XBL Gold yearly sub goes up $10, MS uses Major Nelson as their whipping boy

[JoPh]

jsut in time for halo reach and black ops. perfect.

 

[AsianriceX]

the only prob with getting it directly from MS is that they store your cc number, and it auto-renews when the year is up, and from what i've heard, it is a HUGE fucking hassle to get your cc number unlinked with your live account.

It sure was.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=163894

I wonder if Microsoft will make it easier now that they may have a higher number of people calling in to modify or cancel their subscriptions/auto-renewals.

 

[KentState]

Had an email from MS about locking in at $49 for next year and it appears that Amazon sold out of the 12 month subscription since yesterday so now it's $45 + shipping through a third part seller.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month...3253383&sr=8-1

I looked up the same product yesterday while readying this thread and it was $35.99 plus super saver.

 

[Golgatha]

It will be funny when Microsoft gets everyone to resubscribe for 2 or 3 years due to the pending price increase, then calls it off because they are "listening" to their customers (because, surprise!, nobody wants to pay more for anything). Then they'll launch the next XBOX and everybody will buy it because they are already subscribed to Live for a couple more years. BRILLIANT!!

Something tells me this might actually be their plan. If they add Blu-ray support and better media center codec support, I'd be highly likely to continue on with them and dump Sony totally.

 

[Onita]

And netflix, which is a big deal to many.

Netflix is pretty much the only reason I use live. I won't reup unless I can find another $30 deal. I have a PS3 for netflix if needed.

 

[gorcorps]

Netflix is pretty much the only reason I use live. I won't reup unless I can find another $30 deal. I have a PS3 for netflix if needed.

And it's already been announced that PS3 will get netflix access without the current need for a disk fairly soon. Unless it's happened already... I don't really pay attention.

 

[Staples]

I am not so mad about the price increase, just they way they justified it. And I agree, Major Nelson is the whipping boy. I doubt more than 1% of people use Facebook or Twitter on their consoles. The interface sucks. If they want to add something that would be useful, lets connect XBL with PC more. I used to play with some friends but now they don't play and I have no way of contacting them. I'd like to be able to send an email to them (with my PC, the interface for typing on consoles will suck, no matter what they do).

 

[Onita]

And it's already been announced that PS3 will get netflix access without the current need for a disk fairly soon. Unless it's happened already... I don't really pay attention.

Not yet, afaik. I still think $60.00 is a decent deal for those who game online often, just not for me. Their reasons should have been left alone though.

 

[fbrdphreak]

This might push me over to the dark side - aka PS3. Forza 3 is fun, but GT5 sounds like it is a lot more extensible and I *really* do want to play it. All of my other games can be had on PS3, Netflix is there, and with some movies I actually want on Blu-ray finally coming out...it might be the perfect storm.

 

[JackBurton]

This might push me over to the dark side - aka PS3. Forza 3 is fun, but GT5 sounds like it is a lot more extensible and I *really* do want to play it. All of my other games can be had on PS3, Netflix is there, and with some movies I actually want on Blu-ray finally coming out...it might be the perfect storm.

Unfortunately the PS3 sucks balls when you want to play with friends. Fucking awful experience compared to XBL.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I guess I am one of the few people that does not share the perspective necessary for outrage over the price hike. It is $10 a year, not something you have to sacrifice your lifestyle over.

Or is it just a matter of principle? If it is, I can understand it then. Because in the end, we all have the power to influence companies, by voting with our wallets.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Unfortunately the PS3 sucks balls when you want to play with friends. Fucking awful experience compared to XBL.

I guess as I have never had an xbox I don't get this. I find it very easy to play games with friends on PSN on my PS3.

 

[Onita]

I guess I am one of the few people that does not share the perspective necessary for outrage over the price hike. It is $10 a year, not something you have to sacrifice your lifestyle over.

Or is it just a matter of principle? If it is, I can understand it then. Because in the end, we all have the power to influence companies, by voting with our wallets.

I don't see too much outrage over it. The people who aren't happy mostly seem to be people who rarely use it, or use it mainly for streaming. The reasoning is the other major complaint, which I think is understandable.

 

[blurredvision]

I guess I am one of the few people that does not share the perspective necessary for outrage over the price hike. It is $10 a year, not something you have to sacrifice your lifestyle over.

Or is it just a matter of principle? If it is, I can understand it then. Because in the end, we all have the power to influence companies, by voting with our wallets.

I'm not "outraged", I just don't see the point in the increase other than being greedy. They've said in the past that they've started turning profit on the XBOX business mainly because of the success of Live Gold. From a customer's standpoint, which I admit isn't worth much, there doesn't appear to be anything present worth asking that customer to pay more for. Games are peer-to-peer and most "extra" content is served from another company who most likely isn't receiving money from Microsoft.

They can ask whatever they want, it's just going to get to a point where people will wonder if it's even worth it. To think that the PS4 is not going to have an online system very much similar to Live is foolhardy, so then hopefully we'll see price competition come into play.

It's weird how Sony began this generation as the internet whipping boy, with high prices and overall cockiness on their part. Now Sony has wised up, shut up, starting putting out good games, lowered prices, improved their network, and did what they needed to do to appeal to gamers once again. Now it seems like Microsoft is getting cocky, charging more for Live for no gain, bringing out $65 controllers, having $100 wireless adapters and $200 hard drives in the past, wanting almost as much as the console for Kinect, being completely closed with their system, etc.

Microsoft is losing a LOT of their luster with me. I'm one of those gamers who likes to own all systems, but they still have a "main" system, and for me, that's been the 360 (even though I don't play much anymore since taking up WoW). Microsoft is on shaky ground with me now, though, because you know they will think they own the hardcore market with their next console, and I bet they will want to charge you well for the privilege of owning it.

