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Xbox Live Gold increasing from $50/year to $60/year in the us
I wanted to let you know that as of November 1, 2010 we are increasing the price of an Xbox LIVE for some members. This price increase only affects Xbox LIVE Members in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom or the United States.
No new features announced. Is this because publishers are demanding a cut of Live money? Is it a response to Sony's new service? Is it to cover the cost of ESPN even though they said ESPN would be free? Or is MS just getting greedy? Either way shit move by MS.
Actually, speaking of the Bible, I just sent Xbox Live's Major Nelson an e-mail. The subject line was "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST." The message body read "n/t," because you don't really need any t to express why the subject line might say such a thing. What a terrible job his must be - to act as the community pinata for decisions made twenty floors above his head.
I'm certain Microsoft has a model which states that a slight percentage of people won't renew, just as they have a model which states that selling the Kinect at hundred and fifty dollars or selling it at one-thirty is a wash, but it's only a "wash" if you're prepared to call the volcanic hatred these decisions generate irrelevant, which is profoundly untrue.
It may be that as a communicator, I am obsessed with communication. It may be that I have a tendency to exaggerate its importance over other factors in the grand scheme, for example, wealth - but the timing on this is absolutely abysmal. Fresh from a show where the last weeping strains of hardcore enthusiasm for the Kinect were silenced, and you're thinking that, well, at least I have my old thing that I like, they engineer a Reverse Christmas Event against your friends list. It's like a ransom letter cobbled entirely out of drop caps from high finance publications, which reads "WE HAVE YOUR FRIENDS. THEY ARE SAFE. FOR NOW."
Either way, you'll be saving money via Amazon or other online retailers instead of auto-resubscribing every year under the new price.
You're missing the point - this is a terrible move, as it makes the PS3 that much more attractive.
I really doubt ten dollars a year more matters that much to your average person.
I'm sure that an estimation of the actual loss can be broken down mathematically (as can the profit change), but I have to say--by this time, I don't think there are that many people on the fence. Not as much as there were when the consoles were new. The status quo has been going on for years now. You've had a lot of time to make up your mind (and many people did).
Using myself as an example (anecdotal ahoy)--PSN, and the fact that it's free, doesn't offer nearly enough for me to stop buying Xbox multiplayer exclusives, buy multiplatform games, a headset, and drop Xbox Live entirely. Not even close.
I really want to say that if you were unhappy at the cost, you'd have "Switched camps" already. An extra $2 a month (or less if you buy a card), will say some people, but we're not talking armies. I think they would have already switched already, honestly.
If I find that LIVE in general is still worth it to me, then I'll pay the extra $10 a year. It really isn't that much of a price hike.
But the news is making me take a look at what I use LIVE for. I really only play Street Fighter online currently. One game. Is it worth it to me to pay $60 a year to play only a couple of games online (assuming I play other games online from time to time)? I have a PS3, what console will I be picking up my future purchases on?
This doesn't really change any decisions I'm going to make in the immediate future.
However, when the next round of consoles comes out it will make me wonder, "Will Microsoft raise the price again after I've committed to their console?"
I never really liked the fact that Microsoft charges for online play, this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.
I don't think there are any good, exclusive upcoming games for the 360 right now anyway, right?
I'd say Halo Reach and Gears 3 are pretty big exclusives. Considering Halo 3 is still one of the most played live games.
It, of course, depends on a person's interest. There aren't any incoming good, multiplayer PS3 exclusives that interest me personally at the moment. Definitely different from there not being any good multiplayer exclusives period.
Coincidentally, I have probably about (no exaggeration) 15 times as many Xbox Live friends as PSN friends. That's a consequence of that trend over time, which is self-reinforcing (I want to keep those friends because I enjoy playing with them).
Either way, you'll be saving money via Amazon or other online retailers instead of auto-resubscribing every year under the new price.
You're missing the point - this is a terrible move, as it makes the PS3 that much more attractive.
I really doubt ten dollars a year more matters that much to your average person.
Considering that I spend some two hundred dollars a month on my collective telecommunications assets (feel free to cringe because that's what I do), I really can't be bothered to check if ten dollars more a year for Live even registers as a blip on my Concern-o-Meter.
And I still find it amazing that people can still consider charging for Xbox Live a greedy maneuver. Servers cost money, people to run servers cost money, bandwidth costs money, maintainance costs money, and so on and so forth. Again, PC servers STILL COST MONEY. It just so happens that some other private party than yourself is generous enough to not only foot the bill but also allow you to play on the server they pay for. Sony's service costs money too, but they're still trying to recover from their horrible early attempts at selling the PS3 and thus won't dare to charge for the service yet. They'll just eat the costs until they can charge and then they'll charge too.
