Update: According to Major Nelson, the new pricing goes into effect on November 1, 2010. Also, he added that existing subscribers can lock in the current price with an additional discount by renewing now.
Original story:
It's been revealed today that Microsoft has increased the price of an Xbox Live Gold subscription by $10, meaning it'll cost gamers $59.99 to gain access to the online service for a year. Of course, gamers opting for the free Silver tier (which doesn't offer online play) won't be affected by this.
EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich stated that this price hike for Xbox Live isn't too surprising. And he also doesn't see it having much impact on the Xbox momentum in general.
“When taking into consideration the numerous services added to Xbox Live Gold subscribers over the last eight years, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would eventually increase the price of a Gold subscription by a moderate amount,” Divnich said. "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”
He continued, "EEDAR data from our active consumer polls indicate 30% of Xbox 360 consumers have played a video game online 15 times or more in the last 3 months, compared to 23% for the PS3 and 10% for the Wii. The data reinforces previous notions that the Xbox 360 consumer base is more core orientated and/or that consumers find great value in the Xbox Live service, despite the fact that Microsoft’s competitors currently charge no subscription fees for online play.”
Divnich added, "EEDAR does not believe the $10 price increase will fully affect current Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers until late 2011 and beyond, as Microsoft will likely run numerous promotions allowing users to renew at cheaper rates. EEDAR believes the fee increase will do little to impact the positive momentum of the Xbox 360.”
8 Comments
August 30, 2010
Actually, Sony has announced NUMEROUS times that they have the most online connected consoles via PS3s versus any other. You should look up your facts.
August 30, 2010
I'd also like to know the stats for the so-called "added features" to Xbox Live. I'm a straight up gamer and don't really dilly dally with all their extras, shy of Netflix, which costs extra anyway. But the Facebook, Twitter, etc. is what I question. Not only are those "apps" hard to use, I don't think many regular XBL Gold people use them anyway.
A price hike doesn't surprise me at all, I understand it, but I think they're dancing close to a price point where the benefits of Gold don't support the price. Even though it boils down to only $5 a month, if there's no real advantages to being on a Gold account besides just being allowed to play on-line, it might just not be worth it anymore.
August 30, 2010
How does Microsoft justify the price hike when more and more game publishers these days (EA specifically) are charging users of rented titled a premium fee of $10 to play with other players online (even if they have a Gold subscription). This seems like a racket to me, because if I have to pay an additional $10 per-publisher (or game?) to play online, doesn't that cheapen the value of the XBL Gold membership?
August 30, 2010
I had XBL for like 5 months and cancelled last month. I never should of payed for it. I believe that Microsoft should allow online to be free and I told them as much. I hope a lot more people do the same. Patcher did say it would go up. I think he said to $100 but that was a ways off. Maybe purposely?
August 30, 2010
Sounds like this analyst was paid off by... guesses? MS puts many features into XBL that people like myself don't use. I sometimes use Last.FM when I'm entertaining at home; I played with Twitter and Facebook, but as mentioned above they're too difficult to use with the Xbox's design. I've put a lot of money into my Xbox, but looks like I'm gonna dust off the PS3 and go with their free network.
August 30, 2010
As someone who has been enjoying XBL over the past 5 years this doesn't surprise me. While I can agree with others that not all the features are worth it to me( I don't use facebook, twitter, netflix and I definitely won't be using the ESPN one either when it launches), it still only cost $5 a month. Now compare that to your monthly cell phone bill or your internet bill. Not bad at all when looking at it that way.
I think that Microsoft really needs to set up different tiers for paying customers. Right now they have them in the most generic sense(Gold and Silver members) but they really need to have it where if you choose not to utilize certain features(like facebook and twitter) then you should be able to get a $3-5 discount off your yearly subscription for each one you don't want. This would make alot more people happy and feel as if they weren't paying for anything they really didn't want.
August 30, 2010
I definitely don't want to be paying extra for the "right" to use Twitter and Facebook on my gaming machine. If they want to raise the price, whatever, but don't try to "justify" the increase by trying to connect it up with the lame "additions" they've made to the service over the past year.
August 31, 2010
@12P Yeah I'd agree with that they need teirs. Or even cafeteria style menu. But they did have a Gold/Silver/Bronze in the past. They dropped the bronze do to people complaining about the confusion of having a bronze. Anyway they should go to the PS3 way of doing things. I'd pay $ for a old greatest hits game from ps2 on PS3 but not for facebook! Even though I play farmville (hears jeers! Your not a real gamer you casual wannabe!) I don't want to pay for facebook it is free on pc! I know it cost Microsoft a little to connect but not THAT much!