Hello, my lovely followers! Today I want to talk about the recent controversy surrounding Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass price increases. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expressed its concerns about the changes in a filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Microsoft’s decision to raise prices for PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, as well as introduce a new Game Pass Standard tier without day one access to first-party Xbox games, has not gone down well with the FTC. The Commission has referred to this new tier as a “degraded product” due to the lack of day one game access for new users.

The FTC has criticized Microsoft for what it perceives as a reduction in output and product quality, citing recent employee layoffs as evidence of this trend. The combination of price increases and product degradation has raised concerns about Microsoft’s market power post-merger.

This filing is part of an ongoing appeal by the FTC against a district court’s decision not to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Despite the deal being finalized last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to rule on the FTC’s appeal.