Honestly, I'm more annoyed at the fact that they aren't even bothering with so much as a half-assed explanation of why the price is increasing than the actual price increase itself. Makes me wonder if it IS something related to the ESPN shitfest they plan on introducing, since if it was just ordinary server costs and the like they could at least have thrown something in along the lines of "we've had to establish more servers and upgrade the current ones to handle the ever-increasing Gold memberase, so unfortunetily we've got to raise subscription rates to cover these costs".
Honestly, if they're gonna' change pricing and shit, I wanna' see them introduce a per-hour rate option or something like that: I got a big fuck-off 12-month card for about 35 bucks a few months back for Crackdown, but after tooling around with it for a bit I ain't touched the 360 for a solid month and honestly don't see me picking it up again for Live anytime soon, and it irks me to hell and back that I've got all this time available that I ain't gonna' use.
It is, of course, difficult to say how long a service like Xbox Live will continue (before it is replaced by something distinctively different in people's minds).
Doubly so for PSN, which is newer, after all. I don't think Sony will charge for PSN--they'll just avoid expensive things (like standardization of support and functions and voicechat, etc.) as they have. If they wanted to attach a fee, I think they'd have to drop it entirely and replace it with something else ("Sony Online" or something).
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited August 2010
I'm willing to bet 99% of people keep their subscription. You will hear bitching and moaning as they pay for the cards, and they will probably post on twitter and various message boards about how "this is the last straw" and "I'll be dropping Xbox Live now", you might even get to read the occasional blog post about how this is going to "DESTROY Microsoft and Sony will win the console war now!"
In the end we will pay it and we will forget it ever used to cost $50, just like with console games.
Maybe, just maybe they're increasing the price because it's remainded stable for nearly a decade.
Remind me, has the dollar retained the same value as it had last century?
Look, people still whine about the fact that PS3/360 games cost 60 bucks regardless of inflation or the fact that console games fifteen years ago could cost far more than that.
Logic simply does not enter into the equation here, only bitching about why we have to pay market-determined reasonable prices for anything game-related.
Honestly it doesn't sound bad at all when you realize it's you're just paying about 85 more cents a month. Buy one less candy bar a month and you're easily making up the difference!
Maybe, just maybe they're increasing the price because it's remainded stable for nearly a decade.
Remind me, has the dollar retained the same value as it had last century?
Since we don't know if the cost to maintain XBL over the years has been going up or down, there's no way to tell if the increase is warranted or if we're getting screwed.
Look at the price of video games. Been pretty stable since the 8-bit days. Lots of reasons for that. It's not as simple as inflation goes up -> price goes up.
It's a pretty safe guess that Canadians are going to get screwed on this. We already don't have access to some Live features, and we're already paying more for live than the exchange rate justifies. I wouldn't be shocked if the increase in Canada is more than $10.
TubularLuggage on
0
DietarySupplementStill not approved by the FDADublin, OHRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Companies like money. I assume they want more of it.
Here's something I'm wondering: I haven't touched Madden in, oh, about 5 years now, but: with the latest iteration, do you need a Gold account to play online? I thought I heard someone say that matchmaking and so-on is done through EA, and not Microsoft? If that's the case, aren't publishers like that the ones that ultimately suffer more than the subscribers? I mean, for the Live segment, anyhow, PSN/PC gaming crowd?
And if so, do you think this will dent CODBLOPS sales at all? Or is that too much of a juggernaut?
This doesn't really change any decisions I'm going to make in the immediate future.
However, when the next round of consoles comes out it will make me wonder, "Will Microsoft raise the price again after I've committed to their console?"
I'm in the same boat. As someone who doesn't play live too often, but vastly prefers the live experience over the PSN Network, I doubt I'll cancel or anything. More likely, I'll just take advantage of online card sales and the like.
Posts
But yeah, it sucks if no new features follows this change.
That's what I do.
I'd be more annoyed if it weren't for that, and the fact that the price of a basic cable/ISP package (where I live) has doubled in the same time.
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You're missing the point - this is a terrible move, as it makes the PS3 that much more attractive.
I really doubt ten dollars a year more matters that much to your average person.
Not sure where I gave an opinion or referred to anything regarding the PS3 in my post, but ok. I guess I missed the point somehow.
An additional 10 bucks per year is nothing compared to pretty much anything else that is raising in price.
People would still gladly pay.
Games? Online? With Friends? Also have other devices that do that just fine without having to pay for things I don't need first.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
I don't think there are any good, exclusive upcoming games for the 360 right now anyway, right?
