New Xbox Live Pricing Revealed

NiteStar writes "The new packages and pricing of the Xbox LIVE Gold service have been leaked. The 'Premium Gold' 12 month pack, retailing at 70USD, will include the Gold Xbox LIVE subscription, a communicator headset, "Billiards" Xbox LIVE Arcade game, $20 discount on a games purchase and 200 points in the Xbox LIVE marketplace. The 'Gold' 12months will just include the subscription and an extra free month for 60USD/year. Packages for 3months and 1month will also be available."

Comments

Cheaper on eBay

[LordNimon]

One thing to keep in mind is that even though the official price for Xbox Live today is $50/year, you can buy a 12-month subscription on eBay for under $35, which is a 30% discount. I expect that to still be true when the Xbox 360 is released.

SOunds good, but.....

[fodi]

Price sounds great, especially if you plan to use the discount voucher. What worries me is that individual games may add their own charges for playing online.

I hope MS forces game developers to provide online gaming capabilities without the option of charging extras.

Re:You mean I still have to pay...

[jclast]

No, the Silver package is free. Everybody with a 360 and a broadband connection can play online for exactly $0 extra.

The only one that seems worth it is the 12 month Premium Gold. You get $20 for another game, a headset, and a quick Billiards game. Once your year's up, just go silver.

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[CurtDogg]

Actually, all you can do for free is keep a friends list, voice chat, and WATCH the online games. You won't be able to play online without getting the Gold package.

Re:You mean I still have to pay...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Silver Package (You're an idiot, btw)
Online Specs

1.gamers can chat with friends online, build and share gamer profiles, send and receive text and voice messages, and access Xbox Live Marketplace for new content such as game demos, trailers and casual games from Xbox Live Arcade.

2. Subscribers to the Gold level of service will also enjoy access to online multiplayer gaming in their favorite games..

Xbox silver = Updates, Demos, patches.
Xbox Gold = Multiplayer gaming.

At least, thats what it says in that link.

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[XenoRyet]

From the Xbox 360 Fact Sheet:

Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace--all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming.

So your 360 will technicaly be online out of the box, however you will still need to pay to be able to play online.

Mod parent DOWN

[Anonymous Coward]

(Posting anonymously since I already moderated in this topic.)

From: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/onlinespecs.htm

Xbox Live Silver level

Create an online Gamer Profile
Access the Xbox Live Marketplace
Engage in voice and text messaging
Talk to a single friend at a time using voice chat
Receive video messages from Gold level members
Access massively multiplayer online games (additional fees may apply)

Xbox Live Gold level

Paid level of service
All the features of Silver level, and additionally:
o Play multiplayer games online
o Video chat
o Multiplayer online tournaments
o Participate in Xbox Live online programming, such as Game with Fame, Play and Win, and Prime Time activities

Re:You mean I still have to pay...

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Everybody with a 360 and a broadband connection can play online for exactly $0 extra.

Wrong. Everyone with a 360 and broadband can go online with the patently useless Xbox Live Silver. About all that lets you do is have a gamertag and a friends list.

You cannot play online with Silver (the built-in one). You need Gold to play your regular games multiplayer, just as you have to pay for Xbox 1 Live.

Not to troll, but...

[earthbound kid]

The announced cost of Nintendo's WiFi internet connection?

$0.00/month

It looks like Nintendo is really lining up to be a price leader in the next generation, even more so than they were in this one. The question is whether consumers will go for it, or think, "Oh, Nintendo, they're just cheap, not any good." It really does seem like Microsoft is getting a lot of negative buzz about the cost of its new consoles and services though. Will it hurt their bottom line? My instinct is that better graphics are fine and all, but not enough to drive console sales by themselves. XBox-PS2-Cube games all look pretty decent. Would looking even better really enhance gameplay for consumers? It's doubtful in my mind. If anything, it would be nice to see the same level of graphical detail, but more character models and maps packed into the game and on screen.

Nintendo's WiFi connection probably won't be nearly as sophisticated as Microsoft's Live. But will consumers who've plunked down $1k for a console really be excited about paying yet another fee every month?...

We'll see.

Re:Not to troll, but...

[cornface]

The question is whether consumers will go for it,

No, the question is whether developers will go for it.

Otherwise, the new Nintendo console will be the same barren wasteland that the Gamecube and N64 were.

Re:Not to troll, but...

[VividU]

Must haves:

- Unified login/username across all games
- Global friend/team/clan lists
- Single payment

Also, whats up with "$1k" for a console statement? Stop being lame.

Re:Not to troll, but...

[earthbound kid]

* The rumor is, how Nintendo will work it is, if you're in person, you can just add someone to your friends list directly. Otherwise, you have to enter in some kind of universal unique ID which follows the machine, no matter the IP address. Of course, this is all just rumors and press releases at this point.

* I think they expect people will do that themselves using IM, etc.

* Well, zero payment isn't quite synonymous with single payment, but yeah.

* Have you been paying attention? All the stores like EB and whatnot have been announcing $1000+ XBox 360 "Value Packs."

Re:Not to troll, but...

