One thing to remember for the Xbox generation: Greed

Phil Spencer has always been Xbox's head (now officially serves as CEO of Microsoft Gaming) More than ten years Now. Until recently, I would say that under his watch, the brand really does put players first, even if Xbox continues to lose market share of PlayStation. Reminder: Phil immediately Bundle Xbox One's Kinect removes $100 for console lightening consoles. His first big plan as a boss is Advocate backward compatibilitythis is undoubtedly a huge success. FPS enhancement In the Xbox series, many older games later made them run better. He dragged Sony Kick and scream Entering leap to standardization. Xbox One x Single enable PS4 Pro By providing real 4K. Xbox games undoubtedly become more inclusive in the Phil Spencer era Xbox Adaptive Controller also Commendable ASL features In multiple first-party games. Finally, there is the Xbox Game Pass, whose mysterious economics continues to make it controversial among gamers and developers, but remains a huge value for subscribers.

At least so far. On IGN Unlock podcastsI (and so) often mention Simpsons gifs retained by Sideshow Bob Step on the rake He was surrounded. I do this because Xbox always seems to find a way to ruin any motivation it accumulates, usually because no one else but itself is at fault. For example, take October as an example. Microsoft is not one or two three For the next 30 days, a truly exciting new game: Very–Amazing-So-Far Ninja gaiden 4, after ten years of dormant, it restores its beloved fast action franchise; double fine Promising Keeper, after the studio's next project The annual nominated game award game Psychology 2; and the RPG/shooter sequel to the Infeasible Obsidian Entertainment Activities “Outside World 2” that we love every time See or Play it. It's a potential month for Xbox – especially when so many Xbox fans remember not long ago we were lucky enough to get three super advocated first-party releases throughout YearNot to mention a month.

All three will be on the Xbox Game Pass on Day 1 – but this is the part where Xbox starts to step on all these rakes. Effective immediately, you need to pay Up to 50% For this privilege. Microsoft has increased the pass price for the game for the third consecutive year, and now gives me a full-day first-level release layer now gets players back $30 per month. By the way, fourteen months ago, the Game Pass Ultimate was $17. This is the speed and speed of price increases.

To be fair to Microsoft, the company added more of the ultimate: Ubisoft+ Classics, Fortnite Crew and high-resolution cloud gaming. It is also worth mentioning that on the first day of this year, the candidates of the year have multiple hits of the year’s best games of the year’s ultimate: Clair Subbur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Blue Prince. But we all know that the biggest attraction of the Game Pass is the one-day benefits of Xbox publishing games, and the goal of this price increase is directly targeted. (According to records, PC Game Pass prices range from $12 to $16.49 per month.)

This immediately appears on the company's heel Increase Xbox console price for The second time The premium Xbox Series X now comes with an attractive price tag of $800 for the past four months. But the $800 $800 sounds like a damn bargaining, next to the hyped Rog Xbox Ally X Handheld Gaming PC, which weighs Nine million dollars. Of course, there is a less powerful, cheaper version that costs $599, but no one knows if it's worth damn, because Microsoft only allows media and influencers to master the more powerful Ally X.

Heck, the only thing people on Xbox haven't raised the price is first-party games. oh, They tried With Outer World 2, be clear – next year they will inevitably be in Fables, War Gears: Electronic Day, forza Horizon 6 and so on. Microsoft surrenders.

I realized we were living in a crazy era, where Sony and Nintendo weren't completely innocent here after raising their own aging hardware prices over the past year (Nintendo also actively raised the software price of the Switch 2 Generation). If you want, blame Trump for the tariffs (oops, Microsoft does it), but I'm sorry: At the end of the day, the Bucks and Microsoft stopped. This is a company with a market value of nearly $4 megaAfter layoffs were spent more than $80 million on studio and publishers’ acquisitions. And, to wonder if opponents who question the sustainability of the game pass and its business model prove this through this latest, deepest price increase.

Worse, from a larger perspective, we have reached a sad point where new players are not more, not more. Historically, the price of consoles has dropped, and the size and quality of the game library has risen over a generation, resulting in more units being sold and providing a healthier ecosystem for everyone in it. While again, the responsibility of this generation cannot be entirely placed on Microsoft's shoulders, the Xbox team's actions are the actions of a company and do not show much sympathy to customers, as the costs of groceries, gas and other naked necessities continue to rise. Again, these larger economic problems are not Microsoft’s fault, it also has to compete with the rise in development costs, but they choose to be more profitable than players.

So while I realize that the generation of this Xbox console is not over yet, I almost certainly remember Microsoft's greed first: two hardware price increases (and count), three Xbox Game Pass Pass Priess price increases (and count), one software price increases (so far) and (so far) and Thousands of layoffs and multiple studios closed.

In fact, it's a monkey's paw condition: Since the beginning of the catastrophic Xbox One Generation, all Xbox gamers want a steady supply of excellent first-party games. Well, in 2025 we finally got this – as I already mentioned, 2026 is turning into an explosion, too – but it's at…almost…in fact everything comes at the expense of everything else. But this is not our fault. Instead, Microsoft's greed is strange.

Ryan McCaffrey Podcast Unlockand our monthly (-ish) interview program, IGN is not filtered. He was a North Jersey guy, so it was “Taylor Ham” and not “Pork Rolls”. Debate with him on Twitter @dmc_ryan.