I think this is the end of my Xbox journey, at least on the console. Between the rise of the console to the near doubling of Game Pass, I may as well go Steam/PC Game Pass.
For the cost of Game Pass Ultimate ($33.99 CAD), you can get one of the following (note PC Game Pass includes EA Play):
PC Game Pass + EA Play Pro ($32.49)
PC Game Pass + Ubisoft+ Classics ($28.32)
PC Game Pass + Ubisoft+ Premium ($36.66)
So excluding Cloud and Fortnite, you can get basically the same offering for $28.32 on PC, with the added freedom of using key sites like Green Man Gaming, Loaded, Humble Bundle, etc. in addition to other storefronts like Steam.
I love the ease of use of console, but Iām not sure itās worth it at this point. I have essentially relegated my PS5 to a glorified PS4 Pro++ and it seems more and more likely I will do the same for Xbox.
Regardless, I am locked in to Ultimate until May 2026. Once itās up, Iām switching to PC Game Pass.
Oh they are gonna have because of the price hike in developing countries being incredibly steep(100 reais compared to the 30 us dollars to give some idea as to how much microsoft is speedrunning their destruction in latin america and africa).
I mean, that is how most subscriptions work. I dont watch most of what is on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or HBO Max, but I pay the same rate everyone else does for the small handful of things I do watch.
In my opinion this simply changed the service from something that could be considered a no brainer for everyone, to something that requires you to evaluate the value you get out of it. If you arent playing at least five games a year in it, Ultimate is probably not for you. If you play more than that, it costs less than buying those games (Day 1 games specifically).
Ultimate basically became what the name implies, the tier for the most ardent and involved gamers. Just the games releasing THIS MONTH in game pass would be about $200 to buy if you are interested in them day one. If you can wait, there is no reason not to drop down a tier or just buy them on sale later.
Itās funny because I remember Phil saying the reason we donāt have exclusives anymore is because other wise they would have to nickel and dime their current customer base. Now look at the price of the hardware, gamepass and games and on top of that no exclusives.
Reality is that they likely know nearly exactly how many users will cancel or downgrade because of this and how many will just keep on paying. The numbers almost assuredly work out in their favor.
Our bubble isnāt their main playerbase. I can only imagine a deal like this must benefit a lot of GPU users who play fortnite and that isnāt most people here.
Yep and between hardcore gamers that play more than just Fortnite / CoD / FIFA each year, and people that pay for convenience, theyāll still get subs even if some users drop levels.
I mean I still buy games that I donāt play for ages (which means Day 1 isnāt as huge for me except for maybe 5/6 games a year) and never cancel all the gaming and TV streaming subscriptions Iāve got - all because Iām lazy, like the convenience of not having to re-sub or miss something, and enjoy being able to try out games or shows to see if I might like them without having to spend lots of additional money.
I do shop around for Game Pass usually though, and game purchases, as they are often my most expensive single entertainment outlays in a month.
I guess kind of a hedging strategy as well as laziness, but I imagine Iām not the only one
Okay so I bought 2 x 12 months Xbox Gamepass Core from Samās Club for $54 each. They have a limit of 2 so I couldnāt buy more than that.
Should I save the codes until my current Gamepass Ultimate runs out? Or convert it now?
Edit: Okay did a bit of research. 12 months of Gamepass Core only gives you 91 days of Gamepass Ultimate. Think Iām just going to save the codes and when GamePass Ultimate runs out I will use the codes as intended and simply become a Core user.
Judging from current gamer sentiment Xbox should be doing their conversation the opposite way. I should be able to convert the 1 year of Gamepass Ultimate that I have left and ādowngradeā it to 3 years of Gamepass Core.
Soā¦ As it turns out, this month of october the price will remain the same for old users but for new users the price will be the one that was shown. However for old users the price will beging by november 4.
So i think i will wait until my subscription this month is over and see if there is going to be some kind of change to the pricing and see if its more manageable or not for me.
Looks like the Canadian pricing is $34 for GPU, so it looked like they didnāt go with the currency conversion and similarly raised the price by 50% instead of doubling it.
More reasonable but I think I will go with my plan of just doing 6 months of Game Pass in the last half of next year.
