Make Xbox Game Pass affordable again

Microsoft users are tough. The players are tougher.

No one complains more about the direction of a franchise than a customer who just spent $60 or more on a new PC or Xbox game, only to find it riddled with bugs or a lifeless upgrade.

Both groups of traditionally Microsoft customers are currently heading for the door. For what? They feel betrayed. Microsoft has gutted loyalty programs designed to keep happy, lifelong customers. But a new management team could right these wrongs by refocusing on two programs that have made them happy: Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft Rewards.

Here’s what’s happening. Over the past few days, Microsoft’s leadership at Xbox has changed, with Asha Sharma replacing Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond as the division’s next leaders. Additionally, Microsoft has quietly increased the redemption value of its Microsoft Rewards points. The price of “rewards” like gift cards for Amazon, DoorDash and Xbox have increased, diluting their value.

The answer, I think, is both obvious And novel: drastically lower the price of Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription services, but only as part of Rewards points. Why not take your most loyal customers and reward them for their engagement with your platform while putting the burden of any price increases on the less engaged customers?

The solution is right in front of you, Microsoft

If you’re not familiar with Microsoft Rewards, it’s Microsoft’s loyalty program that has been around for years. Search on Bing, earn Rewards points. Play a PC game with Xbox Game Pass, same thing: you can earn more points by playing Game Pass games on subsequent days or by playing on PC, on the cloud, etc. Best of all, it’s completely free.

I’ve argued before that it doesn’t require much commitment, but it’s also true that Microsoft has made it increasingly difficult to redeem Rewards points for something useful. Not only have the values ​​increased, but Rewards points can now only be used to purchase Xbox gift cards for gaming. You cannot redeem Rewards points directly for a Game Pass subscription.

Game Pass today covers both PC and Xbox. In October, Microsoft also increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate by 50% ($29.99 per month). All of this has turned off legions of loyal customers, including PCWorld employees. (I have points accrued, so I’m still in the program for now.)

Here’s what I would do. First, reverse the decision that prevented Rewards loyalists from purchasing Game Pass subscriptions directly with Rewards points. It was just a stupid obstacle that pissed people off.

Second, I would significantly reduce the price of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, but only when redeemed for Rewards points.

Microsoft

There’s nothing wrong with buying goodwill

You can pay for Game Pass and other Microsoft gift cards with cash. But the only The way you can earn Rewards points is by interacting with Microsoft services. Yes, “paying” users with Microsoft scripts to search and play games, etc. is a kind of corruption, but it’s no worse than a large social media presence buying followers. I went back and forth on whether I preferred Bing Search over Google and vice versa, but for most searches, they’re pretty close — and Bing has backed off on AI summaries replacing real search results, at least on the web.

Before Microsoft screwed up its Rewards redemption program, you could redeem 35,000 Rewards points for three months of Game Pass Ultimate. Now, 1,000 Rewards points buys you $1 in Xbox credit, and Xbox Ultimate costs $29.99 per month, or almost $90 for a three-month subscription. It’s crazy.

Think about it, Microsoft. Revert to the 35,000 points offer for a three-month Ultimate subscription while keeping the cash price of $29.99/month. I’m not saying other gift cards need to be changed. It’s currently 10,500 points for a $10 Amazon gift card, and it might be fine to leave it that way. But reducing the price of Microsoft Points for a Microsoft subscription sends the right message that Microsoft will reward Microsoft loyalists.

I mean, let’s be real. Asha Sharma moved from Microsoft’s Core AI business to Xbox. If there is any a business that includes spending (huge amounts of) money to fund users is the AI ​​token business. Allowing Microsoft fans to participate a little in this to play games, do research, and more just makes sense. And if people complain, “But that makes me use Bing!”“–well, they don’t to have has.

We wondered if Sharma was a gamer or if the “everything is an Xbox” strategy was a good idea. No one really knows what a next-gen console might look like, or how much it will cost, with such limited memory and storage. Is the Xbox just a PC running Windows or something different? All good questions.

However, new leadership represents a chance to right the wrongs of the past. And directing users back to Xbox while easing the pain on their wallets just seems like a good idea.