Microsoft is dropping the price of Game Pass — but only in certain regions. The company is responding to market conditions in Chile, Hong Kong, and Israel, and that means we'll be paying a lot less in those regions for the game subscription service. These price cuts have more to do with local currency and consumer power than a change in Microsoft's strategy. And that means you shouldn't expect similar price cuts in other countries.
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In addition to Game Pass, Microsoft is also reducing the price of Xbox Live Gold and certain PC/console versions of Game Pass in Chile, Hong Kong, and Israel. And the company plans to notify subscribers of the price cut tomorrow.
See how the new pricing works.
In Chile, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate sells for 11,990 Chilean pesos ($15.05), but Microsoft is reducing the price to around 7,990 pesos. That's closer to $10 a month for Ultimate. In Hong Kong, it costs 119 Hong Kong dollars ($15.29) for Ultimate, but players in that region will start paying 79 Hong Kong dollars (about $10). Israeli players pay 55 shekels ($17.12) for Ultimate. Under the new structure, the same subscribers will now pay 40 shekels, which is about $12.45.
Gold, Console Game Pass, and PC Game Pass are seeing similar price reductions.
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In the United States, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate remains priced at $15 per month. Game Pass is Microsoft’s core gaming strategy, but it’s far from profitable. While the service has about 20 million subscribers, according to sources, Microsoft spends billions of dollars on content acquisition. But as these price cuts suggest, the Game Pass team is more concerned with attracting new subscribers than making money.
Information source: venturebeat.com
