August 30th 2010 4:00 pm PT

wtf! You don’t even give us enough content to justify $50 let alone $60.. glad I’m paid up for the next year and a half…

…and this is terrible.

Well I hope the UK gets ESPN then, at least something to make the price hike somewhat reasonable. Major, anything at all on last weeks missing games on demand, what’s arriving tomorrow and whether Dead Rising: Case Zero will arrive alongside?

So what about seven year Xbox Live gold members like myself? I think with that dedication to your service I should retain the current price model.

Let’s all thank ESPN/Last FM/Twitter/Facebook and every other useless additional service for this. What a world of butthurt…

Wow that is ridiculous. If you want to do something decent for the community ditch Microsoft Points and charge real money instead of upping the price of Live.

O God more price rises thats all people need now.

This isnt going to end well

hahahahhaha lol charging 60 dollars and now telling the people it`s not enough ? hahahah Microsoft should win an award for kicking their loyal userbase in the balls and laughing at the same time

Prices didn’t need an increase they were fine. Don’t you guys make enough money?

How (if at all) will this affect the forthcomming ‘Family Pack’ pricing?

So what new features are you giving us to justify the $10 increase? Currently we pay $50 for the features we have to date, If you arent adding something totally new then how is this not just an increase to offset costs?

Im fine if you have to increase it because of the cost of running has increased, But I feel you should say that instead of saying “We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.” The discount program is a good first step in making the yearly fee a better value but you still need to do more. (free games like PSN is doing or free expansions… something)

I don’t really like the sound of this. I already pay 50 bucks a year for the service and I don’t even use all the additional things you offer. If I want facebook, twitter or radio I will use my computer or a real radio.

Last.FM, Twitter, and Facebook shouldn’t even factor into the price since they’re already free to use on the internet. Not to mention some people, like myself, rarely ever even use them on my 360. And I don’t give a damn about ESPN and I won’t be using it. This price increase is ridiculous. Maybe Microsoft is trying to push people to the Playstation 3.

Why are you going to charge more in mexico if we dont even have netflix and will probably never have ESPN, i heard you were going to add the zune store but that is not worth the 100 pesos, and im not interested on kinnect and you are going to add kinect video but why pay for this feature that i will never going to use? and that i need that peripheral so we buy the kinect and then you are going to charge us extra so we can use the video capabilities of kinect? wow microsoft keeps charging and charging for any reason.

It’s worth pointing out, that in typical marketing speak “Lock in” means 1 year at the $39.99 then back to regular pricing. I quote (from the mouse print): “One year subscription at $39.99 for the first year with auto-renewal at the then current annual price following year one.”
I still need my live, it gives me Netflix, but this is pushing it. I may buy Live scratch cards to get me set for a few years, unless some BIG announcement comes soon (and it better not be the canceling of something else. Another large 1vs100 style game might push me back in).

My God. If they increase the price for Ireland I will be pissed because we only get half the content compared to the american xbox live.

We Don’t Have:

ESPN (Well we won’t be getting it)
Last FM
Netfix
Can’t enter competitions
Indie Games

So they better not increase the price for Ireland.

What about the year or 3 month membership in the UK?

What a great idea, raise prices when developers are already starting to charge extra to play online! Absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!!!

Screw this. I got one more year of GOLD and I am NOT renewing. All you additional services are crap btw. That is why I got a PC.

I won’t mind the global price increase so much if I knew that Microsoft was working to get the same ‘value added’ features to other countries that are currently enjoyed by or planned for the US members.

Otherwise, limit the price increase to the US only.

Wow… This is going to make purchasing multiple accounts a little harder. $20 extra for my wife’s account and mine. As a LONG TIME member of Xbox Live I hope these new features live up to my expectations or I might just go Silver. =\

Seriously? You guys better start providing services for Gold users that don’t require us to pay more to other companies to use them (Netflix, ESPN, Last.FM, etc.) or something. What MORE are we getting for paying more?

Personally, I’m happy to continue to pay £40 a year for xbox live. However I do also believe that the price should be dropping as opposed to increasing. I’m not sure about the economics behind this move but I think it’s the wrong move. What with the Playstation 3 gaining ground, and their offering of a subscription service as completely optional and not a requirement to play multiplayer online on their network.

I would prefer to see Xbox Live matching this structure.

What US to have the same prices as Canada for gold. Thank god they didn’t make in 29.99 for 3 and 69.99 for 12 in Canada

i have been thinking of ending my Xbox Live subscription because right now i just don’t think it is worth it,and now you are putting the prices up…..bad move
-
this has been an absolutely terrible year for MS,and the worse part of it is that its all your own fault….from your absolutely dire showing at E3 to your broken promises of Joyride free for golders..you have just gone from bad to worse

This sucks especially for those of us who can’t get most XBL features: only online gaming is available, but no ESPN, movie or tv show downloads, no last.fm and so much more…

Well this is just dumb. Other than playing online, I don’t even use it for anything else. I don’t use any of the features like twitter or facebook. Never really anything good for DotW. I don’t even download the demos so I could care less if I have to wait another week for Silver users.

Here’s hoping this announcement is quickly followed with some exciting new features to make the higher price worthwhile…..

This makes me doubly annoyed since part of the reason I bought Gold was for 1 vs 100, right before it was canceled. There better be something like that to justify the increase. Hopefully retailers like Amazon and Best Buy will continue to have sales on cards for $30-$40, although I imagine it may not be $40-$50.

With an increase in price what new features are we getting? Aside from multiplayer for games and the ability to pay for other services there is no difference (that I can figure) between Silver and Gold. We’re already paying more for arcade games than we used to – why is multi more expensive, too?

If this means that pay services will be free for Gold members that’d be fine though. I could go for some Hulu Plus folded into my Live fee. Or free games as long as I’m paid up a la PSN Plus. But if this is just $10 more per year to keep playing Halo online then it’s a giant ripoff.

I have to agree with The Bill Payer. I may not have been on the service for 7 years, but I do think SOME sort of discount should be offered to anyone who’s been on for say… 5+ years? Which is still a fairly long time. It would actually make a genuine use to that tenure on your profile.

If there’s going to be an increase, perhaps we could get extra features along with it? That would be nice.

Also, I, too, would like to know how this will affect the Family Pack. I’ve got three adults and one child in the house and it would be perfect for us to take advantage of it, but I had only planned on the $100/yr for the four of us. Will it be increasing to $120? Either way, I still think it’s the way to go if you’ve got more than two people in the household who game on Live.

I’m giving you the middle finger but you can’t see it, Microsoft.

I’m definitely getting the Family Pack. I don’t think a year of LIVE is worth $60.

Nice price lock in. Not locking in anything. $40 for that, then a full $60. Locking a price in means it’d be $40 again in a year…

This is sorta how I feel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISXiFJS9D5A

Please major say “It’s Not True!”

@ShaggyB

They love to hint that Netflix is part of the Gold package yet it’s an additional $9 a month plus tax. Maybe Microsoft should include Netflix in this price hike.

I love XboxLIVE, however upping the price with no return is not the way to go, what is the point in giving us services that most people use a laptop or pc for? eg. facebook
As you can see from all the posts this is going to Anger a lot of dedicated users.

If this does not effect the family plan then I am ok with it because it stay’s the same price for me and my wife at 100 bucks a year. And really guys it’s ten bucks did you all complain this much when games went from $50 to $60 ?

I’m not really seeing features that really justify a price hike, the gold member don’t have much over the silver members especially when the other networks have online play for free

unless there are some huge features we don’t know about I can’t see this, if features like netflix will be touted it also has to be pointed out that we also have to pay for that as well which access to that is also free on the other platforms

unless our games get dedicated servers or something big then this is a very uncool movie, it doesn’t seem like very much but if you are a casual user of live this is going to sway you big

all I gotta say is I’m glad I just reupped on the cheap, as for next year we will see if the feature set is there

in my opinion this seems as though the price increase is not for our benefit

So, based on what that shows, does it mean that the one year subscription price is staying the same for Canada and the UK?

I’m already paid up through February or March 2012 I believe so this isn’t going to effect me for quite a while, if at all.

Instead of just showing my extreme hate for this, why don’t you guys announce this with the new features? Would have went over a lot better. Now the separation between free psn and 60 dollar xbox live is pretty big.

So does this mean the upcoming Family Pack pricing is going to be an EVEN BETTER deal at $100 for four subscriptions with the new single subscriptions being $60? Or are you going to be announcing a new pricing structure for the Family Pack too? Please tell me that’s not the case.

I have mixed emotions about this. Granted, $10 over the span of a year isn’t very much with as much as I use my 360, but you’d better be “darned” sure you’re going to be providing some kick-butt content for that extra $10.

so much loathing for Microsoft right now

With all the revenue being generated from ADVERTISEMENTS that play sound as soon as you boot the 360 up, you’d think that MS would be giving LIVE away for free.

The service has gotten worse, not better, over the years. A price increase can in no way be justified.

Wow, brutal. So for those outside the USA, who don’t get a bunch of the features/promotions that Americans do, and yet we still get a price bump?? That’s pretty ridiculous.

Well this sucks to say the least.. I mean, ok the increase isn’t all that much.. but you know how much it sucks for expatriates? I mean.. I STILL don’t have access to Last.FM, or Netflix or any of that other stuff because although I have a US account, since I took it with me overseas, I’m blocked out.
So I get charged more for stuff I can’t even use.. awesome.

This would be easier to swallow if we could actually see any XBL Gold improvements coming. Instead we’ve lost 1vs100 and the DOTW have steadily gotten worse (avatar items in particular). Before the rates increase, I’d ask to the team what they plan to deliver that provides the value of a full game ($60 MSRP) year over year.

At a time when money is tight, I see this increase as a very bad idea.

Soooooo only the 1 month’s worth of live per month is changing in price for Canada? Carry on…

Take a page from Sony’s book and start offering a free game or 2 a month for the life of the subscription.

How can a price rise for the uk be justified when we get half the content the US gets….we dont get majors minute but they get Sent u a message or atleast did

They get free gamepics on a weekly basis we barely do

they get free MS points through Supports twitter, we dont

theres only so much the “Legal” issues most of us will take

guess im lucky ive not payed MS’s extreme prices for live for 3 years ive had it

There hasn’t been a price increase in a long time and the service that the Live team provides makes this small increase not that a big a deal. Netflix, music, lag free online gaming, free demos, free video features, etc is well worth the $50 or now $60 a year (much cheaper when you shop around). If a $10 increase is a big deal for you, maybe you shouldn’t be paying $50 for live in the first place.

Sorry but this is a TERRIBLE MOVE. Instead of the price going down like it should be, you guys are upping it? Why? The dashboard is already flooded with advertisements and it’s still going to be after the price increase…

I’m all for giving up more cash if it gets me more features… Can you guys please add hardware acceleration and VC-1 codec support to Xbox 360 and Media Center Extender.

Thanks

How will this affect pricing on the recently announced Family Pack?

As a long time Xbox Live member, I’m seriously disappointed that you are raising the cost of the subscription especially as I find myself spending more and more money on streaming content from Xbox.

So your justification for the price update is all the extra features that xbox live has? hmm, how about last.fm, which is free by the way, or Facebook and Twitter, which are also free. ESPN3 you say is part of the new package? well how about the millions of people who wont be able to use this feature because ESPN3 is blacked out with their ISP? You overprice map packs for the most popular game of 2009-2010, and still want more money from your loyal user base? like ShaggyB said, “Im fine if you have to increase it because of the cost of running has increased, But I feel you should say that instead of saying “We’re confident [...] industry.”" Also, look at the model PSN is using, they give away way more free stuff than you do, while over a few downloads, you make back the price you paid for their service. I don’t see too much from Live on this. Going back to ShaggyB’s comment, if you are going to do this, just say so.
Not a good move Microsoft, not a good one at all.

Are you kidding me, 1st you remove 1 vs 100, then I discover while recently being involved in a windows for games live beta that I cannot be on xbox live and windows live at the same time, and now you’re increasing the price. This stinks.

Let me jump in here and answer a few questions I’ve seen on Twitter etc.

1) If you renew at the lower price, you will not be subject to the new price until your subscription runs out.
2) The ONLY regions and subscriptions that are affected are the ones above.

And yes, I’ll be sharing some of the comments (good and bad) with the team.

Here’s why they’re increasing the price: Even with all your whining and complaining, you’ll still pay it. They know you will.

If you don’t like it, put your money where your mouth is and cancel your subscriptions. That’s the ONLY way you’ll ever get a message across. Don’t want to do that? Well, looks like they’ve got ya then.

Every US Gamer thought they get ESPN for free ( like they said at E3) and suddenly the price goes up and its 60 dollars for a year… lol so it`s 10 Dollars for ESPN then! lol and i don`t expect one single answer from major nelson in this comments

The problem I have is the fact you still have to pay for Netflix, Zune (when it comes), and in general arcade games and stuff have all risen in price. I think the added features (like better voice chat) need to be shown off for people to accept it. I guess they might add stuff they couldn’t before now that Xbox Original is dead, but still.

I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. I think we need to hold off on complaining till we see these new features come out.

@elbelcho – You might be angry at the price change but to say live has gotten worse over the years is completely stupid.

We all need to remember that Microsoft is a business that exists solely to make money. You may not like it but not enough people are going to cancel because of this for them to not go through with it.

I’d love to hear a logical reason for the price increase. Hurting for money Microsoft, or just looking for easy money from loyal customers?

How about making online multiplayer open to silver users, or at least create a new subscription for like $20-30 per year that just does the online play. I don’t use Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, or any of that other stuff – I only pay for live for online play, which I can get for free and a superior performance on PC anyways. I might stick around for 1 more year to try out Gears 3, but after that I’m done paying for stuff I never use (the dashboard fluff) and for stuff that should be free (online play).

What the hell is your guy’s problem? This sucks so hard I don’t have words to describe it. At the VERY VERY VERY VERY least add in a middle option at like 39.99 for a year with less crap that I don’t use like Twitter on Xbox, Facebook on Xbox, and Last.FM on Xbox.

I don’t care if you guys offer more stuff. This is a slap in the face to your customers. I don’t care how much better your service is than PlayStation, its definitely not 59.99 a year’s worth.

I love the Xbox platform despite your constant screw-ups but seriously, are you trying to drive away customers? I work at gamestop and its already tough to hear people laugh at the 49.99 a year price (though I can live with that). I can only imagine what it will be like when I have to tell kids that they raised the price. I’m actually betting that you lose 1/10 customers of live gold and you’re increase in price won’t give you the revenue you want. And you know what? I want that to happen too so you realize that you can’t screw your customers constantly (I’ve had 3 red rings) and expect to keep them.

People just go to newegg.com and get a 12 month for $39 every year.

After a great eight years without a price increase I have no complaints about paying another $10 a year. I know people do not want to pay more money, but in order to make the service stays as great as it is now and to make it better, more networking equipment needs to be purchased for each person that signs up. Enterprise networking equipment is not cheap, luckily Microsoft (presumably) owns a lot of the server code they use.

WTF, this is BS. Why are you raising the prices? I’m already annoyed with the amount of annoying ads in the Dashboard and you guys haven’t even fixed the cluttered interface when I’m browsing XBLA games or video content.

If you’re raising prices, get rid of all the stupid ads on the Dashboard for Gold members at least. Or provide more discounts for XBLA games for us.

I think the Xbox live team really can’t understand that there are people who DON’T CARE about Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, etc.. people like me, who see XBOX LIVE as a GAMING plataform.

60 bucks for P2P gaming is a bit ridiculous.

You guys should offer packages targetted only to people that just want to PLAY online… (online multiplayer and parties only) That’s all I really want to do with my Xbox. I’m not even allowed to use all the other additional content such as last.fm, Netflix, etc. etc. etc.

Will this affect the price of pre-paid subscription cards that can be bought in store or is it just for online sign up/renewal?

Oh and i’m guessing the reason for the price rise is pretty simple; over time the value of your money falls (inflation) so you have to make more of it to maintain/increase your buying power.

This is so sad for the people that support the XBL experience…. thats the way that M$ pay u … sad sad sad…

You sure made me feel like an idiot for defending this subscription. Microsoft is trying to offset their guaranteed loss on Kinect by sticking it to their loyal customers who have been there since the beginning.

I seriously hope they add more stuff to XBL to justify the price increase.
Thankfully, the 12 month isn’t increasing in Canada as it’s already $59.99 here.

Such BS.

I have to agree that this is completely stupid. What justification does Microsoft have for raising the price? Every E3 they talk about how great they are for adding all these new features and not raising the price and now they go back on that. There is no reason for this. Microsoft is already making a lot of money from Xbox Live. I know $10 extra a year is not very much and it really won’t affect me much but this is still a stupid idea. You don’t raise the price of a service when they start to have some good competition from PSN. I know PSN is still not on par with Xbox Live but they are catching up. If Microsoft is adding something more than what they talked about at E3 than this might be worth it. But imo ESPN is not worth it because i can already watch it on TV or on my computer. If they did something like a free game of dlc that would make this worth it (ala PSN Plus) but right now i dont see a reason to raise the price. I really think that if Microsoft was smart they would make Xbox Live a little more tiered than it is. They should keep the free silver they way it is but they should have a free $30 a year plan that is just multiplayer and chat functionality. This would give the people who just want to game and don’t care about the extras a cheaper plan. Then they keep the $50 plan that gives you access to multiplayer and the extras like netflix, Last.fm ……etc. And even if you want to get crazy you could have a plan above that for $60 a year and have extra discounts, free games/themes/add ons, and make it advertisement free. Personally i believe that this would be the way to go so that people who just want to game dont have to pay for services that they won’t use.

Personally with the fact that PSN is free your going to force more 360 users over to Sony.

$49.99 was a good price point, still pricey, but at least you could say it was below $50, now it’s heading to $60 and what for what extras? ESPN. You know not everyone is a sports fan. Throw Hulu in for free and I think about keeping my subscription past 2012.

How about doing what PSN+ and give us gold members a free Downloadable game a month as long as we stay a gold member.

Thank god I’m paid up till 2012. No wonder people are jumping ship, and your gonna find even more are going to go to Sony.

You want to keep customers, then you seriously need to re think your pricing. With Free PSN and PSN improving all the time, you seriously are going in the wrong direction when it comes to pricing.

Think about this your so focus on Kinect, what really is there for core gamer to look forward too. Halo Reach, Fable 3 and Gears Of War 3 next year. Whats after that, whats in the future. Everything is Kinect, Kinect this, Kinect that. You have neglected your main fanbase and frankly I don’t blame anyone for jumping over to Sony. If the Xbox had the games that the PS3 has coming in the future I wouldn’t be so concerned that my investment wasn’t a waste.

You have it all wrong guys.

Only effecting the 1month UK plan – brilliant – anyone using that instead of a year plan doesn’t do maths. £27.99 on Ebay for 12months

I didn’t realize that stuff like Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm were Gold only. Most others probably didn’t either because nobody uses those broken bare-bones apps. They’re better on PC where they started. Netflix doesn’t count as you’re still paying Netflix for the sub. All I get out of a Live sub is multiplayer and access to XBLM sales. Multiplayer is free everywhere else, and it’s not like I even get dedicated servers for my sub fee. I’ll be lapsing my XBL subscription from here on out if I can’t find $40/yr sales again. Good thing I’ve got a PS3 already.

If this is the case, it would be cool to get more (free) content or some new LIVE feature. Other than that, do not want.

HA! Good one, Major Nelson.

And here come the crybabies. Seriously, it’s an extra $0.03 a day. That’s right – 3 pennies a day is the increase. On top of that, Major linked to Amazon, where you can get renewal cards for $40. Stop crying. If you had any common sense, you would realize that the cost of doing business doesn’t decrease every year – only only increases, unless we were in a period of deflation (which we’re not). That’s why you get pay raises for your job, not pay decreases. If it costs Microsoft more money each year to retain people like Major, e, or Stepto, then you should expect to pay more for your service eventually. That’s not price gouging, that’s just what it costs to run a business.

Keep up the good work Major.

There should be 2 levels of gold now, an ad free one at the new prices and an ad riddled one like the current dashboard. Also the free games like psn plus would be nice, might have to let my live run out and go ps3. Microsoft is turning into the big oil companies. It’s all about making more money. I’ve been buying less and less dlc/arcade and no paid avatar gear at the higher prices. Been loving the dlc disks the have been put out, I have found the borderlands and fallout ones at half the price of live.

Don’t think I’ve used any of the benefits of my gold subscription since I played Gears of War 2 coop when it was first released. I’ve just absorbed the cost as I felt it was useful to keep it going. If you’re going to put the price up I shall probably just cancel it, or just get a cheap voucher code off ebay.

Your restrictions on XBL are already holding things back (where’s iPlayer, or Valves free DLC content?), you don’t get to charge more for restricting content.

Wow Major you really opened a can of worms with this one!

Let me just say that the price increase is not a big deal and nobody should be complaining. As Major stated they have managed to keep the price the same over the past 7 years while adding several new features. If you don’t like it go play on the Playstation network and deal with that mess. Price increases are a part of life… deal with it.

PLEASE answer, Does the increase in XBL prices mean that developers will NOT be charge extra for online like some have started?

Seriously Major, not a lot of love for this in whatever country you are increasing it.

How about a tiered payment scheme depending on what features of Live you actually need. Like a lot of others I have no need for Facebook or Twitter, and we don’t get ESPN. I don’t want to download Movies either as I have a SkyHD subscription. A basic cheaper fee for those who just want to play online rising up for those who want these additional features would be the best way to go IMHO.

For once the UK dont get stiffed… :p

@Farfromit4: I was wondering when the first corporate kiss ass would show up…and there you are.

I would rather pay the old price for XBL gold and lose all the “extras” (Last.FM, Facebook, Twitter…) that are free from any computer.

so dissapointed, you guys make enough money to drink people blood

So everybody is mad because after 7+ years of bringing them more and more content each year at no additional cost to the consumer XBOX finally sees no other way to afford bringing people the same great service than to raise prices a little. My family and I stand with our XBOX LIVE. The discount offer is a generous deal too.

Hey, I’ve got an idea!
How about you LOWER the prices not RAISE them.

What I find rather amusing about this price increase is that I’m not sure where the justification is currently at for $50/year. No ability to log into my account from anywhere (unless I take a memory card with my profile along with me). No online storage for game saves. No real servers hosting games like other paid online gaming services. No removal of any ads in the NXE if I’ve got a Gold account versus a Silver account.

My PlayStation 3 does not have the robustness of online features that my Xbox 360 does, but more often than not it’s close enough. And, of course, it’s also free. Does it have Facebook, Twitter, or Last.FM? No, but I’ve already got those on my computer and iPhone, and have no need for them on a gaming console where they’re used as “justification” for paying for online. Netflix? I can do that on both my PS3 and Wii without having to pay any “right to use” tax, and hell, it’ll be built into the XMB shortly on the PS3.

There’s also the fact that, on my PS3, my wife and I can both take our own separate accounts online to play games. For free. On the Xbox 360, you aren’t just wanting me to pay $50 (now $60) a year to take my console online, you’re wanting me to pay PER PERSON. Utterly ridiculous.

The little gimmicks that have been added to Xbox Live in no way, shape, or form justify the price Xbox Live Gold is currently at, let alone a price increase. It’s funny that on the Xbox 360, I can pay $50 a year to have the right to play games online (a right I get for free on EVERY OTHER PLATFORM); if I pay $50 a year on the PS3, I’m given free games, free content, and other actual tangible bonuses.

@DJMNTS:

In Mexico we don’t get either Last.FM, Netflix, ESPN, or Hulu. Not even a half-decent video marketplace. Yet, we also get a price increase? How can you justify that?

That is total BS in my book. Why do non-US people get to pay for all those features?

Well I can say that this is a joke. I pay the annual fee now and it is so full of advertisements its ridiculous. If you raise the price take out the ads for the gold members at least.

I’m going to go with Microsoft probably has something pretty decent planned for our next dash update on Nov 4th and they just haven’t told us yet. With the addition of Playstation + on the PS3 for 49.99 a year, Microsoft MUST be adding something cool to justify the price hike.

@ Majornelson

What about long time user like myself? I hope that is mentioned to the higher ups, I’d hate to pay an additional $10 a year after seven years. I don’t even use the extra features like Netflix, ESPN, Facebook, Last FM and Twitter. This is a gaming console after all….

I understand what your doing but this is only going to piss off more people about paying for Xbox Love Gold membership yet how will this effect the family package deal that will be coming out will that increase and not be $99.99

Will you also stop touting Netflix, if Netflix was included in the price then fine, but you still have to pay the Netflix subscription.

I was considering letting my Gold membership lapse in October… guess this seals the deal.

Is there any real justification for this?

The ONLY thing I can think of is the improved voice codec coming later this year, but this isn’t something I need, and is it really going to use up an extra $10 a year of bandwidth?

Previous features have been brought in as part of the old membership so that isn’t justification. And even if it was the reason, out of all the things that have been introduced since the NXE – FB, Twitter, last.fm, avatars (don’t people waste enough money on those?) – the only thing I use is Party mode, which uses me and my friends bandwidth, not Microsoft’s.

Honestly, a little bit justification would ease a lot of minds. Just as long as it is a reasonable excuse you give.

You do know this country is in a bad economy and you still want to raise prices? Classy.

(6 year member + my son’s 2+ year)

Any price increase for any service will be met with a lot of resistance. MS will expect it and I don’t think any amount of complaining will actually change this decision.

What makes this more disappointing for me is that we will still get plenty of ads along with a cost for service. I had also thought that along with Sony’s dip into the subscription services MS would at the VERY least keep the price the same. I guess MS is so confident that Sony’s inability to handle a online service that they actually jacked the price. Or maybe it was planned all along.

Where is the friend management/increase? Do we at least get something perceived as an increase in service?

Since my son has a Live account I will have to decide whether $120 additional cost is justified. I do see discounts and sales from time to time on Live subscription so I will now wait to upgrade when I find a sale instead of doing it automatically OR maybe I’ll take a break from gaming so much. I could start exercising or develop a cool new iPad app or something. Since my son just started HS I think reducing his gaming time so he can study, do homework and interact with people inside the house may be more important.

*grumble*

Ah, so this is how we are getting ESPN3 for “free” to all gold members. Very sneaky!

But seriously, what are the new features that will be added to compensate for this additional cost? I mean, the new features for most of us, not the tertiary features that lets us watch videos. What new GAMER features are we getting for this?

If Germany gets new prices too thats the next step for me going back to pc gaming. The 360 is far to old now. I just played the Mafia 2 Demo on a mid class pc and it looks way better and runs much smoother.

I hope you add a lot of cool new features then….

Okay… So I don’t understand what’s going to happen to us that are in Canada. You say the monthly fee is $8.99 CAD now, but will be $9.99 CAD. Does that mean that the 3 month subscription and 12 month subscription fees will stay the same, or does it mean that they now won’t be offered? If you are only going to offer Canadians a monthly subscription at $10/month (which is $120/year), I’m pretty confident that there will be way more than just myself bowing out and canceling.

I was looking forward to the family plan that I heard was coming in November and was planning on using it for myself and my kids. What is the status of that now? I’m really not interested in paying a monthly fee (especially when it works out so high), over a cheaper, yearly fee… especially when us Canadians get a fraction of the features that the Americans get, (good for you guys/girls btw…. I’m just saying).

So is there a 3 month and 12 month price for Canadians? If so, how much will it be?

How is the family subscription going to work? How much… How many family members… what length subscriptions can we get, etc.?

I REALLY hope I’m just misunderstanding this. I barely pay online as it is… The deal of the week is a joke most of the time and mostly not an incentive to keep gold. Take all the crap that we don’t want but have, give us the good stuff for a reasonable price, and I’d gladly stay… Keep the prices worth it and I’ll keep my subscription, (just in case I play online once in awhile, and just in case the deal of the week is a heart stopper at some point). If it ends up being what it sounds like you are saying… No thanks.

The service has grown. It has grown to include the sales of avatar items, gamer pictures, and dash themes. These all used to be free marketing items and now Microsoft and publishers are making money selling things with a fixed production cost.

I’m sure that Microsoft is making more than ever running live!

Thank god I’m in the ExpertZone…

But seriously, as others have said, there’s not enough to justify spending $50, let alone $60 for a year’s worth of XBL.

When I saw the headline in my RSS feed, I thought “oh, thank god, a price drop. Finally!” But, alas, you got my hopes up and quickly dashed them away.

I received a response from Major on Twitter, unfortunately the raise in price does not affect developers choosing to charge extra for playing online.

Well, I can understand why Xbox is changing the prices. It was bound to happen.

Twitter and Facebook on the 360 is a complete joke.
Last.fm has ads (that in itself should be paying for the service of those who actually use it (i rarely see anyone on my friends list using the service)).
Netflix is $9 a month for streaming (when it works correctly).
Demos being ‘free’ isn’t a selling point. Demos are a way for us to sample games that we are excited for or havent heard of. This is basically a PR push for more eyes on a game. Not a good selling point at all.

* If you took away any or all of those features from me, I wouldn’t miss them.

Xbox Live Arcade has become more and more pricey since it started.

Correct me if Im wrong here, but:
1. aren’t we having a huge economic issue?
2. Xbox Live subscriptions were up last time I heard any stats on them.

Just looking to milk people for money? How about free Windows Mobile 7 phones for those of us who have been paying our bills for years and bringing new accounts to your service.

You’ve got to be kidding me. PS3 still offers free online play, and all the features I could ever want without having to buy Plus, and yet you are RAISING the price? In THIS economy? Terrible move.

I agree with someone else, not sure who, who posted about being 2 different levels of “Gold” subscription. Facebook, Twitter and Netflix should be left out and let us continue with the same price point. Hardly anyone uses those things as you can get them better on the PC, except maybe Netflix.

In this economy Microsoft thinks raising prices is a good idea? Plan on losing a good number of customers. I for one will be reconsidering, between now and November, on not only keeping my “Gold” subscription but to continue with XBox all together. Maybe PS3 is a better alternative for my online activities.

Wow…that is total crap. Looks like I’ll be voting with my pocketbook. Time to let my Gold expire and just use Silver. Really unacceptable…

I guess XBL is still cheaper per year then other online services, such as MMOs, Netflix, Zune, Gamefly, etc, but man…still kind of bugs me. I just hope stuff improves even more. I do use my 360 for pretty much everything media wise though, and what’s that, 5$ a month? You pay for it once and forget it for the rest of the year, but the ouch comes from the initial bigger payment. I dunno, I just hope it’s worth it. I mostly dislike the constant 15$ arcade games and Games on Demand prices.

I hate it when ‘Pach-Attack!’ is right. With continuously rising prices, and under performance on backward compatibility. It seems silly to still buy XBLA games when in the future, the 360 servers are dropped and Live Gold’s price is increased to $70 for ‘added value’.

I think this is probably the worst time for a price increase. It’s nice to have all these features but who really uses them? I *might* use ESPN3 but twitter, last.fm, facebook. I don’t use any of those. All I use gold for is to play games with other people. I already have a tough time explaining to people why gold is worth $50 a year… at $60, it’ll be even tougher.

Also, please don’t insult your users by saying you can save $20 if you lock in the price right now. You don’t save money on a hypothetical future price. You save $10 if you renew now.

118 comments already, wow MS look at the shit storm you’ve created here…

WHAHAHA the special offer is an server 500 error!!! Thanks MS!

Jesus Christ. You guys keep adding all of these “features” and “extra content,” yet I still have found no use for any of them. Facebook, Last.fm, Twitter, 1 vs 100, it’s all crap. I don’t buy or rent movies. I just want to play games.

Um so are you guys going to tell us what new features are coming to justify the hike???

Or are there none?

So, Canada only sees a change in the monthly prices and not the yearly prices? Does this mean we might also see Canada receiving 1600 and 3200 point cards for US prices? Instead of the garbage we currently pay ($20 for 1400).

Price increases, especially ones that are NOT justified are crap and Microsoft should be ashamed of their greed. With an increase of advertising popping up on the service constantly, the prices should have actually seen a drop. However, with this being an increase, this is a clearly a sign of troubles at Microsoft. Nintendo and Sony must be rockin’ the boat too much and Microsoft is in a panic – so they knee jerk react and attack their consumers with a price increase. Hopefully consumers don’t cave in and this actually causes a reduction in yearly memberships.

It’s amazing the Xbox 360 has done as well. Microsoft continues to do everything possible to screw it up. This is just another step in that direction. Terrible idea Major. Although I NEVER pay full price from MS for XBL, I’m sure this will eventually effect the 12-month XBL cards I pick up for $35-40 on sale. Just M$ being M$ again.

Not to mention the use of “online passes” for new games which devalues the XBL subscription as well. XBL: Includes online play (only if you buy your games new) should be the new tagline.

Does nobody understand that companies have to make more money to reduce the impact of inflation on their money reserves?

With the state of the global economy, how could Microsoft/Xbox Live possibly think that a price increase would generate ANYTHING but enmity from their user base? The only “extra feature” that I use on a regular basis is the Netflix integration, and I can get that FOR FREE with my Windows 7 PC through Windows Media Center. Bad call, M$. Larry, this stinks to high heaven.

i seriously hope countries not getting any of these features don;t suffer from this to…if not really i’ll just survive off the free trail cards or go to PC gaming =/

Can the extra features = Dedicated servers? Thanks.

I’ve been a non-stop Live customer since June 2003.

This is the worst thing they could do while everything else goes up in price AND why they keep taking features away that people actually want, like 1 vs. 100 and Xbox 1 support.

