GameStop straight-up says it'll ignore the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike and keep selling subscriptions for $20 instead of $30 "in-store and online"

GameStop seems to be going scorched Earth on one of its biggest business partners, pledging to continue selling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions for $20 instead of the newly announced $30 price increase.

The retailer has not been quiet about Microsoft's massively controversial Xbox Game Pass price hike, quickly reacting to the news with a meme that now seems relatively tame by comparison.

In another tweet fired off in the fallout, GameStop said in no uncertain terms: "We will continue to sell Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $19.99/month in-store and online."

An accompanying image added, "Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is still $19.99 a month with us. You're welcome."

While other retails like Amazon and Target are still selling Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions for the old $20, GameStop seems to be the only one to come out and commit to that outdated pricing indefinitely. Bold.

I'm not even sure this is legal. I suppose it depends on Xbox, as the service's owner, and where it wants to set the minimum advertised price (MAP). One would think an official price increase like the one it announced would raise MAP, but it seems GameStop may have found a loophole. Or maybe it's just testing the waters to see how Microsoft responds. I really, truly don't know here, but I'm really curious to see how this unfolds.

For what it's worth, Microsoft also jacked up the price of Game Pass PC, from $11.99 to $16.49 monthly, but GameStop's deal seems to be exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues reading anything but the room with a full-page Xbox Game Pass advertisement on console startup a day after hiking prices by 50%