The
Federal
Trade
Commission
of
America
has
published
a
letter
expressing
their
displeasure
regarding
Microsoft’s
recently
announced
changes
to
Game
Pass.
You
might
remember
the
FTC:
they
heavily
fought
against
Microsoft’s
acquisition
of
Activision-Blizzard.
Of
course,
they
lost
and
Microsoft
was
able
to
go
ahead
with
its
world
domination
purchase
of
the
Call
of
Duty
publisher.
However,
since
then
the
FTC
has
not
let
ceased
fighting
and
is
still
actively
in
the
process
of
appealing
the
decision
with
the
U.S.
Court
of
Appeals
for
the
Ninth
Circuit.
As
part
of
this
process,
the
FTC
continues
to
provide
more
evidence,
such
as
another
letter
from
earlier
this
year
which
discusses
the
near
2,000
layoffs
across
Activision-Blizzard.
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The
FTC’s
newest
letter
was
published
on
July
18
and
addresses
Microsoft’s
announced
plans
to
change
Game
Pass’
pricing
and
tiers,
which
will
include
a
new
“Standard”
tier
that
does
away
with
day
one
games.
Only
PC
Game
Pass
and
Game
Pass
Ultimate
subscribers
will
get
Microsoft
games
on
day
one
now,
and
both
of
those
tiers
will
get
price
hikes.
The
FTC
is
not
impressed
with
this
decision,
stating
that
“For
consumers
unwilling
to
pay
81%
more,
Microsoft
is
introducing
a
degraded
product,
‘Game
Pass
Standard,’
at
$14.99/month.
This
product
costs
36%
more
than
console
Game
Pass,
and
withholds
day-one
releases.”
The
FTC
goes
on
to
say
that
this
price
increase
and
degradation
of
the
existing
product
is
“exactly
the
sort
of
consume
harm
from
the
merger
that
the
FTC
has
alleged.”
Unsurprisingly,
the
FTC
also
points
out
that
the
price
hike
and
tier
changes
coincide
with
the
release
of
Call
of
Duty:
Black
Ops
6.
They
point
to
Microsoft’s
own
words
that
the
merger
would
benefit
consumers
“by
making
[CoD]
available
on
Microsoft’s
Game
Pass
on
the
day
it
is
released
on
console
(with
no
price
increase
for
the
service
based
on
the
acquisition.)”
It’s
unclear
if
the
FTC
will
be
successful
in
its
attempts
to
appeal
the
merger,
or
when
a
verdict
will
be
rendered.
If
the
FTC
were
successful
the
ramifications
would
presumably
be
massive,
especially
as
Microsoft
is
now
in
the
process
of
bringing
Activision-Blizzard
games
to
Game
Pass.
