Good news everyone, X-box Live price is going up!

[Eric]

http://kotaku.com/5625516/xbox-live-pri ... november-1

Xbox Live Gold subscribers might want to renew before November 1, when the price of a yearly subscription to the service jumps $10 in North America.

According to a post on Major Nelson's blog, after eight years' of Xbox Live at the $50 a year price point, the service is finally seeing a price hike. Starting on November 1, a year Gold subscription to Xbox Live will run $59.99, versus the current price of $49.99. One month subscriptions will jump from $7.99 to $9.99, while three month subs will rise from $19.99 to $24.99.

Other regions will be seeing increases as well. In the UK the price of one month will jump from 4.99 GPB to 5.99 GPB. The price of a month in Canada rises a dollar to $9.99. Finally, a year subscription in Mexico rises from 499 to 599 pesos.

Microsoft is running a special deal right now for North American U.S. customers, allowing them to lock in a year at $39.99, $20 less than the new rate. For details, visit the deal website.

Jesse Divnich with industry analyst EEDAR sent out a statement accompanying the news, insuring consumers that $60 is still "an incredible value."

"When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers"

Whether or not $60 a year is an incredible value is ultimately up to consumers. What say you, consumers?

Price change for Xbox LIVE Gold subscription [Major Nelson] http://majornelson.com/archive/2010/08/ ... ption.aspx

[Julius Seeker]

This is a bloody outrage!!!.... Err wait, I don't actually own an Xbox 360..... and even if I did I probably wouldn't use Xbox live =P

(might buy one of the cheap ones for the new cool looking Age of Exploration Fable game)

[Lox]

Thank goodness. Whatever they need to do to continue to provide useful, necessary features like Facebook, Last.fm, and the like is fine with me! I mean, it's not like those are features I'll never, ever, ever bother using or anything.

[Shellie]

I always find deals for a year subscription online. Im sure that wont change.

[Zeus]

Even more reason to move the cross-platform games over to PS3

[bovine]

Not cool. I think that there has been an appreciable increase in services since the 360 first launched, though. Compared to the PSN Plus, this still seems like an amazing value.

Paying more is not awesome, though.

[Zeus]

Not cool. I think that there has been an appreciable increase in services since the 360 first launched, though. Compared to the PSN Plus, this still seems like an amazing value.

Paying more is not awesome, though.

PSN Plus is purely optional. If you don't pay for Live, you're not able to play a large portion of the retail game you already purchased. Much different and much worse to pay for Live

[bovine]

I've only played Resistance, Resistance 2, Warhawk, Killzone 2, fat princess, and uncharted 2 multiplayer on the ps3, but it is just a much more antiquated and frustrating system to work around to play yourself, let alone play or communicate with friends. It would be nice if xbox offered some sort of base level multiplayer to silver subscribers, but even if they do not I choose to pay to play for a better multiplayer experience than slum it on the ps3.

One thing that really grinds my gears on the ps3 is updating anything. Whether it be firmware or getting updates for games, that shit takes FOREVER. I jumped into uncharted 2 after not playing it for about 3 months it took over 1/2 hour to download the updates and then install them. This is compared to the 360 updates that get you from download screen to into the game in less than a minute.

I really feel like my money is going to something with the Live. It's an evolving platform that I really enjoy playing on.

Now if I could only use the voice chat...

[Shrinweck]

They'll probably address your beta voice codex issue... some day.

[Zeus]

I've only played Resistance, Resistance 2, Warhawk, Killzone 2, fat princess, and uncharted 2 multiplayer on the ps3, but it is just a much more antiquated and frustrating system to work around to play yourself, let alone play or communicate with friends. It would be nice if xbox offered some sort of base level multiplayer to silver subscribers, but even if they do not I choose to pay to play for a better multiplayer experience than slum it on the ps3.

One thing that really grinds my gears on the ps3 is updating anything. Whether it be firmware or getting updates for games, that shit takes FOREVER. I jumped into uncharted 2 after not playing it for about 3 months it took over 1/2 hour to download the updates and then install them. This is compared to the 360 updates that get you from download screen to into the game in less than a minute.

I really feel like my money is going to something with the Live. It's an evolving platform that I really enjoy playing on.

Now if I could only use the voice chat...

No doubt that Live is a better system. The overriding chat/party ability on the 360 rules. When we played Uncharted 2 I didn't really notice much different in terms of performance from Live other than the occasional dropped game but that happens all the time on Live too (happened a TON to me in the Gears games). It really does boil down to the principle of the matter in this case. Simply put, I should not have to pay extra to play a significant portion of the game I already paid full price for. Not even a nominal fee. If I could purchase a version of Call of Duty without multiplayer for a discount (since I'm not paying for a large portion of the content of the game), then my argument has no merit whatsoever. But that'll never happen either.

All we can hope for is the PS3 beginning to kick the 360 or its successor's ass so hard that the have no choice but to drop the fees. Imagine if Live were free and the 360's were stable hardware? There'd be no reason to ever considering switching cross-platform games to the PS3

[Eric]

There is 0 reason for them to ever make X-box live free, it will never happen.

They'll charge for PSN's online multiplayer before X-Box Live ever goes free.

[Zeus]

There is 0 reason for them to ever make X-box live free, it will never happen.

They'll charge for PSN's online multiplayer before X-Box Live ever goes free.

If they start losing significant market share and big online titles like Call of Duty sell significantly more on the PS3, there's a tons of incentive in maximizing your greatest competitive advantage to increase your market share

But I do agree with you, Sony will probably charge for the PSN before Xbox Live goes free and that there's a very little chance Live would ever go free anyways. But one can hope

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

If they start losing significant market share and big online titles like Call of Duty sell significantly more on the PS3, there's a tons of incentive in maximizing your greatest competitive advantage to increase your market share

The idea that the 360 might start losing significant market share at this point in the platform cycle is a fantasy. Free Live will not happen this generation and given Microsoft's current competitors in the console space, it probably won't happen in the next either.

