Microsoft employees lose free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate after price increase

Microsoft employees are reportedly not happy after the company revealed certain benefits will no longer be available only months after a price hike.

Employee benefits typically offer a different form of compensation in addition to salary, helping businesses stay competitive when hiring and keeping employees healthy, happy, and motivated.

There are a range of different benefits people may expect to see throughout their working careers. For Microsoft employees hired on a permanent basis, free access to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was one enticing bonus.

That, however, is reportedly all about to change with news coming just months after Game Pass had its first-ever price increase.

Sources told The Verge that “most” of Microsoft’s 238,000 employees would have Game Pass removed from their benefits, news that allegedly has not gone down well at the company.

Xbox employees will seemingly continue to have free access to the pass, while a discounted 12-month subscription will be available for purchase at the company’s internal store for all other employees.

These new changes are supposedly expected to roll out in January 2024. Employees found out this week after Microsoft raised the price of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $14.99 per month to $16.99 earlier this year.

Readers were seemingly unimpressed with Microsoft’s latest change to its benefits scheme, taking to The Verge’s comments to share their thoughts.

“Companies love to find new ways to increase profit,” one person wrote. “Most evil of which is to profit off your own employees.”

Another said, “What a weird decision, let’s piss off a bunch of employees for the equivalent of a rounding error in savings.”

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