The Xbox is still the only good gaming console out there, but the team behind it is not what they used to be.

@HazyCloud I’d be more inclined to believe that something awesome was coming if any of the other “added features” were worth a crap. Twitter, Last.FM, and FaceBook are not why I turn on my 360. Paying more to rent a movie that I can only watch on my 360 isn’t either.

If they want to justify a higher price they’ll need to introduce something to the subscription that people actually want and is about, oh I don’t know, games. Free XBLA games or Games on Demand games that last for a month a la PSN+ would be good. Or adding dedicated servers for new multiplayer games to get rid of host advantage. Or getting rid of all the ads on the dash that I pay $50/yr for right now. Or letting _me_ choose what channel I default to on log on. If I want to see what’s in spotlight I’ll go there.

So all this added value with Gold was to just raise the price by ten dollars? Seriously, Major, what are you guys adding for this sudden price increase?

That’s sucks.

Europe will be next soon, 10€ for useless applications, zune, facebook, twitter, or another bullsh apps.

YOU DO IT WRONG DOODS.

With the current feature set, Microsoft is asking a bit much to increase the price of Xbox Live. Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM are already available easily on the PC and the fact that they can not be used IN GAME basically nullify any real bonus to the experience. The fact that you also NEED Gold to access something free on a PC is just stupid. Plus you got Netflix…which you have to subscribe to Gold AND subscribe to Netflix in order to get the streaming when once again, you can do it on your computer, Blu-Ray player, PS3, Wii…just about anything these days. As well, online play is also free on the PS3. And then you got ESPN, which you could probably just record or stream online through your PC anyway. Plus even with Gold we are bombarded with ads anyway. So with nothing offered on Xbox Live that isn’t free elsewhere, Microsoft really needs to step up their game or make Silver actually useful. Where is the free games and content that PSN+ gives out for $49.99 a year that Microsoft doesn’t? What is the justification other then greed?

There better be something huge and exclusive to the Xbox 360 coming up to justify this, and I don’t mean something that is only on the 360 but also on the PC. I mean, only on the Xbox 360. Otherwise, this is just greed, pure and simple.

It’s a shame. The second shame after the end of 1 vs 100.

I appreciate the fact that you are adding new features. The problem is that I don’t use any of them. I only use live for multiplayer, downloading games, chatting, and leaderboards.

What I think everyone is missing is that it looks like the only year price increase is for the US and Mexico. All other areas are the monthly subscription which I suspect is a lower base of use. Residing in Canada we do not get half of the additional features that have been published over the past few years that only works in the US so if it was a yearly price increase for our region I would be extremely upset.

The only real question is how does this affect the FAMILY XBOX LIVE PRICING that was announced at E3 and when will it go into effect?

“What a great idea, raise prices when developers are already starting to charge extra to play online! Absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!!!”

Exactly, that too.

I’ll gladly pay. I think it’s well worth it.

Are you kidding me? Canada already gets screwed on XBL prices and you’re doing this to us even more?

Not only do we (Canadians) have to spend more money per point than the US (on XBL 1000 points = $12.50 US but $14.50 CDN. Even though on PSN, a $10 US game is $10 CDN), points are also in increments of 500 while games are in increments of 800. So I just bought the new Lara Croft game for me and my girlfriend to play through. I had 140 points already in my account. So I was forced to buy 1000 points ($14.50 CDN) + 500 points ($7.25 CDN), equalling out too a $21.75 CDN charge. $21.75 for what would be a simple $15 CDN charge if it were on PSN.

I’m done with XBL. Cancelling my subscription as soon as this comes into effect.

I think $60 is a little much, I thought $50 was fine. But I hope it doesn’t effect me since I usually buy Xbox Live subscription cards off of Amazon if they are on sale so I haven’t bought a Xbox Live subscription at full price in a while.

Since I had to move overseas, I cant use any of the features they actually offer, much less the new ones. Facebook? Twitter? I use then on my PC or my phone. Netflix? It has its own fee. Last.fm? Don’t use it. Why don’t offer a new tier of subscriptions? Silver as it is, Gold can be Silver+Online gaming and chat…. and I dont know, a Platinum Subscription that has all the extra stuff

This is absolutely insane. I won’t use ESPN nor will I use Hulu Plus. I shouldn’t be forced to pay more to bring those features to other people who will use it. Hell, I barely use the Netflix functionality.

This should be a situation where if users want ESPN and Hulu Plus they can pay an additional $10 per month. But it’s inexcusable that *ALL* of us should be forced to pay higher prices for features that we will not use.

you wanna change your mind with BBCiPlayer then MS?…PS3 has this,and they don’t charge(and they are getting ITVplayer and 4 on demand as well)
-
they are also getting FF14..and Square WANTS to bring it to the 360,but MS are playing hard ball
-
you need to shape up Microsoft

So, now that XBLive gains price parity with Netflix, should we begin to expect full streaming access to the Zune Library? Music, too? I really don’t think playing games online is worth the price, and I don’t feel that I should have to pay a cover charge to gain access to online stores. It’s as if the local shopping mall decided to charge an access fee at the door. I’m curious to know where this “great value” of XBLive lies, especially when compared to the offerings the PSN and Steam have available for free.

Better stock up on those $35 amazon Live cards!

Suggestion:

How about having 3 levels:
-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($29.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat.
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…

Yay! Higher prices for the destitute! Why dont we raise game prices too? Wait, don’t do that.

I dont think its that bad..what a extra 2$ a month or 10$ a year..whats the big deal

No lock in for canada ?

Dont give them that idea DJSMF666

Wow. This is pretty lame. With the US economy still crappy and unemployment at almost 10%, you think Microsoft would just hold the pricing instead of increasing.

Maybe for these additional “features” you should have another membership plan introduced.

Did anyone that is whining even bother to read the part where it says they have NOT changed their prices since 2002? Name one business that has done that with their product… one business that charges the same price that they did 10 years ago. Do you get the same paycheck you got 10 years ago? (if you do then find another job) Does school cost you the same as it did 10 years ago? Uhh… NO. Food, gas, housing, clothing, all entertainment, everything we use and access on a daily basis has gone up in the past 10 years.
Now the one gripe I would have of the price increase is instead of raising it as much as they are going to, is they should have done it slowly in 50 cent increments over the past few years. Doesn’t hurt as much and doesn’t impact our wallets as much. And I doubt the small increases would even merit more than one or two of the resident whiners coming out of their caves. So meh..Terrible marketing..retrain that group, or start afresh. The whole point is to be able to raise prices to cover your costs, and not to alienate customers and lose them to the competitors. What competition you ask? The competition that is going to arise now that you have raised your prices so high and so fast. I hope the attitude isn’t “No matter what we do, we have Sony and Nintendo beat, no matter what we do we will always stay on top” More fortunes have been lost to arrogance.
Though I for one will of course pay the gold, and I am sure that is the reasoning behind the big increase, is that you will retain most of your gold customers. But wouldn’t it be better to retain all of them? With the economy the way it is, and you promoting the family connection w/ Kinect, I wouldn’t bet against mom and dad rethinking the Kinect purchase when they see the fee increases…. I think that if Microsoft showed its gold customers that they do hear them, they do care and want to retain them, they will restructure the fee increase..and increase it a little more slowly.

If the family plan ends up more than 100 a year or you guys don’t include something that makes it worth the 10 dollar price increase. I am done with Xbox Live. The only feature I use besides the occasional online match is last.fm , and of course the thousands I poured into Xbox Live arcade games. I expect at least one 1200 point game a year free for subscribers.

To add (pun intended) to what others are saying, at least give full-paying members an ad-free dashboard.

One more thing Major Nelson, it would benefit Microsoft to lets us know EXACTLY what is coming in November to justify the cost increase. Maybe if we knew what EXACTLY was coming to might help us with our decision.
I’ll also copy/paste from PAT2K9. I LOVE this idea and maybe Microsoft can come up something like this.
-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now

-Gold ($29.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat.

-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…

I’m not exactly sure what most of you are upset about are you upset about the price hike or the fact that another service is free? 10 dollars after just short of 8 years with no price hike is pretty good. Did you think that it was going to stay the same price forever?

5 bucks a month is not bad at all and they are giving us the opporunity to renew at 40 for now. Also November 4 hits with the family pass at 99.99 which helps for people with more than 1 in the household who plays games. It’s pretty safe to assume that the price hike decision didn’t come lightly.

Before anyone says thats PSN is free. We all know that but part of the reason it’s free is because the system was initially 600 dollars they couldn’t then on top of that charge another 50 dollars a month. So now they are stuck in this in-between. Don’t think for a second if they could charge you the same price that microsoft does for the same content they wouldn’t.

That being said I do wish that we had certain things on Xbox Live Like:

Season Pass for TV shows – I would pay 20 dollars (1600 MS space bucks)for a show I really like to auto download when I turn my Xbox on.

Closed Captioning – Sometimes with shows from foreign areas it’s hard to understand the accent not to mention for the Hard of hearing or the deaf.

Less Ads – I feel like my yearly should get me a lot less ads.

Toast (Notifications) – I feel like I should be able to turn off/on who is signing in and my achievements separately.

What would Xbox live need to do to get your 60 dollars? Anything?

The worst part is that no matter how much we complain and say that we won’t pay it, we’re all going to continue to stay on Live. I can whine all I want, but when my subscription runs out at the end of the year, I’m going to renew so I can continue playing Reach online. And Microsoft knows it.

So yea, not to fond of this change.

@ElisabethinCA The reason why this is a problem is because the one thing we want (playing against each other) Sony offers COMPLETELY FREE. They should have LOWERED the price instead of increasing it!

If anything they should offer 3 tiers of XBL. Silver that gives you nothing, something gold that gives you online play, and Platinum that gives you all the services. This way I don’t feel like I’m paying for something I don’t care about. This is as bad as cable tv.

not everyone benefits from all those ADDED VALUE major.
such a disappointment

Beyond disappointed with this decision…. I have been a loyal Xbox and Microsoft customer for years, put up with the ridiculously overpriced peripherals (Xbox Hard Drives, Memory Cards, etc.), and had my hardware fail on me a few times. This is like a slap in the face to anyone who has stuck with Microsoft through its ups and downs. I even pre-ordered Kinect despite being disappointed at it’s high price point. Why do this?

This is just uncool. Like most of the other comments I’ve read, I’m already hardly using any of the gold only features as is, so why should I have to pay more for things I don’t use or don’t want? Let’s see: PLAY GAMES ONLINE WITH FRIENDS (I don’t use this as much as I should and it’s free on PS3) STREAMING NETFLIX (I use this all the time, but I pay Netflix and my ISP for this service, which is also free on PS3 and Wii and a variety of other platforms) XBOX LIVE PARTIES & VIDEO CHAT (Almost never use the parties feature and never use the video chat) FACEBOOK, TWITTER & LAST.FM (Don’t use these either and they’re free on PS3 or just about anything that can access the internet) EARLY ACCESS TO GAME DEMOS & EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNTS (Not a big deal, especially with the current weekly discounts that are always for old content or old xbla games). I’m sure ESPN will be added to this list, and that’s another feature I’ll never use. So all said and done I’m going to be charged more for nothing at the end of the day, which the perfect way to make loyal a 7 year xbox live member drop the service.

@ElisabethinCA Sony hasn’t raise their PSN price, its still FREE to play online. And you only have to pay for PSN Plus if you want the extras they offer.

You wanted an example.

Shouldn’t be a big deal, unless you are use to paying the actual retail price. I have yet to pay over $34.99 for a 1 yr sub, thanks to deals from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Dell, etc. This shouldn’t really matter if you know how to shop around…but $59.99 is a bit steeeep.

And of course Major says its still a bargain, he is paid to say that. But if he wasn’t working for M$, I’m sure he would be bitching also.

@ElisabethinCA My internet service prices went down, my tv package pricing as shrunk, and my cellphone bill pricing has stayed the same and now includes nationwide, unlimited text, and unlimited picture texting. While material goods have not decreased in price services have either added features or decreased in price. Oh and I still can buy a tootsie roll for a penny, and they havent shrank since 1983.

As soon as my subscription expires then I’m done for good.

People on Ebay sell subscriptions cheaper than this new RRP increase or the RRP at all, so stop your bitching and look there instead.

Agreed…

-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($39.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat, DOTW, Games on Demands ect…
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…

This should be the new pricing models.

PAT2K9 has the right idea. Canadians don’t even have access to half the features available to Americans. $29.99 a year for a mid-level subscription for online gaming, voice chat, party chat, and video chat, and I’ll keep my subscription.

But right now, as it stands, upping ANY price for Canadians is absolutely ridiculous.

How about using real money for XBLA. I’d actually buy more games if I wasn’t forced to deal with a HORRIBLE points system. Because right now I’ve been buying all of my games on PSN as they deal with real money values, and the price is the same in Canada as the US. You know, seeing as our dollar is actually worth MORE than the USD, it makes absolutely zero sense that we have to pay more for anything, especially XBL points.

@PAT2K9 I agree totally

How about having 3 levels:

-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($29.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat.
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…

But Platinum has to have no advertisements period, or at least the option to turn them off.

@ElisabethinCA Have you not read the part where people can’t even figure out how what Xbox Live Gold offers was worth $50 in the first place? What other major gaming platform out there requires you to pay a fee simply to play games online?

So for that extra $10 can I have the Price is Right losing horn played everytime I turn on my 360?

Wow microsoft. Apple found a way to get the ios4 update to be free 4 everyone. Why cant you gays find a way to make us pay the same but with more features to play with. I have now lost all interest in xbox and will now play with my PS3 fron now on. Good bye.

Looking at the “Experience all the features of Gold” section in the page linked,
Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM are all free online, I pay separately for a Netflix sub which I can use online as well, me, and a bunch of other people I’m sure, aren’t buying kinect so “Video Kinect” is pointless, ESPN3 only appeals to a fraction of the total XBL audience, So what justifies the price increase?
I already think 50$ is too much for the only thing I use out of gold: Online Multiplayer.
If you’re raising the price because the cost of running xbl is more expensive, that’s one thing, But coming out and saying this is anything but bad for us is ludicrous, when we can get all the features xbox live gold provides for free by other means.

Damn, I want to hear what they have to say about this on the podcast, but that was yesterday…

wow.. Microsoft, just WOW! I know the whole kinect chat and ESPN and all, but seriously??

…and to think I was hesitant renewing this year for $50. It’s a good thing I live with a bunch of gamers and can do local multi whenever now. I’ll miss the deals of the week, but I rarely cash in on those anyway.

I think this needs to be justified. In all honesty with the way the economy is right now a price drop would have been the way to go. This is just a terrible decision.

I’m glad I already set up renewal on my account last month for $40. I can live with that. I can live with the $50 because after using LIVE, I can justify it for the most part.

That said, $10 more because of ESPN/ESPN3? I already get those on my computer/TV, so I honestly cannot say I’ll use them on my Xbox 360 as I barely use them the way it is now. I can maybe justify a slight increase for Video Kinect, but that’s even assuming I know anyone else that will bother with Kinect and want to do a video call versus a phone call.

I struggle justifying $60 for a brand-new game which is why I typically wait until the games I want have a fantastic deal. Granted now I know I’ll find deals on LIVE Gold account cards and whatnot, so it’s not the end of the world. I just don’t like the Disney Tax that’s going into this now.

After this autorenewal I have coming up next week if I can set up a 3rd year at $40 I will, but if I can’t, year 2 may be my last.

Disney Tax you say? You know, paying a premium for anything that Disney touches, like ESPN.

As I said on my Twitter…if you don’t want to post in the comments feel free to email me and I’ll share your comments with the team.

Greedy bastards. That is all i have to say.

btw Can’t believe there are people that defend this decision of M$. But hey, maybe they are Microsoft workers.

I like what people are saying

-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($39.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat, DOTW, Games on Demands ect…
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…
This should be the new pricing models.

Thanks god it Doesn’t increase for 3 and 12 months in Canada, because we don’t have Netflix and Last.fm ! But why does it increase for 1 month ???

Why havent other European regions seen a price hike?
I feel sorry for America and Mexico.
The Zune service in the UK has like 12 films.
The PSN film service has thousands, and it seems like PSN+ is looking better value for money round the whole world.
Its a shame really, xbox live is a great service, but they cant even stop hackers.
I mean so many people with Jtagged xbox’s are playing halo reach lol.
Get rid of the hackers and modders then I would consider any price increase.
Facebook, Twitter on the xbox are complete crap.
I have a phone/laptop for such things.
RIP xbox live…looooool
I might consider PSN+ if the UK 12 month membership goes up

For those whining and moaning like little girls, just shop around Amazon, Walmart, GAME or whatever stores you have in you’re country/area and grab one of the time cards, you’ll save about 10 to 15% off the price so it’ll end up costing the same price it’s always been.

I’m not too happy with the price increase either, bit even though I’m unemployed I can still easily afford the annual cost even after the price increase.

pikoeri: world of warcraft. LOL!

Live gives a more stable service than the free ones as a owner of other formats.
The reason is that we pay for that stability and you get what you pay for.

The sad thing being this probably takes into account upcoming changes and features that have been posted on the internetz, Live is good value for money take into account the value you get if you work it out over time spent on the service.
The option is always avaialable to go silver play your games and get some features slightly later than the gold users.

I appreciate the value I get for the product the work the teams put in and the fact that the revenue allows the service to grow.
Unit sales alone would not allow the level of focus and development we currently enjoy, and I see no reason why funds should be diverted from other areas.

The bottom line is its a business, business makes money they should also give value.
Other companys lets take blizzard for example charge far in excess of this for one single service.

To all those who are saying “gimme more”, or “I’m leaving” or “this sucks”.. Waaaah. That must be a TON of cheese you have there with all that whining. Give me a break.

First increase in almost eight years, plus they offer you the ability to lock it in at LOWER than current prices. Oh shut up.

Anyway, what I want to do is if I renew now under thise price lock, does it just append to my current subscription expiration date, or it alter my expiration date to today next year?

Not the end of the world to me. Major, if you could tweet and let us know if the family pricing structure is still going to be available in November, that would be great. i’m at work with my twitter gadget on my screen.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month-Live-Gold-Card/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283187610&sr=8-2
For $80.00, including Free Shipping, I can get 2 cards and pay for TWO years worth. Only $20 more than what Microsoft if charging for ONE year.
Yeah, my choice is pretty much already made… that is if I even decide to keep it now.

Wow, these prices are outrageous. I’m glad i have about a year more of service.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members”

Nearly none of which I never asked for or use. How about an package for just playing online?

There is nothing that has been added by Microsoft that justifies a price increase. Netflix is nice, but I also have a better version of it as an app on my TV. Twitter is useless. Facebook is useless. I’ve used LastFM once. The ESPN service is something that wasn’t needed or wanted. So let me ask, what exactly has been added since Xbox Live launched that justifies a price increase? Not much. Some avatars with ridiculous prices.

Honestly, it feels like Microsoft has had the worst four months in its console gaming history. E3 was a disaster, Kinect is an overpriced disaster, this decision is a disaster. The people in charge at Microsoft need to open their eyes wider because right now they can’t see the big picture, which is a bloody mess as far as the gaming division is concerned. It is absolute stupidity. I would claim greed as well, but the bottom line is these choices will end up hurting your business, so I’ll just stick with stupidity.

In France, if you pay direct on xbox live, it’s :

- 76$ / year
- 8.86$ / month = 106$ / year
- 25$ / 3 months = 100$ / year

Expensive right ?

The conversion is : 1$ = 1€.

I think you need to consult XE.com.

If American buddies have 10$ for them, we’ll take a good punch in our face soon.

Good, finally! The US catches up a bit with Europe.

You whiny Americans should all stfu and gtfo. Europeans (those with euros) have been paying €59,95 for quite a while now (if not since XBL launched). If you look at the current exchange rates, that’s still more than you Americans will have to pay.

Oh, and don’t forget you get WAY MORE content (value) for your Gold membership.

Ridiculous.

It’s well past time to split the subscription up into pieces:

Charge $40 per year for the “just play online with voice chat” model and another $20 for the “video chat, espn 360, all other video and social media services” model.

You can still give discounts to people who buy the top tier, but most of us just want to play CoD online. I will definitely be looking hard at this before my gold expires in february to see if PS3 is more economical.

I’m half ready to jump on the WHAT?! band wagon, but at the same time, it is understandable. It’s been this price since the first xbox, how many years ago now? 60$ for 12 months works out to what? 5$ a month? hell, if you’re so opposed to it, stock up now. 40$ for 12 months is a great deal, buy 2 years worth and you should be set. Quit your complaining people. we do get a lot, so what if you don’t use the features, they’re still there.

Though the Arcade pricing is a bit much lately with the all these 1200 ms point games.

Bunch of pricks. Take away what little good exclusive content you do have (1 vs 100), then jack up the price.

Between terrible hardware quality and BS like this, I won’t be buying whatever console MS brings out next.

Unbelievable. We are in the middle of a recession and you up the price of XBL $10!!! Factoring in services that we don’t even want or use like twitter and facebook! Most of us just want to PLAY GAMES ONLINE, not pay for stupid add-ons. God.

Grubish360 – “I like what people are saying
-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($39.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat, DOTW, Games on Demands ect…
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…
This should be the new pricing models.”

^ AGREED!!!!!

This is really really not a smart move. When Sony is starting to get a stronger position for it’s online services you go and jack up the prices. All this will do is shoot yourselves in the foot. Gamers will simply stop paying and switch over to the alternative. This needs some major reconsidering.

Major, I realize that you don’t make the call on this kind of stuff and that you’re just the messenger, so understand that I mean no disrespect toward you in anything I’m about to say.

I used to defend Microsoft for doing this kind of crap. “PSN may be free but you’re getting better quality with Xbox Live. The $49.99 is worth it!” And yeah, maybe it was; but now Microsoft is wanting to charge $10 more per year for a bunch of features that I don’t use and is probably costing them jack ****! I don’t buy into that “more features for the same price” bull; we’ve been paying the same price and getting the exact same thing. Oh sure, you’ve added little knick knacks here and there like LastFM, Twitter, and Facebook ‘integration’, but considering you can practically access all of those on a ****ing microwave oven, it doesn’t seem that impressive, does it? And it would be different if we could access those things WHILE PLAYING but no, they’re a entirely separate applications with interfaces so clunky that I might as well just walk over to my computer.

Oh, and we also get to pay for the privilege of downloading DLC that’s free on the PC, ala Left 4 Dead. So we’re paying for the game, then paying to play online, then paying for the free DLC. Someone’s getting rich who clearly doesn’t deserve it.

Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions, maybe we’re paying forward for some grand features that are coming down the road. Well, two things: 1) I don’t like paying for something BEFORE I KNOW WHAT IT IS! and 2) the new features would have to be pretty freaking amazing to warrant a 20% price increase per year. Whatever it is, I’m not waiting for it.

I’m going to play Halo Reach with my friends until my current subscription runs out, then I’m done. I’ll just play online with PSN – gee, I hope they don’t increase their prices too. What’s 20% of $0.00?

I know it means absolutely nothing to Microsoft, but Achievement Unlocked: Pissed Off Former XBL Subscriber.

Playstations have never sounded so good until now. online play for free-no different kind of currency. Sad day for people

I’m in Canada and just like the rest of the world we get a slim fraction of the content thats available to the US market. Now at current prices(before upcoming increase) if you factor in the current exchange rate between US and Canadian currency along with applicable sales taxes depending on which province/state you live in, the cost of Live is the same in Canada and the US within a buck… now with that being said, like the guy from Ireland posted…

Through the console, being able to compete and enter into 1 maybe 2 gaming competitions a year compared to the boatload offered to the USA (12 days of Gearsmas…). We have no Netflix (I dont care about since I have cable on demand), Last Fm(which I have never used since I subscribe to Sirius), No Espn, and there is tons of marketplace content that has been advertised on the dashboard and/or Xbox.com website that we can see but cant access because its not available im my region. (gamer pics, like “adult swim”…). If I want to use twitter or crackbook, I’ll use my Ipod/Cellphone or computer for that! We already pay $70 a year, now the already increasing cost for marketplace content like game add-ons and I’m stuck siftin through advertisements like Axe and Old Spice every 2nd tab on my dashboard. Leave the adverts for the Silver members and drop all Ads for the Gold Subscribers! Were already paying a premium for the service!

Also what about the loyal gamers who have been with live like from 5 years and up, how about throwing something back our way? And Im not talking about a crappy indie game free to download, what about tossing out a month or 2 of free live or a free game on demand of OUR choosing or something substantial like 50% off accessories or merchandise from Xbox.com?

It’s just corporate greed! Sure you want to make the shareholders money, but when you try to squeeze every dime you can out of the consumer eventually the consumer will start looking for alternatives to cost hikes!

No, no, no. This is not the way you want to go, the price should be going down. What exactly warrants this price hike? I’d be all for it if espn, hulu plus, and netflix was all included in that price, but heck, if it isn’t, and I have to pay extra over that $60, I don’t know what I’d do. I was actually expecting Microsoft to look at the PSN and see it as actual competition which in the last year or so has really began to be, that they would be cutting their prices and not increasing them. Such a shame.

How ridiculous you (american) people are
The only users that should complain are mexicans, they get nothing and pay more, like us.

I never doubted a price increase would come at some point. The prices are increasing from the suppliers and vendors that MS uses, so they have to get passed along somewhere. That I really don’t mind.

What I think bugs most people is that if you live outside the US you get approximately 1/3 of available content and function that the US subscribers get – we can’t get stuff like NetFlix etc here. Yet, the rest of the world sees a simiar increase for really nothing extra. There are even movies and videos and music that still give “not available in your region” messages for both XBox and Zune. If they would get rid of that barrier for the rest of the content, it would seem more worthwhile.

I’ll pay the fee since I use Live and think it’s worth it. As long as increases only come every 5-8 years it’s not that bad, and if you renew early you keep the old price for at least another year.

Don’t use Sony’s pseudo-service as a comparison, since it is apples-to-oranges. Even for basic online gaming, they each have completely different back-end services and functions running while connected.

Yes, the service has added features since the inception of Xbox live so many of them don’t get used or aren’t worth it.

You could take away twitter, facebook, and last.fm and we’d be fine. Netflix was added but I can get that on my Wii or PS3 now too. You added avatars but I (willingly) pay for avatar stuff. Plus, I’m still paying a subscription fee to see my dashboard cluttered with ads.

I was on board with $50 despite the PS3 offering comparable features for free. You get what you pay for. But the the ends don’t justify the means for this price hike.

The service is the best thing going in the console space. That being said, hasn’t Microsoft made a ton of money from all of the digital purchases? This money grab will make me think twice before I click “buy” on anything on XBL.

this struck me as funny on twitter.

@Wombat5277: RT @Shipwreck: Used copy of Halo Reach + used copy of Crackdown 2 = $10 extra you can put towards Live! Everybody wins?

Hate to say this but most of us could see this coming a long time ago, but still is it needed to raise the price?

@Freeleeday The argument that the features are there weather or not we use them – are okay to be charged for them is flawed. If you were going car shopping – you wouldn’t be okay paying more because it had features you didn’t need or want.

BULLSHIT PS3 IS FREE !!!!

I created this account a couple minutes ago just to tell you this. You guys have got to be the most disappointing bunch of people I’ve ever known. You rave about how amazing your online service is yet you make your users jump through so many hoops to get what they want. I can afford the $10 price increase but you just always have to piss in my cheerios every chance you get. You want me to pay $60 a year now so I can watch your awful ads, navigate your bloated user interface, use applications that are easier to use on numerous other devices, and download demos that can be found on the PS3 or PC a day or more before. Lets not even mention the fact that if you purchase any video game that has multiplayer and don’t have a gold account you are essentially buying half a game. It pains me that so many people are gullible enough to think you are moving us forward when you have in fact stunted the growth of gaming for the past 5 years. You are everything that is wrong with the video game industry.

WTH? does this mean MS is throwing down the towel and letting Sony win ??? wut? OH well, if im gonna pay a subscription i’ll just put it for PSN+ ,since at least that gives free games, discounts on DLC and a lot more than now that PSN is getting stronger, and here is what ? 10 more bucks a month ? thats 120 in a year ! yeah…. screw that. Guess the PS3 will get more use now, wow.. all those years defending xbox down the drain…

What? This is ridiculous. I can maybe see price increase in the US, but Mexico and Canada do not get all the services the USA do.

I cannot see why MS is upping the price of Gold Membership. Don’t you guys have enough money? Unless I start getting discounts on services like netflix or Games which are already higher in Canada, I may not renew my gold this December.

Price doesn’t phase me. Count me in for another year…

Do you think it’s possible for me to get an expanded friends list? I need more than 100. Thanks.

It’d be great if you folks would consider adding tiers to the plan. I do not need full gold, but need a little bit more than silver. (How about an “electrum” plan?)

As it is, the main reason I’m a gold subscriber is simply to make Netflix work, and Netflix is starting to work on more and more set-top devices that don’t charge extra for it. (I *was* also using it to download DLC like “Pinnacle Station” for XBox Original games, since silver accounts couldn’t log in via an original XBox, but that doesn’t work anymore…)

I’ve already been considering canceling my gold account, and this may well push me over the edge.

*sigh* I’m going to try my hardest to stay civil and calm in light of this news, but here goes:

First off, I’m am no business man, and I may not know all the inner workings of how these things work or why you (you, being Microsoft, not Major Nelson) decided to charge more for an Xbox Live Gold Subscription. I’ve posted comments on here many times, and on other sites stating HOW and WHY you need to change your policies, add-ons, and such. I’ll say it again here, and I hope to God, this time Major, if you are true to what you say, this gets passed on to whomever reads these comments.

I admit, Xbox Live is in some ways a superior service as far as online gameplay is concerned and with SOME of the features offered. However your competition, and I will refer to the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) and Nintendo Wii (Wii), have most of the features that Xbox Live has, and for FREE. Both the PS3 and Wii have built in web browsers that are currently free and/or built into the hardware which allow users of both consoles to have access to services such as Twitter, Facebook, Netflix for free, with no additional cost. That being said, these services are on Xbox Live, however we have to pay a premium to access these services when they are free on other systems as well as on a PC.

TO PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE: When Xbox Live goes down, EVEN if we have an ACTIVE INTERNET CONNECTION, we lose access to – Online Multiplayer Gaming, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and pretty much everything else whether due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance. On PS3 or Wii, you still have access to all of these things simply because you still have an ACTIVE INTERNET connection. I also have a PS3 and Wii and I can access the full Facebook/Twitter experience and it is moreso closely to being on a PC than the “apps” on Xbox Live that do not have every feature. Pretty much, when Xbox Live goes down, we can’t do anything with our Xbox outside of playing by ourselves or having access to other experiences. If the Playstation Network goes down, I may not be able to play games online, but I can still have access to Netflix and stream movies, I can still get on Facebook, I can still get on Twitter and Tweet, all for FREE.

Xbox Live needs a major overhaul. First off, allow us access to Netflix without having to have Xbox Live GOLD. We already have to pay a minimun of $8/$9 to stream unlimited movies, but why do you have to charge $50/year (now $60) on top of a Netflix premium?

Microsoft, we don’t want to hear about how much you “offer us and how it’s the greatest experience” when your competition is catching up quickly and offering similar services for free. Granted, taking Netflix as an example again, your competition (PS3 and Wii) does not charge us extra for streaming Netflix movies.

If you’re going to charge us more for Xbox Live Gold, offer some real incentive to pay for the service. Either go the way of PSN (Playstation Network) and offer free games for the life of the SUBSCRIPTION and all or most DLC content reduced in price.

I could care less about the upcoming ESPN APP cause I’m not the biggest sports fan so I won’t be using that when it is released. I don’t use Facebook or Twitter on XBL because of the LIMITED funtionality compared to how I can use it on PS3, Wii, or a PC.

Because I know Microsoft won’t change this (allow the use of the apps w/o Xbox Live Gold and just use our internet connections when Xbox Live is down) at least let Silver Members play games online… Better yet, how about let Silver Members get “X” amount of hours per month to play games online. All I’m asking is that you really need to take a look at your competition and see how they are doing things and then you try to make it BETTER because right now, your competition is making everything look better than you.

Sony must be laughing now.

Hey PS3, you lookin’ mighty sexy now. Come ‘ere and gimme some of that sweet free online gaming.

I dropped my Gold sub last year when I finally realized how it wasn’t worth it for me when I can get online gaming free on the PC and PS3.

So I just wanted to log back in and say HAHA. When your competition offers the same thing for FREE you have to be stupid to pay. And yes, PSN does mutliplayer gaming just as good as XBL minus the cross game chat. It was never worth $50 for that feature and it sure isn’t worth $60.

You pay $60 and still get ad’s, still playing mainly P2P, hardly any freebies on Live any more, dlc/themes/avatar stuff all going up in price.

Apparently part of it is Kinect, according to the lock-in page..which I still say MS is shooting themselves in the foot with. You need 6 feet of space for one person and 8+ for two people. Say goodbye to people who use the 360 in their room or anyone living in a college dorm room as perspective Kinect buyers.

An extra $10 a year isn’t a huge sum of money but it will rub people the wrong way.

When compared to the amount of content and services available in the US $60 per year is too high for Canada. We don’t get last.fm, ESPN 3, netflix (it’s coming but won’t have the same catalog) or a tenth of the content available and yet we’ve always been charged $60 a year.

XBL is a tough sell when you factor in you need high speed internet on top of the annual fee. In tough economic times this should push more people toward the PS3.

