The FTC has just filed a cautionary report to the US Court of Appeals, citing Microsoft’s recent Xbox Game Pass price changes as hallmarks of “a firm exercising market power post-merger.” Just last week, Microsoft revealed it was going to be increasing the cost of Xbox Game Pass while also swapping out cheaper tiered options for a “degraded” version, as the FTC calls it.
” With the closures of Tango Gameworks and further Xbox layoffs already giving them a bad look, the FTC says that combined with the “price increases and product degradation” that Microsoft is exhibiting, it’s “exercising market power post-merger.