Print

[Tiuk]

The price doesn't really bother me. Dedicated servers would be nice, though.

[ZakMcRofl]

Which the price of 12 month codes I currently pay less than 2 Euro a month. I pay more for food every single day.

[fierygt]

QUOTE

"I think it goes back to this unified system. We have to have voice communication, text communication, now we're doing cross-platform. There's Marketplace, there are demos, and all these things don't just mystically hover around that you can pull them out of the ether."

As others have said, most of their "justification" is actually accessible to silver members for free.  The only thing gold members benefit from, is online multiplayer.  Advertising, and downloadable content alone could probably support xbox live as it stands.  That being said, I don't mind the $50 a year...however, I don't like this guy's reasons for "justifying" that price.  Maybe gold members should recieve a certain type of content silver members can't...like all themes are unlocked for gold members or something.  Oh...and I don't even want to get started on the "cross-platform" scheme M$ has going.

[ZakMcRofl]

Isn't it obvious that someone has to pay for all those bandwidth costs? Sure, you could download with a silver account as well but that doesn't mean the downloads don't result in a huge bandwidth bill. Those demos don't host themselfes.

Gold users subsidize the silver users. Its as easy as that.

[RiPpN-N-TrIppN]

and for the record
Gold over costs $100 a yr
get a job the cost is nothing
Rip

[steveju]

QUOTE(juan_2006 @ Jun 26 2007, 05:09 AM)

I think the price is very fair.

...OK, let's see now...
Prices in USA:
3 months: 29.99USD or 19.99USD (the US site is kinda confusing... even more than the ja-JP site)
12 months: 59.99USD or 49.99USD

Prices in UK:
3 months: 14.99GBP = 29.88USD
12 months: 39.99GBP = 79.70USD

Prices in EU, where they use Euros (eg. Germany):
3 months: 12.99EUR = 17.44USD
12 months: 59.99EUR = 80.55USD

Prices in Japan:
3 months: 2079JPY = 16.83USD
12 months: 5229JPY = 42.33USD

Can anyone guess why the prices are so low in Japan and why Microsoft gets away with 1:1 currency exchange rates in EUR-zones (59.99USD = 59.99EUR)?

ZakMcRofl, where did you get a 12 month Gold card for less than 24EUR? I want one too.

[JORT]

Microsoft just made a record 6 billion dollars more than estimated last quarter as CNN reported, but they don't know what they are going to do with the money. While buying Walt Disney, Pixar and Universal all came in mind ripping off there customers is still top priority. All of these things mention in this article both the wii and ps3 provide and *PC - all for free. Don't buy into this MS garbage they just want more money. Stop paying for XBL and start playing on xlink with your friends. If not, buy a ps3 or a wii. Tired of MS, back to ubuntu.

Edit: Few notes, the consumer shouldn't pay for a bandwidth. (Net nuetraility anybody?) It is the job of EA, UBI, 2k to send the money to M$ just like any other ad or promotional gig. Does anybody else just not see the logic in this post? Or am I just barking up a redwood tree with no parachute down?

[xnoelahg]

QUOTE(JORT @ Jun 26 2007, 08:24 AM)

Microsoft just made a record 6 billion dollars more than estimated last quarter as CNN reported, but they don't know what they are going to do with the money. While buying Walt Disney, Pixar and Universal all came in mind ripping off there customers is still top priority. All of these things mention in this article both the wii and ps3 provide and *PC - all for free. Don't buy into this MS garbage they just want more money. Stop paying for XBL and start playing on xlink with your friends. If not, buy a ps3 or a wii. Tired of MS, back to ubuntu.

Edit: Few notes, the consumer shouldn't pay for a bandwidth. (Net nuetraility anybody?) It is the job of EA, UBI, 2k to send the money to M$ just like any other ad or promotional gig. Does anybody else just not see the logic in this post? Or am I just barking up a redwood tree with no parachute down?

 Apparently the vast majority of users don't care. I was the first to point out that all the arguments they've made for why gold should cost money are features that silver users get free anyway. Nobody seems to care that we have to pay to use our own bandwidth.

[Chancer]

Price is cheap. fact is some people would still complain if MS paid them $50 a year to play.
If you don't like the price don't pay it. You still have a choice.
I would pay no problems but at the moment I refuse to use XBL over another matter that arose following a conversation on the phone. Price was never the issue.