Can you please explain the process of switching from an Xbox Live Gold account to a $99 Xbox Live Family Plan? How will you be credited if you are an existing Gold subscriber? Will you receive credit on the basis of XBL being $50 a year or $60 a year?

I feel that a price hike would be better justified if you would’ve done it with an announcement of some sort of new features. This is kind of a kick in the face for people who support the service because it was kind of announced like “we’ve given you some extra features last year so, uh, give us some more money.” I’ll still keep renewing my subscription because I can always find it on sale somewhere within the year, but the funny part is, I used to think the PR department at microsoft was actually pretty good. At a business standpoint, you have to have some sort of an added feature or some kind of announcement to accompany a price hike. Again, I can see where you should be raising the price at some point (it probably had to be done sooner or later), I just think you picked the absolute WORST possible moment to say something like this. (Especially now that the holiday season is coming around) I hope you have something up your sleeve…

Well Larry, you know how to leave a bad taste in one’s mouth on a Monday morning. As a 6 year (going on 7) Gold subscriber, I am disappointed in this decision. I have repeatedly told friends that I was holding off on renewing LIVE because I expected it to become free within the next year since everything that is offered on LIVE can be accessed for free on PSN. As someone who graduated in May and is actively seeking employment to pay off student loans, I really cannot justify paying even more to play online multiplayer when I can just turn on the PS3 and have it for free. Sure it is only $10, but when MS nickels and dimes for everything, this feels like the final straw in the roof of my mouth.

I don’t use the community features that LIVE offers because the guide is riddled with so many advertisements that its not worth my time to find them. Also, my tv is 3 feet from my computer. If I want to check facebook or twitter I use my computer or my phone. No one has ever really cared about Last.fm since you cannot listen to the streamed music in-game. I detest ESPN and have no need for it when it is added. I already pay for Netflix sub and can access it for free on the PSN. To add to the lament of others, you took away the only exclusive that I enjoyed… 1 v. 100. You decided to change Joyride from a free exclusive experience to one requiring Kinect. Everything about Gold is tailored so that you are spending more money… that is the only benefit… you offer dated DLC at a discount so that we can spend even more money. Again, why isn’t online multiplayer free by now? Larry, I know you are just the public relations guy, so I am sorry you are bearing the backlash from this, but I don’t see how you can think this is a good idea.

At least the year-long sub is still the same (which nobody in their right mind pays because of prepaid cards anyway) but still, shove it up your arses. You should be decreasing prices, DECREASING!
I’ll spell this out to you MS: L-I-V-E- I-S N-O-T W-O-R-T-H T-H-E M-O-N-E-Y.

I’m really surprised the push-back on this is so bad. “Man, I gotta save an extra $0.83 each month for my live service. That’s way too much!” Seriously?

just awful news – do you not make enough money MS? Make Last.Fm, Twitter, Facebook add on paid services instead – i beg you

So the goal is to be not competitive with playstation and keep the price higher? I don’t see my xbox live membership being renewed when it expires with that pricing structure. I can justify $49.99 because its cheaper than a game, but priced the same as a game it devalues the gold membership, a game has potential to provide years of enjoyment whereas the gold membership is just for a year.

“We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

Sony offer’s the same stuff. For free. Zero dollars. That means they have INFINITE VALUE. No, Xbox LIVE Gold does not offer the best value in the industry. Sony does.

@ Code to Joy Yeah I don’t get it either it’s 10 dollars I don’t remember this much push back when games went from $50 to $60 per game and this is $10 for a year.

To the US people: stop whining, you’re still getting away cheaper than the rest of the World.

They should have taken away 10 moneys from every other country (not that I expected that haha)

This is why i never buy Xbox Live from microsoft. I still have a couple year subscription cards that i got for $20 on amazon. Amazon has a 1 year for $40 anyway all the time so this price hike doesnt effect me at all. Just buy Live elsewhere.

Oatmeal, it may push some people toward the PS3 initially, but I think you’ll see those people “return” without too much time passing. Even though I’ve paid $59.99 since I got my 360, here in Canada, it’s always been worth it to me, and my online gaming is still on the 360 as opposed to the PS3 that sits right beside it. I can’t even quantify WHY, really, but XBL is just worth $60 a year when PSN is barely worth free. Is that a fanboy kind of statement? Maybe, or maybe not, for me it just is.

That’s not to say I’m happy with pure gratuitous price increases, however. I generally am not, but to see the U.S. play catch up with other markets is kind of Schadenfreude laden for me. Is it *right*? I don’t know… I know that the U.S. gets a lot more content than most other markets, and has been sitting pretty price-wise in comparison for awhile. However, if the “continuing increase in features and content” that is the reasoning behind this price increase really are things like ESPN3 and Kinect, then it’s just an absolutely terrible reason for raising the price. It would be like raising the price of a hamburger because you are now offering onions that your customers may or may not want put on their hamburger, to offset the cost of the onions.

Anyway, I sympathize with the people that are angry about this to an extent, but I also sit here grinning because the U.S. is finally paying the same price as Canada! ha!

None of those “added values” are free so why the price hike?

I’m sorry but this is a complete joke, let’s ignore the fact that PSN offers a less refined but comparable experience for free for a sec. The prices of most XBLA games have jumped from 10 to 15 dollars, some games are starting to add Online Passes to play (Call of Duty could be the linchpin in this field), many games are now offering Day 1 DLC that could have easily been in game (I’m looking at you Blazblue), the Deals of the Week are becoming even more lackluster and now you want to increase the price of the service? As a 7 year member this is absolutely disgusting, if I hadn’t bought a card this year I would be cancelling my membership altogether.

You guys need to find a way to offer some more competitive Deals of the Week (no console has come close to what Steam has to offer), either lower the price of the service or stop games using Online Passes completely, and improve the fidelity of apps like Facebook and Last.fm to give people a reason to subscribe.

@ Code and Osuz, It’s not worth it 60$ for online gaming is a joke, Steam offers free online, Sony offers free online but, Microsoft continues to up to the price they need new types of subscriptions making the online gaming part cheaper since that’s what 75% of the people with xbox live mainly do.

I still dont get how microsoft can justify $50 for LIVE. Facebook, twitter, and netflix are all things that other platforms get free. ESPN will be cool. But can someone explain why it will cost $60 to play multiplayer online?

An extra £ for me but still.. what we have available doesn’t justify the cost increase.

the only ones who should be upset are the people who just joined for a year or those who recently renewed. otherwise don’t see what the big deal is about, you can lock-in now till 10.31.10 for 12months at 39.99 ($10 cheaper than the current price), they are basically telling you a yr in advance that the price is going up. slow down internet.

FU microsoft…you guys barely offer enough to warranty the $50 price tag but raising it to $60 is just you robbing us, i mean the only reason i use xbox live is to play games with other people thats it, i dont use facebook, twitter, last fm…the only other thing i use xbox for is for netflix and that already has a 8bucks a month tag why the F r you charging for things that already have a subscription fee. BLOW ME

When I subscribed to LIVE it was to play games. Not for god damn facebook and twitter. Why is my cost going up for crap I don’t want or use? All I want to do is play games. What a joke.

It wouldnt be a big deal but now Xbox Live is riddled with ADs and doesnt really offer much value in anything anymore. All the games that are coming out are cross platform to begin it seems except for Halo (if you’re interested in those games). I stopped paying for yearly awhile back and after this 3 month gold I have wears off I’m done with 360. Maybe I wouldnt feel that way but after 5+ years and 4 Dead Red Lighted Xbox 360′s later, its time to pull the bandaid off and move on to a much stabler and cheaper (with free online) system. There’s nothing here to warrant staying.

Well, if I remember right the price for Gold has been the same all 7 years I’ve been a member, so not to terribly surprising that the price had to go up at some point. With the $39.99 deal I was just able to push my gold account out until April 2012 for 10 bucks less than it was going to cost me at renewal in 2011, so I feel current Gold members are getting an OK deal. If what we have today was worth $50 its certainly worth $40 We can always re-evaluate the service when that renewal expires to see if the value is still there at $60.

Bandwidth and hosting servers costs money and I feel Xbox Live still offers the best online gameplay experience, I’m always impressed how smoothly games like Forza and Split/Second play over Live, and the content delivery system is excellent. I’m not a huge fan of paying for things in “points” but that’s the world we live in until someone comes up with a better way to handle micro-payments/transactions.

@Code to Joy – It might be different if we were getting more for the extra money, but as it is, a company that doesn’t need the extra money is jacking up the price because they can. For us it’s $.83 a month, but what does that equal per-month for Microsoft when you add up the subscribers? And what exactly is that money going to? Not improving their services, that’s for damn sure.

Meanwhile the competition is constantly adding new features and still not charging extra for them.

The negativity towards this is expected. To be honest, I’ve been looking for ways to obtain my LIVE subscription cheaper than the current price of $50. Amazon frequently sells subscription cards for sub $40. The current sub I I’m on, I purchased off of Amazon for under $30. Now I’m being told by MS that they’re INCREASING their subscription fees? Sorry, but its already difficult to justify the expense. The “value adds” over the last few months haven’t been as valuable as perhaps Microsoft thinks they are.

No matter how Microsoft PR spins this, its a lose.

I have to say that I honestly did not see that coming. For years I’ve faithfully paid for my XBL subscription almost sure that it would go down. Now to be honest, I was planning on going for the upcoming Family Pack (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/familypack) which will further increase the value for me. But still, I find it hard to swallow $50/year (and have never paid that, always looking for discounted scratch cards or hardware bundles) for features that I still end up having to pay for.

While I love XBL Gold exclusive content, it is rarely free and usually either costs you several points (such as Battlefield 1943) or 3rd party subscription fees (such as Netflix).

Bad move, Microsoft. I thought for sure you’d be announcing a price reduction. And by the looks of these comments, I hope you listen to the consumers and rethink this. Here’s hoping…

Im not from any of the listed countries, but: Buh! (Thats german and means sth. like very bad!)

Content may be probably Video on Demand and Games on demand? Im pretty sure both sections arent running the way MS expected earlier. So just stop the service. Your offered games are available lots cheaper on other sources with a manual, a case and a DVD (and without to fear youre running into license issues like on Defender, Gauntlet and several other XBLA titles)

On videos the same matches also. I met a lot of people on Gamescom this year in Cologne, but not only one said, he has ever used any of the above services….Just my 2 cents. Expect more silver accounts I forecast.

Ok, 1st this is wrong. As a member for 6 years, I think the price should remain the same (I’ve been pretty loyal) 2nd, since the 12 month is the best offer, so I will use this $60.00 x 25,000,000 people (how many gold members) = $1,500,000,000 per year (correct me if I’m wrong)…and thats using the cheapest way, so its more than that…Does Microsoft really need that much money to run XBL? I guess this price jump is to pay for all the updates we will get in the future and the updates we got in the past…this sucks. Ps. I will still be paying for 12 month as I have been doing for the past 6 years but I’m not too happy about this)

what the hell kind of sense does this make?
XBOX is going to charge me more for crap I do not want and do not have the option of going without?

and on top of Hulu & ESPN I get the privilege of paying for a video conference service that requires a $150 peripheral that I’m not going to buy anyways?

Microsoft needs to make a new service for all this crap… call it Xbox live platinum. Give them all the Facebook, LastFM, Netflix, Music Marketplace and other stuff no one bought an xbox for. Give me my online play, a marketplace, demos and other actual GAME RELATED STUFF!

This is just like getting an oil change and them adding in an air filter while you’re not looking!

Pikoeri, back on Page 4 of the comments I believe, hit all the major points on what is wrong with this price increase.
There is a ton of advertising on the NXE Dashboard. Why is that there if we’re paying a fee for Gold service? Why are we required to have a gold subscription for Netflix when we pay Netflix a fee directly to have access to their service and it’s free on Wii, PS3, and other Netflix enable devices (And, may I point out, the core video streaming software seems to work better on PS3)? Why are we required to have Gold for Last.FM when it’s supported by advertising during the Last.FM broadcasting? Why do certain games on XBL, such as Phantasy Star Universe, have their own monthly fee that is separate or in addition to the Gold fee? Why do I have so many connection issues with online 360 games, yet don’t have these same issues on PS3?

I do love the 360 and Xbox Live, I wouldn’t have five years tenure if I didn’t, but there doesn’t seem to be real justification for the fee plus all of the other points that I’ve made here. It’s not even that $10 is going to break the bank for me either, but I want to know why you are doing it and weak features such as Kinect video chat and the ESPN feature are not convincing me and, instead, it smells of nothing but greed.

The new pricing is ridiculous, how can you expect us to pay more for live and then pay for all the “premium” services on there like netflix. Microsoft, stop trying to get every cent from everyone. Don’t you guys already make enough money? Having to pay for online games on my xbox shouldn’t have to cost me an arm and a leg, maybe i should have bought a playstation 3 instead of this.

Oh…and upgrading now wouldn’t be the best option for me since my auto renewal just renewed me…so no help there!

This is total BS, if $7.99 wasn’t already bad enough, Microsoft is gonna hike it; also it isn’t very fair to not even be able to play any games on XBL as a silver member, plus nobody is even getting half the value of what they’re paying for. I understand XBL has LIVE parties unlike PlayStation 3 but hey, at least PSN is free. also I love how this just managed to happen right after Halo:REACH’s release and 9 days before CoD:Black Ops release. Congratulations, Microsoft has managed to lose what little respect I had left for them.

Aaaahahahahahaha! You guys have to be sh*tting me. I’ve had 7 systems die, ads on my dashboard, I can’t even buy the newest DLC because I’m not subscribed to gold (at the moment) and now this? I’m sorry but screw you guys. Screw xbox. I’m done. System and games are going up on craigslist.

Most people following this blog or twitter will complain but ultimately shell out the extra few bucks per month. I think your biggest obstacle will be selling the casual users…especially as you roll kinect out. The casual user needs to see the many differences between the free Wii service and XBox Gold.

There was no way to announce this without issues, but if you look at the competition’s offerings for their premium service we’ve really got a lot better content. The price of everything is going up, and in most cases its going up without extra features. I’m hoping this at least means we’ll finally get a peak at whats coming from cutting Xbox 1′s live support.

Okay so it’s not a big increase at all, fine. The problem is that it’s way too much money for what we do get. The worst part is that Microsoft doesn’t listen to anybody regarding what they would like to see. Netflix? You need to pay for that. Twitter? I have a PC. Facebook? I have a PC. ESPN _3_? I have DirecTV. last.fm? I have a PC. I don’t need, nor do I want these features that can be found elsewhere for cheap/free. We lose 1 vs 100. The price increase is fine for people who do use the provided services. The only thing I need Xbox Live for is for multiplayer. I can get this for free with my PS3 and with Steam, but I am willing to pay for Xbox Live, nobody is forcing me. I will still continue to pay for Xbox Live, nobody is forcing me. What I do think Microsoft should do is have a tiered pricing for the features that people use. I don’t pay Directv for premiums like HBO and Showtime and I don’t think I should have to pay Microsoft more for Twitter and Facebook. I should be able to just say I don’t want them and pay a discounted rate. (I’m calling it, next year you will be paying Microsoft based on how often you use Live.)

If MS needs the money THAT badly why not open up avenues of revenue that already exist or could exist easily?! This is just off the top of my head, but how about Avatar Props. Right now I can choose one. It cycles on and then disappears. Why can I choose only one?! If I could choose a queue of Props I could show-off awards. More importantly I would buy more Avatar Props. I bought the first Lightsaber. I’d be more likely to spend the 400 points for the other Lightsabers if I could choose to queue them rather than having to select them one at a time. Boom 1600 points from me. More than the $10 increase for a service that keeps dropping content that might have justified the increase (cough…1VS100…cough). A few simple lines of code and an update.

Just not a public-friendly move on the part of MS.

Though not the intention this feels like a tax against your most loyal customers.

You know what M$ fails to realize? There are three types of people out there that use Gold.
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(1)The spoiled brat who can have what he wants.
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(2)The person that enjoys everything on live and wants Gold.
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(3)The person that DOESN’T want alot of Lives crap and mainly wants the MP.
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I am number 3. I only pay for live so I can play my games online. I never really use the “other features”. Don’t care about the music or facebook or any of that crap on Live. And Yet I am charged for that ****! If MS was smart they would set up to Gold accounts.
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(1)Gold Minumum: Allows you to just play games online for only (insert price)…like maybe $20 a year.
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(2) Gold Premium: Allows you use EVERY feature on Live. Make it $60.
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So thats what they need to do. I just happened to renew my subscription yesterday. But when it runs out I am done with Gold. Screw $60. Id rather not be able to play online then waste money like that.

@DavidGX Agreed. There better not be 1 single add come November 1, 2010!

Extremely dissapointed. I felt like Kinect pricing was way out of line. In an economy where i try to enjoy a game while finding a new job and paying the bills – this feels like a punch to the gut. Boo Microsoft.

I have been a big supported of LIVE these past years. But I have to say I find hard to justify this increase. Then again, I will have to see what happens this year. I hope there’s an increase in value added so that this increase may look more justifiable. PSN is still inferior to LIVE, but they have been catching up, especially over the past year. In this context, the increase in price seems very surprising.

I just wanted to add that for those who have already renewed their membership, you can use the $39.99 to stack up another year to your subscription: http://twitter.com/XboxSupport/status/22541520093

I’ve just done that, so I’m set up to 2012.

It seems that some, who are perfectly fine with the increase, can’t seem to understand that we are being told to pony up $10 extra a year and we haven’t been told yet why and what the $10 a month will get us. I’m not going to pay $10 a month extra for what we have now, nothing has been added to the 360 since its first sale that justifies a $10 increase. Everything added can be used on a PC for FREE, as well as the PS3. So far the only thing I’ve heard is the ESPN app. That isn’t worth 10 cents extra, much less $10. Kinetic is a waste for those of us without the space to use it, as well as waste since everything for it is “Kidish” and since I have no children Kinetic will do nothing for me.

Give us a reason why a $10 increase is needed, a real reason with real additions, and it might make more sense.

I’m gonna echo the others that have mentioned some sort of tier system, such as making all of the current “extra content” features a Platinum tier ($59.99), then having Gold be a cheaper tier basically with being able to play online, chat, and Deal of the Week.

I cannot stress enough how little I use Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Last.fm, etc. You can keep adding “more content and entertainment experiences” all you like, but I have yet to find any of this content worthwhile when I have my laptop sitting 15 feet from my television.

@Khan One thing: bandwidth has always been pretty sparse. It takes me less than five minutes to download 1GB on my Qwest connection but I can always count on at least 15+ minutes over Xbox Live. Also, as far as gaming is concerned (for most games), XBL does not host games, once connected to a game, a machine in the group is set as the de facto host and everyone else has a peer-to-peer connection to the host. I think it improves lag but certainly does not affect XBL traffic.

XBL for online gaming is more of a game search service than a game server service. All that other fluff DOES take quite a bit of bandwidth, such as the introduction of video/audio ads in the dashboard. Just two days ago, I turned on my Xbox and went looking for my controller. I came back to this annoying music that repeated every 10 seconds and my wife was ready to kill me for not having the controller. My focus on the dashboard should NEVER be sitting on one of those stupid ads. Those ads never bothered me until they were the first thing on my console.

Hate to say it, but my days of Microsoft fan-boy status (and I’ve been a LONG-TIME SUPPORTER) are numbered as it gets harder and harder to find reasons to stay. I remember the good ol’ days when Xbox first launched as a brand that was almost completely gamer driven. I hope those days return soon.

@majornelson I think the blowback here necessitates some kind of community response if not some kind of internal dialog as well. I can’t say enough how long I’ve personally championed the Xbox and Live platforms but I have to say, this feels like a price increase for something we already felt we were overpaying for. Either that, or give us access to another online service and put us in some real choice (Silver isn’t a choice if you can’t access multiplayer).

Why can’t we pay for this with PayPal? WTF?

I have NP with this increase!

“If it costs Microsoft more money each year to retain people like Major, e, or Stepto, then you should expect to pay more for your service eventually.”
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Oh come off it, the price increase is hardly because of Larry et al, and if it was I’d rather see Major and his cronies “let go” than pay more, and so would everyone else. There’s always someone else who could easily do the same job for less money.
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They should call it Major Nelson’s Bad News Blog: Because We Hate You.

Microsoft’s philosophy: Removing features that gamers actually enjoy i.e 1vs100 and adding features gamers don’t even want that are FREE on the internet i.e facebook and twitter. All while charging them more for those unwanted features.

Boo to the increase! Boo!

As a Canadian Xbox owner, it’s nice to see that the yearly fee isn’t changing. The US customers are now paying the same amount we are, I’m sure they’re going to be upset about that, though $10.00 more a year is hardly a big deal.

What I would like to see is more value for $60.00 / year. American Xbox owners have access, or will have access, to ESPN, Netflix last.fm and Hulu while Canadians get, well, nothing.

Please make it worth our money.

WTF??!! I CAN UNDERSTAND PRICE HIKES, BUT WHEN THE MEMBERSHIP GOES UP, YOU CHARGE $25 FOR 1500 MICROSOFT POINTS (AND ONE GAME COSTS YOU 900 OF THOSE POINTS), PLUS GAMES ON DEMAND FOR $25, AND ZUNE VIDEOS FOR WHATEVER PRICE IS DECIDED FOR RENTAL, AND WE ALREADY PAY NETFLIX FOR THEIR SERVICE, CHARGES ARE GETTING TO BE A LITTLE OVERWHELMING, AND IT MAKES IT HARD FOR SOMEONE WHO REALLY ENJOYS THEIR LIVE MEMBERSHIP TO CONTINUE. I MEAN, HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT CHARGE MEMBERS FOR HAVING FUN? OR ARE WE JUST GONNA KEEP REACHING INTO OUR WALLETS UNTIL ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND WE NO LONGER RENEW OUR MEMBERSHIPS?

This definitely sucks.

How about unveiling a “Platinum” level or something that includes all the extra junk some of us won’t ever use.

I use my xbox for Gaming, an occasional movie, and downloading games/add-ons to games. Been a Gold member for 5+ years and I use it the exact same way I did when I first bought it.

It sucks that I will have to pay the extra $10 a year to compensate for things I will never use. The wii-mii’s, anything kinect related, facebook, twitter, espn, last.fm, the avatar store, netflix, hulu, etc.. All of those will never be loaded on my xbox and I wish I could remove them from the dashboard.

So, as I said, how about a Platinum package for that $60 price tag that includes all of those things and keep the Gold package the same, minus the junk.

This is too high a price. I just want to play multiplayer games, with no extra rubbish that I don’t need.

There should be a bronze, silver and gold service. bronze will be what silver is now, silver will let you play online games, and gold will be the same it is now. This would be more competitive with what PSN now offers.

WTF! It’s not even worth the $50 I pay for it now. This makes me wanna jump ships to the PS3.

I disagree, I do not know in other countries, but here in Mexico there are some services like Netflix and Last.fm, so I think you should consider this facts and before you rise the price.

I know several people who have let their gold account laps because they weren’t getting anything out of it. This won’t help get them back. Roku box here I come for my Netflix streaming. Just because PS3 started a premium pay service doesn’t mean Xbox was right to be charging all along. It’s still free to play games online on PS3. (as it should be)

Major,

What a way to start the week.

It is sad to see the price hike. Just look at your competition! Wii never charges for MP (for the two titles that support it ) and PSN never has charged for MP, even with the Plus move they will still offer MP for free.

I guess the Xbox community has hit it with the tiered service idea. You already had the tiers before, just add one more and things will be fine. You want the motherlode? Go platinum and fork over cash accordingly. Want Gold-like services minus the premium services (last.fm, Twitter, etc.)? Pay less. Want nothing? stay silver.

It boggles the mind to see that over time, with more and more customers added to XBL, the prices had to go up. According to the Economies of scale, when you have more folks paying for something, you can usually charge less to attrack more folks while keeping your revenues in line. You are making very bold moves here and I can only feel for e’s team since any hiccup in the system will now make our gamer-rage be $10 overamplified.

Anyhow, see you guys at PAX. I am sure Larry you’ll be getting some interesting faces over there after the sour news today…

Well I don’t think it is a big deal just get a family pack for $99.00 and you have 4 for $25 a piece…”whoopty-doo Bassil what does it all mean?”

even 10 extra dollars think about it “THIS IS FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR” OMG there are people selling thies bodies and kids to play WoW for $17 a month and ya’ll fanboys are complaining about the cost of one game to play an entire year with multiple games. give me a break.

Here comes the crying and whining, but in the end people will still pay.

I want to know when the Family account will come. With Kinect right around the cornor, pretty sure a family of 3 or 4 does not want to fork out $60 per family memeber to play on Live.

For once, I’m happy not to get what US gets, a price increase.

On the other hand, it should have decreased.

Silver should be a games only stuff for free and then you can see who will pay for the “gold” multimdeia services. I’d miss netflix streaming but you can get that through many other devices.

Hi I am a 5 year member of Xbox Live. When my membership ends in June 2011 I am done with Xbox and Live. I am already pi**ed off with all of the ads on my 360 you guys shove down our throats and now you want to charge even more money.I just bought 15 months of PS+ for $49.99 and they actually give me FREE stuff plus huge discounts. All of this WITHOUT ads plasterd all over the XMB or PS Store. BYE BYE Microsoft.

You don’t have very happy customers right here MS. As consumers we do have the ability to fix the change in price or put the company under. Don’t purchase a subscription for a year, a few hundred thousand people and they will cut the price. We could force them to drop it to 30 dollars a year if people really revolted, but no one will.

At least they aren’t changing the annual fee in the UK.

This could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a lot of people though.

Does anyone remember the family membership? Which comes out in November? And gives you 4 accounts for $99? So not only are you telling me my gold subscription is only worth ~$25 but you’re going to mark up the price 3x to sell it to me.

Lmao. What a joke. Like the “team” is going to listen to us major. Everytime you mention telling the team about our comments we never hear back nothing is going to change. How is this justifiable? Is it kinect? You mean the kinect video? Wow we can already video chat with the live camera. How about the voice on kinect? Oh that’s right!! It’s not part of the launch software. Another feature gimped.

Twitter, last.fm and Facebook are free and I could careless about espn. So major, tell us why you guys don’t really care about your consumers? I will agree ps3 is not near the quality but at the same time it’s FREE!!!!!! Give me a break.

Get rid of the f***ing ads for once Microsoft. We pay gold, we deserve to see things like this GO AWAY. WE PAY TO NOT SEE ADS. I want more than just “herp derp new services added that you will never use.” like ESPN as a justification for the price hike. What about things like free games given to us per month like Playstation Plus? Or demos for almost any game? Or free Premium themes?

You guys have to give us more than just: multiplayer, downloadable things, to justify us paying $60. Work on making truskill actually improved. Get rid of that disgusting half-screen blob that has plagued the New Xbox Experience dashboard since day one. Let us customize colors for Avatars. Now given, those of us with Gold can do other things like Halo Waypoint, Netflix, Facebook and Last.FM, but for those who never use those services (or use them for free on the internet,as Waypoint translates to bungie.net) still end up paying for the full price of the service anyways.

I haven’t bought Live cards in stores for a long time, and now with this increase of price, I’m probably never buying them again. I’ll just get stupid-awesome deals on Amazon.com from now on, or if you decide to do more of those awesome “Get 1 year for $40″ deals.

Other than that, this is stupid. You guys GOT RID OF THE ORIGINAL XBOX LIVE SERVICE for this??

LOL….Last renewal….30 bucks from Walmart. One before that…..27.50 from Ebay. These prices CAN and WILL be beat. Just shop around!!

I’d be shocked if even 10% of you complaining and threatening to cancel you accounts ever follow through on that. Actually make that 5%. That is how confident I am.

I wouldn’t mind seeing an itemized list of these so called “features.” The only features I can think of are either unrelated to the Xbox Live network (NetFlix, Twitter, Facebook, soon Hulu), or they cost money (Xbox Arcade games, games on demand). Some of those fulfill both requirements. Do you honestly believe that party chat and the avatar system warrant an extra 10-20 bucks a year?

@CrazyRon.. PlayStation is catching up to Microsoft insanely fast I think that speaks for itself

Kinect costing us money even if we don’t buy it!

Well then, looks like it’s time to turn auto renewal off. 60 bucks a year is too much to pay for a service that has a ton of features that I don’t use. So, unless I can find a sale on 12 months subscription cards for like 39.99 somewhere down the road, Microsoft can kiss my money goodbye.

Way to alienate your customers.

I don’t know how I feel about this. I love Xbox 360 and I use Netflix all the time and some online play with other people. But I never ever use Facebook or Twitter on there and last.fm I could care less about. I don’t know I’ll probably cancel my auto renew and find a cheaper route through Amazon or something. I don’t know. Kinda sucks.

So with the price increase I’d assume that means gold subscribers would see less ads right? No? Well why would I be thinking something crazy like that in the first place…?

First there XBLA games going from 400/800 to 800/1200, and now that??? You really want people to go on PS3? Unless you’re gonna provide an extraordinary new feature, there is nothing that can justify a price increasing.
I sincerely hope it won’t affect France, because we’re already paying 60€ a year = 76 US$, and we don’t even have Netflix, Last.FM, ESPN, we’ve got a poor choice on VOD

Looks like I am going to have to buy another year for $40 at amazon. Thanks for the price increase Microsoft your service is not even worth the $40 I am going to pay for the year but you think it is worth $60 a year you got to be joking. Looks like my PS3 will be getting alittle more use Thanks Again Microsoft I Love You to!!!

Something that hasn’t been mentioned is the price lock-in. This is just a clever way for Microsoft to get an additional subscription payment in their pockets before the price goes up. I just renewed my Gold account in the last month. I’m not paying it again this year to ‘save’ $10.

Ultimately, I’d like to know where the extra money is going. It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s aimed at improving the gaming experience. I think the technology behind Kinect is interesting, especially in its non-gaming capacity (live HD chat, voice commands, etc), but it’s not something I’ll buy. I’m willing to bet that a lot of others won’t, either.

ESPN3 doesn’t interest me. I get ESPN and ESPN2, both in HD, through my cable subscription, and since I only care about local games, I have no desire to use ESPN3.

Twitter and Facebook are available for free on every internet-capable device.

Finally, my brother lets me rent movies through his Netflix account.

So, again, how does the price increase add value to my gaming experience?

It’s annoying that every time I think Microsoft has figured it out they shoot themselves in the foot. As someone just getting into .NET development, and enjoying what the development side has to offer, it’s sad to see great ideas (Courier, WP7, etc.) hamstrung by bad planning and bad management. This decision strikes me as just more of the same – increasing the price of a service while neglecting to meaningfully improve on the value of the service, all the while insulting consumers with attempts to make the price increase sound like a good thing for all.

So, again, tell us how the extra money will IMPROVE the service in a meaningful way.

@Caddyman46 Yeah, well expect to pay $10 more for those now.

I haven’t been playing my 360 lately anyway. Screw you guys and your idiotic pricing. Maybe I’ll renew when the family package comes out, but you guys haven’t even provided enough to justify the $50 a year I was already paying.

BOoooOoooOooo

Nice try to make this sound like a good thing. Didn’t work though. Thanks for adding useless garbage and upping the price. Jerks.

if i could give this post 0 stars i would have. as many people have reasonably stated before i agree that the following pricing structure should be implemented. i’ve been a gold subscriber for a few years now and i’m glad Major Nelson has at least given us a blog to comment on.

silver membership (free) = system/game updates, access to marketplace, access to DLC

gold membership ($30) = silver + voice chat, party chat, online multiplayer, and deal of the week

platinum membership ($60) = gold + video chat, netflix, facebook, twitter, last.fm, ESPN3, and no in dashboard advertisements

this would allow people to more accurately pay for what they want. personally i only want what gold would be offering and it is unfair to force me to subsidize premium features that i have no desire to have. i can’t even take advantage of some of them due to my lack of netflix subscription and the fact that i won’t be purchasing kinect (video chat).

i find it hard to believe that MS realizes consumers want/need 7 flavors of Windows, but at the time wants to force all xbox users into 2 fee structures.

MN, I realize this decision was not in your hands but can you tell those who did make this decision that I was not considering a subscription to Playstation Network Plus (PSN+)…until today? Why should I spend $60 for a multiple features I never use on XBL? For $50 on PSN+, I get free games, free Netflix, etc.
It just seems like someone is out of touch at Microsoft.

Here is a snippet from the latest MS financial earnings report:

“Cost of revenue increased $251 million or 38% primarily from charges resulting from the discontinuation of the KIN phone and increased royalty costs resulting from increased Xbox LIVE digital marketplace third-party content sales.”

So cost of revenue is increasing, while the value of the dollar is decreasing. Obvious choice to shareholders would be to increase price to match inflation.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m totally looking forward to all the free stuff we are getting from this like PSN+ gets…. oh wait..

First off, you need to fire your PR guy. This is something to announce with new features. That said, what are you offering to justify the price increase. Netflix and Hulu both cost extra. ESPN3 is not available in me area. What’s the benifit? When you guys dissconnected Xbox 1 from live, you said it was becuase you were going to add things to Live that would not be compatible to Xbox 1. Where is that stuff? Is the new price what isn’t compatible? If this is some kind of plan to offset the cost of Kinect, than thats bad. You need to be honest about that. I have no intention of getting Kinect. If Kinect people want to pay an extra $10 for a new Kinect dashboard, let them. Don’t force it on everyone. I just need to see something to justify the increase, while the competition continues to offer free online play.

