Microsoft hiking Xbox Live subscription prices

[Iczer]

NEW YORK — Microsoft is raising subscription prices for its popular Xbox Live Gold online gaming service in the U.S. and three other countries. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Beginning Nov. 1, an annual Gold membership will cost $60, up from $50. A three-month subscription will cost $25, up from $20. And a one-month subscription will be $10, up from $8. Xbox owners mainly use the service to play multiplayer games such as "Call of Duty" online.

Prices are also going up for some membership tiers in Mexico, Canada and the U.K.

Larry Hryb, better known in gaming circles as Major Nelson and director of programming at Xbox Live, announced the changes Monday. He says Microsoft has added more content and services to Xbox Live since its 2002 launch. Until now, the prices have been the same.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38935414?GT1=43001


It feels good to play for free on my ps3 :)

[communistpanda]

it's completely understandable. they are offering so much to the live community that it's only fair to raise the price, especially only 10 bucks.

[cmurray]

Agreed. Definitely feels good to use a PS3

[Hulkamaniabrah]

It feels good to play for free on my ps3 :)

Feels good not to sweat $60

[Clives_Bicep]

feels good to not care about 60$ a year....

[Iczer]

brb pocketing $60 a year not paying to play online
brb bluray player in my ps3
brb playing madden on my 106" screen

[Big_Pete1000]

I dunno. I have a PS3 so I dont really care. However $60 isn't that big of a deal compared to what we spend in a year. But at the same time it is just another inconvenience fee that people must shell out yearly.

[Clives_Bicep]

brb pocketing $60 a year not paying to play online
brb bluray player in my ps3
brb playing madden on my 106" screen

brb using my ps3 only for blu-ray and first party games and enjoying xbox live alot more than psn

[Iczer]

I dunno. I have a PS3 so I dont really care. However $60 isn't that big of a deal compared to what we spend in a year. But at the same time it is just another inconvenience fee that people must shell out yearly.

Exactly, $60 isn't a lot for a year. It's just the fact that you still have to pay.

[kenonator]

people pay double that for a year of WoW or any other MMO

[misc_brah]

lol... yet more fail from Microsoft

[bill257]

Getting ESPN3 streaming over the xbox is pretty awesome. Is it worth the extra $10 a year? Probably. At least until football season is over.

[MiKey4]

brb pocketing $60 a year not paying to play online
brb bluray player in my ps3
brb playing madden on my 106" screen

Brb playing a poor game on a screen so large you can see the pixels...

[GRob63]

brb pocketing $60 a year not paying to play online
brb bluray player in my ps3
brb playing madden on my 106" screen

brb 60 bucks a year is nothing.

i have both systems... ps3 is only better for bluray

[pat19]

random question but i'm sure it's ok since this thread is going nowhere...

how's the quality of netflix streamed movies on 360? same as a dvd? i want to get netflix but all i'd be doing is streaming and if it's not dvd quality at least then **** it.

[ummmmm0k]

random question but i'm sure it's ok since this thread is going nowhere...

how's the quality of netflix streamed movies on 360? same as a dvd? i want to get netflix but all i'd be doing is streaming and if it's not dvd quality at least then **** it.

netflix streaming, at least on the ps3, isnt that great of quality, plus they barely got any good movies streaming.

[mtomjr14]

feels good to not care about 60$ a year....

lulz this ^^^

[MA5Bergey]

This coming from someone who has a 360, PS3, and Wii... I don't see what the big deal is. XBL was $50 in 2002. 8 whole years ago. It hasn't had a single price increase in 8 years. Combine inflation with the fact that Live has expanded and only gotten better in those 8 years, I don't see how a $10 increase is really a big deal. Just to put it in perspective, the extra $10 means getting two less Big Mac combos, ten less packs of gum or one less t-shirt over the course of a whole year. Hell, $60 is the price of one single game (and how many of us gamers buy 10 or 11 or more games a year, half of which we don't really want anyway), and less than you'd probably pay for one night out at the bar.

Plus, there's a reason Playstation Network is free. Because it's crap, because it's almost impossible to communicate with your friends with no unified system, because voice communication is not standard and 99% of players don't have a mic (then again...), because it doesn't have as much content or features, etc. And not to mention that it's adding the $50 service.

