A analyst recently said that he could see Microsoft raising the price of an XBL gold subscription from $50 to $100. When posed with the question of a subs increase, a Microsoft spokesman didn't exactly put the community's mind at rest.
"I don't foresee a scenario where we're going to double the price of Live anytime in the next couple months," he told PC World.
So in theory then, the price of a year-long subscription to Xbox Live with full access to demos and multiplayer could go up by March or April next year?
If Microsoft was to double the price of XBL then, would Sony have to follow suit and start charging for certain PSN privileges like online multiplayer? Would you be prepared to pay for something that used to be free?
First: No, I am not prepared to pay for online multiplayer. It's nice to have but I don't use it enough to justify a Ł40 price tag.
Second: Raising the price of XBL would be the stupidest move that MS could make imo, the PS3 & 360 are similarly prices as it is, why give people more of a reason to buy your competitor's product?
Although that said, it does sound suspiciously like the 80's where the government said 'We will not sell off our national industries for at least five years'. We all know what happened there...
If Microsoft was to double the price of XBL then, would Sony have to follow suit and start charging for certain PSN privileges like online multiplayer?
Eh why? The only thing a live price increase would do is for MS to lose customers. If this happens, which I doubt it will, say goodbye to Live for me
If they were to raise the price of Live, they'd have to provide me with something more than is on offer at the moment.
Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm are nice touches, but they're of absolutely no interest to me whatsoever - I'd need to something truly concrete, something that relates to gaming, to re-subscribe at a higher price.
I honestly don't think they would though, it would be incredibly foolish.
If they do raise the price, they truly are stupid. For me, its not worth the money anyway. Having to pay to play online with a bunch of wan*ers is daft as it is. I also think needing Gold to speak in party chat is also stupid.
Another quiet news day, CVG? Trying to milk some more copy out of your non-story?
That idiot analyst Pachter doesn't know his bottom from his elbow (it's AN analyst, by the way, not "a". And all you have now is a low-ranking Press Office Microsoft nobody saying exactly what anyone would expect him to say. He can't rule anything out because it's not his call.
Another load of old b******s CVG my my you do deal in it alot these days , As for the thread i very much doubt they will hike the price up not with P.S.N very slowly catching up.
there needs to be another tier to xbox live. I'd happily pay for the early access to demos, facebook, sky and all the dashboard based content minus the online gameplay.
Either way, the current price is still too much. every time i consider it, i just think "hang on, i could buy a game for the same money" and that's what i end up doing. maybe if it included a free movie every month, or some Microsoft points then id go for it.
there needs to be another tier to xbox live. I'd happily pay for the early access to demos, facebook, sky and all the dashboard based content minus the online gameplay.
Either way, the current price is still too much. every time i consider it, i just think "hang on, i could buy a game for the same money" and that's what i end up doing. maybe if it included a free movie every month, or some Microsoft points then id go for it.
That's exactly what I was thinking - perhaps they could make certain things free for Gold members?...maybe some Avatar items, the odd arcade game?
I'd need these sort of things to convince me. I wont use things that I can access on a PC on my 360 - so, I see no benefit in things like Facebook and Last.fm (although, I have zero interest in social networking sites on the PC).
Off topic, but that Avatar on the left looking up just under the plush Big Daddy toy looks just like Bono!
It does seem like the videogame industry is on a mission to p**s off it's customers as much as possible lately. Will this be the next one? *shrugs* I dunno. I'll believe it when I see it.
It does seem like the videogame industry is on a mission to p**s off it's customers as much as possible lately. Will this be the next one? *shrugs* I dunno. I'll believe it when I see it.
They're running a business, I guess it makes sense for them to push their luck as much as they can for the profits (and the lulz).
The problem is people will keep paying for it. I'm as guilty as anyone though - I'd love to say that if the Live price goes up I'll cancel my subscription, but then I'd lose out on so much content the only one I'd really be doing over would be myself.