I have to agree w/ many of the comments already left, there is barely enough to justify $49 a year, let alone $69. And I’m sorry but access to Twitter, Facebook, Hulu+ and the rest is not a good enough reason to raise the price, nor is saying something like “the cost of data storage has gone up since we opened LIVE, and thus the reason for the increase” b/c data storage prices have actually GONE DOWN since LIVE went…live (not like anyone has made such a statement, but it’s really the only thing I can think of as a “real” reason to justify the increase).

I have an idea…how about you make a new account level somewhere in between the current “Silver” and the new, more expensive “Gold”, call it “White Gold” or something. This new level keeps the current $49 yearly rate and just doesn’t get access to all these crap additions like Twitter, Facebook, ESPN, Hulu +, Video Kinect, etc.? I would MUCH rather keep the current rate and not be able to access that crap on LIVE…that’s what my PC is for.

And yeah, we all know MS has us all by the nuts, and most likely almost everyone here will not cancel their Gold LIVE subs, but that doesn’t mean we have to eat it quietly.

Don’t expect me to renew my subscription when it runs out. I know I’m in Canada and there isn’t a price increase for the 1 year subscription, but I’m already paying more than I want to since the only feature I use is the multiplayer. All the more reason to switch to PS3.

Give me a, say, $20 – $30 multiplayer-only subscription model and I might consider giving you my money again.

Agree with Willow ve

Diamond= all the gay additions facebook, twitter, last fm, the espn 3 thing

Gold= online play, party chat, and netflix.

Silver= what ever silver is now

STOP CHARGING US FOR SHIT WE DONT EVEN USE

As a UK player of some years I am not seeing the value.

We are quite far into the console cycle and most serious gamers own a PS3 and a 360 by now especially with the recent price drops.

The only benefit I get from the 360 over the PS3 is the voice chat. On the PS3 you cannot chat without being in the same game on the same map sometimes. You definately can’t just talk over PSN without being in the same game first.

That is it. I do not use Facebook or Twitter or Last.fm. I have used skyplayer but I am already paying SKY alot of money for that service anyway and on my PC (also linked to my HD telly via HDMI) it is free to use.

I now wonder if I should buy Fifa11 on the 360 or on the PS3. I was definately going to get the 360 version but since I can use skype or ventrillo to chat to people playing the PS3 version but not have to pay the subscription, that seems a good plan.

I wonder how many people would pay the extra for the features you have added if you offered them the choice. My guess is most people would happily pay less just to game against their friends. I also think the results of such an experiment would be quite embarrassing for Microsoft because it would quite simply make them look stupid.

“an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry”

That statement is total BS, in México we don’t have Neflix, Last FM, a proper Video/Music marketplace or Zune Marketplace (well last one maybe in december but after how many years), we may never have ESPN and yet we will have to pay more? :@ :@ :@

@farfromit4

You said, “…free online gaming, free demos, free video features, etc is well worth the $50…”

Hahahah! I think you may want to look up the word “Free” in the dictionary.

I have a question. If You buy the discounted subscription for $40 will it add 12 more months to you Live subscription. SO for example if your current subscription ends in February 2011 would buying this discounted subscription add 12 more months on to it to where it wont expire until April 2012. Or would your Live subscription expire 12 months from the date of purchase for the new discounted subscription.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Month-Live-Gold-Card/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1283187610&sr=8-2

Again for those wanting a cheaper option. The cards are only $39.94 on Amazaon.com and they INCLUDE free shipping.
For those who don’t think people will cancel their subscription or just let it lapse, you obvisouly aren’t affected by this economy like some are.

It’s $60 it’s no different then going out and buying a $60 game. $10 isn’t that crippling.

Reality check:

Twitter, Facebook, and Last.FM are all free services. Not only that but they are all stripped down versions on Live. Twitter is essentially useless without a web browser. 90% of people’s tweets are links to pictures, videos and articles that you can’t view on the 360.

Netflix, Hulu Plus, and ESPN all require separate subscriptions independent of Live. MS is essentially charging you to access stuff on the internet that you’re already paying for either to your ISP or to the service providers themselves. It’d be like LG charging me a fee to take stuff out of my refrigerator.

So what exactly justifies this price increase? Because they are increasing the quality of voice chat?

I agree that there should be a separate tier for all this “premium” stuff. I don’t want to pay an extra $10 a year for features that I can only use if I have $50 worth of monthly subscriptions to other services. And even if I did have subscriptions to all that stuff, I still shouldn’t have to pay extra on Live to access it. MS isn’t providing my internet service. It doesn’t cost them anything when I stream videos on my internet connection.

I don’t agree with the price increase but then again I’ve never paid full-price for my 12-month subscription to Xbox Live. I’ve only bought the cards when they go on sale.

“Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal. But I think I may have a better one. How about, I give you the finger How about I give you the finger, and you give me my phone call”

If we have to start paying more money then you guys better stop shoving ******* advertisements down are throat all over the dashboard.

@Blakamiss
It adds it to the end of your subscription. In your example it would be February 2012, a year from when your originial subscription would end.

Microsoft is gambling the Gold attrition rate will be mitigated by the increase in deals it will go after with the additional capital raised. Xbox is part of the Microsoft machinery which traditional tends to be very aggressive in minimizing competition through acquisitions and exclusive agreements.

Look for them to actively go after first rights to big name franchises and supplement directly publishers who are actively looking at monthly fees for access to the online portion of their games.

Imagine Modern Warfare 3 available a week early on the XBOX and free online gaming to Gold members, whereas other platform users will be required to pay a nominal fee for monthly access to the online component of the game.

Besides, who pays full retail for Xbox Gold? At least in the US, you can regularly find 12 month memberships heavily discounted.

This is a joke right? You’re going to charge more?! You have Twitter which is a joke on Xbox, Netflix which I don’t have, Facebook which I don’t use ever, Last FM that has ads after every 3 songs with the volume CRANKED UP HIGH AND SCREAMING OUT OF MY TV, and now you’re adding ESPN which, since i’m with Time Warner I can’t use. With the amount of ads on the dashboard you’d think the pricing would go down! I guess you guys are trying to somehow regain your losses for when Kinect launches and doesn’t do so hot. This is ridiculous MS.

This is a joke right? You’re going to charge more?! You have Twitter which is a joke on Xbox, Netflix which I don’t have, Facebook which I don’t use ever, Last FM that has ads after every 3 songs with the volume CRANKED UP HIGH AND SCREAMING OUT OF MY TV, and now you’re adding ESPN which, since i’m with Time Warner I can’t use. With the amount of ads on the dashboard you’d think the pricing would go down! I guess you guys are trying to somehow regain your losses for when Kinect launches and doesn’t do so hot. This is ridiculous MS.

This is a joke right? You’re going to charge more?! You have Twitter which is a joke on Xbox, Netflix which I don’t have, Facebook which I don’t use ever, Last FM that has ads after every 3 songs with the volume CRANKED UP HIGH AND SCREAMING OUT OF MY TV, and now you’re adding ESPN which, since i’m with Time Warner I can’t use. With the amount of ads on the dashboard you’d think the pricing would go down! I guess you guys are trying to somehow regain your losses for when Kinect launches and doesn’t do so hot. This is ridiculous MS.

This is a joke right? You’re going to charge more?! You have Twitter which is a joke on Xbox, Netflix which I don’t have, Facebook which I don’t use ever, Last FM that has ads after every 3 songs with the volume CRANKED UP HIGH AND SCREAMING OUT OF MY TV, and now you’re adding ESPN which, since i’m with Time Warner I can’t use. With the amount of ads on the dashboard you’d think the pricing would go down! I guess you guys are trying to somehow regain your losses for when Kinect launches and doesn’t do so hot. This is ridiculous MS.

This is a joke right? You’re going to charge more?! You have Twitter which is a joke on Xbox, Netflix which I don’t have, Facebook which I don’t use ever, Last FM that has ads after every 3 songs with the volume CRANKED UP HIGH AND SCREAMING OUT OF MY TV, and now you’re adding ESPN which, since i’m with Time Warner I can’t use. With the amount of ads on the dashboard you’d think the pricing would go down! I guess you guys are trying to somehow regain your losses for when Kinect launches and doesn’t do so hot. This is ridiculous MS.

I’d like to throw in my $0.02 that this is a terrible idea. Raising the price without adding any additional features? It’s already too expensive. If game publishers start to charge for gaming on top of this (e.g. Call of Duty), it’s going to be time for a lot of people to drop Xbox altogether. I like to get on with my parents and play; it’s one of the few times we get to spend together and this is going to push them out also.

I’d also like to ask Major Nelson if he knows whether prepaid 12-month cards will be honored for 12-months, or if they will be downgraded to the equivalent number of months based on the new price?

This is such bull.

Horrible. I just got my buddy switched over from the PS3 and me a new 360 S… hopefully we get something more out of this price hike than the last few years of junk like facebook and twitter.

Nothing against you Major, we all know you didnt make this decision.

I cannot believe what i am hearing!
M$ better get some amazing features, but 60 is just too much.
Wont ever go to the ps3, just wont play online. Cuz even when i did have my ps3, i never played it. EVER!!!

But yeah, i would like to hear an explanation for the increase

out of all these features what do Canadians get? I know US subscribers get way more stuff but it is unclear as to what exactly we are ENTITLED to for out $60 CAD every year.

PSN still offers online gaming, Internet Browser, access to Netflix, MLB.tv and dozens more features they’re always adding…all for free.

DOUBLE the price. PLEASE. remove all these cry baby kids off the site, so it can get back to the old xbox live, where there where people that actually respected one another, and were not these little wannabe gangsters.

Or make a 25 and older group, so we don’t have to listen to all their crap day in, and day out. It is ruining the experience for the older dudes out there.

Paywalling additional free & useless content still doesn’t justify a 20% price hike. For me, XBL was already overpriced at $50. Now do something about account management so that *WE* can opt to *NOT* auto-renew without having spend an eternity on hold to talk to “support” in India to cancel said auto-renewal.

Steam’s a considerably better value than XBLM, and it’s a free service.

Microsoft are the masters of console over-monetization. After 5 RRoDs and now this, I’ll be giving their next console a seriously wide berth.

Newspaper (if they’re still around) headline from the future: GREED KILLS GAMING!

After the BEST publicity campaing at E3 for PS3/Sony, Microsoft done it again!!! It really wasn’t enough to screw the loyal consumers with kinectic at E3… so when Sony gives us a paid service with some REAL content (not garbage that i can find it free on my pc) what does Microsoft? Increases the price of XBL for… nothing?
Oh, and 11/04/2011… the day that i will NOT renew XBL, and yeah, i know that my country is not afected by this (well, at least for now) but i dont like where this is going and when i see the other console getting even better i will not think twice…
BTW, why not get ride of Facebook, Last Fm, whatever and give us a browser? Oh, right, so that you can have some ridiculous excuse for increasing the price of your online system…

1. I understand that everything we say does not matter. When 800 pound gorilla makes a move, everyone better adjust. There is a “joke”: when you being rapped and you cannot do anything about that, try to relax and enjoy. That is exactly the situation all xbox live members are in. Thank you, Microsoft.
2. Microsoft, please, please, please…do try to give us justification why the increase is necessary. I’d like to see that. Seriously, I do. Where is that content you are talking about? I have to pay for EVERYTHING: games and movies. Somebody said something about demos, but I’d say that if you want me to buy your game, it is in your best interest to sell it to me, right? A demo would be the right way to convince me. Now..Who made a decision that I have to pay for demos?
3. I won’t say much about Twitter, Facebook and other silly “content”. I don’t use these features within xbox. I don’t even know anybody who uses them. I don’t even have a facebook account! Why I have to pay for that?
4. Xbox dashboard. Is that the content? I don’t think so, but if, for some strange reason, you believe it is, then OK, I’ll pay for that. For some reason, I thought I’ve already paid when I purchased the xbox console!!! Thanks god you are not selling each Windows Update or patch…OPS…please don’t take it as an idea, please!!! I’m begging you!
5. Multiplayer support (bandwidth and chat) is the ONLY “content” that I’m OK to pay you for. It is important for me that you work with all these developers and tell/teach them how to do the multiplayer.
6. So…what else is out there that I have to pay for? Please tell me.
7. Again, you won’t change a thing, but may be if you introduce “basic” and “advance” subscriptions it would help. “Basic” will support multiplayer only. Just don’t make any more changes if you see that 99.9% of all members selected “basic”.
8. Microsoft, if you would come out and say “we need more money” it would hurt me less than all your lies about the cake…err…the price increase. Seriously, some members of xbox live are adults, not kids. Telling the truth ease makes it easier for everybody. Microsoft’s marketing, did not your mothers tell not to lie?
9. You just made a few millions of your loyal fans and members angry…congratulations. We will now relay and try to enjoy the ride.

This is Garbage Major. we are being charged an additional 10 bucks for what? ESPN? we have to pay netflix for an unlimited subscription to get that. HULU Plus? we have to pay HULU a subscription fee for that. Kinect Chat? We have to pay $150 to buy Kinect to use that. So what exactly is the additional $10 for? Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM? all free online. How about you guys release a gamer subscription that only allows the player to download DLC and Play online, and the rest of that crap you can put into a extras subscription, that way those of us that don’t use all this extra garbage, only pay for what we want.

@MisterBionic – The party features of XBL are pretty solid when compared to what is offered in the Sony side. I’ve never played longer than 5 minutes on a PS3 (and never online) but friends say the online features do not compare. Free* versus $60 per year could sway some people.

I do like the suggestion of the platinum level that adds on the optional services like netflix as long as the gold level drops below $50.

* – Sony is backtracking on yet another one of their marketing attacks against Microsoft and slowly introducing a subscription service.

I will say this though… the money that is added BETTER be spent on cutting down the game hackers.

Don’t know why most of the people from the UK are complaining, maybe they cannot read “Again, the only subscription packages impacted are those mentioned above. For instance, the 12m UK Price? Not affected since it is not mentioned above.”
Right now the price for the 12 month Gold in the UK is £39.99 but you can get it for as cheap as £28 if you know where to look and I’m sure a lot of people never actually buy Live from the marketplace and get it cheaper elsewhere.

What are we talking about here? An extra five minutes at work to pay for the ten dollar increase, big deal. Once again, the poor entertain me. Thank you

@ Zacxx201

stop reposting the same thing over and over again.

@ O Nerd Killer O

I agree with your post except for the fact that I ain’t paying double the price… unless it comes with a Happy Ending from some good looking lady…

Just sent away for my Netflix disc for PSN.

That is a great idea….charge extra for the “MATURE” rated audiances, and filter out all the kids/wanna be thug gangsta MF(s)!!They can all hac,boost,and be anal together while the rest of us have a great LIVE experience!!

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content” — Yeah, and we had to pay for the content, its not like you were giving it away for free. So why the price increase? Microsoft rapes everyone with the pricing of DLC and now they say: “Guess what, with the bad economy and overpriced DLC, we decided to charge you more for Xbox Live too”.

@Nerd Killer If your up to date with what DJ Keemstar is going through you will know that your money is being put to use by stopping people like him Stepto watches his stream every night but, from what people say and beg.. Tell him to ban the cheaters off MW2 Leaderboards it hasn’t been done and it’s been almost a year.. So yeah.

I’ve been insulated from the full price of XBL because I’ve had the past three years of service for $56 because I bought a Xbox Live Vision camera (which comes with a year of Gold) for $40 and then found two more camera bundles for $8 each on clearance from K-Mart. I hardly use the Gold features except for perhaps a few days of MP per year with friends because the open online community is nothing but glitchers, griefers, poorly-parented racist, homophobic brats, or simply players so good that crushing defeat is the only option.

With a laptop, all the other “features” – Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, Hulu, Netflix, etc. – are all available free of charge and in a more usable form. (Who actually posts anything online with the gamepad? – note: not Chatpad) I don’t watch ESPN, so that’s worthless to me. My current Gold sub expires in 3 weeks and I was pondering whether I was going to renew and barring a killer sale falling into my lap, it appears I’m going to let it lapse, probably losing my year count bling on my profile.

With our economy in ruins, the idea that jacking up prices is insane. With PSN Plus (or whatever that’s called) going for $50, but regular PSN offering free (albeit inferior) MP, that M$ is choosing to go MORE expensive when the part people pay for the most – online MP – is F-R-E-E on the competition makes no sense whatsoever. I predict that this leads to LESS income than more.

I think I speak for everybody on Xbox Live when I say: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta say Major, you should have included the price hike in an announcement of new features. I mean, let the users know where their money is going! So far, only Video Kinect has been announced as a new feature (and even for that, you have to buy Kinect). Even if the features are ways off, it would be nice to know that your money is being put to good use.

Has the $99 Family Plan pricing changed? Why didn’t you mention the Family Plan in your post?

Is anyone at Xbox reading this message or is this the equivalent of talking to a wall?

The only reason the price is going up is becouse people will still pay to plsy. Xbox/Microsoft the molti-billion $$$ Co. knows this and will take advantige of people who won’t do any thing about is. Time to hit them were it hurts. THER WALLETS. BOYCOT! Or do nothing and pay the price.

for all the cry babies…go to PSN please!! I’ll bet you’ll come running back with your $59.00 begging for forgivness.

Even if Larry is going to “bring it up to the team” (which I know it won’t make a difference), The constant complaining will die down soon and we’ll deal with the increase. It’s nature.

I must say… This is disappointing to see, even if it doesn’t affect me right now.
And Microsoft, it doesn’t add value, the competition has FREE alternatives, you cannot and will not be able to provide more value than a free alternative, period.

Even though this won’t affect me here in Australia, come December I won’t be continuing my membership because:
* Price Hikes.
* “Features” seem to be generally US only most of the time.

M$$$$$$$$$, now I finally get it. The competitor’s service is free and the features are comparable, the price is supposed to go down. With the Kinect focus and now this, you guys are making it extra easy for people who actually play video games to go somewhere else with their gaming. This is so baffling and it’s such a unreasonable price, I’m thinking you guys want to lose this generation so you don’t have to make another console.

The price increase is hard to swallow.

If the reasoning is that “hey, we added Twitter/Facebook/Etc.!”, well, I thought those were supposed to be free.

I barely play multiplayer games at the moment and I certainly don’t use the aforementioned features. I’ve used Netflix a lot, but I have a computer hooked up to my TV — I don’t need to pay for the privilege anymore.

I think I’ll just let my account revert to Silver. Vote with my dollars and all that.

I’m not surprised they are doing this, they toyed with the idea a few years ago. That said, I am shocked at the amount of increase. I would think going from $49.99 to $54.99 would be acceptible, but $59.99 is kind of rediculous. I have been a LIVE subscriber since the day it was released to the public, but the service no longer caters to casual gamers such as myself. The value is only there for people who use the service 24/7, but the rest of us pay the same amount. Also, when LIVE fist launched we didn’t have advertisements on the dashboard. Now every single blade has an ad or even several ads on it. That alone should prevent MS from such a steep price increase. To date i’ve spent something like $350 for this “service” that doesn’t even offer servers, on top of the 3 Xbox consoles i’ve purchased, the $100 fee that my most recent RRoD cost, and all the games i’ve paid for.

I’m disappointed to say the least.

Break it down and it’s .02 cents more a day. If you can’t manage that much, it’s time to sell your Xbox.

I think oAssassin Xo has come up with a good idea a few pages back

oAssassin Xo – “You know what M$ fails to realize? There are three types of people out there that use Gold.
.

(1)The spoiled brat who can have what he wants.

.

(2)The person that enjoys everything on live and wants Gold.

.

(3)The person that DOESN’T want alot of Lives crap and mainly wants the MP.

.

I am number 3. I only pay for live so I can play my games online. I never really use the “other features”. Don’t care about the music or facebook or any of that crap on Live. And Yet I am charged for that ****! If MS was smart they would set up to Gold accounts.

.

(1)Gold Minumum: Allows you to just play games online for only (insert price)…like maybe $20 a year.

.

(2) Gold Premium: Allows you use EVERY feature on Live. Make it $60.”

I am also person #3 and would like to see a feature like this.

Hahahaha!

After so long you increase the price when you should be dropping the price of service. You don’t increase the price of service during a depression/recession you morons!! Who is the head of your marketing? A monkey??

The key is to sell at a low profit margin and push more inventory (Live), than to try to make a larger profit gain.

If anything, this is like NY raising the tax on Cigarette’s and NY losing revenue from it as everyone flocks to he Indian Reservations to avoid the Tax!

You would sell so much more if you had a price point of $34.99 for a year.

But hey, who am I? Just your avg. consumer here.

My problem is, most of the additions to Live since the 360 launched are entirely superfluous to what I use it for. When the 360 launched, I was using Live to play Halo, download demos and buy XBLA games. These days, I’m using it to play Halo, download demos and buy XBLA and XBLIG games, and stream Netflix. And since I pay a separate subscription fee for Netflix, I don’t feel like like Live is really adding anything I should be paying for.

To the extent that new services have been added, they primarily have costs attached in their respective marketplaces (video, etc.). So outside of that, we’re left with the normal annual Dashboard updates that we’ve come to expect. Which is not something I see anyone else justifying with a price hike. So Major Nelson’s attempt to justify the price increase is entirely hollow.

But the messaging and timing really are poor. Typically when price increases like this are rolled out, they are bundled with a new feature or service. Not so here. Between that and the continuing improvements made to PSN and Steam which do not charge and this price increase is pretty jarring.

I’m entirely captive to the service, of course, so I’ll absorb the cost increase. And I suspect most if not all current Live subscribers will do likewise; if you’re paying $50 for an annual service paying $60 instead isn’t going to cause you to leave it. But it’s a pretty tone-deaf move given what’s happing outside of Live, and I think they know it given how weak MN’s justification was.

Ok so most developers are making me pay for new games to play online or pay extra for their content and MS decides that I need to also pay more for their service on top of that. Also you killed off 70+ games from online (all gen one) but EA is killing my current gen games left and right. My subscription is up early next year. So am I. Not going to pay to play that. By the end of next month I will have netfilx streaming native on my PS3s, One user ID for both PS3s I own and the ability to share my game content with both. Its all I need. I will be able to play online to them for free. Good enough for me. I will just get my Halo fix on XBconnect from that point on. Its the only way to play my gen one games online now anyway.
I feel like it was yesterday when I bought Wacked and played it online with voice chat. It was so magical. Not laggy like my DC online was. I was promised as long as I paid the $50.00 a year all my games would always work online. I could pop in any game and still play online. For some time it was fine. Then EA started running their own servers and were the first to cut them off to force upgrades. Then time passed and others caught on. And then one day I was told my Gen one games would no longer work online… Even If I still play them. Then I was told I had to pay more for less games to play online a few months later… Nope… Im out when my time is up. Thank you for the memories.
I wont see you next gen.

@Venmon it’s not the price but, the principal :O

50$ was too much. twitter is held back without a browser or looking at tweets without going to the dashboard, facebook is garbage, hulu costs extra, netflix coast extra, i buy my games, game devs put up the demos, zune coast money, video connect costs me 150 for the hardware, espn is limited and not needed since thats what my tv was made for before xbox!!!!! i mean this is bs.

@x Obstruction x

Poor people always say that.

Well Played Microsoft…
Folks this isn’t about Microsoft just deciding to up the price because of the new features that have been added and will be added. This is all about Halo: Reach. Why?

They know Reach will sell well, and they believe, based on the Reach beta, that the Multiplayer will be booming as well. So what they’ve done here is to announce, just a few weeks before Reach’s release, that the Live pricing is going up. But they also make it clear that you can lock in the old price if you hurry. Additionally, your Walmarts, Targets, Gamestops, etc… all have a huge quantity of these prepaid 12 month subscriptions cards. So those are going to sell a ton, essentially clearing the shelves for the higher priced ones to come (and ensuring Microsoft will have few returns to deal with from the stores). All this will create a huge boom in Live subscriptions in addition the ones they would’ve have naturally gotten from Reach itself.

The bottom line is that Microsoft will have quite a press release in the near future bragging about their 360 exclusive and how it not only sold well at retail but also brought in all these new subscriptions. Again I say well played Microsoft.

@Venom

No, not really they need to come out with a system that doesn’t charge you for crap you don’t use..

I don’t have a problem with the price since mah mommy pays for it

But, if you don’t use twitter, facebook, and all that other crap you should not be charged for it.

Wow, I own all three major systems and the vast majority of the time, for multi-platform games, I get the 360 version. Well, I’m struggling to make ends meet now and am purchasing fewer games. Guess what, with this price increase, Xbox Live is history. If I get a multiplayer game that’s on 360 and PS3, you better bet that I’m going to get the PS3 version now. The “extra” features are all free on my PC and I can use my PS3 or Wii for Netflix. Honestly, the multi-player games I play on PS3 haven’t been any worse than on 360. So off goes a formerly loyal customer. Hope that this really comes back to bite MS in a big way.

So explain to us how Microsoft justifies having adverts ALL over our 360 dashes? As soon as we boot up annoying adverts WITH SOUND start playing and are on EVERY section, literally every other post on there is an ad… despite the fact that we pay a fairly large fee, and now with the up in price, how are you NOW justifying these ads? Pick one or the other guys, either it’s free and ad based, or we keep paying and you drop those ads. I doubt that Major or any other MS person will respond to this message, or any of the other messages sharing the same opinion. You already have 15+ PAGES of comments saying exactly what I’ve just said… doesn’t that tell you guys something? This is some slimy BS Major, you and the rest of MS should be ashamed of yourselves. With any luck, you’ll be regretting it in the near future.

Even with all the advertisements found in almost every nook and cranny of XBL, MSFT wants MORE money? I’ll pay $60, but it’d be a LOT easier to do so if I didn’t have to see what Old Spice, Dorritos, and the new Resident Evil movie were cooking up on every other page.

This is just messed up. Make this Platinum membership for $60 with all the features. Make gold membership $40 with limited features. Why should I pay for facebook, twitter, netflix, zune, last fm. When I don’t even use them on my 360. At least give us the option to pay less when we don’t even want to use all those things.

This all in one is CRAP! Why cant I have my Xbox just play VIDEO GAMES!?!?! I twitter and facebook on my phone and what Netflix on DVDs or computer.

What you should have done is had a Platinum Membership and take all the non-video game crap and dumped it in there and upped that by $15! It was the next logical step.

Gold Member = Online Play Only

Platinum Member = All Entertainment

If it would get all the idiots off of live, I’d pay 100.00

hey venom madness not every one can be a professional co*k sucker and earn a bunch of money some of us work regular jobs and have kids and stuff and even though we can afford the extra money it IS the principal because it never stops every time it’s just alittle more and just a little more more for arcade games more for dlc more for regular games and i know all your co*k sucking pays well now but eventually you may be sucking co*k just to pay for xbox and seriously how many co*ks are you willing to suck venom madness

This is good news….for PSN.

I’m not against a price hike if it’s justifiable, but if anything we deserve a price drop. What have we got lately that us hardcore gamers actually care about, give us more features like party chat and less lame apps I already have on my computer.

Glad I’m not American, I have enough issues with the current price.

My gold is up for renewal soon and i was already weighing up all the ‘features’ we actually get for our cash – then MS go and increase price a tiny bit ? seems less tempting to renew now.

Even the americans are complaining about price and the content they get for it – its a lot worse in the UK and further east, where we are paying double and over for all points/subscriptions and getting a lot less features for it.

MS could at least drop all the dashboard adverts at least, their is always usually at least one of them sitting their that auto-plays itself in the background (wtf)

I am curious to see what the $10 increase will provide more for on Xbox LIVE.

So let me get this right. The UK only has an increase on one month subs?
If thats the case then it has no effect on me as I get my sub yearly.
And I’m sorry to the US, but you deserve to pay more seeing as you get a vast amount more than we do.

For people that don’t know supply and demand, here’s a little lesson: As of February of this year, Xbox live has 23 million members. Now granted this doesn’t count the gold members, but the majority of the population has a gold subscription. Let’s go with an 19 million gold member estimate. At the current price of 49.99, Microsoft is making $949,810,000. With the $59.99 price hike, that number swells to $1,139,810,000. That’s an increase of $190,000,000!

Xbox/Microsoft is a business that goes through the same business practices as any other company. If supply and demand is high, the price will increase. Lower demand means a price decrease. The Xbox live service is currently in high demand; especially since they’re betting on Halo: Reach to be the best selling Xbox 360 game to date. Add Kinect into that equation and you see why the price has increased after all these years. Long as people are renewing their subscription at the new rates, the price hike is justified. The moment that demand goes down, so too will the prices.

As of right now, 12 month Xbox live cards/subscriptions is currently on sale (they’re advertising on my box that it’s 39.99). This method is to keep the current subscribers and allow them to make this announcement a little bit easier.

Tell the ‘team’ “No thanks”, I bought into the Gold membership for Netflix and 1 vs 100. Since you have killed 1 vs. 100, and I can just as easily move the PC into the Living Room I don’t really see any reason to continue paying $60.

You can also pass the word that announcing jacking up membership fees without announcing the supposed “extra benefits” is asinine. A lot of us wouldn’t be as upset had Microsoft bothered to explain what extras we getting for the increased cost.

[Just a hint: Allowing us to stream content that is free to stream elsewhere (including other consoles) is not a benefit. Nor is allowing game developers to blackmail us over online play when the membership supposedly includes it.]

I’d have no real issue (I spend WAY more than £39.00 a month on Sky let alone a year) with a small price increase, if we actually got the same benefits as our cousins across the pound in the US, as it is we don’t. Zune market place in the UK is a joke, we have no Netflix equivalent, even though we have Love Film in the UK (surely Microsoft are sorting something out on this by now), we won’t get ESPN and our inside Xbox is a joke (not even any of our dearly beloved M.N). So on second thoughts, before putting the price up MS, why not actually give us dear Brits a little more for our £ first.

watch how quickly the cards sell out and go up in price

@Euphoric Fusion “And I’m sorry to the US, but you deserve to pay more seeing as you get a vast amount more than we do.”

Are you not reading the US comments? We dont care about that stuff. Believe me youre not missing out.

WOW!!

I am starting to feel REAL smug, that i got back into PC gaming around a year ago, as somebody else has already pointed out, i recently tried the Mafia 2 demo on both my home gaming rig, and the 360, and the 360 version was horrible.

The 360 is an OLD machine, its struggling graphically now IMO

Why would people want to pay more to play it online.

I have 2 x 360 accounts, this one, and another i use in my 360 @ work (mainly for skyplayer), the work account ran out of gold a few weeks back and i never got around to re buying it, consider that one now silver only i hardly watch the skyplayer thing anyway, it was more for my staff when i am not around and they have nothing to do.

My main home gold account is due for renewal in approx 8 months, good chance i will let that slide to silver as well to be honest.

I would say that 70% of my gaming is now done on the PC anyway, Steam FTW!

Wow. First let me say that I have been with xbox live since the first console and I love it. This is a major slap in the face to myself and others that have been loyal to xbox live and have shown it by purchasing live and also arcade contant and avatar gear. I have been waiting for a price decrease over the years. I have never thought about switching to ps3 until now. I still love xbox but what a sad busniess move.

Microsoft needs a 3 tier system:

Silver:
Same as always.

Gold – $30/yr:
Online multiplayer play
Access to marketplace
Voice chat
Party access.

Platinum – $60/yr:
Netflix
Last.FM
Twitter
etc.

Oh my God! Microsoft is taking $10 more from me for a service that I use daily with tons of features. How will I afford 83 cents more a month! Especially since with inflation, Live has been getting cheaper every single year, and is now just going back to its original price… Oh the Hubris of it all!! Why Microsoft!? Looks like I’m going to have to pay $300 to buy a PS3 to protest your $10 craziness, because that makes total sense.

Its really a lot of fun. I can’t read any of these comments complaining about a price increase without laughing. Are you guys serious? $10?! Its just $10! Maybe its going to server upgrades that’ll make every service run faster… You don’t know.

P.S. Also, you have to be crazy not to use Netflix instant streaming!

if you’re going to raise the price at least give us tiers so we can choose which “premium” services we want to pay for.

Bungie is with Activision now, so that means they can make PS3 games.. Yes xbox will still have Halo but, bungie is the only thing that matters.

So what does this mean to the family subscription that is also supposed to start in November?

I agree with others who don’t really care about Last FM and Twitter on the console. I would like ESPN 3. Netflix can be viewed for FREE on my PS3 and Wiis (albeit with a disk). So what else is new and worth extra? P.S. I really hate the Zune video viewer/browser. Every time I click on a video it jumps to that app, without any context (doesn’t pass which video I was trying to see!).

@examark

I agree, the Uk Inside Xbox stuff is garbage, that Independent Charles show is UTTER TRIPE.

The UK side is crap, i dont mind a bit of Acey Bongos now and again, he can be quite funny, but i much preferred it when we got the Majors Minuite like in the old days.

And now we have gash adverts, blahh, bring back the old Xbox blades and give me back my games machine.

The two Goth Goons we usually get generally just annoy me, BTW whatever happened to MSN Jane?

I was fine with the $50 per user charge.

If the pricing change doesn’t impact the upcoming Family Pack, that would be appreciated.

Otherwise, I don’t agree with raising the charge to $60 per user.

Take Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Last FM, Kinect Camera Chat, and even the Deal of the Week and put that in a Platinum acount without those audio based adds, and give me a Platinum boost where I can remove and rearrange the xbox dashboard content tiles. Where my 360 starts on MY Xbox with the Tiles I want.(I will give you an extra 10 bucks if I never have to see those two unfunny god awful British guys with the emo haircuts from “You’ve Got A Message”)

normal price (or lower) is just Gold and I play all your games online, and download demos and arcade games when they come out.

Silver is still a silver.

