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Xbox Live Pricing To Go Up To $60 Per Year

Posted by Soulskill on from the nickles-and-dimes dept.

donniebaseball23 writes "Microsoft has raised the annual price of Xbox Live Gold to $60, which is a price hike of $10. The new price goes into effect on November 1, but gamers can lock in the current Xbox Live price by renewing now. EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich is not surprised by the move, nor does he think it will really have much impact on the Xbox momentum."

4 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Greedy by Necreia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Live is a portal that provides the following:
    - Targeted Advertising, which makes Microsoft money
    - Media purchasing avenue (Games, Videos, Add-ons, etc), which makes Microsoft money
    - Multiplayer functionality around games which make Microsoft Money
    - Subscription Fee, which makes Microsoft money

    Only cost that has no/little return is from people who play multilayer constantly and somehow avoids seeing any of the advertisements.

    This is really just a profit grab. I can't really blame them since they don't have to compete with anyone for their existing install base, but it does irk me.

    1. Re:Greedy by Chewbacon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Don't forget they phased out Xbox originals support on XBL. So they slashed features and now they're charging more? PSN is looking more appetizing to me now.

      --
      Chewbacon
      The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
  2. One of the reasons I bought a PS3 by dave562 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The final decision that tipped me toward the PS3 and away from the Xbox360 was the fact that playing online games on the PS3 is free. I hadn't even considered the fact that Microsoft would eventually increase the fee for their service.

  3. Re:Lock in at $40 by Digicrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Still a good deal though (thxs), even if it's just for a year. Personally, I'm on the fence about renewing now ... for $40 I'll probably renew it, but at $60 it's probable I won't next year.

    Lately, all I've used my M$ Xbox Live for is Netflix and very rarely for games. The Xbox is the fastest/most convenient way of watching Netflix ... but if the price goes up and I don't find myself playing Live games any more over the next few months, it'll be time to drop it in favor of just watching it through the PC.

    Of course, then I'll need to buy myself that silly DisplayPort adapter so I can output to the TV and both monitors at the same time from the PC instead of having to choose 2 of 3 screens already connected via the other ports, but that's another story/rant...