Microsoft Employees Will Reportedly Lose 'Free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate'

Are they getting raises to compensate? While not much the sub is a job benefit and if you take away a benefit without replacing it or paying more you are essentially cutting salary as salary plus benefits package/perks help a person decide to take a job.

And no it doesn’t matter how small the perk is. If one has two comparable job offers (and commutes) then the line between taking one job over the other can be something small. Even if it is something you can afford otherwise.

I think the free sub is more of a perk than a benefit. I agree that it sucks, but I imagine they can work out a deal where just the Xbox division gets it for free and the rest of Microsoft gets that discounted deal.

Yup, totally understandable. But i can understand that it s#cks

Dang add this to them jacking up console price in brazil, threatening media and anyone who talks negatively about it there and doubling GP price in argentina. Wondering what the next move is.

It’s a drop of a small perk, most companies do this sort of thing all the time.
I have had small perks dropped over the years.
It’s no big deal, when I was young you used to free milk at secondary school. Don’t think you do know.

From by point of view they come across as being entitled to having something just because they have a job there. If they are complaining about losing something like that yet probably get countless other things as a benefit of working for Microsoft then they need to take a look at themselves.

This sucks more for the lower paid staff.

I bet there are many janitors, cleaners and other staff on low wages that have lost this perk also. And they’re likely not the ones complaining.

@Zenszulu take anything away from anyone and they will be hurt by this.

But not all their 230,000+ staff are high earners.

Theyre clawing back that 69 billion anyway they can,aren't they ,it'll be job cuts next year

@Kienda very true ,itll be the ones on higher wages who have issues with it ,and rightly so in my opinion ,its a trillion dollar company ffs

What an odd story to cover seeing as how this doesn't have any relevance to the general public.

Sounds like a disgruntled employee wanted to take this to the press in hopes it would cause backlash against the company.

The fact Phil Spencer had no idea seems odd, though. I would think any internal change to a corporate benefit (minor as it may be) from Xbox would have at least gone through him at some point.

@Mephisto2869 MS do not need to make the $69 billion back, they swapped $69 billion in cash for a $69 billion asset, that could be worth more or less than that in the future.

A bit like purchasing a house, you do not need to make that money back, as you have purchased an asset with considerable resale value

That is not how business or accounting works

@Kienda If it was something that was considered a life essential or something that helped their families live better lives as a result then taking it away from people would be a bad thing. Since it isn't and is a subscription service then complaining about no longer getting it for free is them being entitled.

This is the point I was making about the overlord not always doing whats best for the company as a whole in the devices argument. When you read that the guy in charge of xbox did not know this was coming yet paying for the perk probably comes out of his budget somewhere is kinda weird or for him should be unacceptable .Even if it doesn't come out of his budget seems like any major announcement that might affect the image of xbox the guy in charge should know about before it is made. The second thing I will say is that is a great perk to loose for some people for others they might not care at all.
When I worked for a big company not everyone got the same perks but we were allowed to pick the perks we got and as we were there longer we got more of the perks to be able to use at one time like how vacation and pay raises usally work at most companies based on years of service. They do get a discount in the internal store I don't know what that is I hope its good for them. All that being said losing something you had stinks and to think that around 5 million dollars was so much more important to Microsoft than their employees who have already had to survive rounds of roving layoffs that made no sense just that they thought a recession might be coming even know the biz that they run is largely actually never had a down turn even during the biggest dips like 2008. Does device sales slow down for them during those time sure but of course they supposedly loose money on all those devices anyway. But companies dont stop using the cloud and gamers don't cancel gamepass en masse or stop buying games. So the areas of biggest profit and growth for the company have not been affected. What this pretty much almost always boils down to is some exec figures out that if i get rid of this expense the way my crazy complex compensation schedule works I am going to get 5 more dollars or more company stock based on some performance metric. I like Phil and trust him I hope he figures out what the hell is going on and maybe he will agree with it which is fine but if he doesn't and it didn't come from someone over him I hope he flails the person that made this thing happen alive just for making him look stupid.

@Zenszulu What? I think you might want to look that up. Getting something that is a perk after you start there and the company stopping it for whatever reason is not that bad because you didn't work there for that so I see your point on that side.
But unless you just want to work for microsoft lots of people weigh the perks their getting when they go to work there and the value they have to them add up and that all contributes to your final decision on where going to work especially if you might have a comparable offer from another company. Then if the company whos not losing money takes one of those away no matter how small you think that perk is personally. That perk your losing is part of what made you go there thats not being entitled that is having a bait and switch pulled on you.

@VisitingComet1 Sorry but are you suggesting people started working for Microsoft because they would get free gamepass? Losing that one thing is not a major loss in life regardless of if the company you work for is the one running the service they are under no obligation to have to allow all employees to get that service for free. If the perk was something that made your life easier like access to certain medial things it would be an issue to just cut it but not an entertainment subscription service.

GP Ultimate is roughly 50 cents a day, people lose much, MUCH more valuable & important benefits from employers all the time. These people will be fine I'm sure.