@Sausage Villan

If you had stayed in school, you could’ve had a career and not JUST a job. My kids are well taken care of and I can still afford the extra 10.00. I don’t know how old you are, but welcome to life. Prices go up, get used to it.

Microsoft you used to be cool man. why you not cool anymore, and for those its only $10 more think how many LIVE users not just ton xbox but on games for windows LIVE then times that by $10 and think what is microsoft going to do with all that wonga

also justify this pricehike, oh and also do you remember a couple of continents outside the US you know called the rest of the world? yeah us Microsoft how about sharing some of the goodies you US get

I can get all the features on LIVE Gold on PC for free and many of them on PS3 for free. (Netflix, Hulu, Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, etc). It is hardly justified to charge $50 a year for LIVE currently, but now $60?

This is excellent news for UK annual subscribers (those of you in the comments before this one complaining, read the news release again – No price hike for UK annual subscribers)

For once we get a break! Thanks Major

Games for Windows LIVE does not charge though, they tried that, and utterly failed, i even have a scratch card with (iirc) “1 month FREE” from my PC Halo 2 game

Which annoyingly would not work on my 360 account, although my Gears of War PC card did work on my 360 account (go figure)

@Raoulle

Yet………

Odd, I actually thought Xbox Live service has been steadily getting worse. Games seemed to be launched broken so they can meet the deadline, and are just patched later on. And I can’t seem to get into almost any online multiplayer game anymore without the game being filled with glitchers and/or modders. And nothing seems to be getting done about it. And the community has just been getting worse and worse. You rarely meet any new cool people anymore because 90% of the people online now seem to be a-holes. I’ve been barely tolerating it as it is. I just see NO justification for an increase. This may end up being the straw for me that pushes me away from online gaming. I’ll probably head back to the old school, linked/splitscreen multiplayer and singleplayer gaming.

I really don’t have a problem with the extra $10 a year. I have this thing where I average things out by dollars per hour of entertainment. I still feel like Live is an incredible value. Would I rather it stay the current price or become free? Of course. Do I feel ripped off by a price increase? Meh, I have bigger things to worry about than $10 being added to my yearly entertainment budget.

A disgusting example of Microsoft ripping off their customers. The price of maintaining the network goes down every year, most estimates place the major components of upgrading networks, storage, processor, bandwidth drop in price by about half every year. And yet you raise the price while not offering additional services. It saddens me to even be part of what is clearly becoming an out of control money grab. It gives me serious considerations of dropping from a outright greedy company.

I won’t be renewing this December. I can watch netflix on my iPhone, gaming computer, macbook, PS3, Wii, and blu ray player for free. I was going to renew in a few days.

Keep your live, keep your over priced webcam, keep your smugness. You do not offer anything worth 50, let alone 60 dollars. You can get EVERYTHING you charge us for year after year for FREE no stings attached on other platforms. Maybe idiots and loyalists will defend you, but those of us who know the value of a dollar and actually work hard for that money will no longer cow down. Think I am alone?

Go to neogaf and actually get in touch with some real gamers, and not the madden buying MW2 players you so happily overcharge for features they are unaware they can get for free. Bye XBL, it was a decent run.

I am looking forward to the new dedicated servers… oh? Not part of the deal? Okay then the occasional free game is GREAT! What’s that? No? Well, um… thanks for the online multi-player filled with hackers/glitchers/modders that you refuse to look into and my future RROD? Yeeeahhh. Here’s your $60. Maybe I’ll finally load up Twitter and tweet about it.

OK fine 10 bucks more a month but how about some “free” games i mean you have aegis wing and totem ball but you have to have the camera for totem ball so how about a few “free” games to at least make the pill easier to swallow? PSN people who pay get “free” games so how about you start with scott pilgrim and castle crasher

Given that I cancelled my Gold subscription a while back on the grounds I didn’t think it good value for money then, it’s hardly surprising I don’t consider it worth coming back after a price rise. If I want to play multi-player, I just go use one of the formats I own that doesn’t charge for it.

This is working perfectly MS. Raising the price on LIVE was a brilliant way to get rid of the riff raff. Brilliant and I thank you MS

You know, it’s a shame there are smug idiots who have no idea the value of a Dollar. My guess is everything has been given to them. There are those of us though who have never been given anything and work hard for our Dollar and put more value into it than others.
No, actually the shame is that Major Nelson is allowing those same idiots to mock us and berate us for actually valuing our dollar more than someone else.

I was keeping Gold because of Netflix, but since PS3 netflix doesn’t require a Plus membership and they are getting more features like search for Netflix, and I have no interest in ESPN, unless they will stream home games that are blacked out, then I’m done. I get nothing special for my $50 a month anyway.

To all those saying it’s not a big deal:

If this were to happen when the economy was doing great, then maybe it wouldn’t have been that huge of a deal. But this is a time where people are cutting spending and entertainment is one of those places where people cut first. So tacking on another $10 is just making that decision easier. It’s the ultimate form of shameless greed to increase rates when times are tough and there are other alternatives that are free. I got a PS3 when times were better for me. Now, they’re not as good and the PS3′s free online will be where you can find me after this. Thanks MS!

Thank you Microsoft for the XBOX Live Service.
Here is my extra $10.

To everyone posting dissent about the price increase: If you are worried about $10 then this is NOT the hobby to have.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

That’s great…. for users in the United States. I can’t speak for Euro users, but what about us users up in Canada who aren’t privvy to the services of Last.FM, Netflix, MOST Zune marketplace content and (I’m assuming, but correct me if I’m wrong) the upcoming ESPN integration?

Oh, don’t cry. I don’t see you guys getting this worked up over the price of gasoline. I remember paying .65 a gallon.

to all you people complaining about the price increase, and my guess it’s mostly americans, you guys deserve to have to pay an extra $10 because let’s face it you guys got pretty much every single feature with your subscription where as people like me, who live in the uk got the bare minimum. Heck, you guys even got the new xbox live arcade layout. whereas everyone else didn’t. I for one am glad I only have to pay an extra £1.00 a month

@PAT2K9 I support this idea!:
“How about having 3 levels:
-Silver (FREE): Same benifits as now
-Gold ($29.99): Online Gaming, party chat, voice chat, video chat.
-Platinum ($59.99): Gold perks + ESPN + Last FM + Facebook + Twitter etc…”

I would buy Gold for that price.

As has been commented before… In effect this is actually a $10 rebate for US subscribers. Lock in now for an extra year of LIVE for only $39.99. Much cheaper then the rest of the world.

Personally, I was expecting an Xbox Live price reduction for the whole world. Surely millions more subscribers should drive the price of Xbox Live down, not up.

@Rdsknsfan 3
Well said, it’s that or retarded “shining knights” that must protect the almighty Microsoft (not that it needs their protection, only their money)…
Oh, and the extra 10$ for “improving” xbox live.. yeah right, keep living in that delusional world…

unjustifiable, Live is already completely plastered with ads, you charge for PICTURES to use as an avatar, you charge for BACKGROUND IMAGES. they could still make profit without charging anything, but they think we’re stupid. hell look at the PS3, they don’t have ads, don’t charge for stupid crap like pictures, and don’t charge to play online, somehow MS needs to do all 3, or maybe they just really want our money and have no respect for their customers

Finally! The shoe is on the other foot.

For years Canadians have whined about our prices being so drastically different from the US, even when our dollar’s been close to parity (both currently and in the past). Now because the US dollar is weak sauce, they’re brining your price up to parity with ours.

Yes our 1 Month fee is going up a dollar, but I’m sorry – if you can’t afford one more dollar for live, you’re just lazy. Even a $10/month allowance is enough to cover it.

As for the US increase, $10 more PER YEAR isn’t that bad, I suspect costs are going up everywhere, more servers as more people get XBL, higher bandwidth costs from the content providers, etc.

Either way, it’s an extra $0.024 per day, or .83 cents a month. Again, a dollar pretty much.

Besides, Amazon always has it on sale anyways, so quit your whining children.

Suck it up or don’t buy it if you don’t have an interest in XBL.

- D

Can’t honestly say I won’t pay for this, but it still sucks. And the way your “thanking your loyal members” is kinda nice but really isn’t that great. Members who have been suscribed 5+ years really deserve something special too.

This is quite sad. They’re neglecting people who can’t pay annual fees such as college students for features that not ever has like in countries besides the US and features that not everyone likes. Since we all know MS won’t give anything away for free I suggest this.

Silver: Free
-Same current features
-Ability to access paid for services (Netflix, Hulu, etc)

Gold: $20-$25/year
-Multiplayer
-Voice chat
-Party chat *$25/year
-Video chat *$25/year
-Ability to access paid services (Netflix, Hulu, etc)

Platinum: $60/year
-$60 per month
-Access to all Silver and Gold features
-Twitter (Integrated into XBL menu/always on)
-Facebook (Integrated into XBL menu/always on)
-Last.fm (Integrated in XBL menu/in game Last.fm
-ESPN/Sky Access
-Cloud accounts/saves
-Youtube

Yeah, PSN it is for me after my current subscription is up… I mean free games, DLC, themes and all of the other stuff they give you for being a subscriber… and they don’t even charge to play online… and all this bull about xbox live being any better? I’ve played on both and don’t see much of a difference. So what psn might be a little more clunky but i’d rather deal with that then keep paying for mediocrity… come on microsoft pull your head out of your collective asses and see what it is your doing to your userbase…

I can’t believe some of you children are always wanting more more more for less. Just because a service fee goes up doesn’t instantly mean you’re getting more stuff.

And did it ever occur to anyone that Microsoft is a business? Just because Major Nelson’s a friendly guy, doesn’t mean the Xbox Live team is out to be your best friend and hook you up with deals and discounts for everything. He offers a friendly face for people to interact with on a human level. In reality though, Xbox Live is a business, and businesses want money, and to run services, they require money as well.

Sure I’d love for there to be no increase, and I sighed a bit when it happened but I laugh out loud and those of you saying you’ll boycott the service or never subscribe again.

Good riddance, if I ever met you on Xbox Live you’d probably ruin my fun by complaining the whole time.

- D

Besides Halo Reach, I’m not getting any other 360 games this year. Seriously, why they hell does MS do all this and still get away with it? Making systems that freeze half the time or break, and now increasing pay of their damn service. The only thing I care about with XBL Gold is Xbox Live Party and Online Play. This is one of the reasons I’m a PlayStation 3 primary user. Microsoft doesn’t do like anything for their fans. They only jack up prices on everything. While it’s only $10, still there is no point to it. I’m happy a lot of you loyal Xbox users are mad about this and complaining.

No I’m not a Sony fanboy. I got my 360 back in 2006. Just look at my card.

lol, well it’s easy to tell who the microsoft lovers/employees are on here claiming that their almighty live gold plan is the best thing in the world. Price increase = typical thing greedy company like microsoft does. I’m going back to sony, not forced to pay money to play online for them. That and, like everyone else stated, all the additives on live are available free online. Why do I need to pay for netflix on my xbox when I already pay for it on my pc? I’m not double paying because microsoft is a bunch of greedy retards. Sorry but you offer me nothing worth getting another buck a month. I find it hard enough to pay what I do now for this stupid gold crap. Now for ESPN…I have NEVER and will NEVER watch that channel in my life. Why in the world would I pay for that crap? And for people saying ‘it’s only 10 dollars’ where is the line? 100 bucks? 1000? You need to realize it may only be a dollar, but when they find out they can push that extra dollar they are going to try to push more and more until they have your paycheck before it even hits your bank. It’s not going to stop with this increase, it’s microsoft we are talking about.

Actually, this is worth it to see what moronic comments Venom Sadness will come up with next. He must be sitting there, slamming the F5 key, being Mr. Cool. Tell us, how much was a loaf of bread back in the day? A movie ticket? We MUST know!!

This BS price increase better not be because of the completely unnecessary “Free” ESPN crap that is coming. I don’t need Twitter or Facebook on my 360, why would I need ESPN – I couldn’t care less about sports.

I was an Xbox LIVE beta member, and continuous Gold member since – closing in on my 8-year mark. Between my years of XBL, my wife’s years of XBL, the 100s of Arcade games and DLC we’ve purchased, !’ve easily spent $2000 on LIVE and that doesn’t include the 140 retail games, 2 systems, XBL Vision, HD-DVD Drive, and various extra controllers and peripherals I’ve also bought.

While a $10/year increase is only $0.83 per month — that is far more money than I have reason to spend. With the millions of LIVE members you would thing MS could sustain and profit from the existing prices. Last count I heard was a population of about 20 million gold members, each are paying at least $50/year (possibly more if they purchase in smaller increments), which means MS is making at minimum $1,000,000,000 ($1 Billion) from Xbox LIVE memberships ONLY each year. What gives? Is that really insufficient to support the established infrastructure?

Suffice it to say, I am not happy with this announcement. I would highly recommend to those Xbox LIVE users that intend to stay with LIVE, stock up on your LIVE subscription cards when you can find them cheap. From what I have heard you can redeem LIVE memberships for up to 3-years in advance.

hey look M$ milking their fanbase off the every last penny they got.

how typical

@therev81
Fully agreed!

So, MS adds a ton of completely useless “features” that have jack shit to do with gaming, and expect all of us to pay up for it? While at the same time plastering annoying wigger “musicians” and McDonald’s ads all over the interface? I’m done with this crap. This pile of junk is going up on eBay tomorrow.

@TheRev81

I’m guessing you failed economics a couple times.

@J289 – If you are willing to buy Gold at $30 why don’t you have it already? There have been numerous deals for 12-13 month Gold cards for $30-35.

@Serincino – We are getting Netflix search with the next update

Someone also mentioned that you can’t change your recurring billing without calling Xbox Support. This is not correct. You can do it yourself online (Major has a post on his site about how to do this).

I obviously don’t want to pay $10 more. No one does. I am more frustrated that Games cost $60 each now and that arcade games are still on the rise. I am saddened that DLC for games like COD are now $15 instead of the standard $10. Those items cost me a lot more than $10 a year. I would also like a list of the enhancements that we are getting this fall as it would help justify the $10. That being said, for as much as I use XBox Live it is worth the extra $10.

I have to assume that this decision was not made lightly by MS (I’m sure they knew these comments and negative reaction would be present). However, they probably have some pretty good data to back up this decision. We may not ever know those reasons and some of you wouldn’t believe them even if you did hear the reason. I for one am thankful for the great service and support that MS gives me for my xbox and am looking forward to many more years of using the Xbox.

Keep up the good work MS!

@OROSCO

I’m trying to recall if I saw Star Wars for 1.75 or 2.75 but I cant remember. Sorry

Xbox Live price Hike means I’m out and Hello PS3. No Reach, No Kinect, and no more money for you Microsoft. Sony gives you compitition and you raise the price. It was reported this year that Live now makes more money on Transaction then on Live Subscribers and you raise the price on loyal subscribers. Who do you think you are the cable company? You need to seperate your pricing because I thought Paying for Live was to enable online play. You guys truly suck. You made me register with this site which is out of my norm because this is BS. And I want a refund on my unused points.

Very disappointed in this move. I have been a loyal subscriber to xbox live for many years and this is the first time I’ve actually considered letting it lapse.

Microsoft is not adding anything new to coincide with this price increase and I would respectfully ask that they reconsider this move, or give us some kind of tangible value add for the extra $10. Maybe there is something coming down the line to justify this increase, but I haven’t seen it.

Continue on this track of squeezing every dime out of your most loyal users and watch them disappear. Between this, the lack of 1st party innovation/development at Microsoft, and the useless kinect accessory I don’t know what’s happened to the xbox platform I once believed in so much.

I hope all these decisions give the xbox division a reality check and we can get back on track with good, normal games and more reasonable price to content for xbox live subscriptions sometime next year. Because right now xbox is not looking like the great platform i used to think it was.

Lucky I have a PS3 also, I guess it will get a lot more of my gaming time. this is ridiculous M$.

While I don’t agtee with the price increase like most everyone else..At least give us some of what we want. We are paying 10.00 more a month so let us turn off the ads, let us remove and add and rearrange the dashboard. I’m tired of my xbox starting up to the spotlight channel. Maybe if someone listened and gave us these things it may be easier to swallow this hike.

Ouch. What features are going to be added to make it worth it? As it stands now the only worthwhile extra feature is Netflix, which you need to pay for separately. Zune and Games Marketplace you need to buy stuff for, Last.FM makes you watch advertisements. There are annoying advertisements all over the dashboard. Facebook is for children and useless to most people. Rumors of developers charging extra for online play on top of the subscription for Live?

Come on. I love my 360s, don’t push me to get a dumb PS3 instead.

Really? In Canada it’s been $59.99 for as long as I can remember.

and I like others am considering for the first time letting my subscription lapse. I have been on xbox live since beta. So I have been paying since official launch like many others. Take away the ads and let us put the dashboard how we want it like I said in my previous comment and my want to let it lapse starts to go away.

While any price increase is a little frustrating, especially at these economic times, when you break down the numbers the increase is only .84 cents (US) extra per month. But an increase is an increase – it will encourage some current customers to cancel their XBL service with Microsoft.

@Daphoid and Life Song

I fully agree with both of you. For the people complaining, how many hrs of live do you play a year ?? let’s say around 300 60 bucks a year is $0.02 a hour and 50 buck 0.016 an hour you guys are complaining about $0.004 increase per hour played online. And if that’s to much of a jump your in the wrong hobby

@ StormRaging

Yeah MS really could have avoided the backlash if they gave us an announcement we actually cared about. I don’t know personally the vibe I’ve been getting over the past year is that MS just doesn’t really care anymore.

There really needs to be another subscription tier available.

I only care about playing multiplayer games. ESPN, and all the other stuff doesn’t interest me. How about a limited gold account for a small price.

I do find it odd that they were just touting about that Live passed 25 million gold members and now a price increase. Seems like someone on top did a little math.

Major Nelson, you asked on twitter “what do you think”. I wanted to provide my “two sense”

While I understand that it may be thought that the price increase is a smart idea. How?
We have to pay for Netflix separately to actually use it, so you can’t really justify that.
Facebook and Twitter are used how often?
We have to buy XBLA games separately and there is no way to purchase a “Digital” version of a game you buy on disc.
ESPN? It has not come out yet.
Avatars – a) most people don’t really care about them and b) we still have to pay for the good gear at ridiculous prices.
“Free Demos” are touted. But you can get them through silver and they average one to two a month and most companies don’t develop them.

America gets the highest increase, yet we don’t have any streaming channels like the other regions? Makes no sense.

“Halo Waypoint”? Is that one of the reasons? Honestly, I’m not a Halo person so I don’t really care about the service or the games.
Game Room – Give the games for free.

I just can’t see any reason why there is such a dramatic price increase. Perhaps offering free avatar gear or dramatically reducing the cost for gold members. Providing a better deal. You’re offering the same product for more money

@LifeSong: I Agree, although I only have to pay an extra £1 a month I’m hoping MS will back up their reason for the price increase. What people fail to realise is that in the long run that extra $10 will be worth it.

I think you misspelled “gouge” in the title of this article, Major.
It’s obvious what’s happening here, Micro$oft is poised to draw in droves of casuals to Live with Kinect, so they’re raising the price to drain them while they’re interested and offering a token “lock-in” to the rest of us.

@Allteam Exactly that’s what i dont understand they haven’t added anything at all that warrant a price spike. facebook, twitter, and last fm are FREE on the PC, netflix and the upcoming hulu plus are subscription based i just dont freaking understand this bull

Very disappointed in this move. At least offer a tier Live choice, like has been mentioned many times already. Silver / Gold/ Platinum for all frills. I use my xbox console as a gaming console, I don’t want or need all the other frills (which I can get free on my PC)
Breaking down how much this $10.00 increase is per day I don’t want to hear it. I’m concened about not having any choice and paying a price for features that are not wanted and are useless to me. So give the people a choice and let those that want it all pay for it.

This just seems like greed to me. Sure, i agree the price increase isnt a huge one, but its still an increase at the end of the day.

I agree with many others that all the other ‘features’ (which are available in the US mostly) are simply not worth the increase in price. If I want to use Twitter, i will go to my PC.

Its just a shame to see company’s forever wanting more out of us. What makes it worse, most will still pay it. I include myself in that statement too. However, this cannot help push me further towards getting a PS3.

I can see where your going with the pricing but I think to bring more people onto Xbox live that you should keep it how it is cause more people can afford Xbox live now then they could when you had it originally. To bring more of an audience onto Xbox and to make more of a profit because when people play Xbox live they have the opportunity to play some games online and to socialize with friends or whatever. People that are limited with money like a lot of the world right now can only spend some money on things like food and paying bills. See by bringing the price up you could be taking away peoples friendships. Me myself i have some friends and family in England and the only way on contacting some of them is by Xbox. By bringing the price up, you are making some peoples lives more drastic but I’ll leave you guys alone with whatever your doing cause I absolutely have no part on this at all in fact i’m just telling you my honest opinion but you guys need more people like me working there, but have a nice day Xbox

who ever was in charge of this pay increase can go straight to hell. Why would you increase the charge on a service when your competition offers an superior service for free. All i have to say is so long 360, hello blu-ray playing ps3

C´mon people, put your hands together for the douchebags at Microsoft.
They really deserve it.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP

I´m glad this is not happening in my country, then again, i would cancel my subscription in a heatbeat.
But i feel for you guys, believe that i do.
I already said it hundreds of times, Microsoft cares for no one.
Fanbase…what is that?
Consumers…never heard of it!
MONEY…..give it to me…..[GOLLUM]my precious[/GOLLUM]

But, in the end, it´s your fault, you give money to them, you support all they do, so……pay the price.
Please, continue to do that…
I would love to return to be proud of having a 360, i really would, nut i just can´t, the XBox sucks since they lost the best thing they had, their backbone, their heart and soul……Mrº Peter Moore.
Since then, the Xbox is the biggest pile of garbage i ever seen, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, only fire and brimstone.
What happend to you Microsoft????
When did you stopped caring about your fanbase?
You exist because of us, can´t you even see that?

Major, none of this is your fault, so, none of this was for you.
Best of luck in that crappy company

Hopefully some of this money goes to @stepto and his team so they can keep us safe. God forbid if I have to go through the same b.s. with Cod:BO that I did with MW2. So frustrating!

What i find funny about this is that this would have went smoother if they had did this with an update. People would have still complained but they wouldn’t have felt they were getting screwed as much. Plus I don’t understand what i am paying for, I can download every video and most demos on the pc. Some of the arcade games can be purchased on steam or etc. And if the voice chat is the killer feature, then going online to play a game and get called a racial slur or cussed at by a 12 year old jerk is just not the thing for me. I don’t consider netflix, facebook, lastfm, twitter to be features. Netflix you have to pay extra for, facebook and twitter are just dialed down versions of what you use on the pc and even lastfm you have to pay to get the features you would want to use. Matchmaking is not a feature either, most pc games do this for free or use a free service that does the same thing. I just would like to see a list of all the wonderful features we are getting and how it breaks down into the price hike. At this point after dealing with the defective consoles, higher increases in games that are due to licensing cost from MS, and the poor ecnomy i feel the loyal paying base deserves some answers to why this is happening. I will crap a brick if we are told the upcoming quality increase in the headset is part of the reason why the increase is happening. If that is said you might as well start charging for every dashboard update.

this is a bunch of bull. the only thing other than playing online I use is LastFM, I don’t care about garbage like Twitter, & Facebook nor do I have a Netflix account. as others have pointed out, why not allow silver members to play online for free & if they want the extra features then they can pay for it.

so when can we expect the Live cards, which I use, to go up to reflect the new price for subscriptions?

20% price increase with no new features, you’ve become the cable company, nice. Really what have they added to the service? Netflix = you still need to pay for service, Last.fm = It’s a free service, Twitter = It’s a free service, Facebook = It’s a free service. Ads = Microsoft get’s paid for them.

What the crap? Good thing I am already a gold member till 2012 but this still sucks.

I just don’t understand the decision to up the price of Xbox Live. The pricing by itself its high, but since I’m paying for 5 LIVE accounts for family members its outrageous. Thats $300 a year I’m now paying just for Xbox Live alone. Good grief what a marketing disaster.

This is going to be talked about in the gaming industry for years to come.

yeahhhhhh righhhhhtttt!!!!!!!

so glad i have a ps3….i can pass up playing halo online, seeing as how thats the only game that gives the edge over psn

(spanish) si tendré que pagar 100 pesos más por mi subscripción anual, espero que se agreguen más servicios, además del zune marketplace, y contenidos a xbox live México

I beta tested Xbox Live and am nearing my 8-yr mark on Xbox Live soon. Major, when you spin it like we are getting all this amazing content, it leaves a sour taste in peoples’ mouths. All you did was open portals to PAY for more content if we choose to do so. Where is the value? I am afraid most of us are simply not seeing it.
Most of the top 10 games are riddled with cheaters(especially Modern Warfare 2)who modify their consoles, and we have all been asking for bans for these people, but that has not happened. Want to make more money for the company? Ban all the cheaters and force them to buy new hardware. That would make a LOT more sense, and it is totally fair.
I don’t care about any of the bells and whistles about Xbox 360 except for having the ability to play online against people in a fair environment. I think MS needs to focus on the basics again and stop trying to make the ultimate multimedia hub. Kick the cheaters and put in some policies with some teeth, and enforce them. I was already on the verge of switching to buying all my 3rd party games on PS3 as it was. This is just a kick in the junk to your loyal subscribers, MS.

@Venom……………………………………………………

Wii has free live, free internet… and they have more units sold than Sony and Microsoft both I believe

Sony has free live, free internet… and they are catching up to microsoft..

Now these two company’s are doing fine but, Microsoft the multi-billion dollar company, seller of millions of computers and products, and they feel the need to up the price even though millions of customers put up with the over-priced dlc and such.

“Silver: Free

-Same current features

-Ability to access paid for services (Netflix, Hulu, etc)

Gold: $20-$25/year

-Multiplayer

-Voice chat”

The thing that strikes me here is how people think you HAVE to pay to play online games. It’s sad that MS has engraved this into peoples head. Remember when MS tried to pull this crap on the PC and failed? Guess it’s easier to brainwash the kiddies.

Here’s a better subscription tier.

Silver: Multiplayer, voice chat- FREE

Gold: Multiplayer, voice chat and every thing else- $60

Wow – 5 whole dollars a month to have XBL. Quit whining children.

What a load of crap! You are already overcharging as it is and now you are upping the price? This is not going to go over well with the Xbox community. It is not even about the money really. It is more about the principal that MS has the gumption to increase a charge that many people feel shouldn’t be charged in the first place.(Multiplayer should be free and MS knows that)

So besides already charging us for DLC that is free for others, now your charging is more for online that is free for others. Add that to everything is being overpriced. How about you care about your costumers and don’t drive us to poverty.

@x ZeroG X – It’s not all about how much you have to pay, it’s also the purpose of it. Why do we have to pay $10 more a year for features almost none of us use?

Also a month it costs $10, not $5.

It’s $3 extra a month guys, step back and get some perspective. I suspect that with the Windows 7 phone coming out, this will help offset all of us (and by “us” I mean “me”) who will be logging on from the phone. Plus we’re getting ESPN at some point and we all already know that video chat is going to be the bomb when Kinnect comes out. Chill out peeps.

Just to let you know. Since Microsoft wants to play the inflation card, I’ll play the marginal cost card. After correctly calculating the inflation rate and then applying it to the fact that every year the components to run a network fall by half every year, we should be paying $11.55 a year for xbox live gold. This would allow Microsoft the exact same percentage of profit they receive as they did in 2002. Clearly nothing but a money grab, as the costs of the membership are no where near the reality it costs to create the network.

@Eragle, I’m glad you get use out of the features they add but, most people don’t and they are pissed they are being charged for them.

Thanks Major. People from the US got more features then here in Holland. We only have stupid facebook/twitter and a Zune videostore with subtitles. Don’t even dare to raise the price here.

@DivinityFire $5 a month x 12 months = $60 for one year. #ElementaryMathFAIL

@x Obstruction x
It´s not just overpriced DLC, but making companies charge for DLC that is free on the PC, that´s even more ridiculous.
That´s pure greed, that´s not caring at all about their loyal fanbase, only their money.
For Microsoft, none of us are fans, we are nothing more than living breeding money

@drbuns
That´s exactly it, Microsoft wants to make the XBox into a multimedia hub (just look at it, almost no exclusives, losing Mass Effect….it´s borderline ridiculous), the problem is, 80% of more just don´t want that, but they just don´t care.
They are not making a console for the consumer, they are making one for themselves.
ESPN might be one of the reasons of the price increase….but, did anyone asked if they wanted if people wanted it?
They just made an agreement with ESPN and now people are going to pay for it, want it or not.

@ x Obstruction x

I see what people are saying about the features and such, but I just don’t think they realize that $60 a year works out to $5 a month. I promise that if you play online for at least 10-15 hours a month, you’ve used that much in bandwidth. It’s totally worth it.

@drbuns Well said, my friend. Well said.

Wow…just wow. Get ready to see a ridiculous amount of people migrating to either the PS3 or PC gaming. While Live Gold cards are sold in stores at usually cheaper prices, there should be no justification for such a large price increase. A $10 increase for Xbox Live Gold 12M in the US? So I guess people are going to want to pay more just because Live has Facebook, etc.? I really don’t think so. Glad I am primarily a PC gamer now that I purchased components for a new computer to game with.

Anyway, get ready to see a huge drop in sales of Live Gold…as well as a horde of gamers QQing about this.

WTF are you trying to do? Ruin Xbox Live, as I’ve recently said before Xbox Live is a gaming service, and it should remain a gaming service! I don’t give a rats ass about all these useless services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Last.FM. I can access all these from my PC at home for “FREE” and plus I can access the entire site of “Facebook” on my PC. Twitter and Last.FM are the absolute same… you can watch ESPN on your TV for “FREE”, who in there bright minds wanted to add this to the console?

I can recall Hulu costs $9.99 for a subscription or something like that, how do expect to charge that on top of 69.99, Xbox?

I don’t understand why your increasing the price of Xbox Live when you have loyal customers such as us… I think Microsoft is trying to push us over to the Playstation 3, if they do this they’ll be losing lots (I mean lots) of customers.

Thanks alot,
Useless Xbox Live Team!

I know what you mean.. And 60$ a year is nothing when you compare it to the people who pay 15$+ a month for warcraft

I figured after Xbox Live’s 1 Billion dollar profit last year we would get a thank you and not a gouge!!!! Microsoft makes plenty of money off the ads they have on the dash and their overpriced DLC. In the beginning Xbox Live’s content was priced fairly but now $20 for an arcade game give me a break! I could see a price increase if they were loosing money, but they profited 1 BILLION Dollars from Xbox Live last year!!!! That’s not even taking into account the profit from the system itself and the overpriced accessories(hard drives + wireless network adaptor ect.) Everyone should strike by not purchasing a gold subscription and DLC, this would hit them in their pockets and change their greedy minds once they see their profits drooping.

People don´t seem to realize the reality here, to raise the prices is nothing more than altruism on their part.
For the last couple of weeks, the 360 has been outselling the PS3 and the Wii.
Microsoft say ENOUGH, let the other guys sell too.
So, they raised the prices for people to jump to the other consoles.

Well, either is that, or they are just morons…you choose

@x Obstruction x

Wii is not next gen it’s a cheapy box sold to the parents of 8 year olds.

I own some PS3s, please don’t compare that online service to LIVE, it’s not even in the same class.

Come on it’s 10.00 you guys paid hundreds for your xbox. Are you really going to complain about .83 cents a month more?

500th POST

Really I don’t think it’s a big deal I’m happy to pay for such a great service, and tired of hearing people complain that live should be free just because PSN is free when PSN service is such garbage and doesn’t even compare to how awesome live is!

I will gladly pay the extra 10 bucks for ESPN 3, only IF I can watch all the IOWA Hawkeye games live on the service! Does anyone know if you can watch all the college football games with ESPN3?

Microsoft made over $1 billion on xbox live last year. I don’t see how you could up the price on gold accounts when you made that amount of money. Where is the logic in this… o wait, greed.

Just registered to voice my opinion.

I really hate that vote with your wallet bullshit. Most of the games people buy are really all about multiplayer. I cant just let a 300 dollar system, along with all the games, gather dust because of a 10$ increase.

They know Ive invested hundreds into their console, and not buying into their wallet-rape subscription is not an option for me. It is, but it wouldn’t make sense.

Its not about the 10 dollars, its the fact that my F’ing dashboard is full of ads, the fact that Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and the entire Internet is FREE on other consoles. To charge 10 extra dollars is nothing more than a fast and easy way to make more money. They know your not going to do anything about this, they know you WILL pay the extra money. Thats why they do it, because they CAN.
Ill remember this though. The next time im deciding whether to buy a Zune or Ipod, Mac or PC, Xbox or PS, ill think back and realize just how low some companies will go to make a few extra dollars.

@NM Jeff: Could you possibly be thinking any narrower? You are ignoring that more staff work at LIVE now, and salary increases more than computers decrease, so your point is pointless. I don’t care what complaints anyone may have about the enforcement team, having them is better than not having them.

@eragle Where are you pulling $3 extra a month from? It’s an $0.84 increase a month over 12 months.
Instead of reminding Americans that they now have to set aside $60 a year, maybe saying that costs would increase less than a dollar a month would have been a smoother way to break the news to the internet?

Major, I think everyone here would benefit if you actually outlined the reasons for the price increase — we’d love to see a budget that compares what MS was making in 2002 and what it is now (with all of these new “features”). IF MS is losing money, I’d love to see why and maybe support an increase. But to gouge for more money when the economy is in the dumps and there are free alternatives, then the criticism is more than warranted.