If Sony doesn't start charging, MS may need to rethink their strategy. I know Sony has some ground to cover in terms of the full Live experience, but it's up and improving all the time. If Sony does start charging, unfortunately the sky will be the limit.
At Ł40 a year, I don't mind paying for the service, just. Ł3.33 a month isn't too bad for a service as good as XBL, and when I look at PSN I am quite happy to stump up a little to get a superior service.
However, if Microsoft raised the price, or PSN got better, it would be hard to justify. In fact, not coming out and vehemently denying such a plan could be just as damaging as actually hiking the price.
Microsoft, I love my Xbox. I love Xbox Live. But don't lose sight of the fact that not only did you give us a console that was faulty (I'm lucky to have only had one RROD), but we pay you for a service other consoles provide for free. It goes without saying XBL is the best network, that is what Microsoft do after all, but with PS3 slowly catching up to the rest of the pack, it strikes me as a dangerous game, especially in the current financial climate, to even consider raising prices.
And that my friends, is why it is mostly likely rubbish.
I'm not paying for Gold now, and I still won't pay if they double the price. So it doesn't really affect me.
40GBP a year just to get demos a week early and use Facebook on your Xbox? No thank you! And no, I'm not playing any Live deathmatch capture-flag games with ADHD kids. Not my idea of fun.
I think MS would be making a HUGE mistake by raising the price of XBL, Sony is fast closing the gap and one of its big selling points is free online gaming. To raise the price of XBL would only highlight that selling point of the PS3 even more. Already many people belive that one of the reasons MS don't have a Blu-Ray drive as an accessory is becuase it would highlight the fact PS3 has one built in, and might show the 360 to be an inferor product. Raising the price even by Ł10 - Ł20 a year would see people stopping their live accounts and maybe move to either Sony or Nintendo (more chance of Sony though) becuase they might feel they are being stung by MS.
Im sure Sony will keep the PSN free however has they use this fact in their marketing and changing just as they are on the up would be maddness.
Ł40 is already pushing it now that the PSN is gradually improving and is FREE. Any sort of increase would result in a cancelation of my subscription. If anything, they need to be reducing the price, not increasing it.
A price hike might be a good thing. It'll sort the wheat from the chaff.
That sounds disconcertingly similar to the old PS3 argument, that it was "reassuringly expensive blah blah blah". We all know how that played out eventually though.
A price hike might be a good thing. It'll sort the wheat from the chaff.
That sounds disconcertingly similar to the old PS3 argument, that it was "reassuringly expensive blah blah blah". We all know how that played out eventually though.
Nah, it's a different argument. The PS3 one was meant to instill some confidence in the hardware. What I'm saying is you outprice the scum and children out of XBL
It does seem like the videogame industry is on a mission to p**s off it's customers as much as possible lately. Will this be the next one? *shrugs* I dunno. I'll believe it when I see it.
They're running a business, I guess it makes sense for them to push their luck as much as they can for the profits (and the lulz).
The problem is people will keep paying for it. I'm as guilty as anyone though - I'd love to say that if the Live price goes up I'll cancel my subscription, but then I'd lose out on so much content the only one I'd really be doing over would be myself.
If Sony doesn't start charging, MS may need to rethink their strategy. I know Sony has some ground to cover in terms of the full Live experience, but it's up and improving all the time. If Sony does start charging, unfortunately the sky will be the limit.
Catch 22. If you continue paying - presuming there is a price hike and that you are content with the current pricing - then you are also doing yourself over. By getting out of the vicious cycle you do stand to benefit though, as the money spent will suddenly remain at your disposal for other ventures. The content that is downloaded or accessed may very well not provide a similar return. This equation does change a bit though when we factor in the "fun" value as it can be a tricky factor to nail down value-wise.
A price hike might be a good thing. It'll sort the wheat from the chaff.
That sounds disconcertingly similar to the old PS3 argument, that it was "reassuringly expensive blah blah blah". We all know how that played out eventually though.
