Microsoft Increases the Price for Game Pass on PC and Xbox

[watzupken]

I love all the contrarians on this site. For me having 3 kids that love games that have low attention spans, the yearly game pass more than makes up for itself. I expect the the price to go up again every year for the next 2 years. My kids are happy with the rotation and if there's a game they really want they go cut grass or something else to earn money to have it permanently.

I think it really boils down to how the end user's gaming pattern. It sounds reasonable for yours. But as far as I know from friends and relatives that game, we tend to stick to 1 or 2 games most of the time or in a month. So buying the Game Pass is like throwing money away since you don't get to keep the game after it expires. The steep increase in price makes it even harder to swallow.

 

[sil3ntearth]

I used it for years until recently and it was amazing for a family of gamers (both PCs and Xbox Series X & S). It was especially great for my wife and daughter who played a lot of the silly games it provides. Also, it's amazing for when you want to play co-op with either one of them and don't have to buy the game 2 or 3 times.

How many of these people talking about not owning the games and pissing money away are renting their homes/apartments? A few hundred dollars a year is beans compared to THAT waste. If you're worried about a few hundred dollars are year, you probably should be spending money on things other than games.

 

[redeye]

well my point still stand on ... high income in Switzerland is not the majority, and given the price of daily life and commodities being 4 time higher... it basically negate the medium and lower income (and to some extent the higher income ) maybe they did not want to shaft us as hard as everyone else do ...

my other guess would be currency strength ... tho 1chf is 1.03eur atm...

but is chocolate priced reasonably?… is lindt chocolate more expensive?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Just my opinion, of course.

There are pros to all digital subscription services, but there are also major downsides. The biggest pro (which is also the hook) is that it gets you is immediate access to a significant collection of content that would cost way more than buying them all. There's potential to discover something new, that you may not have ever purchased. More variety improves the experience, right?

And now the cons...
You now have no control over what content you have delivered. It might be good stuff, it might be mostly junk. Content might be here today, but then gone tomorrow due to expiring licensing or cost-cutting measures. Next, you have no control over pricing, and subscription pricing has always gone up, be it games, movies, or music. And then the real issue kicks in, you have paid hundreds of dollars and have no rights to anything. You are now hostage to the monthly fee. You can always cancel, but if that's all you've ever done, then now your console is worthless unless you start purchasing games. And this is truly the worst part of any subscription model--you are hostage to the whims of the provider. If content is deemed offensive, it will get wiped from existence, or, it might get retconned. Subscription services actually devalue the content into consumable goods, like a good takeout meal. It actually changes how the industry thinks, operates, and distributes content. It becomes intentionally disposable, because that's what the consumer does.

This has happened across all the subscription services that I've seen. None are the same as they once were. Now there are even ads in for-pay subs. The sad thing is, I don't know that having that much variety makes us any happier than when we had a handful of quality games to chose from. We just have less attention span and have become more tolerant of garbage content.

 

[qlum]

It was more a, why does Switzerland only get a $1.1 increase, when the EU countries get hit with €2? Admittedly Sweden gets away with US$1.9. It seems to be a bit random, as some poorer countries are getting big increases in the local currency.

It's simply about the value of the currency, generally price in high income countries is aimed to be the same, swiss franc is now roughly 1 euro old pricing assumed the franc to be lower, so the lower increase will equalize it with the euro pricing.

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's simply about the value of the currency, generally price in high income countries is aimed to be the same, swiss franc is now roughly 1 euro old pricing assumed the franc to be lower, so the lower increase will equalize it with the euro pricing.

As a counter argument to that, why do lower income Euro countries have to pay as much as they do in the higher income Euro countries? I don't think your argument will fly.

 

[demian_vi]

Game Pass, as it stands right now, after taxes is $18.41 a month. My daughter makes use of it the most, but as of lately she's only used the Xbox maybe twice in the past 2 months.

Since I'm paying for it I figured I'd try to see what the hubbub is about for using Game Pass on the PC, I mean, why not? I am paying for it to be used on the Xbox.

I find a game I want to try - download gets about 70% done and it fails. I get some stupid error message and error number. I do the whole search online and see numerous posts and suggestions. None of the dozen or so suggestions work. I cannot get the download to pickup from where it failed at so now I have to try and redownload 100+ GB again? Screw it. I won't bother with it then.

Fast forward about 10 months later and my younger brother recently asked me about Game Pass, if I have it - since he knows the kids play the Xbox. I tell him I do and he's kind of excited because there are some games on there he wants us to play coop and he's thinking that the current $16.99 a month would be a good deal. I told him I had issues trying to use it on PC a while back, but I would try again and let him know. I find a game, it's only about 18GB in size and I download it.....the download speed from the Xbox Game Pass server is abysmal. Takes me nearly an hour to download the game and once it hit 100% the install fails. I get some error message and an error number that was different from the one I got some months back. I do the search online, find lots of suggestions and nothing works. I stop caring about it and let things be for a few days.

I try installing the game a few days later - same error, I searched online for answers and kept finding the same suggestions that don't work. After a bit more digging I find a youtube video about the error and the problem that find I'm having is a Windows settings (f'ing MS) that is causing the error. You figure MS would be able to fix it or have their own software bypass the setting, but no. Why would MS ever do something smart like that. My problem is, I want to install the game on my secondary drive and not the main C: drive and I can't, the Game Pass/Xbox software on PC is a poorly written POS.

I now have to change a setting in Windows to allow Microsoft's Game Pass/Xbox software on the PC allow me to install a program on a drive that isn't my main C: drive.....
If you're curious about the fix, click on SPOILER.

Spoiler

Open the Settings for Windows
Search for "Storage"
Scroll down under More storage settings and click on "Change where new content is saved"
The very first option at the top is for where you save new apps, you must change that to the drive you want to save your game you're installing off the Game Pass/Xbox software. Once you set that you can now install a game to said drive location from the Game Pass/Xbox software.

Anyway, long story short, I don't think their Game Pass service is worth what will be almost $22 a month (after taxes). Once September rolls around, I'm dropping Game Pass.

you are literally asked to cahnge the isntallation folder in the first step

 

[neatfeatguy]

you are literally asked to cahnge the isntallation folder in the first step

View attachment 355057 View attachment 355058

You are, but it doesn't work for me. No matter the game or the drive I tried to install to that wasn't the C: it always failed with error 0x80073d0d.

 

[Totally]

Second, there is not a guarantee that games will go on sale and for how much. There are those that don't exclusively use Steam.

Good thing I used full retail prices and pre and post hike prices for the comparison

And you didn't read the first post apparently. I don't go back and play through games again; it is one and done for me on single player games. Over half of my existing Steam Library was only installed once, and then when finished, it is removed and not installed again. I don't really care for DLC these days.... I remember when Expansion Packs were a thing.

Better to have it and not use it, than to not have it and want to use it

I get a lot of use out of it.

No one is saying you aren't but objectively you are short changing yourself