Grand Theft Subscription?

those at sony are fist pumping, high 5′ing and dancing up a storm right now

You say you have to increase the price because you’ve continually added more content. However, I DON’T want nor use any of that content. Facebook? Don’t care. Twitter? Don’t care. ESPN 3? Don’t care.

The only thing I care about is gaming online with my friends. Everything else is extraneous BS. How about you offer a cheaper subscription for that only, and spin off everything else into an add-on?

New Xbox Live price increase is LONG overdue! If the Playstaion Network can now justify charging people $50 a year, then we should count ourselves lucky we aren’t paying double that! Seriously people, can you imagine if PSN was the only online gaming service available?! Not only would we have to settle for a truly inferior experience, judging by Sony’s track record, they would have us paying $99.99 a year! As a member of XBL, since first wave beta, let me just say Xbox Live SHOULD Cost More! I am more than happy to pay the increase…

Free Services: hulu, last.fm,arcade games, espn, voip, twitter, facebook, videos, trailer, p2p network
Subscription Services: netflix, zune, hulu, espn
So for a 5 yr subscription, $250(soon to be $300) goes to a p2p network interface that that gives you another window to all of these things that you already pay to get, let alone the fact that over half of that stuff is free in the first place. Funny thing about this is that a web browser let’s you do the same thing, but for free… So they’re gonna charge an extra $300 for a 5 yr. service that costs about as much as a sweatshop to run and has about the same quality as a free web browser for 5 yrs… That doesn’t make some of you ppl stop and think? I used to back xbox live up with their quality and with my fanboyism, but when they kick us in the nads like this and charge more for less, I couldn’t even ponder any reasoning behind this except that they’re greedy… All xbox live technically does (that not many other places do w/ the same quality) is connect you to others playing the same games on xbox. And all that is, is a connection considering it’s the game developers who allow for that connection to be made between their games… $10 might not seem much to some but it grows. And the principle of being charged more for absolutely nothing is not right. And I don’t care how long LIVE has gone without raising its price, there’s no more value in something that has the same or possibly less quality and makes you pay for stuff that’s FREE and TWICE for stuff you already pay for… Look at the numbers, they make over $1 Billion/yr on something that costs as much as a sweatshop to run… Now tell me they need more money and that they’re not stealing from ppl… Point proven. Major Nelson is just handing out more propaganda… Thanks A$$Hole…

Forcing people to pay for either all content, or go offline is extremely arrogant.
It already feels unfair having to pay for online play, and I’m pretty sure most of Live users pay the gold fee ONLY for multiplayer, which as we all know is free on PS3.

Give us the option to pay for the extra content if we want it, don’t force us to take the entire package.

@Nick The Great
Talked like a true puppet.
Your master will be pleased

OK..so this makes sense how?

1. ESPN requires you to already have a cable or satellite company that has ESPN3 on it or you won’t be able to access it (So no good to me)
2. I don’t subscribe to netflix (No good to me again…we’re batting 000 right now)
3. I don’t use LAST FM, because PANDORA is free too and rocks so much more!
4. EA has decided to charge an additional 10 dollars to use the servers for used games to play online (for each game!!!!!)

Sounds like all of you just want to squeeze every penny you can get out of us all….

Not a WIN WIN for anyone here as far as I see it. And you would have thought they would have let the “LOYAL” customers have the old price as a grandfathered price…big deal on the 1 year 39.99 break…after that you are going to rob everyone.

Major, this is one of the worst ideas you guys have come up with yet. Sorry to say…I usually back you guys 100%, but this one has gone way overboard.

Do not like. Will be buying a sub card before this date.

@Nick The Great
PSN is still free and provides better service than Live
PSN+ is $50/y and offers free games among other things.
You are now paying $60/y for something that should be free, but people have been content with paying $50 for previously.
PSN should be compared to Live Silver with Gold being compared to PSN+.. HUGE DIFFERENCE

Wow, I come back and now there’s over 500 comments… Calm down peoples, wait till November, if the price change isn’t worth it, then you can come back here and create another uproar. In the meantime, just calm your rage… I’m not very happy either

I’m a upset by this; there’s no apparent reason for this price hike. I only play *games* on the 360, and there’s been no change in the core service that would make me want to pay more money. I don’t use any of the extra crap that’s been added (Facebook, Netflix, ESPN, Last.fm, etc.), so I’m certainly not creating an additional drain on the infrastructure that suddenly requires higher payments. I’m also not interested in financially supporting those features for others.

I only want 3 things from Xbox live: Multiplayer gaming, in-game chat and text, and the ability to download patches and additional game content. That’s it, and I’ve never thought it’s been worth the $50 cost I’ve been paying for 7 years, never mind an additional $10.

Would Microsoft care to explain the reason behind this money-grab? And if the excuse is for all the useless crap that’s been added, I’d suggest you relabel the $60 price point to “platinum” and set up a middle-ground “gold” price point that just includes the core multiplayer gaming.

Since I’m venting, I may as well mention that Microsoft has been building ill-will with me since zero hour (yes, I attended). The games are good, and the gaming network works, but everything else just seems to require a constant influx of money, and I’m pretty fed up with it. I’m not just talking about the cost for live; I’m willing to pay a reasonable fee for multiplayer gaming, but the accessory costs are outrageous. The arcade games have priced themselves out of consideration, and the hardware itself has needed to be replaced. Twice. Frankly the $500 cost of my Playstation 3 has turned out to be the better buy long-term, and that’s something I’m going to consider in the next generation. I bought the xbox first and the playstation a year later. There’s no good reason to do the same next time; it’ll just cost me another $60 (or more likely $70 at that point) to move early on the Microsoft platform. If Bungie releases their next game on the Playstation, I’m leaving entirely.

I’m paid up for a while and I already have an unused 12 month card, so this doesn’t have an immediate impact on me. That being said, the camel’s back is hurting pretty badly and if something doesn’t change I’m going to be okay with just putting it down.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

It was already too expensive. I don’t use or care about any of these extra features such as Facebook, Twitter, last.fm etc on Xbox. I have a computer for that. I only use Xbox live occasionally for online play. Instead of making everyone suffer the increase in charges for these additional services that many do not use, you really should consider another pricing tier for those that only want to play games online with others. This certainly makes the PS3 more appealing.

I pay more than this on pizza in a month. Ya’ll need to quit complaining.

Why are people so dumb? I read through various comments on this post and saw people willing to pay this and a satisfied with the price increase? :confused: Why would you wanna pay for ESPN when you can get off your console, go onto your PC, type the quoted url into the address bar, “http://www.youtube.com/user/espn?blend=1&ob=4″ and watch all the ESPN you want for “FREE”.

If they do this then I am trading my 360 for a PS3 so I can enjoy the luxury of online game for free!

@SekondaHuet
Except with pizza you’re actually getting something.

I’ve been a member of Xbox Live since the beta on the original Xbox… I always thought $50 was a bit excessive and at $60 I think I’m done. This is ridiculous.

When I got my 360 in 2007 I got it because it was the cheapest next gen console. But over the past few years I put so much money into it between xbox live and the RROD I could have gotten two PS3′s. Now this???? Seriosly MS just made over a billion dollars from from Xbox live why is there a need for more??

I just cancelled my auto-renew. I should have known that Microsoft would do something like this when there are already 50 ads on the dashboard. I will miss using Netflix, but I am looking forward to Playstation 4.

Geez M$ … really? Did you have to do this?

@Jobbercho – Nicely said.

We better get more FREE content out of this, because right now there really isn’t much to be justified about raising prices. Sure, you add content constantly to the marketplace, but we PAY for it. So basically we are being charged more for buying content… WTF.

@PAT2K9

What an amazing idea! MS, you should listen to your users!

For everyone saying that don´t use many of the extra features (Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, Netflix….), newsflash….NO ONE DOES.
Ok, the majority of doesn´t, but Microsoft doesn´t care.
The same thing will happen when ESPN is released.
Microsoft has a vison, to build a multimedia hub….and that´s basically it, they don´t care about much else.
PSN+ you have a choise, either you want it or not, and from what i´ve been reading, it´s a sucess, more than Sony was hoping.
In XBOX LIVE, there is no fricking choise, you pay and that´s it, you don´t want the content…ohh, that´s too bad, you will pay it anyway.

I like this bit: “Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members”
To make it better and more realistic: “Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences, THAT NO ONE WANTS OR CARES, for our members”

i would like to point out that Live makes over a billion dollars a year

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-07/microsoft-xbox-live-sales-probably-topped-1-billion.html

Microsoft sees nearly a 65% profit on Live after production costs, analysts said, meaning the company will see a hefty $650 million margin on Live. And it appears the service is growing at an incredible pace, with revenues up as much as $600 million (depending on the analyst estimate) compared to fiscal 2009.

so, yeah, now seems like a pretty good time to gouge your loyal customers and fans for more money.

thanks!

Gotta say, when the next gen PSN launches and the PS4 is released, I’ll most likely switch. Even if it’s the same price for the subscription to PSN Premium, I won’t have to put up with the reliability issues of the Xbox 360!

Hilarious. I bet one of the “new, exciting features” that we’ll be paying $10 extra for is NOT dedicated servers for games. Oh, we’ll have ESPN and all this other garbage no one buys a game console for, but no dedicated servers. Instead, we’ll still have this completely archaic peer-to-peer host/client garbage. Modern Warfare 2 proved this does not cut it anymore in 2010.

I must ask: What are you giving us in return for this price increase? Is this offsetting all the various niche features you integrated over the last year? Because I never asked for those and would gladly opt-out of being able to access them in return for normal prices. I understand that as our economy continues to tank your prices will rise, but this is a pretty big cost jump out of the blue. Are you going to offer anything at all to cushion this blow?

@Black Fist
Hahahaha… Glad you enjoyed!

@Jobbercho
Stopped reading your comment at “PSN is still free and provides better service than Live”… Better service than Live?! Seriously Jobbercho?! I mean really? Do we even truly need to have this debate? I’m pretty sure even the most diehard PS3 fanboys will admit that the online multiplayer experience on XBL is hands down the better service, you obviously had a brain fart! From reading your post, I was thinking you were a smart cat with your multi-tiered service charges etc. but you lost me with the comment above…lol… Moving on…

1) Remove ads
2) Up friends list to 200/300/500/?
3) Most MP are P2P, M$ better do direct servers nows
4) goto 10
5) Lower price on all DLC

Thanks for this heads-up/alert/code-red Major Nelson.
I’ve read your blog for a while (read: lurked) and this incensed me enough to make me sign-up just so I could post this:
The new live service fee increase = 1,000,000,000 M⊙ of FAIL!!!1!

Dedicated servers please? You give us Twitter. Mods to ban cheaters/modders/hackers please? You give us Facebook. No ads please? You give us last.fm. Bigger friends list please? You cancel 1 vs 100. Friend aliases please? You raise prices by 20%. I love that “Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry” while ignoring everything that people actually want and giving us garbage nobody gives a damn about.

This is starting to sound like a Cable company subscription. I cannot pick my channels a la carte, and I have to pay for channels I don’t watch or want. I do not want the ESPN access, and I already have to pay Netflix every month. In fact, the Xbox is the only Netflix ready device that you have to pay for an additional subscription just to stream content you’ve got access to every else with free players.

Nothing like the market forces of capitalism at play. More people join the network, and the price goes up instead of down. Not cool.

@Nick The Great

PS3 is free to play games online. That instantly makes it a better service than XBL. Its the only reason people buy gold. If you buy it for anything else, youre lying to yourself. Sorry you were tricked into thinking you need to pay-to play online. My condolences to your brain.

@NoBullet78
Hahahaha… Awesome!

And I quote… “PS3 is free to play games online. That instantly makes it a better service than XBL.”

Nuff said…

i think this a good time to post this article….
http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/29/how-to-turn-off-xbox-live-account-auto-renewal.aspx
haha!

@nick… I fail to see why you would quote that.

Well I have multiple comments on the decision such as this and we’ll start off with the first one.

I’ve been using Xbox Live ever since Halo 3 was released. I’ve been a great fan of the service and I enjoyed it up until reading this shocking news. Now I understand that there are multiple reasons why Microsoft would have to engage in such a drastic decision such as this, but I think that this will ultimately hurt more than the good its intending to do.

The History

There are many users who’s sole purpose for Xbox Live is to play games. That’s what it was intended for, That’s what the original concept was. It was designed for gamers to be able to play against others across the internet. It revolutionized gaming. But. There was a catch, You had to pay for your service. I was skeptical at first and didn’t want to make the purchase, but as I played more and more on my friends account, the more I thought about buying one for myself. I gave in. I purchased Xbox Live. It was awesome. The the 360 and its amazing new content. It made the experience that much better. The release of the NXE Dashboard was the greatest to hit the online gaming world!

Additional Content

Like I said above, Many users simply purchase Xbox Live to play games. That and that alone. They shell out $50 of their hard earned cash to be able to play their games against and with their friends. They do not use the Facebook app, Last.FM app, Twitter app, Netflix app, or any others that are offered. They simply play their favorite games and continue playing. See my proposal below on how we could improve this situation for all to keep enjoy their services for their payments they make.

Playstation Network (Competition)

It’s been a well known fact that Microsoft’s competition, Sony, offers a networking service “Like” Xbox Live for the Playstation and they do so for free. However, With being free, There is obviously a cut-down on control and security. I understand we pay a little for that as well. But not $60 worth. That’s one of the main reasons that regardless of the price change, I’ll continue to pay for the service. But that doesn’t mean I am happy with the change either… Keep reading Mr. Hyrb… Keep reading.

================================
So in all just a little recap for a second:

Xbox Adds new features. With that, Xbox now wishes to charge for the added features an extra $10 bringing the price to $59.99.

Some users may not use extra added content.

PSN Offers an online service for free, but with the effect of lowered security/management structure.

Okay, Lets get on to my last and final point. THE PROPOSAL!

The Proposal (No, not a marraige proposal).

My idea to solve everyone’s anger, and frustraition of this price change is to obviously propose a second type of gold account. Call it Platinum, Call it Diamond, Call it whatever name Microsoft and Xbox Live comes up with, but involve these key features for it.

The new level, we’ll call it Platinum just for the sake of it for now, will be offered at the price of Ta-da, $59.99. This will include all those added feature: Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Last.Fm, and other features that are soon to come.

The current level, Gold, will offer what it has for the past years at the price it has been for the past years, $49.99. Online Gaming, Chat & Voice Features, Etc., Without the added content like the Facebook app, Netflix (How I wish it could stay, but not), Last.fm and more.

And then obviously the Silver level, which offers minimal online capabilities. Basic Messaging, No party, No Multiplayer, Etc.

I effectively feel that with a system such as that, Many will be happy, and Nearly everyone gets to pay for what they use. Those that enjoy the added feature, can pay for it, and those that don’t can enjoy the service they’ve enjoyed previously.

Thanks for reading, I know its a lot but it was very relaxing to get all of that off my head and onto paper… or er… digital paper. Hope that I have provided a valuable clip of feedback to help better the Xbox service.

~Koda ST 592 // Shepherd XA~
~Xbox Ambassador~
~Twitter.com/kodast592~

Seriously thinking about buying my future online games for the PS3… The cancellation of 1 vs. 100 really bummed me out and then this price increase added on top? At least with Playstation Plus they provide a steady stream of free game content. Will wait and see until my subscription expires to see if I’ll renew.

So can I buy like 2 years in advance right now at the current pricing?

Venom:

“A fool and his money are soon parted”.

MS Thanks you and congratulations on being the biggest toolbox in all these comments.

It’s a shame sheep like you are the reason why games are 1/2 the length now and are being sold the rest as DLC. Why games only worth 400 points, went to 800 and then to 1200.

Why do you think MS couldn’t charge for XBL on the PC even though they tried REAL hard?

You find it justifiable that is fine. But the way you are spamming throughout the comments it seems like you have some kind of axe to grind or you are a paid for MS shill.

@x Obstruction x

Because that couldn’t be any further from the truth… First of all, just because something is free doesn’t make it better… You know what, nevermind… I am off here, need to go play some Madden 11 atm… Not gonna spend any more time explaining myself…

People can say what they want and scream and cry and piss and moan and it will not change anything… If you don’t want to pay, dont pay… If you don’t like XBL, go play PSN… If you don’t like your hair long, cut it off… If you don’t like whatever, like whatever… Different strokes for different folks… No one is forcing anyone to pay these prices and yes I do see that a lot of people have good arguements on here… The most being the tiered pricing that Jobbercho had mentioned… I’m just stating that in MY opinion, I don’t mind the increase… Sorry if that offends anyone, but I feel I get my $$ worth from my subscription…

Anyway… Who’s up for some Madden 11?! w00t!

@MajinDustin
You can have upto 36 months in advance paid for and stored on your accout, so actually this price won’t even affect some people for three years, myself included…lol…

You know what I’m thinking? I think M$ is doing this as a way to get people to suddenly have an urge to want to buy a large amount of subscription cards, etc. at lower prices while they can. They’re probably doing this to boost sales and then come November, they’ll retract the pricing change…Watch…it’ll happen…

This is horrible! You give us no dedicated servers, people are able to JTAG and ruin games and their leaderboards, and we are inundated with ads everytime we sign in… AND you raise the price on us?!

The only reason I pay is to play online – I don’t care ONE BIT about last.fm, twitter, facebook, ESPN or anything else. Oh, and PlayStation Network is FREE TO PLAY ONLINE.

Also, content that is FREE on the PC (L4D, L4D2, etc.) we get charged for on XBL. Oh, how about all of that content that you allow to be locked on the disk for us to be charged for (BlazBlue, Bioshock 2, Brutal Legend, Metro 2033, Street Fighter IV, etc.)? Even Rockstar said you limit the amount of content the developer can give out for free! They want to reward their loyal fans and yet you make them charge us?

Between this and the horrible quality of the XBox 360, I’m very much leaning to stay exclusive to the PlayStation 4 over the next Xbox. You guys have earned so much hatred this generation, and you keep pulling BS like this. You guys already turn a ridiculous profit on XBL, and when the economy is at its worst, you continue to nickel and dime us.

Screw you, Microsoft. Screw you, Xbox team.

I’m not real happy about this announcement. With all the money being made on various DLC, you would think if anything Microsoft would make XBOX Live Gold cheaper to entice more gamers to join the service. I’m sure Microsoft is expecting Kinect to be bring new casual gamers to the system and also to XBOX Live Gold, but this price point is too high. Heck $50 is too high for the casual gamer to jump into online gaming.

The Xbox brand has seen some serious damage this year.

Bye, Bye, Gold. I’ll sure miss the richness that racist 12 year olds and homophobic dope-fiends brought to my life. I just hope Netflix, Facebook, Last.FM and Twitter will put up some sort of service online where I don’t have to shell out $60 a year on top of any fees I may already pay them.

BTW all, there is an ad on the XBL dashboard ATM offering 12-month XBL for $39.99… That’s $10 saving off the current price and $20 off starting Nov. 1st… Some of you should really get off here and go take advantage of that savings… Better yet, maybe you should all piss and moan about saving $10 off the current price?! How dare them knock $10 off right?! Let’s be fair here, complain about that also…lol… I love it… I’m sure you are laughing your a$$ off at this thread Mr. Hyrb…

I thought that you were going to play maden 11…

My 2 cents..

I’m a PS3 owner who bought a 360 in September 2009, specifically to play Modern Warfare 2 (and other CoD games) with a specific group of my friends. It was a tough decision to make, but at that time I felt that dropping the $$ on the console, accessories and subscription was worth (by itself) the ability to play with these specific friends of mine. I must say that after a few months of play, I was pretty disappointed with my decision. I was quite shocked by the XBL community… I have never seen a game so blatantly hacked and exploited by its userbase. I was further shocked to find out that the PS3 was getting fixes for these issues (which were nowhere near as rampant on the PSN)weeks before XBL players because of Microsoft’s cumbersome approval process. I should also mention that I was really put off at the level of maturity of those I met on XBL, even Dave Chapelle could not outpace the frequency of use of the most offensive word known to man (N-word) than I heard playing with people on XBL. As for the other features of the gold subscription… I like the party system, however… none of the game modes that I enjoy in MW2 allowed party chat… so I ended up never using it. I do use Netflix very very often, the XBL implementation is much better than the PS3 and also, the 360 upscales SD video where the PS3 does not. I have never used ANY of the other features associated with the gold subscription level.

My subscription expires 2 weeks before CoD Black Ops comes out…. and this price increase is the deciding factor in my decision to buy the game for the PS3 and abandon XBL multiplayer altogether. Considering everything I’ve mentioned above,I will not be renewing @ $60/year.

@Nick The Great

Oh yeah, well theres an ad on PS3 right now that– oh wait. PS3 doesnt have ads. My bad.

Automatic renewal: OFF

I won’t be getting gold again until there is justification for this or there is a price drop.

I know I can always get gold subscriptions cheap from online retailers…but I seriously cannot support this in any way.

What happens when game devs want cash to play online??????????????

My advice to everyone.

Click “Marketplace” on the top of the screen.
Click the “My Account” Pull-down on the right, select “Manage Payment Options”
Click “Membership Level” on the left
On the right, you’ll see “Automatic Renewal: ON” click the word “ON”
Click “NEXT” on the next 3 pages.
Turn “Automatic Renewal” OFF.

Be done with Xbox live unless you can find the prepaid cards on-sale cheap. Remember though, that every time you use a prepaid card Microsoft will conveniently turn Automatic Renewal back ON so that they can steal from your account without your knowledge when the prepaid card expires.

$50 was already pushing my limits, $60 is the straw that broke my back.

This is awful, I pray I can lock in my price in October cause that’s when my gold runs out. A lot of customers have been upset about having to pay $50 a year for Live, now its going to 60 and you think it will please customers? I’ve never in my life seen a company increase the price of a product or service and then hear the customers say thank you, you’ve given us so much and I want to pay more because your company needs more money from us.

Hello silver here I come, we took the price increase when games got hiked up to $60, butI’m not going to take it for LIVE, I’ll play my PS3 first.

Why is this happening? I appreciate the fact that Microsoft wants to make XBL the main online client for gaming, but I don’t understand the need to charge a flat $60 for everyone that utilizes the service. Is this to cover the costs incurred by services like Facebook, last.fm, and the upcoming ESPN client? If so, fine, charge ten extra dollars for these services, but package them separately from vanilla XBL. I personally don’t use more than Netflix, besides online gaming, and I feel that that sentiment is shared by others. Charge if you will, just partition the add-on services for those who really want them.

Just to clarify my last post.. you have to do this from Xbox.com.. not Major Nelson’s page.

I can’t even login to change my automatic renewal to OFF. Anyone else having this problem?

Everyone should definitely change automatic renewal to OFF. If our words alone won’t change their minds, then voting with our wallets definitely will.

This is ridiculous. There’s not even enough value at the current price. Twitter? Facebook? ESPN? Pfft, no thanks. Account cancelled…

@NoBullet78

Hahaha…funny… However, I just went and signed on to my PSN and guess what the first thing I read?! “Elavate your game to PLUS”… An AD wanting me to purchase PLUS… So I’m pretty sure you couldn’t be more wrong! BTW, that ad is quickly followed by a Netflix AD, a SHANK AD, a Sort Yourself Out AD… lol… Give me a break man, both Sony and MS would steal our souls in a heartbeat if they could turn a dime for it, they both want money… Choose your poison…

@CyRax PT
I am…lol… Simming through some franchise atm…

Will it still be $99.99 for the 4 pack of Gold?

Time to get rid of xbox live. Increasing the price in my country (UK) and not even having access to the “extras” I have NO use for (ahem, espn) means that I have to say goodbye xbox, hello ps3

You are all soo funny… It is the price of 1 effing game! 1 game… $60, for an entire year of service… I spend that on multipile games a month, you all would seriously walk away from XBL because they ask you to spend the price of 1 game for a year’s worth of great service?! I just don’t get all the fuss… Like I said, get online now and renew for $39.99… In fact, do it in advance for upto 36 months and don’t worry about it till then…lol… This is crazy talk on here, over $10, that you don’t even have to pay for years if you go renew now…lol… I can’t grab lunch for me and my girl for less than $10 anymore, you think I would ever let that same $10 stop me from gaming with my friends on XBL for a YEAR… Clank! Clank! Plow!… Never gonna happen!…lol… Ok, seriously kids, I’m done…

No way is this fair, how about you give us our moneys worth now before charging us for what the PS3 gives for free give or take a few lousy features that usually cost extra “PREMIUM” fees anyway.

How much is the Xbox Live plan that just includes Silver plus online play? I don’t need all the other crap.

x ZeroG X – I’m talking about that, the single monthly cards cost $10. I know if you buy a yearly fee it will now cost $5 a month. Why can’t you be a decent human being and actually think about what I said rather then think I’m stupid right off the bat?

If everyone hates the price jump so much, why not waste $300 plus more on games for a PS3 JUST for free online access?? Makes tons of sense.

I figured LIVE prices would have gone down eventually due to ads being plastered all over the dashboard. Hell, I bet they are making enough off DLC alone to not raise the price. Ps3 will be streaming NetFlix without the Disc coming this fall, & XBL online play isn’t that great this Gen IMO. If I can’t find it for $29.99 like I have the past 3 years, then it really doesn’t offer me the price of admission.

With this $10 price hike to $60, I see Microsoft losing more than what they would have made at $50… I think there will be many to not renew because of it. I KNOW I WON’T!!!

@Nick The Great
You buy multiple games at $60 each month? Do you even have bills, or are you a trust fund kid?

@Nick The Great “Choose your poison”

Play online for free or pay $60 to play online.

Decisions decisions…

@a mad pigeon
Anyone who has said that they are switching already has a Ps3 thus invalidating your argument. Four of the games in your profile have comparable versions on the other console and all can be played online for free. That’s $60 for another game right there.

I hate to say it Major but is this how Microsoft rewards the loyalty of its gold subscribers with a whooping $10 per year increase??

why doesnt M$ roll facebook, twitter, last FM and ESPN into a DLC? oh wait because it would cost 9999999999999999999 MSP
basically im waiting till PAX if they havint announced anything then thetinternet is going to rage

Its time to dust off that PS3 and start using it.

Anybody know how many years I can buy in advance?

Thank you for being a non-valued member of Xbox LIVE Gold. We don’t give a toss about you and we just want your money. Lock in your already-too-high subscription price now because we’re bringing ESPN and Hulu Plus to Xbox Live soon. VALUE!
-
Of course if you’re from outside the US you won’t have them or even know what they are, and if you are then you still have to pay extra for them, but then you won’t use it anyway. VALUE!
-
To make up for the huge losses we’ll make adding Kinect to the scrapheap, we’re going to be raping your wallet a little harder than usual. VALUE!
-
Your Xbox Live subscription will soon cost more, and you may be noticing the average of Xbox Live Arcade has been steadily increasing while the quality will decrease. ‘Sup dawg we heard we like you giving us money so we added costs to your costs so you can pay us while you pay us. VALUE!
-
In the non-value you currently get with your Xbox Live subscription, we bring applications you never use such as Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm, but only if you live in a place we like and pay us for these free-on-PC applications, complete with poor interfaces and inability to access from in-game. VALUE!
-
On that subject, don’t forget the amazing DLC we ask you to pay for even though you can access it for free on other formats. VALUE!
-
Don’t forget the amazing perks you don’t get for being an Xbox Live Gold member! Every week we reluctantly reduce the cost of something you don’t want to something less overpriced! VALUE!
-
We don’t even have dedicated servers! What are you paying for? VALUE!
-
Love from Microsoft Xbox 360. Doing our best to f**k it all up since 2005.
-
(And by “love” we mean f**k you. VALUE!)

Raising prices in a recession… What a great concept. lol

@HedlessChickn
36 months, or 3 years by comparison.

My issue is what additional are we getting out of it. Trust my when I say it while ESPN may be cool and video chat with Kinect is nice for some people (if done right with Messenger) the fact remains for the money PS3 you get more stuff. Yes I have both systems and I am good for a year so I am not really going to make a decision today but what I think is important is the only reason why you have such a large community is that multiplayer is awesome especially on the iconic games like Halo so you need gold for that. The rest of time yes there is ok content but I do not feel the overwhelming desire to go there. I would have felt better if you announced something really cool or awesome like when PS3 offered up their program.

@jechtshot78
I’m not a kid, I am a grown man who works for a living to provide for my family… Are you a trust fund kid? Do you have bills? I took it for granted everyone did, but since YOU brought it up, what gives? Didn’t know you had to be a trust fund kid to buy more than 1 game a month?! Moving on, I have responsibilities just like everyone else, and yes I manage to squeeze in a game or so when I can. Regardless, the cost of 1 game is not gonna stop me from a year’s worth of having some of the most fun I’ve had in my life, with some of the coolest guys I’ve been gaming with for going on 8 years now… We run a tight ship of friends who have a blast and just want to have a great time… I guess I would have a different opinion of the XBL service if I ever had to play with tools and/or foul mouthed 10 year old’s everytime I got on… Thank God for a great gaming community I run with…

This really sucks. I was really hoping Microsoft would annonce a price drop or some cool new features to combat against Sony’s Playstation Plus, not the reverse.
I don’t use Tweeter or Facebook on my 360. Infact I’m very disappointed that MS still hasn’t set it up so when Achievements are unlocked it automatically posts them on Facebook and Twiter (Like the PS3 can). I rarely use LastFM or Netflix. I’m still EXTREMELY disappointed that 1 vs 100 was cancelled. And I have No planes what so ever to Ever use ESPN (I’m not a Sports person). I wouldn’t be as upset if these where new unannounced features or free games (like Playstation Plus) added to justify the price increase.

If these features are the reason for the price increase I think MS needs to release a 3rd Live group that covers these features, Like a Platnum Account and leave Gold accounts for Online play and Market Place.

@NoBullet78
Whatever dude… I have both, I own many games on both, I have played lots of mutiplayer on both, and the fact is, XBL is the better service by far… Get off here and go lag out/get modded on PS3, it’s your choice… Better yet, I should actually send you $50 to secure another year of your XBL so you don’t have to suffer with PSN! I have played both, I own both, including the Wii, I am not a fanboy, sorry… I actually have all systems and am logged in to both the PSN and Live at this very moment… Like I’ve said a million times, when it comes to online multiplayer, the experience is smoother, faster, better, everything on XBL… Deal with it…

So I’ve had Live since the Xbox 1 days and back then it definitely wasn’t worth 50. So paying $60 now is not a stretch. I just think the timing is very bad with the economy the way it is and many people just barely getting by. Also, with Amazon and other online retailers I’ve yet to buy Xbox live at the full price in about 3 years. I’ll just have to buy 2 or 3 new cards in the next 2 months, I suggest you all do the same if possible.

Although, there is one feature that i would gladly pay and extra $10. The feature is maybe the ability to play in subset of XBL members in the same age group.

Black Fist

I fully agree. Peter Moore was the best thing Microsoft had and after he left so did the soul of the Xbox brand. These idiots are ruining the Xbox Brand. J Allard is gone to. It seems like the people who actually cared about gaming have been taken over by the greedy executives who only work for the share holders and not the customer. Did Bobby Kotick become the CEO of Microsoft and I don’t know about it. I’ve been with Xbox since the first console and I never owned any Playstation console. It looks like things are about to change. That or I stick with my first love Nintendo. After all Nintendo did win E3 this year IMO.

I’ve been trying to justify the $50 I’ve been spending yearly for Xbox Live…but this is ridiculous.

Back in 2002, this was fair. There were no competitors to Xbox Live, let alone for free. Yes, Twitter and FB are nice, but you fail to realize those are free services to any idiot with a PC.

Now you want to increase to $60 so we can pay to play online, then charge us $10/month for the right to watch Hulu on our Xboxes? Let’s not mention that free demos are most likely going to disappear thanks to Dead Rising: Case Zero, which is a vital part of the game’s story released as a pay-to-play demo while the retail game is delayed another month?

This year we’ve seen Original Xbox support pulled, backwards compatibility has gone to the wayside, the MS Gameroom requiring your loyal subscribers to pay a premium for decades-old Atari 2600 games, 1 vs 100 support being pulled from under us with little warning, not to mention despite digital distribution being a cheaper alternative, prices for these digital downloads seem to be inflating the older the service gets. It’s becoming too much to handle.

Have you even taken into mind how many of us have had to purchase new 360′s thanks to a design flaw for all consoles made up until now?

Microsoft really needs to look at what it takes to be competitive here. The Playstation has been gaining ground the past couple of years and this may be the catalyst for what the future holds for the Xbox platform. I seriously suggest reconsidering any more price gauging in the future.

$50 dollars a month was a good price. Although at times I thought it was a little pricey. All I and my friends do is play over xbox live. We do not use twitter, last.fm, facebook or even ESPN. That is why most if not all of us have computers, cell phones, TV’s, and laptops. All I want to do is play online with friends not sit on the couch and watch ESPN when i receive that over cable. If Microsoft wants to charge more for those added features than why not add another tier such as platinum or diamond and charge $60. I do not care for those extra features that are free everywhere else. I think Microsoft needs to go back and review this decision; I have stuck with you guys through all the hate but this might push me to start playing games for free over the PSN.

Black Fist

Major Nelson should jump ship and go to Sony and do commercials with Kevin Butler. LOL

Wow some of you people really need to take a business class or three. The amount of butthurt in here is outrageous!