[Zeus]

If they start losing significant market share and big online titles like Call of Duty sell significantly more on the PS3, there's a tons of incentive in maximizing your greatest competitive advantage to increase your market share

The idea that the 360 might start losing significant market share at this point in the platform cycle is a fantasy. Free Live will not happen this generation and given Microsoft's current competitors in the console space, it probably won't happen in the next either.

yeah, they'll probably just release the Xbox 720 if the PS3 starts beating them in a year or two. But next gen we'll see, hopefully Sony will be smart and realize that they can't give them a year head start again

[SineSwiper]

Next generation of consoles might be glorious indeed. Imagine if Xbox stayed with its current momentum, Sony smarted up and gained some exclusives, and Nintendo fixes all of the problems with the Wii (enabling HD and getting an infinitely better online system with demos).

[Zeus]

Next generation of consoles might be glorious indeed. Imagine if Xbox stayed with its current momentum, Sony smarted up and gained some exclusives, and Nintendo fixes all of the problems with the Wii (enabling HD and getting an infinitely better online system with demos).

I'm more interested in seeing what the input devices are at launch. You may not like the Wiimote but it has completely changed the game and all three will have to do something off the bat for next gen. I wanna see how they take it to the next level

[Shrinweck]

Not really worth wasting time speculating on something so far off.

But I'd settle for a god damned headphone jack.

[Eric]

Next generation of consoles might be glorious indeed. Imagine if Xbox stayed with its current momentum, Sony smarted up and gained some exclusives, and Nintendo fixes all of the problems with the Wii (enabling HD and getting an infinitely better online system with demos).

I'm more interested in seeing what the input devices are at launch. You may not like the Wiimote but it has completely changed the game and all three will have to do something off the bat for next gen. I wanna see how they take it to the next level

I still haven't seen anything particularly revolutionary gameplay wise from the Wiimote.

[Zeus]

Next generation of consoles might be glorious indeed. Imagine if Xbox stayed with its current momentum, Sony smarted up and gained some exclusives, and Nintendo fixes all of the problems with the Wii (enabling HD and getting an infinitely better online system with demos).

I'm more interested in seeing what the input devices are at launch. You may not like the Wiimote but it has completely changed the game and all three will have to do something off the bat for next gen. I wanna see how they take it to the next level

I still haven't seen anything particularly revolutionary gameplay wise from the Wiimote.

Revolutionary? Maybe not. It's not really fine enough. But there has been some pretty solid uses. Also, the wide appeal it has is making Sony and Microshaft salivate. And make no mistake about it, it's the input device that's the main appeal of the Wii to non-gamers.

[SineSwiper]

I still haven't seen anything particularly revolutionary gameplay wise from the Wiimote.

Ditto. The good games I've played tend to throw away the stupid waggle motion in favor of just using the damn buttons. Even when said games decide to use the motion thingy (like picking up stuff in NSMB), it feels forced and unnatural.

[Eric]

Also, the wide appeal it has is making Sony and Microshaft salivate. And make no mistake about it, it's the input device that's the main appeal of the Wii to non-gamers.

Why would I ever care what non-gamers think. I'm not Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, I'm a gamer! I'm really hoping for something that blows my mind and makes me play games differently, and is also fun at the same time. But the Wimmote ain't it, I don't even think Move or Kinnect is it either.

I thought that when Mario moved into 3D on the N64, that was a pretty big step for gaming and gamers, and the effects of such a smooth transition while not felt in the first generation of Mario 64 copycats, but the 2nd and the 3rd made the gaming experience much better overall.

The first generation Wii games haven't done that at all, even an amazing game like Mario Galaxy 2 doesn't do anything that you couldn't do with a normal controller if the game was designed with one in mind. I don't think of collecting star bits or eating stuff with Yoshi's tongue with the sensor as that big of a deal. I'm kind of hoping the Zelda Skyward Sword is that big game that lays down the Blueprint Jay-Z style since it was designed from the ground up to take complete advantage of the Wii's controls.

[Zeus]

Would you pay $100 for a "premium" Live?

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/100-premiu ... p-forecast

Likely would include deals like PSN Plus if it were to come out. But I doubt Microshaft would ever give you a free game

[Shrinweck]

Likely would include deals like PSN Plus if it were to come out. But I doubt Microsoft would ever give you a free game

1 vs 100 was free with Live

[Zeus]

Likely would include deals like PSN Plus if it were to come out. But I doubt Microsoft would ever give you a free game

1 vs 100 was free with Live

As an experiment, a way to determine if a market exists for a new type of game. There's a reason it's gone now, they got the data they wanted.

What I meant was they would never allow you a free download of, say, Shadow Complex the way Sony gave Wipeout HD for free with PSN Plus.

[SineSwiper]

You mean that free download of Undertow?

[Zeus]

You mean that free download of Undertow?

And why did we get Undertow and Carcasonne for free?

[Shrinweck]

Still a nice thing to do after an outage. Let's face it, they didn't have to do jack shit and we would still be buying Live memberships.

[bovine]

I know you guys were all worried, but I can talk through the ingame chat codecs, but not the specific Live codecs (like through a party) in case you really wanted to play some MNC with me.

/hint hint/

[Zeus]

Still a nice thing to do after an outage. Let's face it, they didn't have to do jack shit and we would still be buying Live memberships.

Not all of us....

It was a goodwill move for many reasons, not the least of which is the hardware failures that were so prominent at the time.