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Why You Don't Want a $99 Xbox 360
itwbennett writes "Peter Smith has done the math on Microsoft's $99 Xbox 360 — 4GB model (no hard drive) and a Kinect sensor. Here's why it's a bad deal: 'You'll be paying $99 + $359.76 in monthly fees, or $458.76 over the course of two years. Compare that with (I'm using prices from Amazon that were accurate as of May 7th, 2012) $287.70 for an Xbox 360 4GB + Kinect bundle, and two 12-month Xbox Live Gold cards at $48.41 each, a total of $384.52. So you're paying almost $75 for the privilege of laying out small cash now.' And then there's the not insignificant matter of early termination fees."
$0 for not having an Xbox 360 at all. That's the option I'm going for.
Ydco co
To cell phone plans.
So you're paying almost $75 for the privilege of laying out small cash now.
This privilege is valuable to working class families that have a lot of kids but not a lot of savings, especially when a lot of newer console games have been following in PC games' footsteps in eschewing shared-screen multiplayer in favor of LAN or online multiplayer. Thus one has to buy a separate console for each gamer in the family rather than one for the whole family as it used to be in the split-screen era.
You forgot the part where you're forced into the two year agreement for Xbox Live, much like a cell phone contract. You can't have it your way.
Sony is releasing a new console soon. 10 to 1 odds they will release a new version of PSN and a premium version of PSN as well.
this is meant to make people think twice about buying a new PS4 and pay for PSN. why buy new PS4 if i just signed up for a 2 year x-box deal?
the hardcore i play every single kill/hack everyone to death game 7 days a week on every console 10 years back people aren't the target of this
it's people like me who have a PS3 i use only for blu rays and i've been thinking about an x-box with kinect for the kids people are the target of this
Wait a minute, pay *less* now in exchange for greater incurred expense later on? If only there a way we could do this on a much bigger scale than with just Xboxes... Like put down a small amount now to get the consumer hooked and then have them pay the rest off later. A revolutionary concept indeed...
I've heard of slow news days, but seriously, what is this shit?
Welcome to the 20th and 21st century, this is how all subscription models work.
Or didn't you realize an iPhone really costs $2,000; DVR Equipment fees are really a fleecing, a $20k car really costs $36k, and pest control really costs $240, not $20/month. Gillette razors are also not 5 dollars.
Oh and mortgages are a really bad deal. You pay like 150grand extra, why not just pay cash up front?
The biggest problem, of course, is that you're getting the model with the 4 gig hard drive. That could be a problem even if you don't intend to use the console online. First of all, you won't have the option of hard disk installs (which can make some games much more tolerable in the loading time stakes). Worse, there are a small number of games where you won't even be able to use all the features.
Forza Motorsport 3 and 4 have both shipped on two DVDs. Because the nature of the games doesn't make disk-swapping practical (unlike in an RPG like Blue Dragon or Lost Odyssey), the way Turn 10 managed this was by making the second DVD an optional "content" install. As I know myself from trying to set up a nephew's Christmas present one fraught Christmas morning, you can't actually do the full content install for the Ultimate Edition of Forza 3 or the full edition of Forza 4 on the 4 gig models. There's just not enough space for that and the various OS stuff that the console puts on there. So part of the game's content is unavailable.
The "irony" (and this isn't actually irony at all, I suspect it's fully deliberate) is that in Christmas 2010, a number of UK retailers were heavily pushing a 4 gig 360 + Forza 3 Ultimate Edition bundle (usually with Lego Harry Potter in there as well). They also had a nice stock of the 250 gig hard drives on sale. Of course, the cost of buying a 4 gig console and then the 250 gig hard drive for it was significantly greater than the cost of just buying the 250 gig console.
Sorry for the rant - that was a Christmas morning I'd rather forget. My key point - avoid the 4 gig model even for casual use. Hard drive installs are only getting more common as this generation goes on.
