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Xbox Live Pricing To Go Up To $60 Per Year
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."
Well, with the price of gold these days...
nor does he think it will really have much impact on the Xbox momentum.
Thats not "momentum", its more like the "acceleration of gravity", 9.8 m/s/s DOWN DOWN DOWN
http://gamingbolt.com/xbox-360-lifetime-sales-reach-42-million
"The shipment for the previous 12 months, however, has fallen from 11.2 million units to 10.3 million units, an 8 percent drop."
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
For those of you interested you can lock in your yearly rate at $40 a year (a $10 discount on the current price and $20 on the increased price) by going to this link:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/pricelock/default.htm
This is probably the least outrageous thing I've read on slashdot in a while.
My only online play is for one hour per week with my brother in another state. It's a bad deal for me, even at current rates. Why this even requires a paid subscription is a mystery to me, older games could "direct link" to a specific IP without paying anybody.
What happened to the rumor a few months ago that XBOX live pricing was dropping? I remember when amazon had the 12+1 month cards for $30 and everyone was saying it's because they're going to drop the price anyway.
Perhaps the timing of this isn't a coincidence, given that Sony recently just launched their own pay-to-play subscription service, PSN Plus? They can claim that this is just the going rate, nowadays...
All those extra features with no ongoing costs, and it's a real pity computer services aren't getting cheaper... No, wait...
Sony does not charge to play on PSN. PSN+ gives you access to content, everyone can play.
I guess they feel they've gotten enough people locked-in that they can start squeezing the juice out of them. It's why people like to choose an open internet over single vendor proprietary locked in platforms.
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.
There are only so many people that want game consoles. The idea that their sales will go up and up forever is silly. Never happened in the past. They sell a lot when they come out, maybe even at an increasing rate as they drop in price and become popular, however they then decline as they age and most people who want one own one.
Also the real money in consoles is not made on the hardware, it is on the software. The hardware is sold for a fairly minimal profit at best, and sometimes sold for a loss (the 360 was sold at a loss when it launched). The money is made in the games and services. You have to pay a per copy sold licensing fee to release a game on a console. So you make real money in selling lots of games people want, and on having services (like Xbox live) they pay for.
Of course you do need console owners for that, so console sales aren't irrelevant, but if you sell tens of millions of consoles and your sales ramp off, that's fine, so long as people buy stuff for them.
Why is Microsoft increasing the price when service is going downhill? Is Xbox live -really- that enjoyable for anyone? In my experience its filled with 12 year old kids who just call you gay the entire match, team-killing assholes, most games have a pretty crappy skill matching system meaning the learning curve is high and older players get frustrated, etc.
I'm not seeing why Xbox live costs as much as it does now, let alone why there would be a price increase.
And really, MS shouldn't give Sony a foothold in this area because the PS3 can keep on kicking long after the 360 has been "maxed out"
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
So now that they're increasing the cost, they'll allow me to turn off all paid-for-by-ad content, right? Guys? .... guys?
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Sony's not putting Netflix behind some bizarre paywall either.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
What exact value is XBL Gold giving anyway? It's totally bizarre.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
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.
For what I get out of XBL, $60 USD ain't worth it.
Especially when I can just log into Steam on my PC and play lots of fun games online for free.
crazy dynamite monkey
I have a PS3, so mine's still free, so ha ha!
Or at least, it would be, if didn't have to stick with firmware 3.20 to keep OtherOS. :(
I hate to be the one to defend Microsoft here. $60 may seem like a big number, but do the math: $60 per year is $5 a month. That cost is nothing compared to what you're already paying for Internet or cable TV service.
PSN Plus is a superset of PSN, mainly related to the PSN online store. With Plus, they offer beta access to some games, store discounts, free copies of older PSN titles as well as other goodies. The core networking of PSN is untouched and remains free.
Well, I believe that Sony has stated that firmware access for NetFlix will be a Plus exclusive for a month or so. After that, it will be moved to the free side.
How could they do that? Netflix owns the rights to the content, the only thing that Sony could do is refuse to sign the disc, but at the end of the day, it doesn't cost Sony anything, it's Netflix (Well really Amazon) servers, the customers ISP's bandwidth, the only part that has anything to do with Sony is the PS3, which has already been paid for by the customer.
Ask Microsoft how they can do it. That's exactly what they do. You have to be a gold subscriber in order to use the Netflix app/dashboard/whatever you call it on 360.
Sony may have stated such a thing, but I doubt it. Netflix works without PSN+, and has done so since before PSN+ was rolled out.
Hulu Plus may or may not be available to free PSN. I don't know, can't check.
I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.
Or you can save yourself $60 by not paying MS anything.
So if Xbox 360 and Windows PC are out of the question because they are controlled by Microsoft, which platform do you recommend for gaming?
As a caveat, I'm a happy PS3 fanboy and do not own a Xbox 360, but did own an original Xbox. I won't pay Sony for the "upgraded" PSN service, because standard is great for my needs and the benefits of upgrading don't seem to sell me. I've always been a bit jealous of XBL versus PSN. I do think XBL Gold is a better deal than the upgraded PSN package because of the early DLCs and access to exclusive titles (the new 2D Castlevania anyone)? I'd say if you love it, just drop the extra $1.20 a month.
Who cares?
:/
His point is that not everyone who initially bought an Xbox (any generation) immediately purchased an XBox live account.
So even though they moved less units last year that doesnt necessarily mean they will have less Live subscribers.
Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
It was free for a bit, I had let my Gold membership expire, which gave me a Silver, and Netflix worked for about 2 weeks before they required the Gold memberships. I think this is in poor taste. If I bought the console, pay for a Netflix subscription, and pay to have Internet, why does Microsoft need money for this transaction as well?
