Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov. 1.

[Aragorn]

Anyone get this e-mail yet?

Besides launching the new features and titles, we will also be increasing the price of Gold membership on November 1, 2010.

Old price on the left, new price on the right:

1-Month Gold Subscription

$7.99

$9.99
3-Month Gold Subscription

$19.99

$24.99
12-Month Gold Subscription

$49.99

$59.99

If you can find those 12-month Gold cards for cheap, might want to consider stocking up on them.

 

[Timby]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

Newegg and Amazon are selling 12-month cards for $39 right now. Alternatively, Microsoft is offering users a 12-month subscription for $39.99, but it has to be purchased by October 31, and you can only purchase one year.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I bought a whole bunch of 12-month cards when they were on sale for $30 some time ago for both myself and to sell to my friends for cheap, but now I might just keep them all for myself.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I guess even Microsoft isn't immune to the recession.

 

[Timby]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I guess even Microsoft isn't immune to the recession.

I'd say this is the price we pay for bullshit like the ESPN stuff, but then it turns out that the ESPN integration is only available to people with providers that offer ESPN3.

So, I guess this is the price we pay for bullshit like last.fm and Facebook. I imagine Netflix might be hiking its fees, too. But given that Xbox Live is a license to print money for Microsoft (an article I read several months ago says that for every $50/year subscription, Microsoft pockets about $30 in profit), I'm not terribly surprised.

 

[clint g]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

On the business side it was a brilliant move. Sony is kicking themselves right now for not living up to M$s standard of greed

 

[Servo]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

The only change to UK subscriptions is that the 1 month price is going up from £4.99 to £5.99. Seems like the 3 & 12 month subscriptions are unaffected.

 

[Rii]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

That's certainly one way to respond to PSN/Steam/etc.

No change for pricing in Australia. Of course, the Aussie dollar has appreciated something like 75% against the US dollar since the service began.

 

[firehawk12]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

The only change to UK subscriptions is that the 1 month price is going up from £4.99 to £5.99. Seems like the 3 & 12 month subscriptions are unaffected.

Same in Canada.

Still, I wonder if they can't just sell a "gaming only" subscription, especially since no one outside of the US and UK can use any of the added value features and I certainly don't give a crap about twitter or facebook.

 

[SPCTRE]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

Still, I wonder if they can't just sell a "gaming only" subscription, especially since no one outside of the US and UK can use any of the added value features and I certainly don't give a crap about twitter or facebook.

Agreed. The only XBL gold feature outside of online multiplayer that I find myself using regularly is Halo Waypoint, so I would jump on a gaming only subscription in a heartbeat.

No word on pricing changes for XBL gold in the Euro-zone so far.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I heard about this yesterday. Just when I'd gotten to back to appreciating the Xbox and all XBL has to offer, they come along with this 20% price increase. Guess I'll be back on the PS3 for online gaming. It streams Netflix too. And all of that cost me nothing.

 

[Timby]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

The increase is less than a dollar per month.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

Nevertheless, a 20% increase in one jump in unacceptable to me. Certain things like food and gas in my car, I have to have, so when they take big jumps I have to suck it up. I don't have to with XBL. I simply don't have to buy their product ESPECIALLY when there are free alternatives that basically get me the same thing. Sure overall XBL is superior to PSN, but not that much. MW2 played pretty much the same on PSN as it did on XBL.

On top of this, I'm hearing more and more rumblings about companies looking at charging an additional fee for the online component of their games. At some point, enough is enough, gaming just isn't THAT important.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1106732p1.html

 

[Timby]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I'm just saying that it's kind of silly to bellyache about a "20 percent increase" when that 20 percent amounts to 83 cents a month.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I guess we can agree to disagree. The problem is, everything else is going up too, and at some point, you have to say, "Ok, what do I want to keep and what can I live with out." $50 a year frankly was bad enough when PS3 was free but it was worth something for the extra features of XBL compared to PSN. $60 is just too much IMHO. Your mileage may vary.

The other thing, I think is the principle of it. This economy with 1.5% growth in the last quarter, and MSFT is hitting their customer with a 20% increase. Granted I've been out of college a long time now, but I was an Economics major, and the two things just don't compute. Recessions put downward pressure on prices, not upward.

 

[SPCTRE]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

^ There's not much competition for the XBL Gold model, most 360 owners that play online regularly don't just pick up a PS3 to play online multiplayer once the subscription fees go up.

It's not a great analogy, but essentially the same would apply if Blizzard would increase the subscription prices for World of Warcraft by a similar amount.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

Even if they lost 20% of their subscribers over this (unlikely), they'd still be making slightly more than they are now. It's more realistic that they'll take a 5-10% membership hit, in which case they'll be increasing revenues by a respectable amount. I'm sure their bean counters have run the profit maximization curve before doing this. Just part of business.

 

[Timby]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I imagine that's why they're offering the "lock-in" promotion until October 31, where you can get a year's membership for $10 less than even the current annual rate -- they're trying to drive customer retention.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

^ There's not much competition for the XBL Gold model, most 360 owners that play online regularly don't just pick up a PS3 to play online multiplayer once the subscription fees go up.

Yeah you're right, you're not going to buy a PS3 JUST to beat the $10 increase, that would be silly. And I don't know what percentage of gamers are like me, in that I already have both platforms and it would be easy for me to switch once my XBL subscription is up.

I imagine that's why they're offering the "lock-in" promotion until October 31, where you can get a year's membership for $10 less than even the current annual rate -- they're trying to drive customer retention.

I could see myself taking advantage of that.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Xbox LIVE Gold subscription prices getting jacked up starting Nov.

I imagine that's why they're offering the "lock-in" promotion until October 31, where you can get a year's membership for $10 less than even the current annual rate -- they're trying to drive customer retention.

And by the time those locked-in memberships expire, those people will have had time to get used to the idea of the higher price. Boiling a frog and all.