The company calls the agency's letter a "misleading, extra-record account of the facts."
Last week, the FTC sent a letter to the the U.S. Court of Appeals in which the agency made some negative assertions about Microsoft's price increase to its Xbox Game Pass service. In the letter, the FTC stated that by jacking up the cost of Game Pass Ultimate to $19.99 a month, the company was subjecting users to an 81% increase in cost. The FTC also states that by removing day-one releases for Game Pass Standard, the new, impending replacement of Game Pass Core that will cost $14.99 per month, Xbox was offering a "degraded product" to consumers. All of this, in the FTC's eyes, represented a "firm exercising market power post-merger."
It was inevitable that Microsoft would reply, and it finally has in the form of its own letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Microsoft states that the FTC's letter provides a "misleading, extra-record account of the facts." In the letter, Microsoft argues that the soon-to-be discontinued Game Pass Core did not offer online functionality, which needed to be purchased separately, and Game Pass Standard will include both a catalog of games to enjoy as well as Internet play. Meanwhile, the increase to Game Pass Ultimate will see a greater abundance of day-and-date releases come to the service, thus further enhancing that tier's value to consumers. The letter goes on to assert that the FTC's focus during deliberations was on the potential withholding of the Call of Duty series from competitor PlayStation, not subscription costs, and thus the agency's "letter does not map onto" the complaints it is bringing up now.
The response can be read in its entirety above, for those who are interested. We'll continue to report on this story as we learn more.
Source: Pure Xbox
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