@Zenszulu so in the world you live in and were on an xbox website you are saying that gamepass is not a major enough perk if you have comparable offer from another company that puts it over the top? Fine will you agree though that it could be for someone else? I think that the money I save with gamepass a year on just games I would have bought is significant. with hundreds of dollars now that games cost 69.99. so its not a 17.99 a month benefit for a group of people it could be worth hundreds of dollars which to me is significant.

@redd214 ya black and white that makes sense. expand that a little bit though for someone fresh out of college I got some scholarships but in large i had to get student loans which you have to pay back thats crazy man . I got this job at microsoft and had to move to Washington my pay is entry lvl 50,000 a year which of course is not the actual case for I bet a majority of their workers in certain departments like food service or cleaning or taking care of the building I imagine it is a lot lower than that. but for this guy its 50k then you have to live in or around where you work which takes an apartment and probably a car and all the costs that comes with those things. it just happens that area is really costly to live in. hey drive further where rent is cheaper of course Washingtons average gallon of gas is third highest in the country. so things cost money and then you lose this benefit that potential has a lot more than .50 a day value to you. I understand what you guys are saying i do it is just not always clear cut as that. the problem with median and average pay is this median menas middle so at least half make less then that. Average is so abused when I was going to school the average psychologist made this well that is super skewed by people who make a ton of cash because they have been doing it for a long time. The more honest and reasonable thing to do is look at pay by years of service and what percentage of the workforce is in those categories. what might be small to you could really be huge to some one who is just getting buy.

Just to be clear I am not attacking xbox I love it and support it for the most part I agree with what they do and ya sometime you make hard decisions we don't like it but the idea that this cant be a major perk for some of their people is I think not accurate.

@VisitingComet1 yes in my world it is not a perk that I would deem essential for a reason I would go for a job. I would view it as a bonus and a nice one at that but just because I play video games it wouldn't be the reason that would make me want to work for any company and that sways my decision in accepting a job. If I no longer received something like that it wouldn't make me dislike my job anymore or feel hard done by.

@VisitingComet1 1. Paragraphs, PLEASE lol

2. I understand what you're saying, however this is such an insignificant amount of money that it's really not worth getting in a tizy about. Regardless of whether someone is an intern or fresh out of school, not to be insensitive but if $17 a month is going to do damage to their budgeting there needs to be an adjustment of priorities.

I've worked in the past setting up benefits packages for small/medium sized companies. I've witnessed companies overnight rip away things that equate to hundreds/thousands a month for employees, that's worth getting upset for. This not so much in my opinion.

A lot of people are missing the point. In general when one takes a job they take it for the overall package (wages, benefits, perks, commute and culture). That overall is your pay to work there. (Jobs offer perks to make the job more attractive to potential employees. That is literally the point.) If any of that changes in a negative direction you have lost a reason for having that job and that is still a paycut. Especially if you are attractive enough to have comparable opportunities. Nobody is saying quit or go on strike for this but one should let management know that with nothing to replace that perk the overall pay is being decreased.

Also salary erosion is a thing (and it starts small but not always from your job…yay inflation). If you make six figures but live in an city that is expensive (because of you still gotta commute to work and that’s where the jobs are) then that money isn’t going into your pocket. Same if you don’t get a raise or your medical insurance increases in price. It’s going in other places and not your pocket. Should you not want to keep more of your money? After all you work for it daily. People focus way too much on the salary amount and not on the actual spending power of that salary.

I get 20 percent off my phone bill from my job. (And have the lowest plan that meets my needs) I can afford to pay the entire bill. But why should I when that money can go somewhere else such as savings and investments?

@GamingFan4Lyf
Plausible deniability.
Phil needs to maintain his fake good guy persona, either that or he's just lying as usual.

@Rmg0731 The prices going up are purely down to currency issues in those regions.
It’s not as if they have hiked prices out of nowhere. It’s just that some are trying to paint a very different narrative.

A perk is a perk. It’s not part of your salary and should never be expected. It’s like bonuses - they are never guaranteed.
Let’s not confuse perks with actual wages.

Oh dear what a pity never mind👍

Decision has now been reversed. Confirmed via the Verge and Phil Spencer.

@liam @fraser They will now keep the free perk

People can say what they want about Phil Spencer but this is not the 1st time complaints have been raised and he had stepped in. It’s what leaders do.

@Zenszulu it’s not really “entitled”.

They work at the company and the company rewards them with perks. It’s now taking away a perk it gave them for a long time. And there is nothing wrong with being unhappy about that.

It’s a trillion dollar company and Game Pass is almost free for them to give away to their employees. It’s a bad move by Microsoft.

@BaldBelper78 great publicity for uncle Phil,bet he walked in like some gaming jesus 😂

Well now I gotta become a Microsoft employee.

@GrumpyDev My thoughts exactly.

I knew they were desperate to increase number of paying GP subscribers, but this is ridiculous. 🤦‍♂️

Good on Phil/MS for listening to employees. It is a small thing to do but inspires morale.