View: https://twitter.com/ethangach/status/1688888019141500929
As the tweet says, this happened at some moment last week.
Xbox changes $1 Game Pass trial length down from 1 month to 14 days
- Thread starter --R
- Start date
View: https://twitter.com/ethangach/status/1688888019141500929
As the tweet says, this happened at some moment last week.
They are spending a lot, at a certain point returns need to improve.
This one is a smart move. The price increases and releasing a 350 dollar S is...not. They need to go the other way.
And people dogpiled anyone that questioned its sustainability with growth slowing.
Agreed on those counts. It seems like overall they're thinking "we've got our content pipeline sorted, no need to try and pull people into the ecosystem so aggressively. Notice how they've been slashing the rewards for MS rewards as well...
Both can be true. It can be sustained and also Microsoft wants to make more money off it. They didn't become one of the richest companies in the world simply by sustaining.
We are getting past that honeymoon phase that all subscription services go through. Still a great value though.
Those are one and the same things to me. It's about MS's ROI targets.
Would be possible for them to be taking some Starfield feedbacks from people like Jez Corden, Paris, Digital Foundry, etc.? They really seem to be confident.
It's been a very long honeymoon. Most entrants to the video subscription marketplace do a short trial or maybe a small discount. Microsoft have gone way, way beyond for many years. It will be interesting to see how it affects subscription numbers/growth.
Yah the deal has been so incredibly generous for so long that while even with the price hike and conversion trick getting nerfed, it's still great value but the perception is that "the party is over" all of a sudden
Yeah, you could buy a month for $1, the digital deluxe upgrade for $27 or whatever, and have almost a week of access to the game before the official date. It's no coincidence that they stopped this just before or around August 1. Though you can do the same thing later, but the point being you only have 14 days now in total
Yup. There it is. Lol.
Phil was playing Starfield 2 weeks ago, must've helped him make this decision.
I'm pretty sure the Xbox division is already profitable. Phil Spencer said during the FTC trial that he is required by MS leadership to run a profitable business.
Edit: Nevermind, you said "improve". My bad. Still, point stands.
Along the same lines the MS Rewards program has been somewhat nerfed in recent weeks (not dramatically, but noticeably).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Begins? For me it started when they changed the Gold to Game Pass conversion, then almost immediately after that got rid of Gold for Game Pass Core.
Actually...it started when they quietly got rid of annual subs for Gold thru the console and their website. I guess annual subs are now available for Core? I don't even know anymore.
All part of the plan.gif
lol
Begins? For me it started when they changed the Gold to Game Pass conversion, then almost immediately after that got rid of Gold for Game Pass Core.
Actually...it started when they quietly got rid of annual subs for Gold thru the console and their website. I guess annual subs are now available for Core? I don't even know anymore.
All part of the plan.gif
Shrinkflation!
More and more worried there won't be any kid of 3 year conversion when my Game Pass sub is up.
More and more worried there won't be any kid of 3 year conversion when my Game Pass sub is up.
There is no longer a 3 year, it converts now to 2 years I believe?
I mean as long as it works for the conversion I don't really see a problem with this. It's now more in line with other trials and I highly doubt there was a significant group of people who will actually be impacted by this
What revisionist history. That sustainability argument had to do with gamepass sticking around for the long run. Eventual price increases was pretty much a given.
That's definitely not revisionist IMO, from what I remember it was people not believing it was profitable at the low cost and $1 conversions and would eventually need to increase in price. There was a lot of resistance to the idea they would need to while the sub was still growing.