Earlier this year, we broke the news that an agency in the UK had detected serious issues with the Xbox Game Pass auto-renewal system. According to this report, this practice seriously violates the decision-making power of the player and can present a risk; so from Microsoft they promised to make changes to their policies, you have all the details here.
Thus, the changes mentioned included greater transparency when explaining how automatic renewals for its services work, some changes in returns as Microsoft will be contacting those who wish to cancel their 12 month subscription to give them the option of terminating that contract and giving them a refund equivalent to what they didn’t get, more pricing information, and a commitment to inform customers who pay for a subscription and don’t use it.
Sony and Nintendo, following the path of Xbox
These actions appear to have brought about a series of changes that will also originate first in the UK and will likely spread to other territories. It will be Sony and Nintendo who will realize it in their respective subscriptions, at least they have been offering it since games industry
The changes they would consider implementing They are quite similar to Microsoftalthough with nuances.
Sony and Nintendo have agreed to update guidelines for their respective online subscription services, following an investigation into auto-renewal practices by the French Competition and Markets Authority.
The changes are timid if we compare them to those operated by those of Redmond, but “less screwed up”. Nintendo Switch Online will no longer be sold with auto-renewal set as the default option and Sony will contact customers who have not used the service for a while to remind them how to cancel their subscription; otherwise, Sony will stop accepting payments.
By the way, if you have any questions on how to cancel your active Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold subscription, here’s a tutorial so you know how to do it.
