Microsoft Explains XBL Price Hike

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Gamasutra has posted an interview with the senior director of Xbox Live marketing on a variety of subjects, including the recent XBL price hike. Hmmm, while we are on the subject, does anyone know what happened to that XBL family plan that offered four gold accounts for the price of two? I'll have to check on that, I haven’t heard anything on that in months.

Now in 2002, it was strictly multiplayer gaming. Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does. We’ve got Gears and Halo, of course, as exclusives. We continue to get exclusives on the service as well. And we’ve gone from 400,000 members in our first year to 25 million. So during that time, we’ve definitely got to fund it, and we want to add more and more and more.
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They definately have to fund what!? I don't remember paying for steam/PSN/PS3 and PC multiplayer...especially as it's apparently peer to peer

The others are all...free, yet they want to charge more for somethig with a net market worth of $0?
 
Yeah, Steve, it's $99 a year still. I love how THEM purchasing exclusives (which essentially just means screwing over those that might get it freely on PS3) is somehow justification for raising the price on Xbox users. Exclusives benefit them, not the consumer who would have otherwise been able to get the content from a choice of numerous providers, so to use it as justification for a price increase seems crazy. Then again, $60 a year for a service that doesn't even provide dedicated servers as the norm (if a game is to have dedicated servers the game publisher has to provide them), essentially $60 for a service that does what has been freely done on PC games since the start, isn't exactly what I'd consider a 'value oriented' type service anyway. It's more of a 'I have extra money to throw away' kind of thing.
 
Complete Marketing BS..

Difference between free and pay? The ability to play online. The rest of the "features" of gold are crap that most users would likely never pay for. Live ceased being worth $50 a year, years ago much less worth more. Glad I canned my live membership, will never do that again.

I will stick to my PC and PS3 where I can play all my games fully without having to pay a yearly fee to not have my $60 purchase neutered.
 
DeathPrincess said:
They definately have to fund what!? I don't remember paying for steam/PSN/PS3 and PC multiplayer...especially as it's apparently peer to peer

The others are all...free, yet they want to charge more for somethig with a net market worth of $0?
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I am thinking the same thing... After I purchase a game/software there is no paying to play it too. Paying for internet is enough. That is the ONLY reason I will never own any Microshaft consoles.
 
At 50 bucks it was bad enough. He makes it sound like a favor to us all for having held the price down since inception while at the same time adding features (that we don't necessarily care about -- like exclusives).

Exclusives are a marketing thing and in the end I don't care if I get something earlier than the next console. I'd be happy having a game update be available at the same time on all platforms. Why would I care? Why would I want to pay more on live so they can pay for these exclusives that I don't want?


How about an ala-carte service where you can do multi-player and chat only. Keep the stupid netflix and espn services for an additional charge.

Get rid of ads for paying customers! Stop double-dipping.

/rant

Many people choose to not buy xbox and go with PS3 due to the xbl charge. If you ask me, all the additional stuff being added is not worth more and is just being used as a reason to justify the 50 bucks in the first place.

Now at 60 bucks I have a feeling they have a bit more room to offer "deals" also.

Other than that, I think it is holding back the platform somewhat now that the PS3 has closed the gap. The price of the service should be DECREASING with more users and not increasing because they are leveraging more people to pay for the infrastructure. It would only go up if each additional user cost them more to support, which I highly doubt.

//rant
 
Malkizadek said:
I am thinking the same thing... After I purchase a game/software there is no paying to play it too. Paying for internet is enough. That is the ONLY reason I will never own any Microshaft consoles.
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Thanks. You prove my point that they are hurting themselves with this. I agree with your comment but I have an xbox so my option is to pay up or not go on-line with it.

The cost should be decreasing and not increasing as subscribers go up, IMHO.
 
what I hate most about this is MS is setting a precedent that others may follow. I dont really care about consoles anymore but what if Valve decides to charge a subscription fee to play steam games online?
 
As much as I like the fact that Microsoft makes no excuses about being a for profit company, this guy couldn't articulate a clear reason why prices needed to go up.

"We have to charge more because we are making more money with more subs and more exclusives."

:confused:
 
from 400,000 to 25 million users. I guess that even Microsoft, as smart it it is, hasn't figured out how volume increases work...
 
still don't think xbl should be charged in the first place
keep telling everyone that but they all come up with excuses to justify why it's being charged and why they're glad to pay it... while i just go and play online for free on my ps3 and pc
 
snapperdragon0 said:
Thanks. You prove my point that they are hurting themselves with this. I agree with your comment but I have an xbox so my option is to pay up or not go on-line with it.

