Microsoft Employees Will Have To Pay For Game Pass Starting In January UPDATE: Reversed!

Microsoft is removing the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for most of its 238,000 employees and some aren’t happy about it. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tellThe Verge that the company started informing employees this week that in January 2024 the free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate benefit for permanent Microsoft employees will no longer be available. Microsoft employees will be able to purchase a discounted 12-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription at the company’s internal store.

Better than being laid off like PlayStation employees

I mean, it's a hill... Probably bigger ones to die on, but at least it's a hill.

Gotta make back all that acquisition money somehow. It's not like Lems are buying games.

Meh,they'll just use there reward points and get it Freeeeeee like Meeeeeeee

^^^^ like I said

Lmao

I feel absolutely terrible for them.

Corporations are cutting costs everywhere, it's really lame. My own parent company is really cheaping out this year.

God forbid our CEO makes a 10 million dollar bonus instead of 5. The horror!

@uitravioience: Starfield was the best selling game the mo th it released.

Try again.

And some still believe MS isn't exiting gaming by 2027? How naive.

Sony bought Bungie for 3.6 billion just to liquidate them lol

Wow! MS made it free all this time for their employees?? Thats amazing. But I can understand, these are tough times and the employees should pay for this amazing service if they use it and support the projects

Geez MS, I'm sure you could of knocked 100k off of Phil's overpayed salary and used it for GP for your employees.

MS needs those extra 238k subs and add them to the Gold subs that are now GP core to fluff their GP numbers 🤦‍♂️

Willing to bet that many didn’t even utilize it anyways. It’s MS in total, not Xbox specifically. At least they’ll get it at a discount.

Should employees be complaining on something that is considered a privilege, and not a right?

At least Microsoft employees beginning in January 2024 will pay for Game Pass at a discount rate unlike other Xbox users.

Even MS employees don't want to pay for IndiePass. I don't blame them.

At least those Employees are getting a discount when purchasing Game Pass. It's not everyday employees get discounts just about anything.

It's crazy that they got it for free for this long.

Thought that too, but man I want that discount!

@ghostofgolden: They've also raised Gamepass prices in Argentina just now according to twitter.

Damn! All this time they got it for free. Nice.

The 3 years for a dollar was a good deal and they ended that too. Sucks, because I have a feeling a LOT of people took advantage of that deal and numbes will stagnate and drop after that period ends. Perhaps not, but I don't like the chances of gamepass surviving all that long in its current state. I'd love to be wrong, but it just seems unsustainable.

Even non-employees can get it for free if they just cash in their monthly Microsoft Reward points on auto-renewal. Noobs.

But hey, even Phil Spencer is looking into reversing it. Gotta say, in a working world where the unwritten rule is the "we value employee feedback, open door policy", and everyone who knows anything about anything knows it's a HR ruse to weed out anyone not drinking the corporate Kool-Aid, if Phil Spencer reverses course on this, will be an above the call of duty recognition moment, good PR all around.

What? Do they think subscription numbers are gonna go up with this move? LOL. If they're fucking over their employees, just wait until they show what's in store for the rest of us

Tidied that up for you there kid 👍

@Zero_epyon: You mean the Argentina with unprecedented inflation and devaluation of the local currency?🤔

That was a nice perk. :D

Oh well, woulda you gonna do cry about it? lol :P

First world problems....

I didn't know you could buy a 12 month subscription. It's about time they finally offered that.

So much for MS looking out for its employees. Earlier this year they

Yup!

Not to fear. Everybody's favorite Uncle, Uncle Phil will set things right. ;o

lol :P

-----------

Microsoft Employees Are About To Lose Their Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscriptions

Xbox boss Uncle Phil Spencer wasn't aware of the changes and is now looking into it.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-employees-are-about-to-lose-their-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-subscriptions/1100-6518878/

@Zero_epyon:

lol :P

I know, right?! Good for them. I'm curious about the phrasing of "most employees" .... So a small group will still have GPU for free?

That's what I was thinking..lol F'em :D

I wonder if it will effect me? I'm not an Xbox employee but I've been an Xbox Forum mod for a couple of years and have had free Xbox Ultimate. Guess that maybe over as well....

Fucking lol at all the usual MS shills here defending any and every move MS makes, even the mods…

So, I've never been sure. Does MS pay the publisher or dev per download or just a one time fee for the license?

If they pay per download, I don't blame MS at all. If it's a one time fee...ya, that's pretty lame. Like charging someone who works at a gym to use the weights.

Absolutely based.

Give them a pay cut as well until they learn to make better games.

from what i understand, the deal varies.. Phil Spencer has been quoted as saying:

"One of the things that's been cool to see is a developer, usually a smaller to mid-sized developer, might be starting a game and say, 'Hey, we're willing to put this in Game Pass on our launch day if you guys will give us X dollars now.' What we can go do is, we'll create a floor for them in terms of the success of their game. They know they're going to get this return."

In some other cases, Microsoft will completely fund the production cost of a game. In this situation, the developer can make money from retail sales, while Microsoft may also allow these games to release on PlayStation, Switch, and PC, with the developers taking in that revenue, too. Microsoft uniquely benefits in these types of situations by having a game launch day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass.

source: Phil Spencer Explains How Developers Get Paid From Xbox Game Pass

Another person answered, but they aren't very well versed in this sort of thing.

Capcom publishes their own games. They own the IP, so Xbox pays a license fee for the title to appear on Game Pass. After that, there are both performance based revenue payouts (total downloads and/or hours played) as well as flat-rate payouts. A big publisher like Capcom would likely take the performance based payout unless the flat-rate benefits them more if say, the game is garbage and they know it won't be popular. They can also renegotiate the payout structure when the original term is over, or decide to take the game out when the duration is up. An indie dev might need help with production and/or marketing and get into a Game Pass deal to subsidize their costs. Or games with a heavy microtransaction structure might benefit from getting into more consumers homes by taking part in the service.

I'm not quite sure why Microsoft would cut the Game Pass sub count by over 200K unless they are starting to look heavily at financials. That comes to a little over $42 million annually worth of subscriptions. Chump change for Microsoft. And a fair bit of compensation for their employees. And the fact that Phil Spencer was unaware makes it even more odd. We'll have to wait to get more info on this one

@Antwan3K: Yep, it varies from game to game.

So sounds game to game. I don't blame MS then at all for making them pay.

i am very well versed at actually providing quotes and links to the information i provide..

maybe you should try to do the same..

Microsoft employees will keep free access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate after complaints

Microsoft employees have had access to free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for years, and it was due to be removed in January before complaints forced a reversed decision.

Phil Spencer’s statement

After looking into this more with the team, I just want to confirm that no change will be made to Game Pass availability in 2024. If you have access to the Game Pass offer today you will continue to have access. I appreciate the time to get up to speed and sorry for the questions and confusion created. And thanks for supporting Xbox.