[RoyalBoyle]

But...you are trolling. Every single article about XBox360 and the Nintendo trolls seem to come out and post about how great Revolution will be (not that anyone knows anything about it other than it's "revolutionary" and aimed at the a wide audience that includes the elderly). While Nintendo was the price leader this past round, that did not help them as they still came in second in Japan and third in Europe and North America. Your theory that consumers who are willing to pay $1000 for a console are unwilling to pay $50 a year for xbox live seems contradictary. What's $50 a year when you've spent $1000 on a single console? Of course the $1000 figure is absurd, as the system will sell for $299 and $399. Retailer bundles that may exceed $1000 have no relevance to the price of the actual system.

Re:Not to troll, but...

[earthbound kid]

After I wrote it, I realized I misworded it. Obviously, those who buy the $1000 value packs are going to get Live. The question is whether other consumers will look at the cost of the value pack and recurring costs of Live and just put off buying a 360 until the indefinite future, when things may be cheaper. The effect of consumers delaying purchasing a 360 may allow Sony and Nintendo to overcome the handicap of releasing their consoles later. I'm just saying that MS has built up some ill will at their price, whereas Nintendo and Sony are building up good will for their systems, since they're presumed to be cheaper.

Of course, all this pre-release speculation is kind of pointless. Remember how lame the original XBox's launch catalog was? But they came back from behind and made a respectable second place finish in the US. (Of course, in Japan... well, I just got back from the store, and while I was there I saw just a third of a rack devoted to Xbox games but a whole rack devoted SNES games, to say nothing of the three racks for the PS2. Heh. The 'Cube had about a rack and a half or so.)

I'm glad for this article

[toddhunter]

I had actually forgotten about this. I had been swept up a bit in the hype and was looking forward to getting myself a 360 when they came out.
But no, I refuse to have to pay to make my games work at the whim of microsoft. They either work for ever or not at all in my opinion.
So bring on the ps3 or the revolution. Hopefully they show a bit more common sense!

Existing XBox Live subscription?

[the_skywise]

What if I've already got an XBox live subscription? Do I have to purchase a separate "gold" one for the XBox 360, transfer the existing subscription or can I use one subscription for both?

Re:Existing XBox Live subscription?

[fwitness]

Something I thought about too. I assume MS has a plan. We shall see what that is though. I thoroughly suspect that MS would like to see the original XBox die a quiet death. They have learned a lot, but their first lesson was extremely painful.

Re:Existing XBox Live subscription?

[Khuffie]

From what I understand you'd transfer your existing membership. So fi you have 4 months left, you'd have 4 months left on your Xbox 360.

Re:Puh leaze

[nb caffeine]

Not to be nit-picky, but the 360 plus a game to play online plus a subscription to XBL is going to be more than $500

assuming you get the $399 version (which most people will, imho) and a year sub to xbl

Xbox live is sneaky

[CrazyJim1]

You register your credit card so you can play on Xbox live. Of course you're also using a prepaid card. The reason they make you register a credit card is so they can charge you for any little thing they feel like charging for. For example, they give you a disk with Xbox live filled with retro games, but each one of those games cost like $15 a pop. I probably wouldn't have put $15 in these games when they were state of the art! But Xbox live lets you purchase a game with a single click of the button. If you don't want to purchase it, but you hit the wrong button to go back, you're out $15 and you're stuck with a crap game. I don't feel comfortable paying for an online service. This is definately an issue for me when buying a console. I'm interested in seeing how the other consoles handle online.

Re:MOD PARENT UP

[Tim Browse]

They should have called it 'Gold', and then called the Gold service 'Platinum'.

See, I could be in marketing :-)

Re:You mean I still have to pay...

[JunkmanUK]

I wouldn't say it's patently useless (from article above a bit):

The Xbox Live Marketplace will provide a one-stop shop for consumers to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, along with new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, "skins," and other types of new content on demand. The Xbox Live Marketplace is accessible to everyone who connects their Xbox 360 console to a broadband connection and creates an Xbox Live account.

You're getting updates, demos, extras... all pretty much as you'd expect. There's more to being online than multiplayer gaming. For once (and this is rare) I think they're pitching it about right *as long* as they spend the profit on decent multiplayer servers.

Re:God some people are stupid.

[Delphiki]

All this adds up, i could build you a 800 dollar computer that would put any online console game into the 'shit' category.

For about a year, at which point it's just an average computer, and after another year new games start to run sluggishly. A console on the other hand tends to get better over the life of the console, because the games for it tend to get better but run just as smoothly.

But hey, here's a thought. Let's use some logic before we even get to that quest. Let's take the $500 console. Wait, it's $400. So let's buy a memory card. Wait, don't need one. Already got a HDD in the $400 package. Ok, let's buy a hard drive. Wait, already got one in the $400 package. Need more controllers. Wait, PC games require an extra PC for each additional player, so the $50 more for an extra wireless controller is going to cost less than the price of an extra PC, so there isn't much point in factoring that in for comparison purposes. So what's next? Overpriced games? $60 for a Xbox360 game, $55 for HL2 and Doom 3 at launch, wasn't it? Yes, those console games sure are a rip off. A network adapter! Oh wait, built in. A television... wait, already have one of those, along with everyone else in America. A video adapter (I'm assuming you mean the cables). Cables for HDTV and regular TV are included in the $400 package. So, what's our total price so far? $400 plus the cost of games. And you can build a gaming PC for what was that again? $800 plus the price of games?

So how about I buy an Xbox 360 and build a $300 PC that can do everything but play games just as well as your $800 PC?