The cost should be decreasing and not increasing as subscribers go up, IMHO.
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The cost should NOT EXIST. Why the hell do you have to pay for (1) services you dont give a rats ass about or cant use (ESPN/Netflix [in some regions]). (2) Games that are P2P and/or MS does not run servers. (2b) Services that MS does not even run (ESPN/Netflix [where you can use them]).
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the price hike was required to pay for more Kinect game devs. Still I hope they'll make live gaming free or very cheap in the future for the increase today.
 
I'm not happy about the price hike, and I don't understand why they put it in place, but I'll just continue to do what I always do.... wait for the prepaid cards to go on sale and buy then.

If they were making Netflix free, that'd be great, but isn't that still 10 bucks on top of Live? I really don't care about ESPN at all.
 
I most likely will not be renewing my Live sub when it expires due to the price hike. I rarely play my xbox anymore. Last game I bought was Halo and i pretty much regret it. It's fun but it definitely isn't worth $60 a year to play. I mainly use my xbox to watch Netflix but again, i don't see that as being worth $70 ($10 for netflix, $60 for Xbox) and that isn't even including my internet cost. I'd rather put together an HTCP or get one of those media player things. This shit is getting ridiculous.
 
I thought the answers to these questions were sketchy at best:

Do you guys see any sort of trends to people maybe ditching cable altogether now that they’ve got ESPN, they’ve got Netflix, they’ve got Zune. Is that anything that you guys have done research on or that you can talk about at all?


Yeah. We haven’t done any research on that.

Have you guys seen any pushback from cable companies or anything like that? It’s an odd position that you guys are in, because those same cable companies very often provide the Internet connection that Live depends on in order for people to get their services. I mean, I saw that ESPN is powered by Comcast.... Do you have a fairly good relationship with cable companies? Have there been any conflicts?

No, there haven’t been any conflicts.

Yeah, OK. :rolleyes:
 
The big hammer dangling over all of our heads is when the broadband providers will want a cut of the action and start capping downloads per month.

With all the "free" streaming services and for pay services being added, eventually the carriers will want to charge more for people who download more.

And at that time, the "value" of what you can do with live, netflix, et. al. will severely decrease.

My friend has a 20GB monthly download cap on his broadband, and I can assure you that the extra "features" that XBL claims to provide will go unused.

Console gaming is still WAAAAY cheaper than PC gaming ever was (for me) so in the big picture I'm still willing to go this route. I cannot buy a PS3 for personal reasons with Sony quality control issues going back quite a few years and different products, so this option is currently my best one. I will still look for sales of the XBL stuff, but honestly, MS is limiting their install base by increasing the price instead of decreasing.

People have been bitter but put up with this when they were the only game in town before the PS3 release, but as the gap closes (as I mentioned earlier) the value proposition quickly fades. I think the competition is using this as a selling point for their own systems and I know it is working since some people quote this as to the reason they do not want an xbox.
 
So let me get this right. You have 25 million subscribers paying $99 a year. You are going to tell me the revenue from that does not easily pay for the infrastructure and professional staff associated with running a network, and you have to jack the fee's?
 
hasoos said:
So let me get this right. You have 25 million subscribers paying $99 a year. You are going to tell me the revenue from that does not easily pay for the infrastructure and professional staff associated with running a network, and you have to jack the fee's?
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I think it is $49 a year.
 
Time to sell the 360/games and build a buget gaming HTPC. Better graphics, lower cost for games, more freedom, and no subscription.
 
I'll translate what Microsoft is telling their customers.

Microsoft: Dear customers, we like money. We want lots of it. We're betting, that your lives are so engraved into Xbox Live, that you'll pay for the price hike. You have no other choice, since we took control of PC gaming by shitting all over it with console ports, we're the only choice for online gaming. So, we're grabbing you by the balls.

Thank you. Sincerely, Microsoft.
 
And people have difficulty understanding why I am so hating my xbox and have been for so long...
 
How stupid does Microsoft think their customers are? Oh wait nevermind.

This is going to make MS an extra billion a year. Good job MS.
 
This and RROD's were the main reasons I went with a PS3. I don't use the PS3 a lot, but I already forked out for the machine, plus I have FiOS at home. The only game I have that's been paid for at full price is SoulCailber 4, and I don't have a ton of games. I don't hate Microsoft or the Xbox, but when I look at the benefits to me, having to pay an extra fee to enjoy online content that can be had elsewhere for free on top of (until recently) problematic hardware, no thanks.

I'm waiting to see what Penny Arcade has for this one.
 
Man, I am loving all of the blind hate. If it was all about the money, then why create the Gold Family Pack? It is live on xbox.com now and is $100 for 4 accounts. Are you paying for something you get for free on a PC? Yes, but others are looking at a way to make money back using on-line accounts just like Xbox live. Sony Plus for the Playstation is a great example of this. They are starting to put some features into this that normally you would get for free. Personally I believe they are just starting to get people used to paying for an account like Xbox has already. Now I understand it is cool to hate the Xbox 360 or just consoles in general but it is not like they killed your puppy or anything. It is just a system to play games/get media from, if you don't like it, don't buy it.