So, don't buy it now. Don't buy anything you don't really need now. Do this for 6 months. Save all the money that is left. From then on, continue to live as you do now. And suddenly you realize that you don't need your credit card with huge interest rates anymore! And you have suddenly all this interest that you would normally pay to the credit card company all for yourself!! Indeed, why pay $75 so that you have to pay small cash now, but lots more later.
Yes, this is a predatory "cell phone" style purchase plan. Yes, it's a bad investment. Yes, there are people dumb enough to fall for it. Yes, I think they deserve to be financially punished for sucking at math and common sense.
I've been an Xbox 360 owner for a couple of years. I bought mine second-hand, actually I bought two refurbs for about the same total cost as one brand new unit, then gave the extra one to a friend. I see at least 3-4 Xboxes posted every day on my city's "used crap for sale" RSS feed, and I live in a pretty catatonic Canadian city. I would expect most people within range of a Microsoft store also have a dozen inexpensive used consoles available within walking distance of their home. For $120 you'll even get a 20 to 60gb hard drive with the console, and I've seen the Kinect gadget go for $50 or so. It'll be an older model Xbox, and no they don't catch fire or RROD ten minutes after you start your game. Mine's already got well over two thousand hours of playtime, and it's crashed exactly once, due to a shitty game full of bugs - not the hardware itself. The defective ones were from 2 or 3 hardware revisions ago, and most of those units have already died (or been repaired).
Actually, these days I'm seeing a lot of people selling their old-style Xboxes because they bought the new slim model. I don't know why they do it, but that translates into more cheap second-hand consoles flooding the market. If someone's looking to get into the Xbox for little money, that's the way to go. No contract, no overpriced payment plan, and if three months in you decide you don't like being called a "fat gay nigger cunt" ten times a day by inbred little rugrats, you can resell the cheap console in a matter of minutes.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
No, same reason as before –poor people have to make false economies:
At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.
Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.
Without any special rancour, Vimes stretched this theory to explain why Sybil Ramkin lived twice as comfortably as he did by spending about half as much every month.
[Sir Terry Pratchett]
Well, the PC DRM is only "from hell" if you buy games with that DRM on it. I don't touch Ubisoft for that very reason, and it was a strong reason against buying games like SC2 (and quite likely Diablo 3 as well). Buy indie titles and you really don't have that problem.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Because poor people need an xbox NOW, and can't wait a couple of months, right?
This isn't food, of a roof over their heads, it a video game console!
It's better then a really, really bad credit card, but only if you'd leave it on the card for a long time.
If you can pay off the cost in 9 months, even if it's on a 20% card, doing that still comes out easily ahead of this deal.
Bottom line is that this thing is basically like payday loan services - it exists for suckers who don't have the financial literacy to understand that it's actually a pretty horrible deal.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Some games require 1 to 2 hours just to get through the opening cut scenes. In the Nintendo 64 era, there were problems with The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask because its roughly 90-minute start-to-save time exceeded many households' 60-minute maximum play sessions. Games with "Dead" or "Solid" in the title can have long times between save points as well.
With everyone talking about the economics of paying up front vs paying over time via monthly fees, I think everyone is missing the real story here:
It's bundled with the Kinect. And that's because the Kinect's sales figures have gone flat. Early adopters bought the hell out of them (even set a record), but then the software failed to materialize and sales have begun to stagnate. This is not a ploy to grab an extra $75, it's a ploy to get Kinect machines in more households. The extra $75 is just tacked on to leverage the risk associated with monthly payment plans.
Why? Maybe MS hopes a larger user base will inspire more Kinect development. They might have decided the Kinect is the "universal remote" in their "Xbox as home entertainment hub" scheme. They could just be trying to move units and recoup their investment.
(probably all of the above)
Cool art gallery, if you're into that sort of thing.
Because poor people need an xbox NOW, and can't wait a couple of months, right?
