Microsoft Responds to FTC's Xbox Game Pass Complaints

Xbox Game Pass isn't degraded as the FTC says, according to Microsoft.

By Tanner Dedmon

Xbox recently announced some sweeping Xbox Game Pass changes in terms of subscription options and prices which included the removal of the basic Xbox Game Pass for console option and a price increase for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The Federal Trade Commission took issue with these changes and called the new version of Xbox Game Pass that Xbox introduced a "degraded" product since one of the new tiers would no longer include day-one games. Now, Microsoft has responded to some of the complaints issued by the FTC and is suggesting that the organization is moving the goalposts in its Game Pass complaints.

In the Microsoft response to the FTC's filing which was uploaded by The Verge, Microsoft's comments were brief similar to those of the FTC. "Degraded" is the phrasing that Microsoft focused on while saying that it's wrong to call the new $14.99 Xbox Game Pass Standard option "a 'degraded' version of the discontinued Game Pass for Console offering." Microsoft said a distinction here is that the previous  most basic option for Xbox Game Pass did not include online multiplayer which was only part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The Xbox owners did acknowledge the price increase for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate but said that the "service will offer more value" through games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which will be available through Game Pass later this year, but only if you buy the more expensive Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass.

Further, Microsoft says that the FTC never really focused much on Game Pass during litigation surrounding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and was instead more concerned with whether or not Call of Duty games would be on PlayStation consoles. Microsoft called out this new spotlight from the FTC and said that it was common for businesses to change services over time which it claims is exactly what's happening here with the Xbox Game Pass revisions.

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"While the FTC has now tried to shift focus to its alleged subscription market, its letter does not map onto its arguments below," Microsoft said. "Setting aside that it is common for businesses to change service offerings over time, the FTC case in all of its alleged markets has always been premised on Vertical foreclosure, i.e., that Microsoft would withhold Call of Duty from rivals and therefore harm competition. But even in the alleged subscription market, Call of Duty is not being withheld from anyone who wants it."

The new Xbox Game Pass prices and subscriptions are in effect now for new subscribers.

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