Microsoft Says Wrong to Call New Game Pass Standard Tier 'Degraded', Calls FTC Filing 'Misleading'

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Microsoft hiked Xbox Game Pass prices and introduced a new tier of the game subscription service earlier this month. The newly launched Xbox Game Pass Standard tier grants players a library of hundreds of titles and all benefits of Game Pass Core, including online console multiplayer, but crucially will not include new first-party titles on the day of release. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) criticised the raised Game Pass pricing and called the new subscription tier “degraded” in a court filing last week. Now, the Xbox parent has responded to the FTC's claim and called it “misleading.”

In a new court filing on Friday, Microsoft said that it was wrong to call the new Standard tier a “degraded” version of the discontinued Game Pass for Console tier. “That discontinued product did not offer multiplayer functionality, which had to be purchased separately for an additional $9.99/month (making the total cost $20.98/month).” Microsoft argued in the filing.

The new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier offers access to a catalogue of hundreds of games and online multiplayer for $14.99 (roughly Rs. 1,251). In the filing, Microsoft said that its Game Pass Ultimate tier will offer more value to players by featuring new titles “day-and-date," including the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

The FTC on Thursday had called the newly introduced Standard tier a “degraded” product. “This product costs 36% more than Console Game Pass, and withholds day-one releases. Product degradation—removing the most valuable games from Microsoft's new service—combined with price increases for existing customers, is exactly the sort of consumer harm from the [Microsoft-Activision] merger the FTC has alleged,” the FTC had said in its filing.

In its response, Microsoft called the FTC's letter to the court a “misleading, extra-record account of the facts” and said that the regulatory body had barely mentioned Game Pass subscription at the FTC v. Microsoft trial over the company's attempt to acquire