M$ raising the price of Xbox Live....

[kool kitty89]

The new price is not a deal breaker. Modern XBL hosts full games to download, and streaming movies and videos. It's easily justifiable, they need to maintain the infrastructure & want to make money doing it.

Isn't there some content that's available on the free portion of XBL? (especially downloadable games and other pay content on the XBL marketplace)
I remember Melf mentioning that a while back.



But otoh, that's all true for stuff like Steam too... and then there's various legal streaming video services available on other platforms. (some free -other than commercials- and others very affordable like Netflix -which has no download limit afik)

[snume]

And to clarify, the yearly price is only going up in the States and Mexico. The monthly is going up in US, Canada and UK and the 3 month is going up in the US only.

So if you pay yearly in Canada and UK you are unaffected ... for now.

[GeckoYamori]

People are going to whine, then they'll pay for it anyway and eventually get used to it. That's this generation in a nutshell, the value of what we're paying for is constantly being lowered. Publishers constantly try and see just how much they'll get away with, and consumers evidently love letting themselves be milked for every penny.

I think the entire concept of paying for XBL on top of paying for an ISP just to be able to play online is absurd.

[Xeniczone]

Doesn't Microsoft have to take in money from hosting servers? Compared to WarHawk (PS3), and PC games where users are allowed to host their own servers.

I agree though. A lot of this stuff is useless BS. Giving them an excuse to charge for Online. All that is needed is live chat, gameplay, and maybe a friends list.

[Leathco]

PS3 doesn't charge for access to Sonys network...

[Knuckle Duster]

People are going to whine, then they'll pay for it anyway and eventually get used to it. That's this generation in a nutshell, the value of what we're paying for is constantly being lowered. Publishers constantly try and see just how much they'll get away with, and consumers evidently love letting themselves be milked for every penny.

The value of the service 'is what it is', but people complaining about it not being an alternative model that has no sustainability for growth isn't worth the effort of arguing. It's usually lacking a basic economic understanding of the current market in it's foundation.

I think the entire concept of paying for XBL on top of paying for an ISP just to be able to play online is absurd.

How is it absurd though? There's no incentive to give dedicated servers away to the public. There's no reason to do it. If they did do it, they wouldn't be any better or worse off. There would just be no Xbox Live service... How is that any better?

All the people complaining about it costing anything just want something for nothing, either because they don't understand it, don't value it, or because they believe Sony's 'doing better' by loosely front ending a fleet of developers on the PS3 and bleeding the money for it's upkeep themselves.

[Da_Shocker]

Why doesn't M$ sale out advertisements instead of charging people. I'm sure gamers would rather be bombarded with advertisements rather than paying all this damn money. I mean if you wanted to get rid of all the advertisements just pay M$ the fee then. But anyways i'm jsut sayin....

[Guntz]

Except Xbox Live already has advertisements. How is Live any different from cable/satellite TV? Most of the older demographic has been paying for TV for decades and commercials have been a staple of the service for all those years.

[Elusive]

Why doesn't EVIL CORPORATION i am too thick to come up with something clever or funny sale out advertisements instead of charging people. I'm sure gamers would rather be bombarded with advertisements rather than paying all this damn money. I mean if you wanted to get rid of all the advertisements just pay EVIL CORPORATION i am too thick to come up with something clever or funny the fee then. But anyways i'm jsut sayin....

They do run advertisements; pieces the exact same size as the rest of the Xbox dashboard's contents, in their own little row, that you are free to view at your leisure or even skip over completely. As Guntz pointed out, though, practically everything else ever that you pay for has ads (TV, magazines, even food usually has 'Have you tried...' bits on the back).

That said, I'm loving the rage on Major Nelson's blog. I'll bet he's shaking in his boots at the twelve-year-olds SCREAMING IN CAPS threatening to sell their xbox (when they probably don't pay for live in the first place).

[edit] I'd be more than happy to suck up the whole extra £1 per month for another Live-based gameshow like 1vs100. I enjoyed that!

[runback22]

At the very least, they need to tier the service.....all i do on live is play games....everything else they offer is done better on other equipment i own......

Knuckle Duster, you talk a good game....you should be a PR person with all the crap you spill out

[doomguy]

Got me thinking i have saved a fair bit when i stopped online play on my xbox and stuck to Playstation Network a few years ago, a new game or two at least.

[Da_Shocker]

EVIL CORPORATION i am too thick to come up with something clever or funny

Was all of that really necessary? M$ or $ony who gives a damn?

[InfraMan]

<RANT>

They should really pass a law decreeing that anyone caught using a dollar sign in place of an 'S' when typing MS will be taken into a dark room and slapped about the face with a wet hamster.

What is the signifigance of the '$' anyway? Does it imply that Microsoft as a company is out to make some sort of profit from its endeavors? That they should instead learn to subsist on rainbows, wishes, and unicorn farts like all of the other companies in the world?

I say "feh" to the whole thing. Feh.

</RANT>

[Guntz]

The dollar sign designates greed for cash, if you didn't know InfraMan...

[Da_Shocker]

It's not like M$ is hurting for money. Shit they still sale XP (9year old OS) for 99.99.