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PSA: Xbox Live Gold -> Game Pass Ultimate Conversion Has Been Changed from 1 : 1 to 3 : 2
- Thread starter adamsapple
- Start date
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Fredrik
Member
Well good luck keeping that subscription number and good PR from people talking about how cheap it is when it’s not considered cheap anymore.
Fredrik
Member
Yeah I have til June next year iirc.
After that… Who knows what I’ll do?
In short I use the Xbox for cheap gaming, I try Gamepass games I would never play if I would have to buy them, and play the occasional MS 1st party game I don’t rather play on PC and don’t need Steam for, kids use it for some Lego games too.
For me it would lose most of it’s appeal if I would see $15 or more pulled from my account every month.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Bit by bit, as they get bolder… boiling… frogs… etc…The dream is (somewhat) over.
Now for 3 years of Gold, you will get 2 years equivalent of GPU.
Xbox Support
support.xbox.com
supernova8
Banned
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Still got a year to go on my account before I top up. I hope this is still the ratio by then.
I wonder how many people in the real world, IE not forums etc, where everyone is doing the "trick" to get cheaper Gamepass, is doing this.
Could this mean significantly increased revenue for MS?
I wonder how many people in the real world, IE not forums etc, where everyone is doing the "trick" to get cheaper Gamepass, is doing this.
Could this mean significantly increased revenue for MS?
Fredrik
Member
Or…
Could this mean significantly decreased subscription numbers for Gamepass?
Us here are essentially walking ads when we talk about how cheap Gamepass is and hype up Gamepass releases big and small.
Remove these ads. These talks. Us here. And I absolutely think the sub count would plummet and Gamepass games would be played by less people and less devs would bother putting up games on Gamepass. There is always consequences to changes that negatively affects the most dedicated core audience.
intheinbetween
Member
The family plan will start making sense soon
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Game Pass has over 25,000,000 subscribers. This change will make a teeny tiny dent in that, most normal people don't care to do crazy VPN Brazilian CDKeys loopholes to save a few quid. I would bet most of those 25mil don't even know what a VPN is.
DaGwaphics
Member
It was bound to happen sooner or later. At least they went with just lessening the deal vs. just going for the dollar value of the Gold sub.
twilo99
Member
I actually canceled mine a month early so I can do it again.. I had a feeling lol
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Nah.
Fredrik
Member
I’ve never had to use a VPN, I stacked XBLG cards, then I stacked EAPlay cards, got 6 years of Gamepass for $5/month that way.
But that’s not the point. If the good word of mouth on social that the service have now is replaced by loud angry/bitter/negative people or no talk at all, then that’ll show in the sub count no doubt.
DryvBy
Member
Sorry for my ignorance but why do you need a family plan? I'm currently sharing it with my brother. Is this just to share with more people?
Torrent of Pork
Banned
I think some people are forgetting that MS does intend to make a profit on GamePass, even if they did have to burn a shit ton of money to build it.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
If you aren't buying via Brazil or Turkey or whatever then you aren't even getting the real deal. Think I paid about half of what you did.
Either way, as you say, not the point. These little internet bubbles won't have a noticeable impact. The vast, vast majority of that 25mil will simply see it as "Netflix for games" and pay the $15 or whatever it is without thinking, as they do with other subscription services. Don't underestimate how lazy the general public are, they'll pay full price for Spotify rather than set up a friend group to split to bill on a family plan, even though they know loads of people that already use it individually. If that's the primary way you consume games it's still a very good deal.
Not to mention they're about to get Starfield on there which alone will probably generate more revenue for GP than they'll lose by reducing some of these loophole benefits.
mrcroket
Member
I doubt that this price increase and the new gold to ultimate ratio will negatively affects the sub count, just look at netflix or hbo. People complaint but the alternative (buying games) is not cheaper, unless you only play one or two games for year, so still having a great value for the price.
Chukhopops
Member
Netflix lost 1.5% of their subs when they did increase the price by +/- 10% in 2022, so overall it’s worth it as long as you do it steadily.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/netflix-pricing
By that logic that would be a total revenue increase of 8.35% despite the subscriber drop. Of course GP subs may behave differently.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The conversion is still the best option for single users, but this makes a lot of sense.
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AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Was more in the UK I think, but that's still a good chunk of change to leave on the table for very little effort.
Either way, point is, this won't affect their sub count much at all.
Gorgon
Member
Well, I'm probably dropping my GP subscription soon. I only use the XSX for exclusives that I'm interested in and there ain't many of those around to say the least. I'd be better off buying a couple of games per year instead of paying for GP continuously. Or maybe just pay for a month or two of service on a case by case basis.
twilo99
Member
True, very few people are aware of the conversion process since I don’t think they advertise it, or at least I haven’t seen anything.
Regardless nothing beats this in terms
of value for someone who likes to play video games and if they close the Activision deal the value raises even further.
Fredrik
Member
”These little internet bubbles” is why there is any hype and talk about anything Gamepass related. Everytime someone here or on other boards or Twitter or Youtube etc says ”I’ll just get it on Gamepass” it’s PR for the service. Someone out there will go ”Gamepass? What’s that?” and might look into it and start subscribing.