 

[Staples]

I find it funny that companies need a reason to justify their price increases. Greed is a word I hear thrown around and I find it ridiculous. Business means greed. Charity is the opposite of greedy entities. They are polar opposites.

MS thinks they can make more money by charging everyone $60 a year. Yes they will lose a few customers but they think in the long run, they will make more from the remaining to account for their lost customer base. All companies who sell stuff do this exact same economic review.

 

[blurredvision]

I find it funny that companies need a reason to justify their price increases. Greed is a word I hear thrown around and I find it ridiculous. Business means greed. Charity is the opposite of greedy entities. They are polar opposites.

I'm not stupid, I know businesses exist solely for money. But greed is greed. If they think their service is undervalued, that's fine. I'm not trying to wage war against Microsoft. But it's somewhat a slap in the face to raise the price after recent articles such as this one:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28220/Xbox_360_Division_Pushes_165_Million_Profit_For_MS_Q3.php

It's somewhat unfortunate that console games are becoming more and more like instruments for generating as much cash as possible. If people want to pay it, that's fine. But we see $60 games that are basically designed to be played around a now $60/year a service that needs a couple of $10-$15 DLC packages to stay current with everyone else online. A single year passes, and you literally start all over again if you want to stay current. It won't be much longer until games either move up in price towards $70 or start charging their own monthly sub (hello Activision). That will be in addition to yearly fees and DLC. Where does it stop?

I've obviously gone WAY off topic. I just hate to see console gaming going the way it's going. An extra $10/year for Live is just another cash grab and it gets old after a while.

 

[SunnyD]

imho even $40 was too much given that anything worth a damn on XBL costs even more money on top of XBL.

 

[American Gunner]

It sucks to pay for stuff that I should get for free or cheaper, but if I want to play online I have to pay it. Now if I owned a PS3 I would be more inclined to drop it, but let's be honest, if you aren't going to play Xbox online, then what is the point of owning one if you have a PS3. All the big exclusives on Xbox have big online parts in their games, so if you aren't going to pay for gold and have a PS3, just use that and get rid of the 360. Now that I have rambled, let me just say that if I would have kept my PS3 and had more friends on it, I would probably drop gold and go from there.

 

[gar655]

The only reason I bought the Gold was for Netflix, but I prefer to watch Netflix on my main TV (50") through my Wii. PQ is nearly as good (my ISP is too slow for the really good quality HD stuff), the Wii starts up faster, loads Netflix faster, the Netflix browser is better and the Wiimote works better.

So pretty much everything is better with Netflix on the Wii (except for a slight difference in PQ) and it's FREE.

Oh and when the PQ changes do to a sucky ISP on the Wii it happens seemlessly, on the Xbox it pauses, goes to the "we're changing your PQ" screen and then rebuffers.

Netflix on the 360 pretty much sucks if you don't have a huge pipe- Oh and the Wii had built in Wifi. Not going to buy a new 360 for that.

Pretty much the same story with the PS3 in the Bedroom using Netflix. And I've just recently discovered the awesomeness of "Infamous". Wow! What a great game.

Xbox exclusives? Other than Gears and Forza and Crackdown 1 there's not much out there.

I'll be keeping my 360 for sure but I won't be paying for Xbox live.

 

[Terzo]

imho even $40 was too much given that anything worth a damn on XBL costs even more money on top of XBL.

I don't have a 360 but I can understand that sentiment. Hulu subscription sounds like a good addition to Netflix, but why should I have to pay for the privilege (psn+) to pay for hulu?

 

[American Gunner]

The only reason I bought the Gold was for Netflix, but I prefer to watch Netflix on my main TV (50") through my Wii. PQ is nearly as good (my ISP is too slow for the really good quality HD stuff), the Wii starts up faster, loads Netflix faster, the Netflix browser is better and the Wiimote works better.

So pretty much everything is better with Netflix on the Wii (except for a slight difference in PQ) and it's FREE.

Oh and when the PQ changes do to a sucky ISP on the Wii it happens seemlessly, on the Xbox it pauses, goes to the "we're changing your PQ" screen and then rebuffers.

Netflix on the 360 pretty much sucks if you don't have a huge pipe- Oh and the Wii had built in Wifi. Not going to buy a new 360 for that.

Pretty much the same story with the PS3 in the Bedroom using Netflix. And I've just recently discovered the awesomeness of "Infamous". Wow! What a great game.

Xbox exclusives? Other than Gears and Forza and Crackdown 1 there's not much out there.

I'll be keeping my 360 for sure but I won't be paying for Xbox live.

Halo, Fable, and Splinter Cell are pretty good.

 

[Terzo]

Halo, Fable, and Splinter Cell are pretty good.

I'll give you Halo as an exclusive, but Splinter Cell has always been available on other platforms; even Conviction is available on PC. Fable 2 is the only out of that group that is 360 exclusive. The first is available on PC while the third will come out on PC.
While Halo 1 and 2 were released on PC, I've heard that the quality left a lot to be desired. Besides, the rest of that series has remained on xbox only.

 

[purbeast0]

heh that is funny how somebody above made the point that the only people who are pissed about the price going up are those who hardly even use live anyways.

 

[Terzo]

heh that is funny how somebody above made the point that the only people who are pissed about the price going up are those who hardly even use live anyways.

Makes sense. For someone who uses a lot of the services the $10 hike may not be a lot, especially if you'll use the new features. For someone who only has a subscription to use netflix, the price hike is less justifiable.

 

[bucwylde23]

Hmm, XBL Gold on Dell.com for 30 bucks with free shipping if you buy 2. It says temporarily out of stock but I bought 2. If I get these in time I'll use these instead of the auto-renew with MS's discounted price.