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Xbox Live Silver Accounts Becoming Second Class
Ben Kuchera, at Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog, points out a troubling development on Xbox Live. While paying members of the service (those on the 'Gold' level) have always had more options than those on the free 'Silver' level, Microsoft is now making that gap even wider. From the article: "While the demos and videos are cool, almost everyone I've talked to about the system sees having an Xbox Live Gold Account as an almost required piece of the 360 puzzle. Those with Silver accounts may start to feel the pinch though, as content is starting to be released that can only be viewed with a Gold account. The first thing? The new Gears of War Trailer." Tycho has some choice words on this development as well. "This is really quite a trailer. The term 'trailer' may even be insufficient. But, um... When you make people pony up for instant access to ads? They might get the impression that you are taking advantage of them. I'm just throwing it out."
When someone goes on TV and says nobody is on control of the situation, I can _hear_ the long-snouted very large dragons in Redmond atop their hoard grinning their dagger-toothed grins. Control is what they want, and if this plays into Microsoft being able to lean heavily on publishers to enforce what kinds of things can be sold on their marketplace and at what prices, this will be bad for gamers. That said, the microtransactions-in-gaming sphere is very young. Those publishers really are feeling their way around. The Oblivion horse armor was really the first thing of its kind on in the mass-market gaming world of consoles. But what the Lumines guys really did was throw spaghetti at the wall and see if it would stick. You have to admit it's bold, even if I'd agree with those who say they hyped the game as a game, priced it as a game, and then really sold you a demo with many hooks to take more and more money from you. Also keep in mind, though, that publishers are really trying to start forcing American consumers to act in a way they DO NOT ACT IN ANY OTHER MARKETPLACE. I may lack imagination, but I can't think of any digital service where people are willy-nilly making micro purchases. We just don't work that way. As a high-choice market-saturated society we demand options and we demand value for the money we spend. Why else would gamers hold in high regard the number of hours it takes to get through a good game. In what other industry do they have to worry about the depth and replayability of a previous release in a franchise when planning the next one? Certainly not the movies or in music. It's the value, stupid! Value perceived is value achieved. Lumines Live ain't it