I'm sure that an estimation of the actual loss can be broken down mathematically (as can the profit change), but I have to say--by this time, I don't think there are that many people on the fence. Not as much as there were when the consoles were new. The status quo has been going on for years now. You've had a lot of time to make up your mind (and many people did).
Using myself as an example (anecdotal ahoy)--PSN, and the fact that it's free, doesn't offer nearly enough for me to stop buying Xbox multiplayer exclusives, buy multiplatform games, a headset, and drop Xbox Live entirely. Not even close.
I really want to say that if you were unhappy at the cost, you'd have "Switched camps" already. An extra $2 a month (or less if you buy a card), will say some people, but we're not talking armies. I think they would have already switched already, honestly.
But the news is making me take a look at what I use LIVE for. I really only play Street Fighter online currently. One game. Is it worth it to me to pay $60 a year to play only a couple of games online (assuming I play other games online from time to time)? I have a PS3, what console will I be picking up my future purchases on?
I'd say Halo Reach and Gears 3 are pretty big exclusives. Considering Halo 3 is still one of the most played live games.
However, when the next round of consoles comes out it will make me wonder, "Will Microsoft raise the price again after I've committed to their console?"
True, personally I've never cared much for either franchise unfortunately.
It, of course, depends on a person's interest. There aren't any incoming good, multiplayer PS3 exclusives that interest me personally at the moment. Definitely different from there not being any good multiplayer exclusives period.
Coincidentally, I have probably about (no exaggeration) 15 times as many Xbox Live friends as PSN friends. That's a consequence of that trend over time, which is self-reinforcing (I want to keep those friends because I enjoy playing with them).
Fixed.
Also... my auto-renew hits on October 31st... how convenient is THAT?
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Considering that I spend some two hundred dollars a month on my collective telecommunications assets (feel free to cringe because that's what I do), I really can't be bothered to check if ten dollars more a year for Live even registers as a blip on my Concern-o-Meter.
And I still find it amazing that people can still consider charging for Xbox Live a greedy maneuver. Servers cost money, people to run servers cost money, bandwidth costs money, maintainance costs money, and so on and so forth. Again, PC servers STILL COST MONEY. It just so happens that some other private party than yourself is generous enough to not only foot the bill but also allow you to play on the server they pay for. Sony's service costs money too, but they're still trying to recover from their horrible early attempts at selling the PS3 and thus won't dare to charge for the service yet. They'll just eat the costs until they can charge and then they'll charge too.
Honestly, if they're gonna' change pricing and shit, I wanna' see them introduce a per-hour rate option or something like that: I got a big fuck-off 12-month card for about 35 bucks a few months back for Crackdown, but after tooling around with it for a bit I ain't touched the 360 for a solid month and honestly don't see me picking it up again for Live anytime soon, and it irks me to hell and back that I've got all this time available that I ain't gonna' use.
Doubly so for PSN, which is newer, after all. I don't think Sony will charge for PSN--they'll just avoid expensive things (like standardization of support and functions and voicechat, etc.) as they have. If they wanted to attach a fee, I think they'd have to drop it entirely and replace it with something else ("Sony Online" or something).
Just speculating, of course.
Remind me, has the dollar retained the same value as it had last century?
In the end we will pay it and we will forget it ever used to cost $50, just like with console games.
It's called Telecom Price Gouging.
Look, people still whine about the fact that PS3/360 games cost 60 bucks regardless of inflation or the fact that console games fifteen years ago could cost far more than that.
Logic simply does not enter into the equation here, only bitching about why we have to pay market-determined reasonable prices for anything game-related.
I'm fine with chalking it up to inflation.
Since we don't know if the cost to maintain XBL over the years has been going up or down, there's no way to tell if the increase is warranted or if we're getting screwed.
Look at the price of video games. Been pretty stable since the 8-bit days. Lots of reasons for that. It's not as simple as inflation goes up -> price goes up.
/never mind me, I suck at economics.
Here's something I'm wondering: I haven't touched Madden in, oh, about 5 years now, but: with the latest iteration, do you need a Gold account to play online? I thought I heard someone say that matchmaking and so-on is done through EA, and not Microsoft? If that's the case, aren't publishers like that the ones that ultimately suffer more than the subscribers? I mean, for the Live segment, anyhow, PSN/PC gaming crowd?
And if so, do you think this will dent CODBLOPS sales at all? Or is that too much of a juggernaut?
I'm in the same boat. As someone who doesn't play live too often, but vastly prefers the live experience over the PSN Network, I doubt I'll cancel or anything. More likely, I'll just take advantage of online card sales and the like.