By the way, $50 in 2002, when XBL came out, adjusted for inflation, is $60.59 in 2010.

[griepes]

$5 a month, who gives a ****

[L5j]

I'm an xbox 360 owner, and I wish I had the same positive happy mentality as you guys do when a company increases my bill. When I look at all the nuisances that come with a paid account, for example if you share an xbox and want separate CoD loadouts, or you don't want someone ruining your rank you need separate paid accounts, it bothers me even a bit more. I look at other people playing games, playing online with their PC for free and downloading most DLC for free. Every other console on the market plays for free. It's not a matter of the amount of money, but in the future I could see the principle of the whole thing making me feel a bit like...a sucker.

Maybe the grass is greener on the other side, but I feel like I should have gotten a ps3 at this point.

[Big_Pete1000]

I'm an xbox 360 owner, and I wish I had the same positive happy mentality as you guys do when a company increases my bill. When I look at all the nuisances that come with a paid account, for example if you share an xbox and want separate CoD loadouts, or you don't want someone ruining your rank you need separate paid accounts, it bothers me even a bit more. I look at other people playing games, playing online with their PC for free and downloading most DLC for free. Every other console on the market plays for free. It's not a matter of the amount of money, but in the future I could see the principle of the whole thing making me feel a bit like...a sucker.

Maybe the grass is greener on the other side, but I feel like I should have gotten a ps3 at this point.

Yea i had xbox a while back. Went the ps3 route. Unless you love Halo I would switch over. More variety of games and I dont have to worry about some dumb fee every year to play madden or call of duty online. They play just the same as xbox.

[SpLinT]

or you can go to amazon.com and get it for $40 bucks . Sometimes even $30

[valentin123321]

5 bucks a month holy ****. how the **** does microsoft expect me to come up with 5 whole dollars a month?

[JaxBrah]

Brb not even noticing 0.12% of my yearly salary going towards a high quality online gaming experience

brb spending the equivelent of a 3 muskateers bar per week for said experience

[djsimonmlb]

I enjoy paying for Live for these reasons;

The competition is far better on Live than on the PS3

Host migration is quicker, even if it doesn't feel like it, it's been proven faster, easier, and more efficient

There may be minor lag on the Xbox but not as much as the PS3

We get a sh*tload of other features that are rather enjoyable

Xbox feels cooler :)

There are some other reasons I may have forgot about, but these are prominent.

[Monkey Helmet]

or you can go to amazon.com and get it for $40 bucks . Sometimes even $30

This. I heard somewhere that Amazon is going to have it for $45 at all times (currently $40 at all times) once the price hike starts and then will have the sales for a bit less. So we'll still be able to get it for under $50 but I'd really like to see MS offer something more to the package.

I will say though that the Kinect video interface is badass.

[CCCP]

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/X3r0k3wl/god_of_war_3.jpg

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk209/Necro-Ghast/Killzone_-_Liberation.jpg

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee221/SkiddTheGalacticSavious/PS3/mgs4_launch_wp.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c280/Hv650R/TWist.jpg <--Twisted Metal

and ps3 online free > xbox online $$

= PS3 for teh win

[TheGunther]

random question but i'm sure it's ok since this thread is going nowhere...

how's the quality of netflix streamed movies on 360? same as a dvd? i want to get netflix but all i'd be doing is streaming and if it's not dvd quality at least then **** it.

Netflix streaming quality depnends entirely on your internet speed. With ATT U-Verse I am running every show and movie at the highest qaulity and am able to access all HD content. Anyone that has complained about fuzzy or bad qaulity content has most likely been running tier one of ATT DSL.

[themadgreek187]

Netflix streaming quality depnends entirely on your internet speed. With ATT U-Verse I am running every show and movie at the highest qaulity and am able to access all HD content. Anyone that has complained about fuzzy or bad qaulity content has most likely been running tier one of ATT DSL.

I have comcast and i too can watch everything in HD if its available. netflix, espn, and hulu will be worth it.

[MiKey4]

Can't blame them.

Damn good service for a price that has been falling in real terms? About time they got paid more. And I pay happily.

[Deathstroke]

No biggie, I guess. It's a very good service that has gotten better over the years. With $60 being the new $50 this gen, it was bound to happen.