Here’s a tip for all of you: If you want the price to go down, simply quit buying gold subscriptions, quit buying Xbox products or Xbox games. Hell, boycott the company altogether! The moment demand for Xbox live goes down is when you will see a price drop or an “increase of discounts” for gold subscriptions. The only thing Xbox will do with all of these complaints is maybe throw in a free arcade game that’s not selling well to begin with, or a free avatar item. Don’t believe me? Remember when Xbox live was having issues (last year I believe), we got Undertow for free. Don’t be surprised if they pull the same thing with all of these complaints.

Microsoft is a business, and like any other business, their goal is to maximize profits. If you want things cheap, you need to hit them where it hurts: their wallet! The moment they start losing money and demand goes down is the moment they will start listening to you for feedback. If you keep on buying map packs/arcade games that cost 1200 MS points when they should be 800, then all future games/map packs will be the standard 1200.

If you are threatening to go to PS3, don’t threaten them, just do it. If there’s a sudden migration of users to Sony’s console, then Microsoft will have no choice and give you dissatisfied customers an offer you can’t refuse. Like I said before, complaining here isn’t going to do nothing. Action is louder than words.

@ElisabethinCA,

Virtually all of my other services have either reduced prices, or added actual, useful content, storage, capacity, bandwith, or something else tangible to justify their prices. XBL has added virtually nothing that people have asked for, foists unwanted/unneeded/unintegrated services on people, many of which are free *everywhere else*, and then adds premium services that the vast majority could care less about. Their spiel regarding how they haven’t changed prices since XBL started rings pretty hollow for the vast majority of us.

My $50 PSN+ sub looks like a better deal every day. With that, I get discounts on add-ons, games, and other digital trinkets. Free add-ons, free games, and a video mag every month too. What does Gold get me? More crap I don’t want, peer-to-peer hosting, a slow-as-molasses dashboard & media player, and ads everywhere.

Great job M$!

Ok, so the price increase really isn’t that bad … but like at least a few other people on here the only thing I really, truly want is the ability for silver members to use Netflix. I have two 360s in the house and the one in the bedroom is primarily a media machine. Having to move my profile (even through the relative ease of a USB drive) is a pain.

What will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for you defenders? For me it was certain decisions Microsoft made this Gen. That I saw things getting worse, & that I would not support it. Well, I already had a 360 & got XBL GOLD for $30 the past few years. Now enough is enough with the gouging, but you conforming supporters will ruin it for everyone…

Do you have Stockholm Syndrome? Why are you defending a giant corporation that is increasing the price of their service? They bombard you with crappy ads on NXE and now they’ve decided to raise the price? When will enough be enough for you? What if they raised it another ten dollars? And then another ten dollars? Would you still defend them then? It just seems to me that gamers have let big companies run a train on them with no lube. This post from GAF summarizes exactly what I’m getting at:

“- Paying for online when it’s been free on PC for years? That’s crap! *pays anyway*
- WTF, $60 retail games? This is B.S! *buys anyway*
- Grr, my fifth 360 red ringed, F**K YOU MICROSOFT! *goes and buys another 360*
- What, $15 for XBLA games? This is ridiculous! *buys anyway*
- Horse armor? That’s damn stupid! *buys anyway*
- Clothing for my Avatar? That’s completely useless. Why would I buy that? *buys anyway*
- A $15 map pack that only includes five maps, two of which were already in CoD4? What a ripoff, Activision! *buys anyway*
etc.”

You people should be proud of yourselves… You’re truly pathetic!

There’s a completely logical reason behind this price hike. When Microsoft adds completely useless apps to the Xbox Live service (like Twitter and Facebook) they need to pay the appropriate teams who are responsible for said service (Facebook, Twitter, and the team behind the apps need to get paid). We the user-base are responsible for those salaries because Microsoft is like any other company out there, they are not a charity.

FWIW, the same $59.99 will buy you a dedicated Roku SD player, which will play Netflix, Youtube, MLB, Amazon, UFC, Pandora, NASA, Flickr, MediaFly, Facebook Photos, TWiT, and *dozens* of other channels. $10 more will get you the HD version, and you only have to buy the box *once*, not renew it every year.

Seems like a significantly better deal than XBL to me. (At this point, pretty much anything’s a better deal than XBL…)

Not a logical reason… Useless apps like Twitter/Facebook are not a $10 value too me when I already have a computer that gets them for free. When will Microsoft give me the choice to decide what I am willing to pay for, or how about having a Platinum service that includes all that crap for $60 while offering GOLD for $50. Why am I forced to pay extra (If I want XBL GOLD) for crap I don’t want?

Services I use Wii PS3 Xbox
—————— —- —- ———
Online Multiplayer Poor OK Good
Netflix Good Good Good
Cost of these Services Free Free $50–>$60

This doesn’t really affect me since I live in Canada, but this whole strategy makes no sense whatsoever. I know the overhead for Xbox Live cannot be significantly high since it made over $1 billion for the 2010 fiscal year, but for some reason you are trying to gouge more money from the people who have been loyal to Xbox Live for years. If anything it is the perfect time for Xbox Live to have a price decrease, Sony has just launched Playstation Plus at a similar price point, the Kinect launch is right around the corner and two big Multiplayer focused games (Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops)are shipping soon. A decrease in price may finally give consumers a reason to switch to Xbox over Playstation, or switch from silver accounts to gold accounts. With the launch of Kinect you are entering an entirely new market segment, catering to the casual players, who may be getting their first online experience through xbox live. This is you chance to sell Xbox Live to these new users, with a lower price point the service becomes more value-added when compared to competitors, opening up the opportunity to create loyal customers. Finally with the launch of Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops, there lies an opportunity to finally convert those players that buy the games purely for their single player campaigns. With a lower subscription fee these players are taking less of a risk when trying multiplayer for the first time.

To me it seems you are moving in the wrong direction, raising the price instead of lowering, punishing the loyal instead of rewarding. Not sure if you will read this, but this is just my two cents.

Yea . . . .I’m just stunned by this . . . baffled even.

Even if this price increase NEVER HAPPENS (and it will happen; No exec. at the posh Xbox campus could take the ego blow of back-peddling on this) THE XBOX LIVE BRAND HAS BEEN SEVERELY DAMAGED. Especially without a significant additional compensation/benefits; By that I mean something like free games and more à la plus, which I had expected the gold level- or another higher level, to begin to begin to implement anyway.

This could not be more poorly timed. With the increasing loss of 3rd party exclusives, the incredible disappointment that the ham-fisted roll-out of Kinect has wrought, and the continually eroding price discrepancy between the comparable 360″s” and PS3 models- this just comes across as absolutely MORONIC.

I’m speechless in the face of this utter stupidity. If owned MS stock I would want someone fired over this- NAY, HORSE-WHIPPED.

Great! Just what I needed to hear. The XBOX Live subscription that is already way overpriced just got more expensive.

I for one don’t want ESPN on my xbox. The only half-way useful thing you’ve added to xbox live is last.fm. The Netflix thing is ok, but I’d rather watch movies on my tv via either dvd player or on-demand movies (cost less and I can record to dvd and watch later).

All I really want out of my xbox live membership is to play games online with my friends.

We’re looking to get another gaming console this Christmas. I might take a closer look at PS3 now since it doesn’t cost anything extra to play online with that platform.

I just don’t understand the logic behind a price increase. What new features are going to be implemented soon that will justify paying even more for this service. Just seems dumb to charge more when the the current price was fine.

Thank you microsoft. Thank you so much. I’m glad you feel its ok to raise prices in a failing economy. Awesome idea to capitalize on gamers who love multiplayer just in time for two huge game launches Halo: Reach and COD Black Ops. You guys are true jerks. I wish I could some how use the reporting system to leave you negative feedback, mute you, and file complaint for cheating customers out of their hard earned cash. Greedy son of benches!!!!

Wow, the only reason I pay for gold is to play games online (and $50 is a ripoff to begin with) and now you are going to start charging MORE!?!

I have never considered switching to a PS3 more than I am right now. I am very disappointed with this news. XBL better be getting a MASSIVE upgrade in order to justify this, one that makes all the other upgrades to the service look like nothing special, which shouldn’t be too hard considering that most of the upgrades to XBL have been nothing special. Oh, look a watered down version of facebook for xbox. Hey Twitter, cool I because being able to update that from my phone/computer wasn’t enough! ESPN, fantastic! Because I couldn’t turn off my Xbox and turn on ESPN!

The only truly worthwhile upgrade to XBL in all the time it’s been running has been party chat, and even that isn’t really a feature worth paying for. This news seriously makes me want to switch to a PS3 because it’s future keeps looking brighter and brighter while the 360′s keeps on looking worse and worse…

I Timothy I, you hit the nail on the head! I just cancelled my renewal. My only regret is that I just renewed it last month. I’ve still got 11 months left, but after that, no more renewals Microsoft, unless the price drops.

VOTE WITH YOUR WALLETS = DON’T BUY IT!

Wow… seriously? There’s a reason why I haven’t been renewing my Xbox Live… It was already too expensive. I wait for those Gold cards to come down in price before I ever even think about getting Gold again, but even then it’s only think. I usually only play online once in a while, so I’m definitely not paying 60 bucks for XBLG, when I can use that 60 bucks to buy 2 games (I wait for games to go down to at least 30 bucks before I buy them).

Recently, a lot of things have been making me wonder why I’m not using my PS3 more. I should probably just sell my Xbox and move to the PS3… I mean… Microsoft can’t even hold on to it’s exclusives (looking at Mass Effect 2). What reason do I have to stay with Microsoft when literally all the good games are going to the PS3 also.

Hmm… I don’t even get free freaking games with XBLG. Instead, what do I get? Non-refundable items (in case I decide I really don’t want that piece of crap dlc that I accidentally purchased), terrible customer service, games where there are assholes online most of the time, stupid Microsoft Points system, features I could care less about (because usually my laptop is in the same room as my Xbox, so why the FU*K would I need Facebook, Twitter and all that crap). I’m not even a big sports guy so ESPN doesn’t mean shit to me. That and Xbox Arcade games have only been increasing in price. WTF?

Anyone just see this on Major’s Twitter? “Happy that today is wrapping up #TodayIwasAPunchingBag”
That’s rich. No Larry, today Microsoft kicked every Gold member in the balls.

Lets see…..

250 Gb Hard Drive = $130
Wi-Fi Adapter = $100
Kinect = $150
XBL = $60

Anything else you guys wanna overcharge for????

What exactly are we getting that validates this price hike during a recession???

This must be one of Greenberg’s brilliant ideas…lol

Take this price hike back to the corporate douche-bags who thought of it

FAIL

I have never had a problem with the pricing for Xbox Live Gold, but raising the price just seems odd to me. More and more people are joining Xbox Live every day so why do you need to raise the price? The services being offered are nice and all, but I do not use many of them now. I basically pay to play with others online. If I want to use Facebook or Twitter, I will get on my computer. The ESPN add-on is nice, but in the end it is more of a novelty than a service. If you want people to feel that they are getting their money’s worth, give Gold members discounts on DLC and Arcade titles. If the price were to be lowered $10, you would gain many more subscribers instead of aggravating the ones you currently have. If you factor in the money that is made off of the Avatar items, I’m sure Microsoft is making plenty of profit to cover what ever the costs are to run Live.

In addition, Sony’s service has always been free and their new pay service offers actual benefits such as discounts. I have always been a Microsoft fan, but now I kind of feel slapped int he face. If you haven’t had to raise the prices for 8 years, why would you have to now when you have an increasing number of subscribers. It just feels wrong.

This is frakking ridiculous.
I have bought my last 360 game.

You frakkers can take your price increase and shove it up your a$$.

I understand the need to raise the price after seven years. As others have pointed out, while the dollar amount has remained flat, due to inflation the cost has actually decreased over time.

But having said that, I also agree with the many suggestions that Microsoft consider tiered pricing. While I have no doubt that the coding for integrating Facebook, Twitter, etc. was complex and involved a great deal of work, I suspect that a fair number of users tried those features once or twice and then never went back.

I know part of Microsoft’s strategy is to be the hub of the home entertainment experience, but I think it’s fair to have a tier that pays for and receives just the gaming related features (multiplayer, demos, chat, party, etc.) but doesn’t receive Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

It’s starting to feel like a cable subscription. I feel like I’m pay for a lot of things I don’t want and never use in order to get the few things that I do. But cable has tiered pricing.

I’d also like the idea of either adding a free game a month for gold members a la Sony, or a plan that says for a separate subscription fee, members have full access to all arcade games, similar to how gamehouse operates.

Quite honestly, DOTW, avatars, and premium themes aside, I’ve used very few of the recent additions to Live. I don’t have a Netflix account, I’m not interested in paying extra for Hulu, I have a cable package with multiple ESPN channels that I never watch, I use Twitter on my computer and if ever I feel a need to check Twitter while playing (which almost never happens) it’s much easier for me to just boot up my laptop, I don’t use Facebook, I watch The Guild but I don’t own a Zune, I never rent movies over Live, etc. I’m actually very curious what the usage statistics are for the various services. I’m sure Netflix has a high usage rate but I’m not so sure about the other services.

I also agree with those who have said it seems like poor timing since not only was 1 vs 100 recently canceled, but it seems like every time I get on Live I have more ads on my dashboard. I at least understand the game ads even if I’m not interested in 90% of them, but the other ads irritate me. It’s like watching non movie trailer ads before a movie. I’ve already paid the ticket, I don’t need to be sold a car/phone/TV.

Non-premium cable channels show ads, but most of that revenue goes to the network, not (directly) the cable company.

So again, while I understand why prices need to be raised, and $10 isn’t all that much, it *is* a 20% price increase (which, for those of your playing at home, is roughly the same as bringing today’s cost in-line with what a year originally cost after allowing for inflation), it may have been a smarter move to announce the increase alongside rolling out improvements or new features.

I do think there’s a lot of knee-jerk reaction to an increase in price, but I also think some people have made thoughtful posts with legitimate grievances.

I’m glad I live in Canada… my 12 month subscription price hasn’t changed

To quote the infamous Tai Kaliso…..”Now, I am angry”

Major, I know it’s not your fault but tell your genius executives that this is not the way to reward long time subscribers.

The person who thought of this is like the idiot who thought of the 40 hour work, week, don’t ya just wanna slap em…lol

Wow i am surprised, i was expecting you guys to lower your price or even go free. You guys are already making alot of money from the live services, why milk us for even more money. I have been a big supporter of XBOX 360 even tho i am on my third console, the first two were repaired twice and still died out of warranty. This is a sad day….

Well Microsoft, I take this as an insult, you must think that your install base is stupid. Charging more for the same service. “Oh but now we have Netflix!” (for an additional Netflix fee)and “We have facebook!” (I have a computer, works better there)”We have last.fm” (You have the ads to pay for it as well!) “We have miis-, scratch that *avatars*” (Yes, I have always wanted to buy clothes for my virtual doll…what am I six?) “We have the best online service!” (That I have happily paid 49.99 for the last 6 years. I WILL NOT pay more for the SAME SERVICE that I have received for the last 6 years.) So Microsoft will continue it’s tradition of screwing us for all we have after our countless years of loyalty. How many in this forum have NOT had the Red Ring, had to wait a month for service, and the only apology that we get is in the form of a 6.99 1 month card? What do we get for our loyalty? Screwed. Thank you Microsoft. My subscription expires early next year, and when that happens, you will see my account enshrined in Silver.

I don’t even bother with the movies on the XBLM.. I can rent most all those movies for 1 buck a day at red box.. Why would I over pay to see the same movie? Maybe that works for some but not me.. I’ve never been charged for the privilege to shop before either.. Also why even mention netflix? Ps3 and Wii can already do the same.. Heck ps3 even has a search feature.. Guess what if you pay the netflix subscription you can watch the netflix streaming experience for the very low price of FREE, Like alot of ps3′s features.. They dont charge people to shop either.. And even if you don’t opt for PSN+ they have always given out alot more free content on there.. I don’t care what people say, psn is getting their act together.. Also the free demo thing is just dumb in my opinion. One; It says when the demo starts up its not to be redistributed for profit or whatever.. Two; it would just be dumb to charge for a demo..

Bottom line… I figure this is another attempt that MS is making for more money.. Since when is robbery acceptable.. People are saying their a business and what not.. But they are just a big group of people.. In my opinion its just as acceptable as those CEO’s of big company’s getting big bonuses when their company needed to get a bail out..

C’mon people, this will help the support gold members get with awesome things like 1v100… OH WAIT

I mean really? If I was expecting ANYthing it was for the price to go down, not up. Cancel original xbox live support and then boost the price for a gold membership. Thanks for the rape sesh M$.

While I don’t necessarily object to a price increase, I feel alot worse about it considering that XBL just dropped one of their most innovative services with “1 VS 100″. While demos and discounts are nice, and the ads are always amusing… it’s hard for me to rationalize this as anything other than a money grab.

Well, this is my last Year with Xbl. After May im done and im not re-subscribing to this bullshit service.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members”

Nearly none of which I never asked for or use. How about a package for just playing online? The main complaints I’ve seen over this on a few sites now is over what we’re paying “for”, not what we’re paying.

They stuck on “features” like Twitter and Facebook which are free on every other format and so on and then decide we should pay more for these “services”. When I can guarantee most people paid to play, not to use add-ons. But we’re given no real choices.

Honestly, if they actually cared they’d give some real options outside of nothing or everything.
You could have simple something like:

Silver: Same as now.

Gold: Allows you to play MP, party chat features and the basics for playing games online.

Platinum: Everything from Gold plus all the other features like Twitter, Facebook and so on.

We’re just looking for fair options to choose from.

“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members”

Nearly none of which I never asked for or use. How about a package for just playing online? The main complaints I’ve seen over this on a few sites now is over what we’re paying “for”, not what we’re paying.

They stuck on “features” like Twitter and Facebook which are free on every other format and so on and then decide we should pay more for these “services”. When I can guarantee most people paid to play, not to use add-ons. But we’re given no real choices.

Honestly, if they actually cared they’d give some real options outside of nothing or everything.
You could have simple something like:

Silver: Same as now.

Gold: Allows you to play MP, party chat features and the basics for playing games online.

Platinum: Everything from Gold plus all the other features like Twitter, Facebook and so on.

We’re just looking for fair options to choose from.

I’m really curious as to how many people that are bitching will actually discontinue their accounts.

Bookmarking this topic for future reference.

MightyMango,

I can assure you im not bullshitting about this. Bookmark my post and come back in may 2011 and find my gamertag in the Silver Category.

If live was $30-40 it wouldn’t be that bad, but $60 a year is overdoing it. All i do on live is Play online or Singleplayer. I Rarely use any other features like twitter & Facebook because i can use it for free on my pc and ps3.

I cannot justify my purchase any longer for a Gold membership.
Back in 07 it was different because it was amazing, that’s where Xbl shined the most and now it’s going downhill every year.

MightyMango – Check me on Sept. 18th, the day after I’m scheduled to run out, too. I, too, am someone who has not gotten much in return for my payment. IF they were offering plain old Hulu (no extra charge) and keeping the same price, then MAYBE I’d stick around, but I don’t care about Twitter, etc. Why should I fire up my entire home theater to listen to Last.fm when I can save the electricity and listen to Pandora for free on my PC?

I thought that maybe one day, M$ would just make XBL “freemium” like PSN with the basics for free and the extra goodies for $50. Existing accounts would’ve had the option of moving over to the new Gold level or being converted to Moon Points. But, nooooooooooooooooooo!!!! They do the exact opposite and tell us to bend over and grab our ankles and say thank you for the rogering we’re about to get or GTFO. Well, if those are my choices, I’ll take Door B. See ya!

I don’t understand why you charge us for a service that is free on the internet.

I hope we will see some new features from this….the ESPN front end that is coming is basically ESPN 3 which is free need more for $60.

Wow If You guy Jack up the price in Australia Im going to just go upgrade my pc we already pay a assload here in australia and We get Bare Minimum of Stuff our dashboard looks like its dying of or Starvation i cant believe you did this M$ just want more money well your gonna see people arnt gonna play it

$10 increase is terrible, just a bad bad idea.

@Static Jak
Agreed

How long will the special 1 year price be available? I don’t get paid till Friday. This isn’t going to be easy to sale at my work to customers. :/

Microsoft sure knows how to nickle and dime their customers. First the RROD, which they handled poorly and now this price hike? 10 dollars might not seem like anything to some people, but if you let Micro$oft get away with this, they might just raise the price again. I could also mention the outsourcing they do on the help line. When my my Xbox was on the fritz, I had to talk with people out of country who barely understood me(and vice versa). I’m surprised they don’t charge for the calls yet.

Even though Sony has average online play and Nintendo’s is almost nonexistent, at least they handle everything else pretty good. I sold my PS3 a few months ago, since Xbox 360 and PS3 have so many of the same games. I’m honestly regretting that now. I WAS going to get a slim Xbox 360, but now, I’m not so sure. I’ll probably just let my current phat Xbox 360 RROD(which probably will happen eventually). I will try to get cheap Xbox Live cards on Amazon and the likes, but sometimes you can’t. If I can’t, I will just revert to Xbox Live Silver Membership.

Sorry for this long rant, just wanted to let off some steam. All will be forgiven if something really MIND BLOWING is announced for Xbox Live, which would excuse the 10 dollar jump(for me at least, not sure for the other hundreds, maybe thousands, who are mad).

@Mighty Mango

I’ve already stopped buying into the Gold Scheme.

Thanks to some of the other people who reminded me another reason why Gold is even less worth it: ADS! Holy shit, I thought ads were supposed to be unnoticable etc. Yeah freakin right.

It’s funny how many people go “quick! just get 2 years right now while it’s cheaper! who cares that you maybe might end up not using them?! this will show evil MS what we think of them!”

This kind of panic mentality probably nets MS more money than what they lost by people not getting a new subscription.

Newsflash….
It doesn’t matter if you stock up now and buy it cheaper for 3 years or if you buy it at a higher price. As long as you pay them money you will just tell them one thing: “Hey! Take my money! Yes you MS i like giving you money for things that should be free! Charge me more!!11″

It’s a win-win situation for MS, those people that now stock up on subscriptions give them money, the people that don’t stock up and pay more give them money. Overall it’s just more money for MS.

Amazon has already went up on the 12 month they went from 39.99 to $43.00 now. Bad move microsoft. To many people still losing jobs. We are about to go into a double dip recession. I guess this move is to pay for all the free one month cards you gave away to the people who had the 3red rings(i had 11 of them so far). I buy 4 subs in my household yearly. I dont justify paying $40 more a year. Bad enough I have to pay for 3 extra codes in my house so everyone can play this years madden online. Thats $100 for one Game now. Im done here as a xbl member so is my wife and 2 kids. And the experience I had with customer service few days ago. Maybe you can employ some americans so we can understand them. Better yet bring the call center for US customers back to the US. Then I wouldnt mind paying 10 xtra for each account. At least i know that my money was helping employ an american.—-1 pissed off 36 year old father——-

ooooo microsoft..soon it’ll be 50 bucks for 1200 microsoft points -_-

Sadly, Sept-Oct will be my last months of paying for this service. While i dont have gripes about the condition of the service, the offerings of other services on other networks means nothing to me. I dont have other consoles, I had a PS1 years ago, and I had an xbox since they came out, but I only just got the Gold service when i got my 360 last year. I liked it fro a lot of reasons but unlike most of the people here its not a $10 a year increase for some of us that done have the extra money to pay for an entire year of service. I work hard for what i bring home and its getting harder to make ends meet, but i manage to make the $7.99 work into the budget because i love to play. Add it up folks $8 bucks a month* 12 = $96 a year, now they want to clock that up to $10 bucks a month, so now its $120 a year?, for what? Kinect? ESPN? crap services i have no use for and shouldnt be forced to pay for if I’m not going to use right? That does make sense right? We dont pay for things we arent going to use. We already have tons of bandwidth stealing ads and things like facebook crammed into what would be a decent service. I was really looking forward to COD: Black OPS but I think Ill save my money for other more useful priorities. At least REACH will be out before these changes take effect and I walk away from xbox live for good. Oh well, theres always Star Wars: The Old Republic. At least Ill be using what I’m paying for a month.

Amazon.com has just about sold out and they have also increase their price. However, Newegg still has them and they have them for $39.99. Buy up and buy up quick. Stick it to Microsoft and tell them where they can put their increase.
I have discontinued my auto-renewal and purchased 2 cards. I’ll stay for another 2 years but I’ll think twice before buying anything with Microsoft points again.

Sorry Major tell your bosses they suck. I got a PS3 i just put a brand new quad core into my Pc im not paying anymore.

Add another $31.00 to it so xbl will be douche free.

One more thing. With all the cards being bought up so quickly should tell Microsoft that once they run out people will stop their “Gold” Account. I have 2 cards, so I have 2 more years. After that, I’m done with “Gold” unless they reduce the price. I can promise you I won’t be the only one.

Anyone saying they’re done after their cards expire, YEAH…..YEAH.

It’s a trick.. They say hey!! we are upping the price from nov. 1, so buy more now and pay more later. It’s very clever what they do they are creating a hype, but not so clever to go with it..

I could very easily sell the cards right now for a profit if I wanted to. I don’t need to use them, but I will.
As far as this being a trick, I doubt it. Will they change mind, I doubt that too.

I can’t believe people are complaining about $10 over 12 mo. That’s less than $1/mo people! Anyway, inflation is a real thing and it happens in every other aspect of life and I realize some of you are kids and don’t know about life yet, but you’ll find out someday. We got $50/yr service for 7 yrs, be happy and get over it. And I guarantee that 99% of you that say your going to cancel your XBL membership don’t, and if you do over $10, you should be managing your money better.

The amount of comments this quickly got should be enough proof to Microsoft that they’re doing the wrong thing… not they would ever admit it.

$60 a year is supposed to be a fantastic value because I can do things like use Twitter from my 360? Seriously? Why do I have to pay more for services I have no intention of using, and was getting along just fine without?

If you’ve got the gall to somehow charge people more, then that should mean we should be seeing less ads, right? What about fixes to things like the horrendous guide lag when actually connected? How about getting a friend list that lets us have more than 100 people on it, now that regular Xbox Live support is no more?

Is a price hike really the best thing to roll out when companies like EA are also trying to wring out more money from people that either aren’t buying the games new, or have more than one person in the household?

Terrible.

Gears of Monkey

Stop being a tool. Inflation doesn’t explain how Sony continues to offer their service for free while Microsoft increases the price of their service. Stop trying to sound like a snob using words you clearly don’t know the definition of.

@Gears of Monkey
Oh you want to talk about inflation? Ok.
====================================
$50 in 2002 = $60.59 in 2010
$50 in 2005 (360 launch year) = $55.88 in 2010
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

AnEternalEnigma – you’re obviously not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, the definition of inflation is as follows: “a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency” – so there, and i refuse to debate with you anymore on the matter. And Sony does not continue to offer their service completely for free (yes it is just an option to pay) but they realized that to maintain a decent service (which they do not have) that they need money to do so, and devised a way to generate some. They have at least done the noble thing and offered people free games with a fee based service.

6 year subscriber here, pretty angry about this increase. Anyway just letting you know of my rage, regardless that theirs nothing we can do about it and you are very aware of that fact. Enjoy rolling in your money piles and having sex with expensive escorts I guess

Buy all 1 year live cards now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@NoBullet78 – kudos to you for scrounging the internet for an inflation calculator that proves my point. XBL started in ’02 for $50, and today that same package is worth over $60 now. and we all know it’s not the same package, as many features have been added (regardless if they were wanted or not by everyone). I’m not sure of the point you were trying to make with the 2005 to 2010 calculation, because XBL has been around longer than the 360.

gears of jackass is just one of those people who doesn’t know well enough to quite while he’s behind. Pity.

Change is always gonna happen thats just the facts of life. How you deal with is up to yourself. I for one have been playing even before Live, remember XBConnect, then the Live Beta and been on Live ever since. I don’t always agree on what they change to the service. I do however give it a chance and end up liking something they added. The family tier is going to save me money anyways so I’m not to worried for $120.00 for 4 gold accounts. Mabey thats part of their plan to offset family tier and single tier. Or they could have something up the sleeve they are not talking about. Mabey a pro-circuit on the dashboard for team/clan competition it is what Live was built on, or something else who know’s til the time comes. Just remember to be openminded about change you never know you might like it.
I also find that game competition is becoming a source of revenue. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116989

There is absolutely NO SANE REASON why I should pay extra to fund services I don’t use.

Facebook – Rarely used
Twitter – Rarely used
Last.FM – Rarely used
ESPN – Will NEVER use (sports can suck my ****)
Hulu – I’ll use my Laptop, thankyouverymuch.
Video Kinect – I have never used my existing LIVE camera for video chats, so what about Kinect’s video chat is significantly different enough to make me want to use that one?

Maybe this has already been said, but… online play should be free. If you want to charge $60 a year for all the extra junk (none of which Ive ever used), go for it.But there’s no reason to charge for online play. Nobody else does, and funnier yet, is that “Windows live” users can even play online for free. Also, it’s sad that Microsoft pawns these things off on Major Nelson. I remember back when he used to have personal blog posts, now his name has just been turned into a PR puppet by Microsoft. I’ve gone from a serious xbox fanboy to someone who meerly puts up with the Xbox so I can play Halo. It’s the mad grab for money anywhere and everywhere that caused Bungie to leave Microsoft, and it will be interesting to see how many more people leave Xbox once Bungie games become available on other platforms. I know I will be leaving.

Screw this price increase crap!

When my Gold runs out I’m done with Xbox LIVE. There are more than enough PC games out there, which are better quality than 360 games anyway.

Thank you MS…you just freed up so much more time for me to play my PC MMO’s!

@MightyMango,

Check mine when it expires on September 5th. I just killed the auto-renewal earlier this evening.

I don’t see where you guys at Xbox LIVE are seeing the justification for this price rising. Facebook and Twitter are services that are free. Period. There is no cost to create an account, no cost to download a smartphone app, no cost to use your Wi-fi to log in. These services shouldn’t be considered in raising the price (especially when you consider that the Xbox is one of the worst mediums to use those services).

Additionally, Netflix and Zune are services in which I already have to pay for. I have an active subscription to Netflix and can stream movies free of charge to my iPhone, Wii, PC and TV. 50 dollars is already asking a lot when leading consoles let you use internet free of charge (Wii Network and PSN).

I understand that 50 dollars has been the same for the past 7 years, and if inflation/operation costs are rising and you need to hike the price up that is completely understandable. I hate seeing excuses saying my 60 dollars is worth what I get though when everything I am given is available for free elsewhere.

The fifty charged now is pushing it. If Xbox actually listened to what the members wanted once in awhile I wouldn’t mind. Where’s our expanded friends lists? I’d pay extra for that. Where’s any of the community suggested stuff?

If you’re going to charge more, pay attention to your community feedback for Christ’s sake.

ONLINE PLAY SHOULD BE FREE
ONLINE PLAY SHOULD BE FREE
ONLINE PLAY SHOULD BE FREE
ONLINE PLAY SHOULD BE FREE
ONLINE PLAY SHOULD BE FREE

I also forgot to mention the wasted few services that you guys are trying to say justify the hike. Kinect Video? If I wanted to web-chat I could either use Skype or the overprices Xbox Live cam. I have never used Last.FM but rather stream Pandora via my iPod whenever I want my music. And ESPN? My Xbox is connected to a TV and internet. I can either watch ESPN on my TV or load up ESPN.com on my computer or iPod. Every service that you have to offer should be free of charge.

Just as I predicted, all the online retailers are already starting to sell out of their 12-month Gold cards that they currently have in stock because of this announcement. And nobody with any common sense is falling for this shady “lock-in” offer from MS because the fine print clearly states that you’ll end up stuck in auto-renewal hell if you actually get suckered in by it (just like all these other so-called Gold “deals” on the Dashboard lately). Nice try MS, ya sneaky bastards!

Why can’t you do tiered pricing so people who don’t give a @#$! about Zune, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Hulu… Don’t have to pay for it. I know MS is shelling out for ESPN and Hulu licensing but why make us ALL pay for it? FAIL.

This is a really weak move. The value proposition of XBL was already pretty questionable. Facebook and Twitter on the 360 were a disappointment (how many people actually use them?). Netflix costs money, and you don’t have to be a “Gold” subscriber to use it on the other two consoles I own. Last.FM is ok, except for the ads and the fact that I’d rather use the extender from my Windows 7 Media Center laptop.

So what am I paying for? “Discounts” on XBLA titles and DLC? There are maybe two decent sales per year; I can save just as much by buying discounted points elsewhere. Video content (AKA poorly disguised ads from Larry or someone from IGN)? The ability to play multiplayer with my friends? I guess so.

Great. The one compelling feature is multiplayer. Set aside the fact that this should be free, as it has been on PC for years and continues to be on other consoles. I’m going to pay $60 a year to be called racist and homophobic names for the 30 seconds it takes me every game to mute the players I don’t know.

Awesome. Keep it up, Microsoft. See where this, the “premium” themes, the avatar paid content, the paid music videos and television shows, the $15 map packs with three new maps, and the increasing cost of XBLA titles gets you.

Oh, and thanks for all the ads all over the XNE. I have to pay for this at all?

LOL @ Gangsta Grillz, at $31.00 only douche’s like you who call people who would rather budget their money douches will be playing; that and kids with sucker parents and other morons willing to shell out 60 bucks a year or more if they do the 3 months thing. Most of the smart people will ditch, you’ll be stuck with the douches. I think the lower prices enable people who aren’t rich douche-bags to play.

