It's funny because the last remaining Xbox fans have been saying that it's not about hardware sales anymore, MS only cares about game pass subscribers, but MS is destroying that too now. Why buy an overpriced PC with the Xbox logo on it, just to pay for an overpriced service to not own any game not even digitally?

The best part is, that is one less reason for using Windows over SteamOS/Linux, and there weren't many reasons left already.

Honestly until SteamOS fixes the issue with anti cheat and some of the most popular MP games not working with it windows has nothing to worry about. When or if that day comes though...

Oh, they're likely seeing the non-lasting effects of COD on the service so they decided to effectively kill it's userbase progressively while raining more revenue from the 50% increase on Ultimate Pass.

Insane considering that they already did an increase last year while also increasing the prices on hardware multiple times.

But that's also just proving how the problem of ownership and perceived value of subscription services are today.

The progressive demolition of Xbox over the last 12 years should be studied in business school.

How a company with more money than some whole countries managed to get lose the console war so miserably is a tale for the ages; there is no such thing as "too big to fail."

There is nothing to fix on the Linux side, it's game devs who must stop putting malware in the form of kernel level anticheat in their games.

As Microsoft lays off thousands and jacks up Game Pass prices, former FTC chair says I told you so: The Activision-Blizzard buyout is 'harming both gamers and developers'

I suppose it'll be interesting to see whether sub numbers do go down over time after this. It's expensive that's for sure, but I can still see the benefits of Day 1 Xbox games being worth it for many.

It breaks even at like 5-6 games a year, bought at full price.
However that's ownership vs renting. 
For game pass to be worth it, imo, you need to be the type that plays/buys like twice that amount every year.

If not, its likely not worth it. Just get a few must have titles and wait for bargain sales for rest..... It depends on how much you play.

Its like a "all you can eat buffet" for like 80$.
If your a big guy that just wants to overindulge it might be worth that.
The thing here is the limiting factor, is not the size of your tummy and how much you can shove down there.... its time.
Most people that work, and live a normal life, have kids, don't play/finish like 12 games a year, because of time (which they don't have for it).

The avg Call of Duty player, is like a sports loving guy, that has gaming as this little side thing.... and he buys maybe 3 games a year
(CoD being one of them).  A person like that, won't see any value at all, in game pass now.

Bloomberg - Xbox’s Hike on Game Pass Shows Cost of Lost ‘Call of Duty’ Sales

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-03/xbox-s-game-pass-hike-shows-cost-of-lost-call-of-duty-sales?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1OTUyNzI0MywiZXhwIjoxNzYwMTMyMDQzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUM0lWRFNHUFFROVIwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJGRUIzODlCNUI2ODI0RTY0QjY5MENEODE1RTBDREZGRCJ9.D1EObQzg2KlvqBoXPyEm5Yn-DznTYaVWC3okI5aX3AU&leadSource=uverify%20wall

"Xbox gave up more than $300 million in sales of Call of Duty on console and PCs last year, according to one of the former employees, who asked not to be identified discussing internal estimates."

“Game Pass hasn’t delivered the explosive growth Microsoft anticipated post-Activision, and they’ve realized their infrastructure costs don’t align with their pricing model,” said Joost Van Dreunen, founder of the video-game analytics firm Aldora.

"..while Game Pass “can claim a few victories with games that otherwise would have sunk beneath the waves (Human Fall Flat, e.g.), the majority of game adoption on [Game Pass] comes at the expense of retail revenue.”"

So basically Xbox people are estimating over 300m lost in revenue from having CoD on gamepass last year.
Which explains why its not part of the premium tier anymore, and why the Ultimate tier went up in price.

This is the part that stings.

"Xbox has said Game Pass is profitable, with revenue reaching a record of nearly $5 billion for the fiscal year that ended in June. "

Vs   

"the majority of game adoption on [Game Pass] comes at the expense of retail revenue.”"

Lets say you make 5bn on gamepass, but ~3bn of those sales, are just shifted revenue you would have had from normal sales.
Then you factor in the price you need to pay game devs to put games on game pass ect.
You need to off-set your own games developement costs that you include in game pass.

Basically while gamepass might be profitable, its not setting the world on fire, once you factor in the other side of stuff.
(shifted revenue, paying studios for their games, your own developement costs of games, ect)

If there is one thing I learned from the PS3 era when I abandoned Sony and went 360 is that you can't rely on devs to do shit. You have to make things as easy as possible to do exactly what they want. One of the best statements I ever heard from Sony when they were talking about the PS4 was Cerny saying they went to devs and found out what they wanted.in a console.

So we can throw the blame at whoever you want here. At the end of the day until the top MP games are playable on SteamOS they will never reach the casuals. Even some of the hardcore wont want to deal with that. I know I wont and I barely play MP games but I'm sure as hell not going to just cut them off.