It's not really about the ability to provide free online.
The console manufacturers simply have no desire to provide free online.
Official Update on Xbox Live Gold Pricing from Microsoft
- Thread starter Theorry
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The console manufacturers simply have no desire to provide free online.
So when do Sony put their prices up or does the price increase in games offset this. Will be interesting if by the end of this year both subscription services cost upward of 100 dollars each.
I'd be curious how many of those systems without PSPlus play F2P games. Are there numbers? I have no problem adjusting my opinion on it but it seems this is a lot of complaining by people who are going to pay anyway.
The value proposition for gamepass ultimate vastly exceeds Xbox live gold and you know... includes gold.
If you're sticking with gold despite it costing the same as gamepass ultimate well You'd be an idiot...and I think that's what MS is counting on. People looking at the costs of both and all the extras you get from gamepass ultimate and hoping people make the logical transition...only for them to then hike the price for that too.
No. companies increase the price, if they think the increased price doesn't hurt the services growths. We could see this with the increased price of next gen games. There was no reason to do that for Sony. Their games were selling incredible well. But the thought they'll will continue selling incredible well with the price increase, too. "So why not make even more money" - literally every company ever
GPU makes sense for a lot of people, I think it's a great option and I'm happy for those that get the most out of it.
For someone like me, GPU is a waste. I don't have anywhere near enough gaming time anymore to fully appreciate the content, a lot of which is time sensitive. It's a better value for me to buy the games I want to play, and play them when I can play them.
I thought both services could coexist, but this is a hostile move to get everyone on GPU. I have no incentive to prioritize multiplayer games on X now, I'm trying to reconcile it as a single player companion machine.
Ah, I thought the new prices had already taken affect because I'd seen that card with the new price.
Got to offset the console cost somehow. Plus I think ms is aiming at subscription for game pass or nothing.
This is ridiculous.
GWG needs to go away. Charge £20 a year for people who want to play online or they can get GPU.
There, I've fixed it.
GWG needs to go away. Charge £20 a year for people who want to play online or they can get GPU.
There, I've fixed it.
OP
OP
Lol look what is best seller now
Amazon.com: Xbox Live Gold: 12 Month Membership [Digital Code]: Video Games
Amazon.com: Xbox Live Gold: 12 Month Membership [Digital Code]: Video Games
I keep reading people suggesting Ultimate goes up in price, but I don't think that is something they will want to do until it reaches a much higher number of subs. It is inevitable, but it could be 10 years until we see something like that.
That's a good question.
Given that Sony is still charging for their first party titles and they continue to sell well, I bet they feel less pressure to raise prices on PS+. Any increase would hopefully come with some additional benefits and should be modest by comparison.
Given that Netflix increases prices ~every two years, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft follows a similar schedule. It'll probably start to happen around the time their major post-Halo first party titles come out.
Folks who were already paying for Live and not Gamepass Ultimate probably were doing it for a reason. The most likely reason being they didn't have any interest in games Ultimate were offering because they're only playing the big new games that don't show up on Gamepass to begin with.
You're making the assumption that the price hike means people will just switch to GPU. Maybe they will or maybe these people who are thinking about buying a new console this year just simply switch platforms entirely because they don't feel like paying $10 a month to play Madden and COD online when there are other platforms where you can do it for much cheaper or free
I am not trying to rationalize it in a way of saying that its ok for the consumer who wants to stay on gold. From Microsoft perspective it is what needs to happen to get people where they want....on Game Pass paying a monthly sub. People should really not be shocked by it, yes they can think it is wrong but definitely not shocked or surprised at the move.
I would bank on XBLG not existing in a year or so. Get enough people onto GPU and then remove XBLG and make MP free. I think all the rumours of MP going free are real, just not in the timeline or the way that people have been saying it.
Having read a bunch of takes on this price increase, it seems some people are forgetting there is a large audience of Xbox gamers who only play the annual FIFA/CoD/Madden games or Fortnite and nothing else. They have no interest in GamePass, so they are now paying double to play their games online.
it's impressive how they double the price just by saying they are increasing the price a dollar per month.
Well, this is exactly what they want after all.
It's a very shrewd move that is impossible to implement in a good way. They need to consolidate or eliminate Gold within the year because the service existing alongside GPU was always borderline redundant, but now it's just silly.
This by no means a comprehensive list and I'm only going to talk about Gold...
Here's some what you're paying for:
- A centralised account and identity service
- An enforcement team to monitor the platform and its users.
- 'Free' games (these used to be good, since Game Pass turned up they're not so good..)
