The Fallout
The backlash was immediate and justified. Longtime subscribers canceled their plans in protest. Others downgraded or rage-tweeted. Even GameStop publicly refused to honor the new price - they literally said, “Nope, we’re keeping it at $19.99.” (Which is basically the retail equivalent of flipping off a trillion-dollar corporation.)
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s response has been the corporate version of a shrug. “We’re adding more value,” they said - a phrase that might as well be the mission statement of the modern scam economy.
They even doubled down with a full-screen Game Pass ad that appeared the very next day when people turned on their Xbox consoles. Nothing says “we’re listening” like shoving an ad in your face right after you complain about paying too much.
The FTC Warned Us
Here’s the part that should make everyone’s blood boil: the FTC literally predicted this.
When Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard, the FTC said it could lead to higher prices for consumers once Microsoft had full control of some of gaming’s biggest franchises. Microsoft swore that wouldn’t happen. Fast-forward less than a year, and here we are - 50% higher.
Former FTC chair Lina Khan even came out recently to say “I told you so,” calling Microsoft “too big to care.” And honestly? She’s right. Game Pass doesn’t need to be cheap anymore, because Game Pass is the ecosystem. When your library, your cloud saves, your friends, and your favorite exclusives all live under one roof - leaving isn’t easy.
What are you going to do? Go out and buy physical copies? where? Game stores are practically dead.
That’s not a business model. That’s a prison cell you pay rent on.
The Subscription Scam Era
Game Pass isn’t the only culprit. It’s just the latest and most visible symptom of a much bigger problem.
We’ve officially reached subscription overload. Netflix raises prices. Spotify raises prices. Adobe raises prices. Disney+ splits tiers. YouTube Premium adds “features” that used to be free. And now, Xbox has joined the club.
We used to think of subscriptions as the smart alternative to ownership - “Why buy one thing when I can rent everything?” But somewhere along the way we realized that renting everything means owning nothing.
You don’t own your music. You don’t own your software. You don’t own your shows. You don’t own your games. You’re just leasing your lifestyle from the cloud, one monthly charge at a time.
The subscription economy promised freedom. What we got is a thousand tiny leashes.
What Caused This
Let’s be real - this isn’t just inflation or “rising operational costs.” Microsoft spent nearly $69 billion on Activision Blizzard, and now it needs to make that money back somehow. Offering Call of Duty on Game Pass Day One was a flex, but it was also expensive.
So they did what every giant company does once they’ve swallowed the competition: they raised the rent. Because they can.
There’s a pattern here: the subscription starts cheap, hooks you in, becomes essential, then slowly turns into the very thing it was meant to replace.
It’s not innovation anymore - it’s entrapment with a fee.
The Sad Truth
Game Pass didn’t fail because it stopped working. It failed because it worked too well. It convinced millions of us to trade ownership for access - and now that we’ve adjusted to the convenience, they can charge whatever they want.
We used to joke that someday we’d “subscribe to oxygen.” At this rate, I’m half-expecting a “Breath Pass Premium” from Microsoft by 2030.
It’s not that $30 for unlimited games is outrageous on its own - it’s that it comes on top of everything else. Subscriptions have become death by a thousand cuts, and Microsoft just added another slice.
The Bottom Line
When Game Pass launched, it felt like the future of gaming. Now, it feels like a symptom of everything broken about the digital economy: monopolies, algorithms, price hikes, and the illusion of choice.
The FTC warned us. The industry followed the same playbook anyway. And the rest of us? We’re stuck paying rent on our entertainment, hoping that one day, someone remembers what a good deal was supposed to feel like.
