X-Box live price going UP?

[Eric]

The Pachter certainly seems to think so, and that PSN will become a paid service, I've been enjoying his little weekly corner.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episo ... tack/64492

[bovine]

as long as psn is free, I doubt we will see the xbox live price increase.

[Eric]

He said that it's likely Sony will start charging for PSN as well.

[Zeus]

Sony's already come out and said there will be some charges for some PSN stuff in the future but that online gaming will remain free. That I'm OK with

[bovine]

Sony's already come out and said there will be some charges for some PSN stuff in the future but that online gaming will remain free. That I'm OK with

I would much rather pay for xbox live than PSN. Thus, if PSN starts charging, I will not pay. I am hardly their target demographic, as I do 90% of my multiplayer on the 360, and probably the other 9% on the PC (1% on the PS3).

Will you pay for PSN Zeus? If so, how much per month/year?

[Julius Seeker]

The Pachter certainly seems to think so, and that PSN will become a paid service, I've been enjoying his little weekly corner.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episo ... tack/64492

When it comes to market analysis, Patcher is the biggest joke. He is the same guy that predicted PS4 and Wii HD for 2009. He's the type of analyst who ignores all the trends and doesn't seem to do any research. I kind of wonder how this guy has a job and why he has any exposure at all.

[Eric]

Eh? The only thing I can find on Google that resembles him saying that is "Wii HD coming 2010, PS4 and new Xbox no earlier than 2013"

[Julius Seeker]

Either way, the guy is often VERY wrong: Pachter predictions list

[Eric]

Being an analyst doesn't make you right 24-7, but he's right more often then he's wrong.

http://kotaku.com/356982/analyzing-the- ... pisode-one

He made a prediction Sony would dominate the market in 2005, considering that the PS3 wasn't out, and the PS2 is one of the best selling consoles of all time I don't think anybody foresaw Sony fudging it up so badly.

Likewise, nobody saw World of Warcraft being such a success, before WoW, there was no such RP with THAT many subscribers. Even Don thought WoW and EQ2 would split subs around the 300k range, heh.

That article was so blatantly bias against the guy it was rather difficult to read.

[Oracle]

Currently, it says my xbox live membership cost me $49.99. When I look at my renewal notice, it says it will be $59.99 for the year.

[Tessian]

Silly people... you don't buy XBL memberships from automatic credit card renewal. You buy the 12 month card when it comes on sale... actually it's on sale with Amazon right now for $40, just picked myself up a new copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month-Li ... 5KSSNFK38F

You're welcome Oracle, just saved you $20

[Zeus]

Sony's already come out and said there will be some charges for some PSN stuff in the future but that online gaming will remain free. That I'm OK with

I would much rather pay for xbox live than PSN. Thus, if PSN starts charging, I will not pay. I am hardly their target demographic, as I do 90% of my multiplayer on the 360, and probably the other 9% on the PC (1% on the PS3).

Will you pay for PSN Zeus? If so, how much per month/year?

Live is a better system so all things being equal, I would choose Live over PSN.

But I will pay nothing for either. I don't care if it's $1 a month, I won't pay it

[Lox]

Silly people... you don't buy XBL memberships from automatic credit card renewal. You buy the 12 month card when it comes on sale... actually it's on sale with Amazon right now for $40, just picked myself up a new copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month-Li ... 5KSSNFK38F

You're welcome Oracle, just saved you $20

I see it on Buy.com for $30 all the time. That's why I'm set for another year or so now.

[Blotus]

You're welcome Oracle, just saved you $20

Pretty much any deal on Amazon.com either does not apply to Canada (as in this case) or is subject to ridiculous shipping charges.

And Amazon.ca rarely ever has worthwhile deals.

http://www.amazon.ca/Xbox-Live-12-Month ... 766&sr=8-2

[Tessian]

You're welcome Oracle, just saved you $20

Pretty much any deal on Amazon.com either does not apply to Canada (as in this case) or is subject to ridiculous shipping charges.

And Amazon.ca rarely ever has worthwhile deals.

http://www.amazon.ca/Xbox-Live-12-Month ... 766&sr=8-2

The code's aren't region specific are they? Make a friend in the US, buy the card and ship it to their house, then they email you the code on the card and voila!

[Don]

WoW is probably not more than 5 million when you throw out China. While there's nothing that says only a sub from Europe/NA counts as a sub, the rate they charge in China is very different too so it is not exactly a fair comparison. As far as I can tell WoW is closer to a F2P in China than a traditional MMORPG even though it's not exactly free. FreeRealms has 10 million subscribers so it's certainly a lot easier to pile up massive numbers in that model.

But even at 5 million that was still well above what anyone thought WoW could've pulled, including Blizzard themselves. WoW also made quite a few mistakes and didn't take off until sometime close to WotLK, and it was helped by the fact that some guys like EQ2 or Vanguard flopped despite having arguably better talent, probably because those games are headed by guys thinking people like to spend 200 hours of time doing nothing. Since Blizzard stopped releasing numbers after WoW's numbers stopped growing, it could potentially declined by a lot and since there is no law requiring people to disclose their numbers, WoW's subs is going to be 'more than 11 million' for the forseeable future because they're not obliged to tell you if it ever went down.

The problem with WoW is that it is ridiuclous easy to copy its style and WoW's graphics sucks so once people stopped trying to be the anti-WoW it's really easy to out-WoW in its own game. I think EQ2 can easily do this and it's increasing numbers recently seem to suggest SoE is just as good at doing this, if not better. I don't think you'll see a single unifying game beating WoW on a global level especially given Blizzard is not obliged to tell you the declines, but it wouldn't surprise me if 2 years later the highest revenue generating MMORPG in North America is FreeRealms or Runescape or some F2P you've never heard of, and the top MMORPG in Korea might be some RMT-based FPS, and top revenue generating game in China could be some web-browser based stuff.

I recall one of the Activision guys was saying you can't beat WoW even if you have a billion dollar and to me that seems more like they're worried and trying to scare people off. Certainly if you look at games like Champions Online and Star Trek Online it's almost looking like there's a MMORPG generator you can use out there. Sure it's not going to be the WoW-killer but it also can't possibly be very expensive to produce a generic MMORPG. Look at the screenshots of some generic F2P MMORPG you've never heard of, they all look like they're generated by the same engine and while there surely isn't a MMORPG maker, it's pretty obvious that most of them run on similar concepts so you don't need to reinvent the wheel either.

[Zeus]

If the price of Live goes up 'cause of this idiotic TV channel, you guys should protest

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6259235.ht ... ry%3Btitle