Baldur's Gate 3 director weighs in on cheaper Xbox Game Pass tiers Microsoft is considering — "I don't think race to the bottom needs a renaissance"

One very interesting bit of Xbox news this week was the revelation that Microsoft's new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is considering making the firm's gaming subscription service Xbox Game Pass cheaper. Specifically, it was reported that she's exploring ways to offer "lower-priced tiers" to make memberships "more enticing to a broader range of customers."

For many, that's an exciting prospect, especially since the major price hikes that went into effect last year were extremely controversial, and drove many users away from PC Game Pass and especially Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The monthly price of the former rose from $11.99 to $16.49, with the latter jumping all the way up from $19.99 to $29.99.

One executive in the industry, though, has voiced concern with the idea: Michael "Cromwelp" Douse, the publishing director at Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity developer Larian Studios. Douse views the proposed plan as an example of "Race to the bottom" pricing — AKA, aggressively slashing prices to undercut competitors — and believes that approach will damage the viability of Game Pass as well as game development overall.

"Race to the bottom pricing is exactly why Game Pass is in a mess, as is subscription, as is art. I don't think race to the bottom needs a renaissance. Trust is at an all time low," he argued in a post on X (Twitter).

"You can supplement cost tiers as much as you want, but in the face of headless leadership & worker insecurity reliance on affordable quality content is folly outside of indie," he continued. "In other words now is the worst time to make quality games at low cost, or expensive games with stars."

When asked why trying to deliver quality games at a low cost was a bad thing, Douse replied that "There's an Austin Powers quote about a golden toilet," referring to this one: "And I wanna toilet made out of solid gold, but its just not in the cards now, is it?" In other words? It's just not feasible.

If I'm interpreting Douse's stance correctly (I believe I am), it appears he's arguing that with the gaming industry as volatile as it is right now, making games (and services like Game Pass) either too cheap or overly expensive will result in unsustainable business that doesn't bring in enough money to recoup costs and turn a sizable profit. (reportedly, Game Pass is profitable...but is it profitable enough?)

"Content is and always be king but costs skyrocketed and erry1 got fired," he added in a follow-up post. "The powers that be did not create the economic reality for sustainable quality content within that model. Now even less so. Bottom up economics is [good]."

Now, to be clear, I actually agree with the core point Douse is making. That being said, I do think Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's current $29.99/month price tag is too pricey and has ultimately made it far less justifiable in a lot of budgets, especially with how tight money has become for many in the last few years.

With that in mind, I'd like to see a price reduction for Ultimate, or at least a less expensive tier similar to the old Ultimate that removes some of the newer benefits many aren't likely to use, like Fortnite Crew access. I don't think we need any tiers cheaper than the $9.99 Game Pass Essential or the $14.99 Game Pass Premium, though.

Ultimately, it's an interesting discussion. Before engaging in it yourself, though, Douse urges keeping the wider context of the industry in mind: "Before anyone replies let's first consider mass layoffs, exploding development costs, reduction in disposable income, stagnation in hardware sales & ambition, and then come with an argument."

🗨️ Do you think Game Pass needs price adjustments?

Larian Studios' Michael "Cromwelp" Douse's take on Xbox Game Pass' pricing brings up a good point that finding the right balance between "underpriced" and "overpriced" is critical, and that it's not always a good idea to lower the price of a service just because it's struggling to grow.

Do you agree with his point, or do you think Microsoft should pursue cheaper ways to offer Game Pass access to customers? Would you subscribe to Game Pass if there were more affordable tiers available that still gave good value?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so share them in the comments and vote in our poll:

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