So I missed the news last week because apparently there wasn't a thread made on it. So I will use this opportunity to ask you the question in the thread title.

In case you missed it like I did, MS is increasing the price of Gamepass for all tiers.

• New Game Pass Standard launching in Sept, doesn't include day one games. Includes online play but no Cloud gaming. Priced $14.99 per month.

• Game Pass Ultimate price increase to $19.99/month from $16.99/month

• PC Game Pass price increase to $11.99/month from $9.99/month

• Game Pass Core increased from $59.99/year to $74.99/year.

The price hike was predicted by many I assume as it was quite obvious. I personally predicted a Netflix style strategy, keep it cheap for a few years to build a decent install base and then increase the price steadily.

Here's a history of those price hikes. https://flixed.io/netflix-price-hikes

Gamepass golden age was from 2017 to 2024. Netflix is similar with little change from 2007 to 2013.

Netflix then price hiked standard subscription in 2014,2015,2017,2019,2020, and 2022.

I think a price hike in the next 3 years would be a good prediction.

It's not exactly simply a price increase in this case but a degradation of the service due to the Standard option not featuring Day One games on the service for console users, you know, the majority of where their Gamepass userbase is ...

Basically using the upcoming 1st party releases and especially COD to strong-arm lower tier subscribers to cave in to Ultimate.

As for the next increase in price, I think it'll solely dépend on the growth of the service, part of the reason they're also doing the increase is because of the slowed growth. It's the easiest way to create monetary growth by exploiting the current base.

If the subscription growth situation doesn't change quite much after the holiday rush season, then expect a yearly increase in price.

Not all that long after PS Plus increases again.

As far as I can recall, Ms started the trend in July 2023. Annual subscriptions got a price hike.

Then sony followed with their own price hike of annual subscriptions.

Now Ms is increasing the price of monthly and annual subscriptions.

More likely that sony follows rather than Ms.

There was also the price hike attempt in september 2022 by Ms for xbox live gold. But that got foiled.

In general... I don't support subscriptions.

There have been a few exceptions like Xbox live! Gold when I got permanent free games... There was value to be had even if my subscription expired.

But I as inflationary pressures continue to trend world wide, it should be at-least a bi-annual occurrence.

Next year in the second half of the year as well.
Probably a dollar or two more a month for the cheaper plans and Ultimate will probably get a $3-$5 a month increase even from the upcoming new price of $19.99 a month.

They are still in the "testing phase" seeing what the outcome of CoD on gamepass is like.
If it results in more lose of potential buys than they expected.... maybe not that far into the future?
I could see a price increase as soon as within 6months, depending.

If COD sells very little on Xbox while not increasing gamepass numbers drastically (meaning everyone on gamepass currently would have bought it had it not come to gamepass), it will see another hefty price hike within a year. If COD sells well and or increases Gamepass numbers by several million things should be fine.

The same as always--when they feel they can safely get away with it.

I think the favored strategy is to alternate price increases with tier manipulation in order to funnel people into more expensive subscriptions. That way they can at least create the illusion of added value. Much like Netflix, they will endlessly tinker with the subscription models to work in their favor as much as possible.

Sounds like you don't fully agree with me, but I think you actually do.

My point in general is the back and forth. One company does it, and if there's not much push back, the other follows soon enough, and the cycle continues.