This isn't food, of a roof over their heads, it a video game console!
Which actually is something the poor need far more than the rich.
Seriously, I earn a decent living. As a result, I like to spend my weekends skydiving, and my vacations renting a house for a week at the mountains. I remember when I didn't have any money (relatively speaking, I know there are truly poor people out there who don't have a roof over their heads), and spending time glued to my TV playing video games was a reasonably cheap form of entertainment.
Entertainment is a human necessity. Food and a roof over your head keeps you physically healthy, entertainment keeps you mentally healthy.
I only pay for the data because I moved jobs from a place which had wifi to one which didn't. A smart phone works quite well without 3G assuming you have data at home and work.
I just worked out how much I'd save if I took up an 18 month contract with the network supplying the same phone I'd save a whopping €10. And for that I'd be locked into a contract for 18 months, a plan which has only 150MB data and with a phone laden down with crapware and tied to one network. No thanks.
I really don't see why anyone gets a phone from a carrier any more. Even if you went on contract it would still be better to buy a SIM free phone to do it.
Even someone flipping burgers can afford quality living when they're utilizing their funds wisely.
Minimum Wage: $7.25/hour. At 40 hours a week (doubtful, all minimum wage factories like McDonalds only hire people part-time to get around regulations requiring them to offer benefits, which, depending on the state, could be someone working up to 35 hours a week or less, 5 whole hours short of a full 40 hour week) that is $290 a week before taxes and shit come out. Figuring 25% is gone right off the top, you're down to $217.50 a week, or $870 a month.
You show me the "quality living" you can find for less than $1000 a month. There's a reason why so many minimum wage earners are still on government assistance even despite having a job.
Don't get me wrong, I am completely in agreement as far as budgeting goes, but people that make such a piss-poor wage are still being subsidized by tax dollars, which is why poverty is so bad in places where Walmart and McDonalds are the main employer in town. These corporations get the benefit of a cheap labor force and likely still collect government money for hiring minorities, thus bringing the amount they're really paying down even further. I used to work overnight at Target years ago, and it was common knowledge that the state was giving Target half of the hourly wage in the form of grants in exchange for hiring a bunch of Serbians that came here under refugee status back in the late 90's. These people were given homes, had taxes annulled, owned their own businesses (that changed hands every so often to avoid taxes) and even drove BMW's and shit to work for their $10 an hour. Which is exactly why Target always gave them preferential treatment when it comes to hiring....unofficially, of course. It was surely just a coincidence that there were 9 of them hired to every single non-Serbian.
The few games that excel at split screen (Halo Reach and Gears 3 are good examples) have noticeable graphics decreases when in split screen. Many companies don't seem to take the effort to build a LOD (Level of Detail) system into their code
Or maybe they are building in a LOD system, and the "noticeable graphics decreases" are the LOD system doing its job when the game is run in two 768x352 windows or four 512x288 windows instead of one 1024x576 window.
Food and a roof over your head keeps you physically healthy, entertainment keeps you mentally healthy.
Please tell me that it would incorrect to paraphrase the above as "the poor need video games"...
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There are many forms of entertainment that are arguably better for mental health and demonstrably less expensive than video gaming.
Wait, what?
Dude... when I was a young, broke man, we had better and far cheaper entertainment. We'd hang out somewhere with friends, sometimes playing actual sports (football = $10 or so.) I'd walk in the park with the missus. I'd go to the beach. I'd go hiking. I'd go to the library. There are a zillion ways to get entertainment that is far cheaper and far better for you than sitting stupefied in front of a TV while clutching a gaming controller.
Hell, even hanging around a bar with friends and/or getting laid is cheaper as long as you don't do it every weekend - and that's what a lot of folks do anyway.
I get your point, but seriously? An XBox is not a necessity.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Depends on where you live.
$7/hr in Mississippi or Arkansas is actually quite livable - I've done it.
