The former US Federal Trade Commission chair has shared their thoughts in the wake of the recent Xbox Game Pass price hike. The former chair of the FTC has pointed to the effort to stop the Microsoft Activision acquisition, and how the industry has been impacted since.
Microsoft proposed spending $68.7 billion acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal that was made in 2023, and ultimately sealed the deal for $75.4 billion. However, the FTC objected to the acquisition, and attempted to block it. Ultimately, the injunction was blocked, and while the FTC continued to fight through the start of 2025, its appeal was denied, and it dropped the case.
On Twitter, lawyer Lee Hepner quoted a statement from Microsoft saying that Game Pass wouldn’t see a price hike in the wake of the acquisition and merger. However, they shared a graph showing that the rate at which the cost has gone up has surged since the deal was closed, and pointed out that Lina Khan, who was the chair of the FTC at the time, was right. Said former chair retweeted the message, and added her own thoughts, noting that following the acquisition there have been negative outcomes for gamers and developers alike, saying that “increasing market consolidation and increasing prices often go hand-in-hand,” and that “dominant firms” can worsen things for their customers without concern.
Unfortunately, it’s accurate to say that Xbox employees and customers have been feeling the burn in recent times. Since the deal closed, Microsoft has laid off over 10,000 employees across multiple waves, studios like The Initiative have been shuttered, games have been canceled, and gamers have seen two increases in the price of Xbox Game Pass. Gamers haven’t taken this new price increase well, with the Xbox Game Pass site struggling under the load of customers trying to cancel their subscriptions before the price increase takes effect. While Xbox has argued that it’s increasing the number of games and benefits available to players, it seems many are disappointed by the move.
Game Pass has been popular with players for quite some time because it gives them access to a wide array of games with a single subscription fee to pay. However, this isn’t the first time that the service and Microsoft as a whole have been criticized, even prior to this price increase. Former Bethesda lead Pete Hines previously said that the service hurts developers, publishers, and the industry as a whole, while Arkane Studios founder Raphael Colantonio called Game Pass unsustainable.
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