[redwolf]

QUOTE(Chancer @ Jun 26 2007, 10:18 AM)

Price is cheap. fact is some people would still complain if MS paid them $50 a year to play.
If you don't like the price don't pay it. You still have a choice.
I would pay no problems but at the moment I refuse to use XBL over another matter that arose following a conversation on the phone. Price was never the issue.

i think choice was taken away on microsoft making ping limit on System Link games. if you wanna play on-line you HAVE to pay. as tunnel software such as XBC/XLink are somewhat useless nowaday. buying the game is not enough these days

[Maverick0984]

QUOTE(Kunzinator @ Jun 26 2007, 06:09 AM)

In my opinion less than 5 US dollars a month is a damn reasonably cost for the services provided. Even though it is your bandwidth Microsoft still has to run servers to track stats, matchmake, host downloads, etc. Yes PC gaming was free, but PC gaming is, though to a lesser degree than years ago, still a much different market. Everything has always been more expensive with consoles, but on the other hand you don't have to worry about compatibility or upgrading your system ( for the most part).

Microsoft could afford to do Live for free yes, but there is no reason, in my opinion, to be upset if they do charge a fee that is easily in line with costs for them to support live.

When it comes to comparisons, I must say Microsoft has the edge, Wii online is non-existent when it comes to gaming as of yet, and though I have no hands on experience, from what I have heard Sony is still not up to par.    

As for download costs, as said above, this cannot be attributed to Microsoft, these are fees set by publishers of the content you download.

   

Anyway that is my bit over two cents on live costs, I'll quite rambling now...

I must point out to you, the prices are somewhat regulated by MS.  Things like Geometry Wars was wanted to be given away for free but MS didn't let them and forced them to charge.  As well as every other company having a minimum that their content will cost.  Any content that is given away for free does not fall under this umbrella and only represents less than 2% of what is downloaded (my estimation).

That being said, I don't mind the $50, but do agree with some about certain things they are claiming we are paying for, shouldn't have to be paid for and/or aren't payed for by silver users.

[memturbo]

I dont use live personally because of the advertising

How much do you think Mcdonalds paid to have their ad plastered on the 360?

And all the networks ABC CBS ect  getting free advertising .

I just dont understand why people pay for tv shows .

And the movies are way too high get netflicks or any of those services .

I think if your paying for live you should at least get a free movie of your choice HD or SD per month

FREE.


I have Charter cable HD and started noticing Advertising for SPAM like getting a Visa card and buying

a timeshare.

I e-mailed Charter and went in to the office to complain

Told them Im paying every month for thier service and I Dont care for the ads

showing up on my box .

It took some time but Im getting a $10.00 refund every month .

[sirsmacketh]

LOL What's the saying? If you can afford to drive a HUMMER, you can afford to pay the gas?

Honestly, the whining on here about a measly $50 a YEAR is really childish. If you can afford to buy a 360 and a handful of games, then surely you can afford to pay less than a $1 a day for a service that is stable.

SONY has to be paying for the bandwidth for the Playstation Network. Nothing's free for long. Unless their whole PSN flops and noone plays on it.

Once demand increases and they need to buy up more bandwidth, you know for damn sure someone is going to pay for it - in the end, it's the user that pays for it.

Sure, online multiplayer on the PC has been free for years. Unreal Tournament had a pretty decent server list  however, most of the time you end up playing with a bunch of smacktards that bitch and whine - so you end up hosting your own games to play with a few close friends.

(don't get me started on CS players)

The amount of content available on LIVE is amazing. The demos alone make it worth while as I don't normally go out and by games until I know the game doesn't suck. Being able to download it and play it is a great thing.

Downloadable content for games... again.. if it's worth it, I'll buy it. No one's twisting your arm to buy it. There's a lot of stuff in stores that I know is overpriced and I avoid or wait till it goes on sale. GoW content.. it's going to be free eventually.

At least the 360 has huge library of games

[Chancer]

QUOTE(redwolf @ Jun 26 2007, 11:44 AM)

i think choice was taken away on microsoft making ping limit on System Link games. if you wanna play on-line you HAVE to pay. as tunnel software such as XBC/XLink are somewhat useless nowaday. buying the game is not enough these days

I was referring to the choice of buy it or not rather than the options of Xlink etc.
We want to do plenty of things but I think we shouldn't expect services to be provided for free. The PSN has no fee but the complaints levelled at it then is how crap it is. If live is a must have for people then I don't think the cost is unjustified or unreasonable. You can't buy anything here in the UK for less than a £1 a week.

[edwinmcdunlap]

I think the price is pretty reasonable... But we gold members could use some extra perks now and then, you know?