With either a greased up Indian wrestling Ballmer, or a broken chair. I suspect Gates would have had all that gear implanted by now, he's got some spare change.
Task Mangler
Over the years of using DD-WRT, I've seen this thing called Xlink Kai. How well does it work, are there many players to play against? Maybe it's time to fire that up and see what one can get for free.
I am re-posting these comments since they seem to have disappeared from Google. They were posted on Slashdot in the early years of the first Xbox.
So why is Microsoft doing this? Because they can, now that people have let them get a foot in the door.
Actually, this was one of the main reasons for me to choose PS3 over XBOX. I am not a gamer (games are just a bonus), my main use is Blueray movies + Netflix + UPnP player for my music. It was a crucial factor as I was ditching cable for good and had to make sure I get Netflix in place of it.
A friend of mine has XBOX and wants to ditch cable too, but he can't get Netflix on XBOX without paying and now he might end up paying even more.
I have a feeling XBox Live could increase up to $100 per year and everyone would still do it. Anymore than that and they'd probably start losing a few subscribers.
Ave Molech Setting
This lock-in business is bullshit. They are offering a special promotion (which they have done before) which offers 1 year of service for a single payment of $40. After the year is up, your subscription renews itself at the "then current annual price after year one". On a side note, for the last 4 months of xbox live I have paid $11. They had a $1 for 1 month promotion, and then a 3 months for half price ($10) promotion. The current price per month is $8, this will be increasing to $10 per month. (unless you purchase a longer subscription)
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. - Einstein
Seems like the Family Pack coming in November is still US$99 for 4 people.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Ive been a subscriber to XBL for over 2 years now. When I first joined I didn't or never payed the retail $50 a year. I thought it was crazy. It wasn't until some random sales of kindness came about where 12year+1month cards came out for $30 via Ebay daily deal, buy.com,amazon,you name it. This would happened about every 3-6 months. I scored 2 cards because I figure 2 for almost the price of one. So as of the last sale and mostly through buy.com i scored 3 more cards. So basically I have the next 5 years worth of cards for $30. And I'm very sure that during some black-friday sale somewhere on the internet it will happen again. Stock up and save is what I say.
There's no Freedom like UFP-dom
Oh yes, open source is "cheat proof." Just take the source code, and:
if me (add points) .7)
if them (success_probability *
if me (armor x5)
if them (speed *.88)
if me (radar_range x 2)
if them (fuel_consumption * 1.25)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
"20% inflation" implies that they raise the cost like this every year. They don't. They raised the price from its 2002 point.
Inflation figures according to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
$50 in 2002 = $60.59 in 2010.
Also, economies of scale don't necessarily apply. For example, moderation of the player base requires a number if people in direct proportion to the player base, and maybe even a little worse - the more players are, not only the more problem people you have but the more people each of them can piss off. That means a geometrically increasing number of complaints as the player base increases.
Not that I'm not in support of this change; I have a Silver subscription on an Xbox 360 that I got for free, and no intention of purchasing Gold any time soon, so it doesn't really affect me either way. Your post is at best misleading, however.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
At the moment, with the discount, it's approximately 65$ per year for xbox live gold. Without the discount it's 80-90$. With this increase, if it goes through directly will push it to 100$+. That's getting to be a bit too expensive. Furthermore, Australians don't get all the premium services that America gets, we don't have netflix, or anything like that. We have a download movie service which offers few movies, for far too much. Ultimately this is starting to make xbox live gold account not look worth it to me, and making the PS3 more appealing. I could understand the increase if there were services costing them money, but from a standpoint outside of America it just seems like more money grabbing.
This has nothing to do with netflix.. According to the email I got they are adding:
-With ESPN on Xbox LIVE, you can stream and watch over 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events plus highlights.*
-With Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE you will be able to enjoy a customized Hulu Plus experience that will include Kinect navigation and Xbox LIVE Parties*
Both would be pretty good reasons to ditch my fios tv...
I don't mind so much paying for "Gold level." What I do mind, however, is that they still feel the need to stick all kinds of ads in the service. In fact, they now have motion/sound ads that start when you scroll to the line it's on. At this point, if it wasn't for my family using it to stream Netflix, I'd probably just let it lapse.
Get off my launchpad!
In euroland we pay €60 a year for XBox Live Gold, which amounts to 76 US dollars.
But by that same token, they don't let you hack their stuff anymore. :(
I think he meant that you will be able to use Netflix without the disk using PSN+ for a month or so, and then that will be rolled out to everyone. You currently have to put the stupid red disk in your PS3 to use Netflix because of MS's exclusivity deal that is finally running out.
Clovis
^ Clovis, look! It's that guy you are!
Also, I can buy stuff that is discounted on Playstation Plus and up to 5 of my friends can log onto my account on their PS3 and download it too, and play with me on their accounts.
Seriously, the ability for me to buy a game and have my friends play with me has made me buy more stuff than I have ever bought from any game company.
I steal signatures. This one used to be yours.
My nephew came to visit for the weekend a few weeks back and we were going to pick up a copy of StarCraft 2, spawn out a LAN game, and teach the kid the ropes. (Hadn't really followed the news on the game, shocking, I know.)
No spawning out. No LAN games, everything routes out through Battle.net. So even if I *were* willing to drop $180 to teach a kid (myself, my wife, and my nephew) how to play StarCraft, and even though all three of us are on the same LAN segment (albeit, via wifi) - we would all have to NAT out to Battle.net, and deal with the lag of our DSL line.
WTF?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).