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Xbox Raises Price of 6-month Gold Sub to $59.99 (Up: Policy reversed, prices to stay the same)

Derktron

Banned
The price increase isn't real guys.

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Microsoft right now
 

Dabaus

Banned
They are basically saying if you only play yearly releases like madden or fifa, buy a ps4 /ps5.

Incredibly short sighted and silly. Dropping f2p requirment would have softened the blow.
Remember when Phil tweeted back last year " We dont care if you buy a ps5 this holiday"? If playstation is your competition why would you promote that kind of language? To be "Good guy Phil" so for twitter clout? Would Nadella approve of that? Or is there a long term, ulterior motive MS isnt ready to talk about yet? Think about it.
 

You were saying?
Official. Damn!

PS gamers: Stock on PS+ as well as a precaution. This market is an oligopoly after all.

This is bad for all of us. F MS.
 
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Dabaus

Banned
Microsoft's "monopoly" is really only with Windows though. Plenty of competition in gaming. So it really isn't "price gouging" as there are clear alternatives. Microsoft or any other company can price themselves out of the market whenever they want. It is stupid, but not illegal.



Microsoft has handed Sony a pretty clear advantage with this. Let's hope Jim Ryan refrains from being Jim Ryan for once.
With 45 million PS Plus suscribers a 10 dollar increase would be 450 million dollars, 20 would be 900 million dollars, per year. All profit. And still be the cheapest option for online play, well besides nintendo and PC. Thats alot of money. They could even sweeten the deal like access to crunchy roll or sony movies and people wouldnt even complain.
 
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With 45 million PS Plus suscribers a 10 dollar increase would be 450 million dollars, 20 would be 900 million dollars, per year. All profit. And still be the cheapest option for online play, well besides nintendo and PC. Thats alot of money.

Which is why this is bad for all of us. If Sony has no market pressure fear of consumer flight within its target demographic because its poor excuse of a competition is gouging the few consumers they have left then someone like Jimmy boy will be extremely tempted to gouge us as well (just look at EU game pricing for PS games) to impress his bosses. F'ing MS man.
 
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JORMBO

Darkness no more
Way too much for what it offers. I wonder if Sony will jack up their price to $80-90/yr in response and say it is a better deal.
 

ethomaz

Banned
@ ethomaz ethomaz that's not the way these digital codes work, LOL. There will be a small queue to ensure availability (why these get exhausted at points of above average sales) but the system is essentially real-time, just like phone top-ups etc. You don't have months and months of digital "stock" on hand.
You have a batch of keys available to your retail... the keys are unique for that specific product ($60 1Y card).
While that batch of keys is not all sold the online store can sell them.
When they start to sell the new batch of keys it start the new price.

Who is talking about months? lol
The new cards reached the retail yesterday.

BTW eat that fresh crow: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/22/update-on-xbox-live-gold-pricing/
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
Still £49 for the year on uk Amazon. What is price of ultimate for the year?

£10.99 a month so £131.88 a year if you don’t get any deals.

I’m assuming we’re getting a similar hike in the UK and I’m expecting 12 month cards from retailers to disappear soon.
 

ethomaz

Banned

You were saying?
Bbbbbut I checked Amazon, Bestbuy, Gamestop, etc etc etc online... are you saying I had no ideia what I was talking about?

I'm in DENIAL so it could only be FAKE!
I'm sure hackers hacked that MS page... I will sent a tweet to my uncle Phil ASAP.
 
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Maxwell Jacob Friedman

leads to fear. Fear leads to xbox.
They wont, they expect you to grab your ankles and enjoy it. Sony fans should have fought against this bs for the ps4 and and same for MS fans when their online was introduced because they started the paywall trash. Unless its booty box heavy console gamers wont do shit.
 

icerock

Member
I mean, the blog post itself doesn't justify anything because there's little to justify. They are literally adding nothing of value to Gold, just trying to coax people into pay for GamePass Ultimate which is gonna set them $180/year.

You look at the numbers on Xbox, 80% of console users never subscribed to GamePass. Those who were into MP gaming, or wanted to use apps like Netflix for streaming, they continued to pay for XBL Gold. MS were never gonna kill their golden goose which was XBL Gold, they are just trying to get more people to pay the price which they want.... well that's the danger in a subscription based business. You can cheer every acquistion, or every moneyhat, in the end the corporations will squeeze you by the balls. And, you can't do anything about it, since all your progress/save is tied into that subscription.
 

alienator

Member
the longer i think about it, the more i see this is a consumer friendly move.
why tie someone for 12 months to your service? 6 months is more than enough, and the price stays the same as 12 months! everybody wins!

but seriously guys...

u know whats gonna happen when everybody is on gamepass right?
 

