This is just the zeitgeist of 21st century capitalism.
✓ Subscriptions. Make them pay you forever.
✓ Low initial price to saturate market share and stifle competition while you operate at a loss.
✓ Drive all realistic competitors out of the market (stadia et al.)
✓ Slow user growth? Jack up prices!
I'm not surprised they got out of the hardware business. Software license protection publishing fees are way more lucrative than hardware sales. The hardware is just there to lock people into the software.
It was great at 15 because at that point 180 a year you could be sure to play 3 AAA games worth in a year. Doubling that is pretty ehhhh. You need to cycle through a ton of games to get your money worth there.
It was never sustainable, they threw in tons of money to disrupt the market and get subscribers share, and now that they have done that as much as they can, they are trying to get the money.
The most baffling thing is not the price hike - it’s the price hike combined Xbox Game Studios release roadmap looking barren compared to the last 2 years. What is this $30 supposed to pay for? Severance packages?
No better than PS+ Extra catalog. For streaming they're worse than PS plus cloud, Amazon Luna, and GeForce Now. Gamepass exists for Xbox studio games that aren't very popular
Xbox Studio Games are responsible for most of the current top 10 best selling games on PlayStation. They don’t have that much interesting stuff in the pipeline though.
Circana Research data for 2025Q2. It’d be hard to get to the top of all-time sales given that Microsoft started releasing their stuff on PlayStation very recently.
17 Comments
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social · 23 pts · 346d
This is just the zeitgeist of 21st century capitalism.
✓ Subscriptions. Make them pay you forever.
✓ Low initial price to saturate market share and stifle competition while you operate at a loss.
✓ Drive all realistic competitors out of the market (stadia et al.)
✓ Slow user growth? Jack up prices!
I'm not surprised they got out of the hardware business. Software license
protectionpublishing fees are way more lucrative than hardware sales. The hardware is just there to lock people into the software.indigomoontrue@sh.itjust.works · 23 pts · 346d
Don't forget to pirate games and just pay your favorite studios directly
Marafon@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 346d
Holy shit, wasn't it like ten bucks before?
misk@piefed.social · 13 pts · 346d
Ultimate was $20. Still an enormous price hike.
vateso5074@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 346d
criss_cross@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 346d
It was like 15 -> 20 and now to 30.
It was great at 15 because at that point 180 a year you could be sure to play 3 AAA games worth in a year. Doubling that is pretty ehhhh. You need to cycle through a ton of games to get your money worth there.
rozodru@piefed.social · 2 pts · 346d
Hell I remember when it FIRST came out and it was like $1.
slimerancher@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 346d
It was never sustainable, they threw in tons of money to disrupt the market and get subscribers share, and now that they have done that as much as they can, they are trying to get the money.
woelkchen@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 346d
Great. Even less incentive to get into the Microsoft ecosystem.
misk@piefed.social · 6 pts · 346d
It was the only incentive for most people.
The most baffling thing is not the price hike - it’s the price hike combined Xbox Game Studios release roadmap looking barren compared to the last 2 years. What is this $30 supposed to pay for? Severance packages?
JayTreeman@fedia.io · 9 pts · 346d
Most of the games I play on it are $5... I'll probably stop now too
B0NK3RS@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 346d
No thanks. It's been a great 3 years though but £22.99 a month is too hard to justify.
network_switch@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 346d
No better than PS+ Extra catalog. For streaming they're worse than PS plus cloud, Amazon Luna, and GeForce Now. Gamepass exists for Xbox studio games that aren't very popular
misk@piefed.social · 4 pts · 346d
Xbox Studio Games are responsible for most of the current top 10 best selling games on PlayStation. They don’t have that much interesting stuff in the pipeline though.
ieGod@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 346d
You have a source for that claim? This says otherwise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_PlayStation_5_video_games
misk@piefed.social · 2 pts · 346d
Circana Research data for 2025Q2. It’d be hard to get to the top of all-time sales given that Microsoft started releasing their stuff on PlayStation very recently.
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 346d
mintiefresh@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 346d
The price hikes will continue.
Tale as old as time.
ieGod@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 346d
MS is on drugs. Full lunacy.