- A centralised matchmaking service with "TrueSkill" ranking
Cloud based saves used to be part Gold but are now free, basically log into any Xbox (or Game Pass cloud) and start a game and your save file is synchronised and you continue where you left off.
It's sold as a multiplayer thing, that's the hook, your money actually pays for a lot of infrastructure which is made available to developers and for keeping the platform 'safe'.
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The price is a bit too steep for my taste. 120 a year for online is crazy talk and I expect Sony to follow in some manner this year or next. Either way, it's coming and PC continues to be the best value all around.
This sucks for the people investing in the console. I feel very fortunate that I invested in a Gaming PC a few years ago, so I only had to deal with the Game Pass for PC price hike from $5/month to $10/month.
Until Sony increases the price of PSPlus because Microsoft got away with it. We are all going to suffer while PC gamers chuckle at our plights.
One year of live is a little over half the price of the TB expansion for series consoles. Insane
It is PR, OP has just copied MS' title. I do think adding the new prices would be a good addition though.
Conspiracy theory:
- Xbox wanted to drop XBLG
- Impact to fiscal reports was deemed too high, given that would likely lead to a big drop in paid subscriptions initially, which would look bad for a service-driven company
- Idea was to artificially make people migrate to GPU via this strategy
- When XBLG is low enough in subscription numbers compared to GP + GPU, they'll drop it entirely
- Xbox wanted to drop XBLG
- Impact to fiscal reports was deemed too high, given that would likely lead to a big drop in paid subscriptions initially, which would look bad for a service-driven company
- Idea was to artificially make people migrate to GPU via this strategy
- When XBLG is low enough in subscription numbers compared to GP + GPU, they'll drop it entirely
yeah for people like that I do feel bad.
It doesn't matter much to someone saying "ah but for only another $60/year you can get GPU" if all they want to do is play CoD online.
After all there are plenty of folk out there who only play a couple of big games like CoD and that's it, beyond that there's no interest.
Well yeah but not really anything to do with the Gold price hike
Because people still don't get it. The current price of gold is $50 for 6 months. $100 for 12 months. Don't confuse the remaining retailer stock of the old 12-month cards because Microsoft stopped producing and selling those last year. That is not the actual current price of gold.
This is limited stock. They don't make these anymore.
I don't know how you can look at what they did today and ever come to this conclusion. The fact F2P games aren't free on Gold still kind of says it all. I agree they eventually get rid of Live and make you pay $20 a month but it will be $20 a month or get absolutely nothing.
There is nothing strange about incremental price increases to a service. However, a 100% price increase without substantially increasing XBL's value is bad business.
To me, this is a sign of rocky management. Is this price increase a response to poor adoption initiatives that have cheapened GPU to an unacceptable level? Are they underperforming GPU growth targets? Why haven't they decoupled f2p games from XBL? Is this a ploy to push players to adopt GPU even if all they play is Warzone/Fortnite and maybe an occasional AAA SP title?
What a mess. Leave it to beaver so they say.
To me, this is a sign of rocky management. Is this price increase a response to poor adoption initiatives that have cheapened GPU to an unacceptable level? Are they underperforming GPU growth targets? Why haven't they decoupled f2p games from XBL? Is this a ploy to push players to adopt GPU even if all they play is Warzone/Fortnite and maybe an occasional AAA SP title?
What a mess. Leave it to beaver so they say.
I got charged for 1 new year two days ago and i was charged $60. Maybe because i have autorenewal.
Does my new year entitle me to some game pass benefit?
Does my new year entitle me to some game pass benefit?
Every company will go after more money, if they think it's valuable and achievable. What I mean by that is nobody will increase the price of a services, if they expect many to cancel their subscription. This could potentially end up in a loss.
However Sony has shown in the recent past with the price increase for games that yes, they'll absolutely increase the price of something, even if they could've continued selling it at a lower price. Their games are extremely profitable as it is and there was no pressure at all. Neither Sony or Microsoft are consumers friends. They'll do whatever is necessary to get more profit.
I dislike the decision to increase the price, especially with Gold. The offered games with the exception of this upcoming month were really bad in the collection and while I actually do think XBL is the most modern and stable onlineservice, it doesn't warrant such a huge price spike. Poor decision imo.
Nothing changes for you, as indicated in the first bullet point of the announcement.
Yup, this is where I fall. Plus mix in some Halo multiplayer. Several of my friends are on xbox so that's where we play together. This price hike might just push us out of MS ecosystem since none of us have any interest in GP
PC is an open market, you have no real leverage as a platform holder to push through an online paywall, people will just go to another store.
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