Microsoft makes consumer-friendly changes for Xbox Game Pass and other subscriptions

Following an investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, Microsoft has announced some changes it will be making to its subscription services to make them more consumer friendly. The biggest change is that the UK CMA has managed to push Microsoft to agree to cancel an auto-renewing subscription if the customer is not actively using the service. 

The CMA has been investigating Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo over their subscription practices. On the Microsoft side, the focus was on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold, both of which raised “concerns” around “automatic subscription renewal, ease of disabling automatic renewals and whether customers may be unwittingly paying for old subscriptions that they were no longer using”.

To make everything right, Microsoft will be making some changes to how it handles subscriptions, with plans to be more transparent and upfront about auto-renewing subscriptions, the cost and how to obtain a refund should your subscription auto-renew by accident.

In addition to that, Microsoft will begin contacting customers on recurring 12-month subscriptions to give them the option to end their contract and claim a pro-rata refund. Microsoft will also stop charging you for subscriptions if you've not used it for a period of time – although the exact amount of time needed for this to kick in has not been revealed yet.

Microsoft is the first to make positive changes in this area, but the CMA is also in talks with Sony and Nintendo, so we may see some similar changes brought over to PlayStation+/PSNow and Nintendo Switch Online.

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KitGuru Says: It's very easy to forget about a recurring subscription and end up paying for unused time. Hopefully auto-cancellations and refunds will start to be more common both in gaming and for other entertainment subscriptions. 

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