Nah, it's a different argument. The PS3 one was meant to instill some confidence in the hardware. What I'm saying is you outprice the scum and children out of XBL
If only. Since some kiddies have parents that are seemingly generous to a fault, I wouldn't hold my breath....Then again, many of us do develop over the course of time and - I like to think - become more mature and reasonable from time to time, so maybe we shouldn't write them all completely off yet. That doesn't necessarily have to mean that we play on the same servers with them though.
right i got 2 subs to renew by March, my kids at xmas, and mine in new year not March with cards off gameplay for Ł32.99 a shot..if they hike the price to double, they will deffo lose me after this years renewal, so 2011 I will not pay for it at Ł100, XBL is far superior to PSN all the way, but it has over 15 million subs already! And its mainly P2P!
PSN on the other hand, (I have both PS3 & X360)is slowly catching up but still no party chat, in game chat is really taking off and working in games but party chat no..still using old skool texting gah! but I am sure it will be change over the next year...then I will be dumping x360's!
Nah, it's a different argument. The PS3 one was meant to instill some confidence in the hardware. What I'm saying is you outprice the scum and children out of XBL
Well, I still think its BS paying for it anyway. The fact that I got thrown off GTA 4 for actually doing what you're supposed to do: kill people!! is just f**king annoying. I'm sorry, but its not my fault I'm better than everyone else. I guess it was getting boring killing them all so easily as it gets boring but that's not the point. I don't want to pay for that sort of s**t...
And I'd like to add that I don't cheat or glitch in games like most pri*ks do on Live. The simple fact was that idiots couldn't handle losing at the game and had me kicked off, right after they did the same to someone else. Free mode is for everyone to play and you can't loads of t**s wanting to kick you off for simply being killed. So its OK for them to kill others but you can't touch them? F**k off!
I've had it in other games too. There are way too many sore losers on Live and this is partly why I wouldn't be renewing my sub when it expires and am selling my 360
I'll happily pay $50 and have since I was in the Beta but $50 is it. ANY more and I'll just drop LIVE and won't bother buying the next Xbox.
I think if MS did for some INSANE reason double the price the best thing Sony could do would be nothing. Leave it free and they'd get my business and I'm a 360 fanboy but $100 for LIVE is just not worth it.
i think they should lower the price tbh, its not worth the money we pay now. let us make our own choices what we want on our dashboards, i for one dont want avatars, twitter,facebook and sky. bunch of greedy c**nts
I refuse to pay for online multiplayer. I play multiplayer games on the pc for free, I used to get online multiplayer on my wii for free and if I got a PS3 I'd have online multiplayer for free.
Why should I pay microsoft to play a game I've bought on a console I've bought over a connection I already pay for? f**kdats**t.
@short article/paragraph... I don't think a price increase for demos.. I don't think that is a justified reason for raising prices. The whole point of the demo is to try and sale a product.
Also, I have a gold account for xboxlive but I don't use it, hardly at all to begin with. But it is nice to have the option of multiplayer, etc.. when I want.
If the price were to double.. Even for a years worth of service, it wouldn't make sense to me to get it.. Well it would make me think harder about renewing my subscription. Lets put it that way.
As a xbox owner who has had one since lauch, Live is far far ahead of PS network, in fact id PS online is utter muck and home is the greatest waste of money.
But i recently bought a PS3 slim there is no way ill spend anymore than 40 euro from ebay for live, unless i get alot for that sub, free games movies etc.
The suits are clearly looking at WOW subs etc. and id say dont even understand their own product.
The masses of stupid sheep that pay to play online with MS will just be getting what they've asked for if the price is doubled.
It's a captive market that MS can exploit as it see's fit.
Personally I don't agree with a subscription to play online even though I've had a 360 since 3/2006. Payed to play online once and could not see a benefit. I now also have a 60gb(Ł35 250gb upgraded) PS3 and buy games with online options on PS3 whenever possible.
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