$28/hr in New York City or San Francisco is starvation wages, in spite of being 4x larger.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
The reasons are the same no matter what. I have seen people on welfare with full cable packages, 2 dogs( not little ankle biters but large 100#+ ones), a litter of kids, no car and no damn food in the house. Oh and lets not forget that cell phone bill because they just HAD to have a iPhone. Piss poor budgeting and purchases are the biggest problem.
"Remember, politicians and diapers should be changed often and for the same reason."
Because poor people need an xbox NOW, and can't wait a couple of months, right?
This isn't food, of a roof over their heads, it a video game console!
Which actually is something the poor need far more than the rich.
Seriously, I earn a decent living. As a result, I like to spend my weekends skydiving, and my vacations renting a house for a week at the mountains. I remember when I didn't have any money (relatively speaking, I know there are truly poor people out there who don't have a roof over their heads), and spending time glued to my TV playing video games was a reasonably cheap form of entertainment.
Entertainment is a human necessity. Food and a roof over your head keeps you physically healthy, entertainment keeps you mentally healthy.
The Amish seem to be doing just fine.
Preach it. I took a job in a different city and moved here soon after to start work, while my wife and kids stayed put through the end of the school year. I find myself sitting in an empty house, in a situation where it'd be dumb to buy a TV when all my furniture will be moving here within the month. The library is a lifesaver. There's a bus stop near my house, and it's cheap to ride to another part of the city and just walk around to look at stuff. If I have to have passive entertainment, I can watch shows on Netflix (and I bet 90% of households who would want to buy an XBox already have a PC and Internet connection capable of supporting it).
I grew up with video games and I love 'em, but they're hardly something you've gotta have. For the history of the world up through 30 years ago, people managed to entertain themselves without them. It's still possible, you know?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
That's because in your day, video games probably didn't exist or were very primitive and niche (depending on how old you are) so of course those other things were the only option. In modern times, gaming has become quite a significant form of entertainment (and casual titles have certainly gotten rather mainstream) but of course there are still plenty of sports buffs and bar hoppers too.
You do not even need to pay anything for some video games as you can always find countless of full blown free titles online (browser based titles, Free to play MMO's, freeware games, etc) if you know where to look (so even the $99 Xbox 360 is not needed). I would say that's very handy during a day where you are stuck inside because of weather conditions or your friends are just not available.
On a side note, there always seems to be this misconception that entertainment is unnecessary when in reality, your mental health depends on it. Namely, boredom would make you go nuts.
If you don't mind a lack of choice, you can march into a brick and mortar store and buy an unlocked phone. In the US, there is at least one big retailer selling unlocked phones. And they'll happily take your cash for it.
Not even sight unseen - they have WORKING MODELS on display (a lot of them!) for you to play with, too. You can feel them up and everything.
If you need an unlocked phone in a hurry, they may be the only option, though they can sell out. Though like I said, the choice can be limited.
In Canada, Best Buy also sells unlocked phones - they have a small "unlocked phone" section though it's mostly blackberries and Nexus S's.
The other place would be online with Google, in which case you can go to the store and see how the phone is. (I refuse to acknowledge Android compatible phones - there's only one current Android phone, and it's the Galaxy Nexus).
FYI - Galaxy Nexus also unlocked. Though it's a HUGE PITA to buy without contract since few stores are willing to sell you one. Best bet are those small AWS carriers that only do PAYG.
Well, that's easy for the carrier to tell - the IMEI reveals all - phone model and everything. Since the IMEI is required to connect, the carrier knows when you switched phones and what phone you're using. So hiding a smartphone is impossible from the carrier. And since data is where carriers make money ...
I think of those consoles as a dongle that lets you play the games. It's not like you don't know that you've got restrictions.
Besides, I got tired of buying a new video card every year just to keep up with the latest titles. I know for a fact that any console game will run on the console.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Ugh... Sick of all these knee-jerk "It's a terrible deal" articles from assholes that haven't done their research properly.