KAL2006

Banned
Man I hate paying for online games it's affected me playing games alot as I can't justify paying for online just to have a few games. I like to dip in a online game here and their but not enough to justify a price. This is why my Switch gets barely any play, I know Nintendo online is dirt cheap but I would literally play a game like Smash Bros or Mario Kart maybe 10 hours in a year and that's it. I turned on Switch the other day after a long time and out on some Mario Maker 2. Tried to play a user created level and got message need Switch online. Then I simply thought I guess I can't play this and turned the Switch off. If Switch had free online I would have played it more and even be tempted to buy more games.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I dont think you can justify doubling the price. A 100% jump is pretty huge for somehting like this. I bet there is more to this story to come.
It is a 50% price increase if you look at old price... 6 months was $39.
They issue that makes it looks like 100% is that they removed completely the 1 year option that should be $99 now.
 

Stuart360

Member
It is a 50% price increase if you look at old price... 6 months was $39.
They issue that makes it looks like 100% is that they removed completely the 1 year option that should be $99 now.
Didnt realize that, thought it was a straight doublling of the price.
Well a new gen starting, a 40% hike, 50% hike, i could see that to be honest. Its just the way the world works with stuff like this.
Hopefully they add a few incentives at least.
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
1
Remember when fake xbox insiders would tell us that MS was going to drop xbox gold to play online, any minute now? LOL. My hunch, xbox revenues are collapsing because they've conditioned their audience not to buy software anymore but not enough people are subscribed to game pass yet to make up the difference. Im sure Series S isnt cheap to manufacture and it doesnt help its just sitting on shelves all across Europe.
armchair market analyst right here ..probably u was in class with don matrick don't u?
 

Fbh

Member
They won't.
They'll probably just give some generic PR statement about about ensuring the best experience or something.
And as gaming audiences have proven again and again they'll bitch an moan for a month or two but most will just keep paying. In a year no one will care anymore and in 2 years we'll see people happily positing about how they managed to grab a year on a 50% sale for only $60.

Sony will probably follow in 10-15 months (maybe not up to $120, but more than $60)

"If you’re an existing online 12-month or 6-month Xbox Live Gold member, there’s no price change. If you choose to renew your membership, it will renew at the current price."

That's smart.
Keeps people subscribed because if they don't renew, the next time they want back on the service the price will double
 
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It is a 50% price increase if you look at old price... 6 months was $39.
They issue that makes it looks like 100% is that they removed completely the 1 year option that should be $99 now.
They removed the year option that is Still available at retailers everywhere. You'd figure those years subs would be gone since they dropped the year option from MS last year. I am not yet convinced that this is the end of the world. Nobody likes a price hike but this seems easily circumvented.
 

icerock

Member
What do u mean by this?

If you play through a game on GP, you'll need an active subscription if you want to experience it again months/years down the line. Main problem with recurring subscription, no option but to be hooked into it forever. Unless, you buy the game outright, at whatever price it is going for then.

It just becomes very expensive over time when more publishers will join in. Just look at TV/Movie space.
 
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Starhowl

Member
If that's gonna be real, I'm out from the Xbox ecosystem. I have a Game Pass subscription and for a mysterious reason, I'm never able to play any of the games. But then I have to pay for it no matter what? :messenger_pouting:
 

chonga

Member
I guess you missed the PR piece. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/22/update-on-xbox-live-gold-pricing/

They are "strengthening the digital safety of our players" (should be standard expectation of the product).
They are "enabling new ways to share" (should be standard for a subscription product - else you're paying for the same old shit)
They are "enabling new ways to communicate and play with your friends" (they mean you're funding xCloud, even though you have to pay extra for it)
They are "delivering industry leading reliability across our network" (again, standard expectation of any product)
 

DJTHEGREY

Member
Only way to justify it... Is to include Gamepass.... As an ultimate subscriber... This doesn't effect me directly... But I'm definitely worried this means Gamepass prices will increase as well. 100% increase is definitely a deal breaker especially when sony has similar services significantly cheaper.
 
By releasing good games. This move will kill them if they don't deliver on that front. I guess they are confident enough about that.

One thing is for sure though, this news killed any hope for Sony stans that MS might release any of their games on PS5.
 

driqe

Member
Didnt realize that, thought it was a straight doublling of the price.
Well a new gen starting, a 40% hike, 50% hike, i could see that to be honest. Its just the way the world works with stuff like this.
Hopefully they add a few incentives at least.
Fortnite on PS -free
Fortnite on PC -free
Fortnite on NS -free
Fortnite on XB -$120/year

ok wtf

the paywall must be getting removed right? RIGHT??
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
This same thing WILL happen to GamePass in a year or two also. Trust me! MS will attempt to make that $7.5 Billion back.

This is just pure business. Lock people into a rental service, dissuade them from buying games, eventually reduce the quality of discounts in games and then raise the price of the service, because people will be almost forced to pay the increase since they will realize they haven’t bought a game in three years.
 
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