Price increase for Xbox Live Gold

Brian Ambrozy 30 Aug, 2010 at 1:03pm ET Article published in Gaming

Today Major Nelson announced that as of November 1st, 2010, the price of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions is being raised. New pricing will be as follows:

1M Gold: $9.99
3M Gold: $24.99
12M Gold: $59.99

The gaming web is alive with arguments right now, with fans stating that the price increase is only $.83 a month for annual subscribers and is no big deal, and detractors fervently using the $ as a replacement for the letter “S” in droves.

For those not familiar, Xbox Live Gold gets you access to premium services such as Netflix, multiplayer gaming, access to Twitter and Facebook, and party chats.

Comments

30 Aug 2010 ~ 1:04pm primesuspect If the ONLY reason I have Gold is Netflix, it's time to switch to PS3 for it.
30 Aug 2010 ~ 1:28pm mertesn Can't argue with you there. Hopefully they're planning some new secret features to justify the price increase. I'd be upset if I were using Live Gold.
30 Aug 2010 ~ 2:21pm GnomeQueen Good thing I bought Live last week!
30 Aug 2010 ~ 8:20pm ardichoke Man... PS3 keeps adding reasons for me to buy it while Xbox keeps racking up reasons NOT to.
30 Aug 2010 ~ 8:38pm NiGHTS I've yet to meet someone that has spent even $50 on a membership, personally. There's almost always a deal running on it - both times I've gotten 12+1 for ~$35.
30 Aug 2010 ~ 8:42pm Thrax Meh. Not a big deal, really.
30 Aug 2010 ~ 11:59pm CB

NiGHTS wrote:

I've yet to meet someone that has spent even $50 on a membership, personally. There's almost always a deal running on it - both times I've gotten 12+1 for ~$35.

While I've certainly met people who pay full price for LIVE, I'm not one of them. I wonder what the price increase will be for those of us who only buy our year cards when they go on sale.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 6:12am Snarkasm

MS wrote:

And we aren't even close to being done. This holiday, Xbox LIVE is adding new Gold features, including ESPN and Video Kinect, with Hulu Plus coming on Xbox LIVE in 2011.

So yeah, they're adding new services. It's $10 a year more - less than a dollar a month. Like 3 cents a day. If it was worth it for you at $50 a year - which was more like $35/40 a year - I can't imagine how it wouldn't be worth it for you at $60 a year, which will likely end up more like $45/50 a year.

I can certainly see the people who wish Netflix was its own separate thing - it is probably absurd to pay up to $60 for a year of watching Netflix if you have another machine (or 3) that could play the content. But if you used the gaming service, used the external service integration, etc, this $10 difference shouldn't really affect much at the end of the day.

And no, XBL and PSN are not really comparable. Yes, PSN lets you play games with your friends for free, but in my experience (both in the US and here in Europe), PSN is a vastly inferior service in quality and community (speaking to number of users, not quality of the userbase - they're pretty much a tossup). Existing subscribers can get an extra year for $40 direct from MS now before the price goes up, too.

Tempest in a teacup, really. If you're going to balk over a $10/year raise, you should have been questioning well before now if you were getting your $50/year out of it. If you're not, it's cool. No reason for the internet to get up in arms over it, though.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 7:24am bjbroderick Here's why some of us are up in arms. 10 bucks a year increase. Not that much. Except I have 4 memberships in my house. Now it's 40 bucks a year more. None of us use any of the "value adds" that "justify" the price.

Facebook on Xbox - Crap. No video, no apps, why would you go to it on Xbox?
Twitter on Xbox - Crap. Cant follow links, cant re-tweet.
LastFM on Xbox - Crap. The app itself is ok, but cant listen and play games at the same time.
Netflix on Xbox - Not total Crap. But it's behind a (second) paywall. I have other boxes hooked to the tv

Some yahoo also said, "What about Deal of the Week?" What about it? I have to pay for you to allow me to buy something? Uh?

And multiplayer. This I would pay for. Ironically, this is the free bit on PSN. And if you buy used games, you will be paying again for that.

So what does it come down to? Budgets get tight, somethings gotta go. XBL is at the top of the list for jettisoning.

And lets say Microsoft has been treating me VERY well lately, and I am still fixing to bolt. Unless they come through with the 100 dollar four pack of subs they mentioned at E3. If that goes up to more than 120, I'm officially out.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 3:56pm Tim First they get rid of the ability to host Halo 2, and now they want MORE money?!?!?!?!

They should be giving it to me for FREE since there's no Halo 2 on Live anymore!!!!!!!
31 Aug 2010 ~ 6:09pm Cliff_Forster I feel a small rant coming on......

The only problem I see with this is that gamers have two other compelling online services that are free. The Playstation Network, and Steam.

360 gamers, upset, don't like paying for live, stop whining and switch already...

I game on Steam, everyone here knows why... Now, if I were to choose an HD console (I don't plan to), but if I did, I'm more certain than ever that it won't be another Xbox 360. Don't give me that, "we offer the premium experience"... BS. Just because you were first does not mean your better. Everything gamers can do on live they can do on PSN, and with a little extra effort they can do it all on Steam.

There is plenty of opportunity to make revenue on the online service without having to bilk your customers $60 a year for the privilege of using their own internet bandwidth to host games.

Sony and Valve do it and make plenty of revenue leveraging online services as a digital distribution platform. Also, as facebook is proving, ownership of that mind share, consumer data, the marketing data, its all a gold mine. If Microsoft does not want it, go somewhere else consumer, you are free.... Don't tell me Halo Reach is the only thing that keeps you there, please kids... Play something new already.

My point is, don't want to pay $60 for live, sell your clunky RROD generator already and get gaming on something else. Its not like we don't have options.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 6:41pm Thrax

Cliff_Forster wrote:

clunky RROD generator

The real source of Cliff's argument.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 8:18pm Cliff_Forster did I mention how many times! Wonering how bady I can beat this dead horse.
31 Aug 2010 ~ 8:20pm Cyclonite Dude. The horse is now a mushy substance.
2 Sep 2010 ~ 12:12am Bandrik Meh. While it may be a sore move in principle, it really doesn't matter much to me either way.

Then again, I stocked up on several 13-month cards a while ago on eBay for $30 each about a year ago, so I'm golden for a while.