The former chairman of the US Federal Commission of Commission has shared its thoughts in the wake of the latest Xbox Game Pass price increase. The former FTC chairman has pointed to the effort to stop the Microsoft Activision acquisition and how the industry has been affected since then.
Microsoft suggested spending $ 68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard in a deal made in 2023 and finally sealed the deal for $ 75.4 billion. However, FTC objected to the acquisition and tried to block it. In the end, the ban was blocked, and while FTC continued to fight through the beginning of 2025, its appeal was denied and the lost case.
On Twitter, lawyer Lee Hepner quoted a statement from Microsoft who says that Game Pass would not see a price increase in the wake of the acquisition and the merger. However, they shared a graph that shows that the speed that the cost has increased has risen since the deal was closed and pointed out that Lina Khan, who chaired FTC at that time, was right. Said that the former chairman Retweeted the message and added his own thoughts and noted that after the acquisition it has been negative results for both players and developers and says that “increasing market consolidation and increasing prices often go hand in hand” and that “dominant companies” can aggravate things for their customers without concern.
Unfortunately, it is correct to say that the Xbox employees and customers have known the burns in recent times. Since the agreement was concluded, Microsoft has dismissed over 10,000 employees over several waves, studios that the initiative has quit, games have been canceled and players have seen two increases in the price of the Xbox Game Pass. Players have not taken this new price increase well, with the Xbox Game Pass website that struggles during the load of customers who try to cancel their subscriptions before the price increase comes into force. While Xbox has claimed that it increases the number of games and benefits available to players, it seems that many are disappointed over the move.
Game Pass has been popular with players for quite some time because it gives them access to a wide range of games with a single subscription fee to pay. However, this is not the first time the service and Microsoft as a whole are criticized, even before this price increase. Former Bethesda leader Pete Hines previously said that the service hurts developers, publishers and the industry as a whole, while Arkane Studio's founder Raphael Colantonio called Game Pass unsustainable.