*puts on flamesuit*
 
This is a really terrible thing. There have been no clear cut reasons why the price hike is needed is because there are no reasons for it. The cost should go down, not up as your user base increases.

There are a number of bad things about live that aren't going to change and make it less favorable.

1. Most games are not hosted anymore, anyone that has played Gears of war online (non-hord) will probably have run into horrible matches in which someone was causing a bad experience for all.

2. No one cares about exclusives... seriously, I waited to buy Scott Pilgrim Vs. The world the game because Sony had an exclusive. The company would have gotten my money sooner if they had not, wouldn't make me buy one system over the other. Game exclusives like Halo have no bearing on the price of live.

3. game makers can still cause issues with games and quality of service. EA is the biggest evil of this category, not only do you have to have a live account sometimes a gold account but you will need an EA account as well. Can't log into the EA server oh well for you and your game.

4. Content is SLOW. Have you watched the MSNBC and new Yorker videos? Notice how they start instantly vs. say the Major's minute which takes a minute to load and buffer? Unacceptable

5. The argument of it doesn't cost you anything is mute. ESPN (3) its self costs you, 1 the price of a gold account in the 360, 2 you ISP probably puts it in your subscription too because they have to pay for it. You can say it doesn't cost you anything but if there is no option to buy it separate from other items then it is forced upon you, I have heard no mention of ESPN via silver for extra money.

This could have been done in a tiered approach and Platinum account if you will but the goal isn't to bring in opt in service, the goal is to bring in value adding service even if users don't use it, reducing strain infrastructure adding value to some users while increasing cash flow.
 
snapperdragon0 said:
Console gaming is still WAAAAY cheaper than PC gaming ever was (for me) so in the big picture I'm still willing to go this route. w it is working since some people quote this as to the reason they do not want an xbox.
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Really ? How long will you have your xbox, 5 years? For just the cost of the crap subscription over that time I can build a gamming PC. 500$..... easy. You can use the $ saved on actually buying the console for a video card/CPU upgrade in a few years. All of your games will be cheaper, especially when they go on sale (On Steam for example.) Unlike your xbox, your new gamming pc can stream porn, telecommute and schedule your next DMV appointment. At the same time even.
 
Now that PS3 streams Netflix, I have no reason to want my Gold Membership anymore..

But they make it such a pain in the ass to cancel this crap. Actually have to call the support line instead of just clicking 'Cancel' in my account page.
 
Actually that's probably the family pack price, but factor in the cost of the xbox hardware + service and PC gamming is better.
 
Isn't the cost supposed to go DOWN when there's more people involved?

The cost per user at 400k is much higher than the cost per user at 25m.

This is complete, greedy, bullshit.
 
Defconn1 said:
Isn't the cost supposed to go DOWN when there's more people involved?

The cost per user at 400k is much higher than the cost per user at 25m.

This is complete, greedy, bullshit.
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Bandwidth usage goes up with more users. Plus, acquiring new material to put on Xbox Live isn't free either.
 
Cannon_Fodder said:
Man, I am loving all of the blind hate. If it was all about the money, then why create the Gold Family Pack? It is live on xbox.com now and is $100 for 4 accounts. Are you paying for something you get for free on a PC? Yes, but others are looking at a way to make money back using on-line accounts just like Xbox live. Sony Plus for the Playstation is a great example of this. They are starting to put some features into this that normally you would get for free. Personally I believe they are just starting to get people used to paying for an account like Xbox has already. Now I understand it is cool to hate the Xbox 360 or just consoles in general but it is not like they killed your puppy or anything. It is just a system to play games/get media from, if you don't like it, don't buy it.

*puts on flamesuit*
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pretty much they must be doing something right there still ahead of the ps3 in sales and live users.
 
I think its offensive that they even require live service to use Netflix on the Xbox... works just fine on my ps3 with no subscription. I guess its time to re-install playon when my live expires.
 
Why is everyone complaining about $60 for a year? Most of us on here shop for our technology and check prices. You have had the ability to buy an XBL subscription for a while as low as $30. Yes Microsoft and Amazon have had and still do have deals for a subscription. I'll throw this in too just for the heck of it: It's not really that much per month.
 
SparkedFire said:
Why is everyone complaining about $60 for a year? Most of us on here shop for our technology and check prices. You have had the ability to buy an XBL subscription for a while as low as $30. Yes Microsoft and Amazon have had and still do have deals for a subscription. I'll throw this in too just for the heck of it: It's not really that much per month.
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Pay me $30 to use your monitors then. I mean its not really that much per month, and I don't pay for the cables, or graphics cards that supply the content, but if youre willing to pay, ill take it. It's not very much per month.

$60/$30 is lots to pay more than the $0 it's worth
 
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