Boy, doesn’t that sound apropos for 2025?
If you’re a Microsoft hater, grab a fork and dive in, for there’s enough steaming schadenfreude for all. For everyone else, better go searching for some crumbs of the holiday’s desserts. There’s not much here to celebrate.
Xbox Game Pass price hike: FAIL
Microsoft has made some bad decisions, but aiming a Halo plasma rifle at its foot and then pulling the trigger had to be one of its most consequential. That shot was fired Oct. 1, when Microsoft decided to raise the price of its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $19.99/mo to $29.99/mo, with a price increase to the Game Pass PC as well. And it came only months after the “Xboxalypse” saw Microsoft jack up prices on Xbox consoles and hardware, too.
Microsoft
Fans went berserk, with many swearing and then swearing off Game Pass entirely. (It sounds very much like what happened after Microsoft gutted its money-saving Microsoft Rewards in 2023 — which the company later backed off of.) Still, while Microsoft has raised its price, Amazon is still selling Game Pass at the old price at the time I was writing this, weeks after Microsoft’s price increase. So at least there’s a loophole?
Microsoft’s politics comes under fire: WTF
Politics continues to color nearly every aspect of public life, and Microsoft’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and Build conference became two very public venues to criticize Microsoft’s actions on the world stage. Protesters broke in twice to the Seattle anniversary celebration, with one employee, Ibtihal Aboussad, claiming that Microsoft was profiting by selling AI products to the Israeli military, and contributing to the genocide in Palestine.
In August, Microsoft employees were fired after a sit-in at Microsoft’s headquarters with a similar message. Protesters disrupted a Build keynote by CEO Satya Nadella as well. But pro-Palestinian groups continued to make their voices heard through November at various Microsoft events. It was a WTF moment in the true sense of the words, as tech’s relationship with authoritarian governments came under scrutiny.
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