X-Box LIVE subscribers to pay even more for service that should be free
Beginning November 1, US X-Box LIVE Gold subscribers will pay more for the right to use the online multiplayer features included in the games they already paid for.
| Current Pricing | New Pricing |
|---|---|
| 1 month: $7.99 | 1 month: $9.99 |
| 3 month: $19.99 | 3 month: $24.99 |
| 12 month: $49.99 | 12 month: $59.99 |
Britons will pay an extra GBP for a month of Gold service, Canadians will pay one CAD more for a month of Gold, and Mexicans will pay an extra 100 pesos for a year of Gold. Other packages not listed remain the same.
Microsoft is trying to justify the change by claiming that they have added plenty of features since launching the service in 2002, without having upped the price before. Conveniently, they’re also offering to let gamers lock in the prices they’re paying now by renewing before November.
A 360 gamer could not be reached for comment. Presumably, they’re all afraid of speaking out against the corporate overlord which they rely upon for sustenance. A PC gamer could not be reached for comment. Presumably, they’re all laughing too hard. A PS3 gamer could not be reached for comment. Presumably for the same reason as PC gamers. A Wii gamer could not be reached for comment. Presumably because none of them have the internet.
I’m pretty sure that if people can afford to way $50 a year, they can probably afford $60 a year.
PC gamers get all this shit for free…but it’s also generally poorly implemented, if you get things like friends lists at all. Not to mention that most games have their own friends lists…so everything is ridiculously fragmented.
I’ve played games on PC that I bought through Steam, which has an integrated friends list that works with basically every game you buy on Steam. But the game itself has it’s own Friends list that you have to have people on in order to play games with and chat in-game regardless of if they’re on Steam or not. Then some games even go so far as to have Windows LIVE added on to them. That’s THREE friends lists on THREE separate services for ONE game. Fucking ridiculous.
Honestly I’d pay $50 a year for a service that united all games under one umbrella of uniform friends list management.
Anyone that wouldn’t doesn’t subscribe to Xbox LIVE anyway, so a $10 price hike won’t make any difference to them at all.
Pretty much what DMUSER said, it is a system that works very well and the price hike is only affecting our friends down in the states in Canada the price is not changing at all. I think Newbs is just angry because people on our friends list have names and not a 14 digit friend code :P
Newbs is just mad Nintendo has non-existent online multiplayer, a service that should be free.
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