For a long time now, Xbox gamers have long been wishing that they would no longer have to pay anything for Xbox LIVE subscription services. PC and PS3 gamers alike have gloated at the fact they don’t have to pay for online services. Now though, along with the dashboard’s new look, Xbox LIVE will now cost gamers a little more cash to play around with Microsoft’s additional services.
At the time the news for this originally broke, gamers the world over ‘expressed’ their ‘dis-pleasure’ for want of a better word in reaction to the hike in price.
As far as details go, a monthly subscription at $7.99 will now cost $9.99, likewise, Xbox LIVE’s 3 month plan has now increased from $19.99 to $24.99 and finally, annual subscriptions will now cost $59.99 instead of $49.99
Microsoft’s Craig Davison of Xbox LIVE’s marketing team defended the hike.
“In 2002, it was strictly multiplayer gaming… Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does. We’ve got Gears and Halo, of course, as exclusives. We continue to get exclusives on the service as well. And we’ve gone from 400,000 members in our first year to 25 million.”
“So during that time, we’ve definitely got to fund it… and we want to add more and more and more. ESPN is a great example. No extra charge for Xbox Live Gold members. But we want to continue to bring that content in. We also want to continue to innovate on all dimensions, whether it’s social, entertainment, or gaming.”
With such a huge number of members currently on Microsoft’s books, it seems as no surprise that a price increase has now reached us. With great features and regular updates to the service perhaps a hike in price is warranted??
Will you still continue to pay for Xbox LIVE? Is this another reason for PC and PS3 gamers not to consider the Xbox 360’s online service? Let us know what you think.
Yeah..I’m upset with Microsoft at the increase in online subscription cost. They use the need for revenue to continue updating and revamping the dashboard and service, but if PS3 can do it without charging to play, why couldn’t Microsoft? It makes little sense to me. Also not a big fan of the new dashboard update. Was this done mostly for the release of Kinect? Party foul Microsoft. Party foul.
yeah the update was done for kinect. Big wii rip off makes me mad!