Imagine if all that goes away, no talk here or other boards or Twitter ot Youtube etc, besides angry/bitter/negative talk because the core gamers that used to do good PR are now annoyed. Then imagine a snowball effect of the negative talk instead.
It won’t matter?
Of course it matters. It could lead to a ”We hear you” letter from MS and a price change. It has happened before. They really don’t like loud noise on social media.
Gambit2483
Member
I mean, it makes perfect business sense
I'd be surprised if they weren't doing everything they could to leverage the release of Starfield.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
I hear they slashed the MS Rewards payouts too. So they raised the price of consoles, games, and gamepass. Stopped the 1 dollar deal. Took away 1 year subs. Now changed this conversion. They're really cracking down and wanting their money.
Fredrik
Member
Day 1 on Gamepass is kinda day 5 on Gamepass now as well, since preordering can give you access to the games 5 days earlier.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
True. IMO they're flat out lying about Day 1 on GamePass for first party games now. It's not like the preorder "early access" is some different version of the game. Hell I bet they'll extend the early access period more and more. It'll probably go to a week, maybe eventually two weeks.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Er .. no.
day 1 is still day 1, if you're talking about Starfield, the 5 day early-access is for the Premium versions, which are $100.
The standard edition is day 1 with game pass.
See above. The standard edition is day 1 with game pass, its the more expensive Premium edition that comes with early access.
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AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
It's not. NeoGAF is nice but it's not creating 25,000,000 Game Pass subscribers, the massive amount of marketing MS do is. You're conflating them reducing a too-good-to-be-true deal (this) with the time they tried to increase the price of Gold and it's not close to the same thing.
Anyone bitter or angry about this needs to give their head a wobble, the conversion deal was always going to go away eventually because it's just a long term onboarding process to get people in. It's kinda surprising that it's not even fully been removed yet, I assumed it'd go much sooner.
The thing that might actually have an impact is the fact that the actual price of Game Pass went up yesterday in a lot of territories, but I'm not sure 10% or whatever it is is going to be enough to make much of a dent either. The most negative things I see are the fact that the actual games on offer have been kinda weak for a while, but boy will that change when everyone signs up to play Starfield for cheap.
Fredrik
Member
For Starfield they lock the early access to the premium edition. But yeah the day 1 on Gamepass slogan isn’t what it used to be, many core gamers want to be there first and to get there this time they need to buy the game.
And it works. They lured me in. I’ll be flying into space on Steam day -5
splattered
Member
Because I am an old man... I have a wife and kids and every one of us game. My wife and I both pay for GPU and share to a 2nd and 3rd Xbox in the house but that doesn't even cover everyone. I would prefer just to pay for a single family plan so everyone can use it more easily.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yes, Family Plan can be shared with a total of 5 people. For a theoretical $25 family plan that comes down to $5 per person for GPU monthly. If it's $30, that becomes $6 per person.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
oook, drink their kool aid all you want, but the real Day 1 is now behind a paywall.
Did your method require spending the entire $300 in advance?
Fredrik
Member
We won’t see the negative effect on this yet. Like I said earlier I’m in til mid next year. Guessing many others are in a similar situation since many jumped onto the different deals about the same time. If there is negativity in the talks then I think it’ll matter. If we just quietly deactivate the auto renewal it will matter less. We’ll see.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
You said
which is objectively wrong lol, if you're gonna post faux-outrage, make sure it's not easily debunked bullshit at least.
DaGwaphics
Member
The games themselves sell the service a lot better than the conversion deal and will continue to do so, plus the conversion deal is still there for the time being, just a bit more expensive than before.
If they can hit on their game per quarter cadence, GP will really be all set.
If they can hit on their game per quarter cadence, GP will really be all set.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
You're taking what I said not a way I meant it. I meant not a different version as in they're playing the game you'll be playing in a few days.
Day 1 is behind a paywall now. They're lying now. They've starting to do it with all their first party games. It's not just a Starfield thing. It's been going on since FH5 I believe.
ie it's not early access to a beta test or something of that nature.
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Fredrik
Member
Not the whole 6 years at once but it was a stacking method where using XBLG 12 month cards could give you 3 years of GP Ultimate max. An investment of sorts. And split into months it was roughly $5/month. Or half a pizza as I used to say lol
Then came a different EAPlay stacking method a few years later that could give you another 3 years. Roughly the same price.
It’s been awesome. And personally I think it’s the foundation for all the positive word of mouth for the service. At $15/month I doubt I would’ve signed up. It all started with the deal for me, I never even subbed to XBL, voted with my wallet on that nonsense since day 1.
Astray
Gold Member
They are kinda in the worst scenario: Burned tons of money to get share numbers up, which they didn't (except on PC), then now they are trying to squeeze blood out of what is considered to be a small sub base.
They will get more revenue (more people will just re-up instead of quit), but forget about reaching any kind of scalepoint tho.
twilo99
Member
That’s the best way. How many are you earning monthly to make this work?
I’m getting like 14-15k average