Recently, I dug out my old Nintendo 3DS because I was craving simpler times. Really, I just wanted to play some games; to chip away at the mystery of Majora’s Mask, or solve a few puzzles in BoxBoy, without the headaches of system updates or subscriptions or any of that stuff. It’s been refreshing. And my choice has felt especially prescient of late, given just how much more complicated and expensive modern game consoles have become. It’s not a new problem, but it keeps getting worse.
The most recent example comes from Microsoft. Today, the company announced changes to its Game Pass subscription service, which, yes, also include a price hike. Game Pass Ultimate is now $29.99 per month, a hefty $10 jump, and more games and features are being added to justify the higher price. There have also been some name changes. What used to be known as the “core” tier is now called “essential,” while “standard” is now “premium.” There are a bunch of charts to help you understand the differences between the tiers. Trying to figure out what to choose is like living in a Portlandia sketch.
Of course, subscription prices rise all the time, but the timing of this latest hike from Microsoft feels particularly egregious. It comes just a few weeks removed from Xbox hardware also getting more expensive, to the point that an Xbox Series X now costs $150 more than it did at launch five years ago.
