- Most Microsoft employees will lose their free Game Pass Ultimate by January 2024.
- Xbox employees will still retain this privilege.
- Phil Spencer was unaware that Microsoft had made this change.
Game Pass is one of the biggest subscriptions that lets players enjoy AAA titles for a cheap monthly or annual cost. While the service starts at $11 after a recent price hike, Microsoft employees did not need to buy it.
Being employed by the gaming giant, they had access to Game Pass Ultimate for free, but Microsoft is taking away this privilege from most of the 238,000 employees.
As the news is rather unfortunate for the employees, it has caused frustration among them, and they are unhappy.
Why it matters: This change was suddenly introduced. Since the Xbox boss was also unaware of the removal of this package, many have been upset by the lack of information ahead of time.
The Verge has reported that according to its source, the company is planning to take away the free Game Pass access from most of Microsoft in January 2024.
It states that the company has already started informing permanent employees about this change. However, this decision will not impact Xbox employees since it is limited to Microsoft workers in other departments.
Still, all hope is not lost. The report states that such workers can continue to avail a discount for the 12-month Game Pass Ultimate plan from the company’s internal store.
Some of the employees at Microsoft have raised their voices regarding this change, reaching out to Phil Spencer. However, it seems the Xbox boss was unaware of the situation and is now looking into it.
We think it is not a poor approach to take away the free Game Pass Ultimate privilege from those who are not directly involved with Xbox. However, they should be compensated with other perks that could benefit them.
It appears this measure has been put in place as part of Microsoft’s push to make Game Pass more profitable. The gaming giant also expects another price increase for the service down the line.
Currently, Game Pass appears to be growing slower than expected, leading to such measures. Phil Spencer has major aims for the service, and failure to achieve internal benchmarks by 2027 could lead to Microsoft exiting the industry.
Nonetheless, it plans to double down as a publisher for now after successfully acquiring Activision Blizzard.
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