Head of Xbox Apologizes After the Xbox Live Gold Price Hike Debacle

Faced with immediate backlash, Microsoft reversed its decision to increase the Xbox Live Gold subscription price. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, took to Twitter to make an apology.

Earlier, Microsoft made an announcement to raise its Xbox Live Gold subscription price from $60 a year to $120 a year. However, this announcement was met with immediate backlash from gamers worldwide. Many gamers took to Twitter to announce their displeasure.

Seeing the hostile response, Microsoft quickly overturned their decision mere hours after announcing it. Furthermore, they decided to make amends for the gamers. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, issued an apology on Twitter regarding the whole fiasco.

Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, issued a public apology on Twitter regarding the Xbox Live Gold price hike drama. He apologized for the “angst and emotions” caused to the gamers.

In response to Gamertag Radio host Parris Lilly, Spencer apologized for the entire situation regarding the price hike. He said,

“Apologies for all the angst and emotion this caused today for our customers.”

Phil Spencer

He then thanked the community for the feedback saying that it was a good learning opportunity for the people at Xbox, and they would learn from it.

Spencer’s rhetoric in the past has been that he wants the platform to be such that it is accessible to a wide variety of players worldwide. So, the original decision to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold came as a bit unusual.

Microsoft is yet to give a proper explanation behind their original decision to increase the prices. However, many people think that the entire situation was an underhanded move to get people to upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes the Gold subscription.

Gold’s proposed price would have been $120 a year, while it would have been $180 a year for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Consequently, many people think that the company was indirectly forcing them to upgrade.

The prices of the subscriptions would remain the same as of now. Additionally, Microsoft announced that the free-to-play games would be available without any subscriptions. With the prices remaining the same, and many new games coming to the platform, now seems like a good time to get the Xbox Game Pass.