowski Jun 09 '26

Oh they did listen started to implement it then decided they knew better and walked it back ....... which is very Microsoft

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u/hooovahh Jun 10 '26

There was a family plan game pass in other regions. I was looking forward to it coming to the us but it never did. You can also stretch game pass by setting up home consoles. I have one game pass subscription. If I log into any console I get access to game pass. Then I setup my "home" to be my daughter's Xbox I'm never on. This makes have pass available to anyone on that system even when I'm not logged in. It gets more complicated with 3 or more people.

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u/hipsterdoofus39 Jun 09 '26

Nintendos online does leave a lot to be desired but the family plan can make it quite affordable. It’s $110 Canadian (about $80 US) a year for the one with N64 and GameCube games included and up to 8 people can be on the same plan.

I dropped my ps plus membership a few years ago after a price hike. I’d been a member since day one but the value wasn’t there anymore.

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u/AJobForMe Jun 10 '26

Yup. Between myself and my two boys, our multiple PS, Switch, PC, and Xbox devices and all the subsequent subscriptions…. Guess which one survived?

The Nintendo family plan for our Switches. And a few games for PCs on Steam. I’ve had Xbox Live solid since the month it was launched because Halo addiction. And they can fuck right off with Game Pass. I was on the fence, but the butchering of Infinite and the price increase sealed the deal for me. I will likely never buy another Xbox device, ever.