First of all, if you get your xbox this way, it's warrantied for the two years you're under contract, compared to one year for the usual retail package. The extra year's warranty retails for $50.
When you figure in the extended warranty, the price gap (using the author's Amazon sale prices) shrinks to about $25. If you use the usual retail price of things it actually works out to be $10 cheaper to take the subsidized deal.
Secondly, yes, if you get it on sale and can pay up front, it's cheaper in the long-run. Welcome to the world of finance, asshat. In the end, for everyone else, you're paying a premium of just over a $1.04 per month for the privilege of having the thing now, rather than later. Try getting anything even close to that on a credit card -- at even a relatively modest interest rate of 9%, credit works out to $422 over the course of 2 years.
Nearly every goddamn article and blog on this acts as if Microsoft if fleecing everyone, when in fact the terms are very reasonable, if not generous. Of course they're counting on re-couping the costs elsewhere (games, peripherals, continued growth of XBL), but so be it. The fact that they expect to expand their revenue in this way is not underhanded, allows them to offer a better deal than credit companies, and frankly, is a good business move.
If you have philosophical differences with entering into such contracts yourself, then fine, but that doesn't mean this offer isn't valuable for other folks.
You're claiming you've never heard of a cell phone plan?
No, I was making a figure of speech. With no-contract service becoming affordable, it has become practical to shop entirely from the prepaid rack.
There are many forms of entertainment that are arguably better for mental health and demonstrably less expensive than video gaming.
Your hand doesn't count.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
"A poor man can only afford low quality boots that are $10 and last for about a year. A rich man can afford good boots that cost $60 and will last him for a decade. In that decade, the poor man will have spent more money on boots, and will still have wet feet."
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
What are they?
The library is free.
Walking in parks is free.
Joining local clubs is often free.
Shooting hoops at a park is awful cheap, on an hourly basis.
If you have the ability to play video games you have a TV. Over the air TV is free.
Hanging out with friends can be free.
Learning to play the guitar is as cheap as a used guitar.
Jogging is cheap.
etc...
I was with you right up until this last one.
In most US cities...this just is not really a viable option. Too far (and dangerous) to ride a bike (not even considering the weather in the area)....and public transportation is just not a realistic way to actually to / from work in an orderly manner.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The Amish, like every other culture, have a variety of things to do to pass the time and stave off boredom. I believe that the parent was trying to say people need entertainment of some for good mental health. e.g. playing ball and stick for a few hours is more healthy than staring at a blank wall.
Just as a note the Amish tend to be reasonably wealthy: virtually no costs but produce extra to sell. Check out the stories on the news sometimes about extravagant Amish kids who are experiencing their year outside the community.
Besides, I got tired of buying a new video card every year just to keep up with the latest titles. I know for a fact that any console game will run on the console.
I'm pretty weary of that myth. Three years ago I built a computer with fairly reasonable specs, an ATI 4870 (was about $270) and a Core 2 Duo E6540 (about $150) and incidentals including memory, motherboard, etc all for about $800. To this date it's still running recent games just fine. The only people stuck in the upgrade rut are those that see running a game at anything other than max detail at 100fps as not being able to play the game, which is ridiculous.
Granted $800 is more than a $600 launch day PS3, but I can also use it for, well, everything I could need a computer for. I imagine someone with a lot more money could get even more ahead of the curve.
More Twoson than Cupertino
That sounds great, but what about people who have zero musical talent? I have played piano, bass, and guitar (none more than mediocre unfortunately) and can tell you that engaging in a hours long "jam session" with people who are not interested in playing musical instruments is about as fun to them as the video games are to you. Not everyone can, nor should play musical instruments. Keep handing a bunch of folks with little to no talent musical instruments and encouraging them to keep playing and soon you will have the next version of American Idol.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Well, you did buy a dell... and it was a laptop.
This is not the funny you're looking for.