Microsoft may be experimenting with a new way of pricing Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. Some former subscribers are reportedly being offered different monthly prices to return to Game Pass Ultimate, suggesting that Microsoft could be testing personalized discounts rather than offering the same deal to everyone.
According to reports shared by users, one former subscriber was offered Game Pass Ultimate for $16.09 per month for 12 months. Other users reportedly received offers of around $18 or $20 per month. However, the regular price of Game Pass Ultimate is $22.99 per month.
What makes these offers interesting is that the users appear to have something in common. They are based in the US and had previously subscribed to Game Pass for around two years before cancelling.
The discounted pricing also appears to be temporary. After the 12-month promotional period, the subscription is expected to return to the regular price.
Microsoft has not officially announced dynamic pricing for Game Pass, so it would be too early to call this a full-fledged dynamic pricing system. It could simply be a set of targeted retention offers designed to bring back users who cancelled their subscriptions.
I am certainly curious to understand how the company is deciding the discount a user gets. The company could be using account history, subscription length, or other signals. Whatever they are using, it would certainly be a useful way to win back subscribers without reducing the standard Game Pass price for everyone.
The reported pricing experiment comes at an interesting time for Game Pass. Microsoft has been making several changes to the service as it tries to balance its growing subscription business with the cost of providing its services.
The company recently announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming will introduce monthly usage limits from November. Microsoft is also opening Xbox Cloud Gaming to users without a Game Pass subscription through a pay-as-you-go model. It also dropped the price of Game Pass a few months ago.
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