The way I see it is there is very little value in the “upgrades” simply because most of them are things I don’t even want or would ever use. The whole situation reminds me of the homeless guy that runs up and washes your windshield when you park your car and expects you to pay him for his “services”. Except, this is 10x ridiculous and almost down right obnoxious because it’s being done by people who, in all probability, live pretty comfortable lives.

read this http://www.damnlag.com/microsoft-to-improve-xbox-360-chat-quality/

What the people who are sneering, “What are you complaining about $10 per year more about? It’s only .83 cents a month,” aren’t comprehending is that what people are peeved about isn’t that a service they’ve been using and enjoying the hell out of for years is now 20% more expensive, but that the service that they’ve been forced to pay $50 per year to get what PSN offers for free (i.e. online play, as craptastic as it may be) now costs $60 while PSN remains free. We don’t care about Twitter and Facebook and all the other clap-trap that everyone has mentioned a zillion times before; we just want to game online and we grudgingly accepted that the price to do so was $50. Now that it’s $60, the people who are addicted to their Halo and Modern Warfare will cough up, but the people like me who love their Xbox games, but rarely venture online, will just drop out. Because I had super-cheap XBL cards which kept me online for $8/yr., I didn’t have to evaluate whether I was getting my money’s worth, but now that it’s going to be $60 when I barely go online to play, it’s over. They’d be better off selling single-day passes for $2 for people like me.

http://www.damnlag.com/microsoft-to-improve-xbox-360-chat-quality/

this is the reason for the 10$ increase I guess.

I feel bad for Major Nelson. He’s just the messenger, and people are simply trying to rip him apart. I don’t agree with the pricing either, but its not his fault.

Gears of Money (Cause that’s what you really sound like); inflation would not explain the increase very well. There are things you are not taking into account. As NoBullet pointed out, even with inflation the new price is still 6-7 dollars higher for no reason (taking into account tax etc.)

Aside from that, even with inflation taken into account, price of bandwidth, storage space etc. has all gone down over the years; especially for MS whose user base has only increased – so more users means lesser per user bandwidth cost. Not to mention that Gold now has Ads as a source of revenue, which it didn’t have when XBL first came out. So now, not only are we getting a price hike, we are getting Ads, and shitty features most of us didn’t even ask for that are only half-assedly integrated into the system. We should already be paying less because the ads were supposed to keep the prices down… Did they ultimately? Apparently not.

Oh and hey, if it were only inflation why hasn’t the price of XBL gone down in countries whose currency is strong now? Really? Come on. Weak.

See all of these comments? This is what we call ‘backlash’. People get pissed when you charge them more for the same old stuff – stuff they can easily get for free elsewhere.

I’m sure Microsoft will read each of these comments, take them to heart, and thoughtfully reconsider the price increase.

……HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, seriously, they’re not going to give a ****.

>”See all of these comments? This is what we call ‘backlash’.”
The last time I saw this much howling was when DLC for Guitar Hero II was announced. People were forced to buy three songs even if they only wanted one particular track. Everyone bitched about how the “price was a ripoff” and how greedy M$ was, BUT when push came to shove, the same crybabies mumbled, “Yeah, but I really want [Song Title Here],” and they ponied up the price for two superfluous tracks. It was horse armor all over again: people bitched, then they paid up. M$ clearly has market research showing that they’ll make more of those that stay on for $60 than they’ll lose due to the increase. You five Halo/CoD addicts are going to cover my exit and M$ won’t care that I’m gone. Lone wolves won’t be missed because the party people will stay on regardless the price.

Why complain about $10 increase? Here in Denmark we pay the equivalent of $90($67 without sales tax) per year, and we have no: Indie Games, Netflix, ESPN, Subtitles on Zune Movies, Last.fm

hahahahahah I really hope sales go down on the subscriptions and teach M$ a lesson!!!!!!!!

I am glad they are raising the price, since I pay the same in the Netherlands as the UK but enjoy less Gold Exclusive Features. Only would support a raise in price here if we gained access to Full Inside Xbox Shows (Only have SentUaMessage and Interviews), Indie Games, Zune Music, and Last.FM.

Seriously? I like you Microsoft, but this is getting out of hand….You provide very very very little incentives anymore to own an xbox 360…90 percent of the games on the 360 I can now get on other platforms…Both which do not charge me an arm and a leg to access something I already pay a monthly fee for…

You say you are still thinking about the core gamer, and honestly, I don’t feel like that way… I gamed on an xbox the day it launched and jumped on xbox live over 5 years ago….Yet everybody that made you successful in the console race you are turning your back on…Kinect…I understand you are trying to broaden your market…but how about doing that after you have an actual line up of games?

You are nickel and diming us with your ridiculously expensive proprietary hardware…you are charging us 60 dollars a month to access something we already pay a monthly fee for…and please don’t even talk about features….you want to tell us that those 60 dollars are necessary give us freaking dedicated server on EVERY game.

I’ve never owned any other console then nintendo and xbox…Your actions though as of late have pushed me to buy a ps3. It’s a better value….wifi, blu ray, free online, netflix, internet browser, free online….It’s been fun though. Hopefully you will stop with this crap and actually respect your consumers that made you what you are today in the console world.

So, basically, what you’re saying is that ALL online support for Xbox originals (primarily Halo 2) is gone AND we have to pay $10 more.

What exactly are you guys adding? Sounds like you’re giving us LESS and charging us MORE.

I already pay $60 for the games, $50 for the controllers, $40 for the headset, $300 for console, and now I have to ANOTHER $60 so I can USE the stuff I’ve already payed for?!

Screw that. Xbox live was pricey enough at $50 PLUS TAX. Keep your prices the same or you lose my money!

I’m not happy about this at all Major. Please let the Xbox Live team know that almost everyone here is against the price increase for Xbox Live. You guys all of a sudden announce an increase on Xbox Live and don’t even bother to show us any NEW FEATURE thats worth the extra $10 increase. That right their pisses me off alot and is seriously pushing me towards the PS3 right now. You guys announced the slim 360 awhile ago and have Halo Reach shipping soon, but you guys go ahead and pull a stupid move like this.

Personally, it doesn’t matter to me. Price increase always comes with cost of investing in new technology, especially a device like Kinect that completely changes the interactive capability of the service since the inception of Xbox LIVE. I also have been a member since the beginning and I want to see the service improve. Businesses need to survive and the creators and manufacturers of the tech used in Kinect, whether or not you agree with it, need part of that cost to continue to make it and improve on it.

From now on, Kinect is THE way that many users will interact with Xbox LIVE. Aside from voice and full-body recognition, the games that utilize Kinect will move motion gaming forward. I want to be able to be proud of my investment. Think about it, we are members of the ONLY gaming service in existence where your console can recognize you and your voice and respond accordingly.

Just because the games make you actually get up and physically interact with them without controls will make them no less engaging. Sure they might be difficult at first but that comes with the territory. Especially if, like many gamers, you aren’t in the best physical shape and have grown complacent with sitting down for hours on end. It feels much better to grab a controller in your hands and control the game with just your thumbs and fingers. I don’t know about you but physical interaction is a plus for me. Health experts have said that we’re going to live shorter lifespans than our parents. I don’t know about anyone else, but THAT is definitely NOT on my to do list. Anything that makes activity fun and rewarding at the same time, I’m all for it.

This is crazy! $50 a year was just fine why raise it! I think we already pay enough, we pay $60 for each game we want, then we have to pay $10 for each add-on pack, then there’s movies, music videos etc..

As a developer, I am really disappointed by this change. It raises the bar for users to experience multiplayer in our titles. This is already a significant barrier for many of our customers, particularly when the PS3 SKU does not require an additional fee for multiplayer. I fear that increasing the fee for multiplayer will drive some of our customers away, since the customer will be unable to experience the multiplayer component of the title.

As a developer we do not see any additional revenue from this increase, but our user base will shrink. It’s hard to see this as a positive change for the service.

@EvlG Actually I’d like to know what more developers think about this completely stupid change.

Maybe MS needs to redefine Xbox Live Silver and Gold accounts. Silver should give you full access to online multiplayer gaming. Gold can give you that plus all the other stuff they are providing. NetFlix (its already on every box under my television); ESPN3 (absolutely no interest); Last.fm (slacker and pandora got their hooks in me, last.fm never did); Facebook (access on my mobile phone and pc is plenty), Twitter (same as FB), Deal of the week (c’mon), Video Kinect (not exactly sure what this is yet). These are all the Gold things listed at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/pricelock/default.htm

Man, got to love the online community. Anything can be made into the end of the world.

Can someone tell me ONE thing that has not gone up in price in the past seven years? It’s a nature of any economy, prices for goods go up. To be honest XBL offers FAR more now than they used to when the services first came out, yet for the same price (actually much cheaper if you just keep an eye out for good deals from online retailers).

Thank you for being a valued member of Xbox LIVE Gold. We hope you are enjoying the many exciting and exclusive features that are included in your membership. We wanted to let you know about an upcoming price increase for your Xbox LIVE Gold subscription and how you can lock in your current price to continue enjoying everything you’ve come to love about Xbox LIVE, plus all the upcoming additions including ESPN and Hulu Plus.

Over the past seven years, Xbox LIVE has evolved from an online gaming platform to an all-in-one gaming and entertainment service. As an Xbox LIVE Gold member, you can not only play blockbuster games, such as Halo: Reach with your friends online, you can also stream movies from Netflix* and music from Last.fm right to your TV. You can even connect with friends near and far on Facebook® and Twitter™. Plus, you also enjoy exclusive discounts and early access to game demos.

And we aren’t even close to being done. This holiday, Xbox LIVE is adding new Gold features, including ESPN and Video Kinect, with Hulu Plus coming on Xbox LIVE in 2011.

• With ESPN on Xbox LIVE, you can stream and watch over 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events plus highlights.*

• Video Kinect allows you to chat with family and friends on the big screen, right from the comfort of your living room—no headset or controller required.*

• With Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE you will be able to enjoy a customized Hulu Plus experience that will include Kinect navigation and Xbox LIVE Parties*

Besides launching the new features and titles, we will also be increasing the price of Gold membership on November 1, 2010. The new prices are as follows:

Old Price New Price

1-Month Gold Subscription $7.99 $9.99

3-Month Gold Subscription $19.99 $24.99

12-Month Gold Subscription $49.99 $59.99

At only $5 per month, our 12-month offer continues to be your best value. And, because you are a loyal member, we want to give you the opportunity to lock in your current price with an additional discount. Click here or log on to Xbox LIVE from your console to review and take advantage of these limited time offers.

We hope that you will continue to enjoy all the great gaming, entertainment, and social experiences that Xbox LIVE has to bring today—and in the future.

Sincerely,

The Xbox LIVE Team

What a load of Crap!

It’s about time the rest of the world pays as much as Aussies do for Xbox Live.

@LDNight
Best part is how each new feature has an * asterisk next to them.

I was OK with the price increase, but the price increase coupled with the fact that Xbox Live’s login servers appear to be completely down tonight have me rethinking my subscription. $10 more for flakier service?

I don’t know how the pricing inflation or whatever you call it works but if you think about it – retail games (in the UK I’m on about here) games have always been £39.99 – yeah the RRP might be £49.99 but lets face it, the shops sell them for £40…

as the years have gone on, games have looked better, better technically, cost more to make them, but still sell them for the same price

We’ve had the same price for xbox live since 2002, and got new features every 6 months or whatever, so do we think its time for a small price increase? I’m guessing by the comments no – but we might get some new features before the end of the year and by the start of 2011

People can say….oh that doesn’t interest me, or oh I don’t care about facebook or whatever, MS can’t excatly please everyone, everyone have different tastes, some people like facebook and last.fm on their 360 as well

I’m prob in the minority saying this, but thought i’d give me opinion – call it what you will

I am European, but also have a secondary US account for checking out indie games (since we STILL don’t have them here), so I received an email from xbox about the price raise.
Funny thing is: I almost never use that account and never spent any money on it too, yet they offer me to lock in my current price “because you are a loyal member”. Hah. Nice tactic to try and sell as many (auto-renewal!) subscriptions as possible. Even though the price raise doesn’t affect me (if you ever do so in the EU mainland, we’d better get all those features we’ve been missing out on, and no, facebook is NOT a feature) I do support the US customers in their outcry. Not only is the price raise unjustified, the price lock-in is also a shameless way of ripping off customers. If you really care about your ‘loyal members’, why not just automatically lower their price on the next renewal instead of offering EVERY account a subscription at ‘bargain’ price?

@Renown Recon: Yes, Major Nelson is only the messenger, but he works in both ways.

Thats a lot of comments in the course of one day.

Just so you people know.. Australians are still paying way more then the prices listed above… shut with your crying about the price when we still pay more then you!

@George McBay – yes same with me – can’t log in – says a problem occured when signing in – please try again….and doesn’t go anywhere

yeah good timing this

Ha, MS! I just cancelled my wifes gold membership! (Upgraded mine to a 3 month renewal) That’ll teach you! lol

this is hilarious, another justified reason to have not renewed or purchased any new games for the last half a year. They are justifying the price hike with all the content that’s been added, facebook (free) last.fm (free) twitter (free).
Get a PS3 if you haven’t already got one, i’m not gonna start saying it’s better, but, it’s free online, you get exactly what you get with your $50 live account except party chat, but who needs to talk to someone who’s playing a different game?
I’m not one to laugh at peoples misery but this is only good news in my view, microsoft have never been good to their customers and really only think about the now (££££). NEVER AGAIN

I’m entertaining the idea of using my 360 for most of the single player games and buying a PS3 for the (free) multiplayer, blu-ray, reliable hardware and an XMB without 5 ads for Halo and RDR. That or I’ll just purchase used games so that it benefits neither Microsoft nor the publisher, such that the developers will learn to just go through the hardship of PS3 development.

And here I was thinking Peter Molyneux with his prize Fable 3 was going to be the letdown of the year.

Xbox LIVE 12 mo. Gold Membership – $79.95
3 Month Gold – $29.95
Xbox LIVE Monthly Gold Membership – $10.95

These are the Australian Prices (copied from xbox.com.au)

do the exchange rate where still paying way more then you guys so please STFU! we pay more then all of use and get way less then any of you guys!

At least it would appear only the 1 months subs is increasing for the UK. Maybe that’s why the link that says lock in the price and have a discount, also says “for us only”.

I wish I had a pound for everytime I saw “us only” on ‘offers’. lol

@Hardtrget

“Wow that is ridiculous. If you want to do something decent for the community ditch Microsoft Points and charge real money instead of upping the price of Live.”

I’ve also noticed how nothing costs the same as the denominations of points that you can purchase. Meaning you have left over points doing nothing, so usually have buy a more to make use of the leftovers.

Rip off much? 17% higher? And that’s for the 12 month people. Here is a side story>>> I am a “Loyal customer” I have had a problem with xbox live and called them in April to try and get it fixed, I get a phone call every two weeks saying the problem isn’t resolved yet. Its like they are rubbing it in because it is September now. The truth is it will never be resolved and they hope I forget about it, and I have tried to be patient. I even signed up for this website changed my motto and waited an hour to post this today after I received my email, about the price raising. Raising the price 17% are you kidding me.

Ahahaha… Thanking loyal members? The new price kicks in just before older members get their renewal.

Lately, for a long time, it’s just been useless service after useless service. We’ve gotten very little in the form of actual new features.

OH and I forgot to add don’t you just love the * next to nearly all the “awesome services.”

Why MS why?
I was a loyal customer, kept buying gold and tried to tell myself it was worth 50$/year, it was way better then PSN, better network and less cheaters.
You proved me wrong, can’t even play Halo 3 or CoD without cheaters, lag and a lot of blam!
On a PS3 I get less hackers/cheaters, Free DLC, Free games, Free themes, and a lot more, and to compete with that you RAISE?! the prices and offer LESS content?
You really must dislike us customers, but don’t worry.
If I must buy a Ps3 to play online on a decent network without cheaters, and can get free stuff doing so, I’m leaving. Thank you for nothing SM, Bungie is free and so am I.
Won’t see you next gen…

I have to say, as a 12m UK subscriber I’m relieved to see that this isn’t changing. I honestly think it is a bit poor to increase prices in some regions when we they don’t even get to experience the full range of services that the USA does.

In principle I have nothing against paying more as long as I see value for the increase. Instead of offering access to rubbish ‘Social Networking’ stuff that we can all access for free on PC’s, MS should instead concentrate on enhancing game related content as well as look at offering more content to certain regions.

It makes my free PSN access look all the more attractive and will likely result in me deciding to purchase more future titles for the PS3 because I can at least ensure access to multiplayer gaming via my PS3 instead of having to worry about being held hostage to any future price hikes MS see fit to introduce. It has me dreading the release of Natal or Kinect or whatever it is called, I half expect them to add a load off features to the dashboard that require you to stand there looking like you are having a fit, and then they’ll try and charge us all extra a month for Live in order to use these ‘Must have features’ that many core gamers couldn;t care less about.

Well, tbh, for us in the UK most people will just buy the discounted Annual Live membership on Amazon etc, so not really any biggie… The price has remained constant since launch, so with inflation etc it was bound to change at some point.

Always gonna have people complaining, so Major Nelson = Microsoft’s Whipping Boy de jour

If people from other countries arent understanding what most of us americans are saying, its that we dont want to pay more for features we dont use, all i want to use is online play and xbox live parties.
If any of you other people from other countries know how useless the other features on the american live service is, youd see where we are coming from.
There should just be a xbox live subscription that gives me online play, and not a bunch of other crap.

Genius, Sony. What better way to get us to focus on the PS3 than getting your rival to raise it’s price. Oh wait.

All I have to say is how are you going to PAY Activision all of that money to keep Call of Duty DLC exclusive for a month (Which NOBODY cares about!), and then raise the cost of XBL? I’m calling BS Microsoft.

I am upset at this as well but if you look at it from the buisness perspective, they just sold a crap load of consoles that will more than replace those that quit. I am also betting most of us will pay the extra and just learn to live with it.

Whilst I do understand our American friends frustrations as to the price wise I hope you now understand how people from territories outside the US paying more than the US price have been feeling for years, that is not getting value for money.

Also once again we get the cut and paste response from the Major saying comments will be passed on to the team. Is this the same people we have been fobbed off to when we ask questions on value for money for our UK and elsewhere and their subs.

As others have said PSN is getting more and more for free, and the sub based sstem is giving free games every month discounts to DLC free themes need I go on? We know the BBC wanted to supply the BBC iPlayer to all members be it Gold or silver as but you would not allow this.

BBC is free on the PSN. ITVPlayer is coming and discussions with Channel 4 and Sony are ongoing to supply their superb 4OnDemand service.

This is in addition to the FREE online multiplayer which has (for me at least) been as solid as houses unlike X-box live, remember the Christmas where live had a complete outage meaning the system more or less became a glorified MP3 player as no one could access their stuff because it was locked to the service.

Sorry Major you can moan all you want on Twitter but you have no symapthy from me.

I was unhappy when the price change came to my attention, in fact if I hadn’t read about it I wouldn’t have spent any time thinking about my current subscription and it would have continued.
Instead I did some reasearch and found out that the only gold feature I use is multiplayer, adding twitter, facebook etc is not adding value to MY gold membership. I guess they didn’t make an extra £1 from me with this but lost £4.99. Keep up the good work MS, you’ve just lost another customer.

Quick note, I’m from the UK, I spent 30mins searching for an option online to cancel my subscription and I just couldn’t find one, they have made it impossible to cancel or change your subscription online, this incensed me even further and made sure I followed through. I called them and 8 minutes later it was done, I will be free of a recurring subscription from the 10th of september, when my gold membership will be downgraded to silver.

Don’t bitch about sub increases, vote with your wallets instead

Major i hope you’re actually taking the time to read through these posts. i understand that it might be overwhelming (due to the fact that you’ve been slammed with over 700 comments), but it’s mostly people expressing the true desire of the community. give us options, tiered pricing, whatever you want to call it. please don’t force us all to pay for “services” that many of us will never use on our xbox (netflix, last.fm, twitter, facebook, etc. ad nauseum)

This is the WORST time in the world for price increases with the way the economy is. The only logical thing is it has been the same price for awhile and this was bound to happen sooner than later, but now ??? Maybe MS needs to cut back on some of there employees that do nothing than a monkey could do, look at the wasteful spending you guys are doing at this time.

Major, can you please speak about this issue on your next “regular” podcast after PAX.
If have said my two pennies worth (back on page 16)and see no point reitterating what several hundered unique members already have, but I really would like to hear your office/unofficial views on this.
Having said that, maybe MS is announcing something Major(!) at PAX this weekend and we’ll all be happy, then again, maybe not

Wow. So much postings since I last visited I dont think they will ever check. Someone said…actions are louder than words. I agree.

But let me ask: The online game is free on PS3? Never knew that. (Gotta check that out in detail) I heard they have a better avatar integration to their dashboard too. Some kind of hall where you can meet your friends (avatars) if I recall correctly. Unfortunately the console is still so expensive – compared to what you can have with the pure money instead (car repair, 3 years car taxes, a small vacation at a beach…:-) )

I’ve been a member since Live launch, but I changed accounts a couple of times so my ID doesn’t accurately reflect my original sign-up. A major component of why I was so happy with the Xbox brand was that I thought Microsoft was listening to its audience. Sony gets away with too much- people don’t hold their feet to the fire for their mistakes, and that’s why I’ve never owned a Playstation. Nintendo also has a rabid fanbase, but they generally do a good job- their repair and warranty servicing is amazing, even if WiiWare is the worst market of the three consoles, and I owned a Wii briefly before I figured out how much more time I spend on my 360. This change shows me Microsoft isn’t listening like I thought they were. If this becomes a trend, I would support a boycott on Gold membership. I am also considering the possibility that I will not purchase the next Xbox console.

Gold should become cheaper, not more expensive. Why do members paying $50/year watch ads on the console? ~$50 should be ad-free service, ~$30 (of even ~$20) should be ad-supported. Also, claiming things like “Video Connect” are value-added features is male bovine excrement. Sorry Microsoft, but here’s a long-time customer saying you’ve instantly gone from satisfactory to tugging the last straw.

This is just so nice we get to pay more. Maybe remove the ads give us all as in every xbox live member free content add some cool new features but this will never happen. What happened to the good old days Xbox Live? when they tried to be the best

@Bristolmonkey69
I found out about their subscription cancellation last night when I was cancelling my wifes gold sub which was surplus to requirements. I remember last year suspending mine for when I was on deployement. I could do it easily from the account management section on Xbox.com, now though I can only contact them by phone to cancel, apparently due to security purposes.

So it’s easy to sign up online, pay online, change card details online or from the dash, but to downgrade from gold to silver.. contact the helpline. Just hope that you don’t have a long gamertag with numbers and mixes of capital and lowercase letters.. it’ll take the guy on the other end of the poor phone line ages to understand you!

Basically, US members now pay a similar price to what the majority of European members always paid. (€60, so it’s actually more than $60)

But European members never got 1 vs. 100 and other free stuff, we pay more and get less.
Hopefully this will change.

Let me say I really, really love my XBox. But I’ve paid a LOT of money for multiple consoles, accessories, and games over the years. And have had to deal with multiple RROD problems (who hasn’t, and none of us has forgotten). I think that raising prices just adds insult to injury, and don’t feel that I’m getting any value for it. Most or all of the services being promoted are either free out on the internet, or in the the case of Netflix, I’m already paying the vendor directly for it.

Microsoft, you have a great product, but we’ve all paid significantly for it. Instead of hurting your customers in tough economic times by raising prices, do the right thing and LOWER prices.

Someone mentioned Kinect being one reason why the increase is happening. Make THOSE PEOPLE pay the increase. I’m not going to EVER buy Kinect, as I don’t want to act the fool dancing around my room to use my console.
Make the ones who use Kinect pay the higher price and see how many buy it. I think that would show how good Kinect really will be.
Why should I pay for the use of Kinect which I’ll never use?

MN – in the UK, this is referred to as ‘taking the piss’.

I would LOVE to see the financial justification for a 15% price hike in the US (17% in the UK on a monthly basis). Are you introducing dedicated servers for online play? No? So we’re still hosting games on OUR broadband connections and OUR consoles and pay YOU for the privilege? No way. No more renewing for me – I’ve not played in months because nothing seems to be done about cheats online, even though we’re paying you a pretty penny to play them. You were charging too much for XBL to begin with (considering we host the games for you).

Just remove the 30ms ping limitation you set to stop people hosting their own LAN games across tunneling apps and let people decide whether they want to pay for the ‘stability’ of a managed datacenter or rather risk hosting games themselves.

The email I got from xbox informed me that I’d be paying the extra money to support the new Kinect features – now THAT is a waste. Kinect is going to be a dismal failure and it looks worse as it gets closer.

Im with ZUGANUG…

I will not be re-newing my gold membership this year or any other year while microsoft is of the opinion that any paid for subscription to xboxlive is good value.
I have been a gold member since the first xbox (3 different accounts) and I didnt mind paying the money to play online then because there was no better alternative but now we all have a better alternative, an alternative that doesnt force owners to pay for its game then pay again to play them online effectivly forcing us to pay twice for our games… if its good for sony then why not microsoft?

I love my xbox 360 and have a huge collection of games for it in excess of 150 (probably more than that but I cant sign into xbox.com to check because its down and you expect us to continue paying for this shite? ha ha ha) so I wont be trading it in for the paultry sum game stores are offering but I will not buy 1 more game for it.

People use some sense and vote with your WALLET!! £1.2 billion profit last year and they increase the price of our subscription??? This is theft in its most deniable form.

I’m sorry, but I’m getting tired of paying of overpriced items. I suppose it’s my fault for having picked a Microsoft console instead of the competition 3 months ago. I’m just going to let LIVE run out and then sell the thing.

question if major is still reading these. My console offered to allow me to lock in a 39.99 renew price for my subscription. It expires after nov 1st, so i chose to take the offer. It wont be effected will it?

As a college student money is hard enough to come by and the reasons Microsoft gives for the price increase makes no sense with competitors offering us free online for console gaming. As many people said, they are making us pay for services that are otherwise free on a computer, and the computer gives us many more features than it does on the Xbox. It just is not worth it to be paying anymore than we already are. Once my subscription is over, its back to PC gaming.

I’m done playing into these markets.. and to think I was going to get the new xbox and kinect.. No more xbox for me..

Who else is with me?

Is there a negative star rating?
It’s not a big difference in price but MS hasn’t come through on many gaming offerings such as 1 vs 100 or Joy Ride, which was supposed to be free for gold members.
Deliver!
I’m thinking that this is a ploy to make the family subscription more attractive.

I suppose this is one of the great new features that original Xbox support was dropped for. Thanks.

Major,

This isn’t your fault, I know this. Please let the powers that be know that putting out a price increase without telling us what new services this is going to cover is bogus beyond a doubt. I will not be renewing my gold. And I’m not happy about it.

Hawkes

Frankly I am surprised at the comments here. This amounts to a US$0.83 increase per month. EIGHTY THREE CENTS. And that is RETAIL PRICE. Who pays retail price for LIVE? I’ve routinely obtained 13 month cards from eBay and Amazon and never paid more than $30 a year for an Xbox LIVE sub. Whine less and shop around more. Geez.

What a rip!

I mean, we pay to shop in the XBox marketplace, isn’t that enough? This is just plain GREED

Cut all the prices in half, and drop the monthly charge, and they’ll get three times as many sales. Steam, FREE; Nintendo Wii, FREE; PSN, FREE; XFire, FREE

The list goes on and on and on. Also making you’re own servers is fun, and promotes clans.

XBL just messed up gaming by furthering divide a great community. Why am I the only one who can see this? I mean more people are mad about Digg changing, which is free in every way, yet this is out money! Let Microsoft know they can’t push us around! They didn’t raise rates in other countries because they know most Americans would put up with it. Let them know, I urge members to cancel their XBL account, even if they only have 1 month left. It’s principal we should stand on. Paying for Facebook? Wow thanks microsoft! I can imagine all the back patting that went on in that meeting…

@The PerfectCr
–Then when will it stop? Who says they arn’t going to increase again? They may just be pushing us to see how much they can get without losing a solid customer base. If we put down our foot.. feet.. then maybe they will realize that we, well most of us, are done playing into this market.

-off subject- As for shopping around on eBay and Amazon, I just don’t have a credit card. And I really don’t want to use one unless I really have to, I’ve seen first hand what it ‘can’ do in the hands of the irresponsable.

Upset about this as well. Been on live for 3 years, still not sure whats with all the ads we have on the dashboard. I am thinking the above mentioned 3 tier subscription system is the way to go with this. Not making those of us who don’t want all these extras pay for them, Facebook, Twitter, ESPn, etc. All I want is mutiplayer, private and party chat, and the Game and Video marketplace. Please look into the 3 tier subscription system idea. As well its very terrible idea of telling us there a price increase coming but not why it going up. Your probably saving that info for some upcoming event, but I think you need to tell us well before Nov. 1 comes around. Thanks

funny how some people bitch around about $10 per year and on the other hand shell out 20 bucks for some half-baked mappacks without thinking…

I established an account for Major Nelson just so that I could say “way to go” in raising prices when it seems like the bang for the buck is NOT there. I’ve long been an Xbox fanboy, but the online service is becoming questionable. Why ads? Why no free games or offers? Why force companies to raise M$ point prices? C’mon! How can I be a fanboy when you keep making it harder for me to do so?

I’m afraid I have to agree with the complainers. The statement that, “Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same.” rings a little hollow and disingenuous. Yes, you’ve added Netflix (which I have to pay for separately) and you’re adding Hulu (which I’ll have to pay for separately). The addition of last.fm, facebook, and ESPN I’ll never use. I rarely play on-line. So where’s the benefit to me? Perhaps you need to go to a more al-a-carte program where people can pay only for the services they use?

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but everyone keeps trumpeting that “the economy” isn’t the greatest right now, and you’re raising prices on a service that is most definitely a luxury. Seems like really bad timing to me.

They should just charge more for those crappy avatar items instead. but then again 10 bucks isn’t that much I guess. but for me it’ll just mean one less game I’ll be able to buy. sorry game company’s xbox gets my $10.

I thought you guys wanted to stay in second place this gen? You guys sure seem to be doing everything you can to get to 3rd place quickly…

10 bucks here is chump change but its still not right. price hikes and rip-offs like this forces people to look for cheaper options. the guy in mexico probably makes 124 pesos a day! a day!! LOL! you expect him to work a full day just to XBL? He probably would or maybe he would join his uncle and jump the border for a better job to pay for Live? hahaha! 20 usd map packs, 15 usd garbage Arcade games, and now 60 for live? when will you raise the prices on games!? I know Im still gonna keep my live service but maybe i wont renew all of my consoles…. The mod community always loves this news

Sad thing is they knew they was going to do this for months. Even before E3. But they didnt mention it then. They went back to the old play book. DENY DENY DENY!!!! LIE!LIE!LIE!

I pay for a good live experience!! right?? then why am I getting hacked by gamers on live service!!? I’ve filed a complaint, contacted you, stepto, and bowling about this! and no one is even trying to fix this or help out!? Maybe you were busy with more important things like this? Bowling is probably making the next 25 USD map pack giving ‘the gamers some more good ‘old’ maps’!?

To all of you that are asking for Microsoft to announce an option without all the bells and whistles.

They have had that for years, I have been on it for 7 years, it is called,

“HAVING A CANADIAN ACCOUNT”,

All we get is online gaming and we pay more than you so please man up, make your parents proud, and get over it.

Wow, I am not happy about this news. They take away 1 vs 100 and then go and raise the price of LIVE. You bring on more Prime Time gaming and I wouldn’t mind the raise in price’s, but as it is, I don’t feel like the extra money is worth it for LIVE. To many ads, hardly ever a free game. Doesn’t the PS3 Online Premium offer free games and such for the extra money?

I am pretty sure they are working on a new Prime Time gaming option (similar in concept to 1 vs 100) but they just haven’t announced it yet. Major Nelson and others hinted at it in one of their podcasts.

I Predict on Sept 14th we will see what great service we are paying for. Another great xbox live outage day followed by days of problems. Remember the last time this happened? Think microsoft is prepared? this helped me save $399 come Sept 14th. As i canceled the Halo reach console I had preordered.

After reading this and seeing as how XBL Gold offers me NOTHING I can really use here in Japan (and extremely little else I would use stateside), I cancelled my automatic renewal of Live, which should expire in March (I tried to navigate the menu on 360 to do this, then was directed to go on my PC, then I had to navigate and guess my way through to the menus and screens for the option to do so).

Finally, I chose to shut off automatic renewal, at which point it said:

“We don’t want you to miss out on all the fun!
When you disable automatic renewal, your current Xbox LIVE Gold membership will not automatically renew at the end of its term. We respect your decision but before you proceed, allow us to take a moment to remind you about why NOW—more than ever—it’s great to be Gold!… Play Online with friends. Instantly stream movies from Netflix. Get exclusive add-ons and discounts. The stadium experience in your living room. Enjoy video chats with your friends. Connect with friends on Facebook right from your TV. Update your status on Twitter right from your TV. Stream personalized radio from Last.fm.”

I had to laugh to myself at this point. I can already play online with friends on PS3 for free if I desire, I don’t have the option to stream movies here in Japan (and I can also do this on PS3 for free), I get at least four games a month for $10 less with PSN plus with “exclusive add-ons and discounts”, I don’t care about ESPN, I can already video chat with up to six friends at once if I choose to do so on PS3 at no extra charge, PS3 has a non-gimped version of Facebook for free, I don’t use Twitter (which is also free on PS3), and while I listen to Last.fm occasionally, I just clocked Pandora playing music from the XMB on PS3 (bookmarked through the browser – and on the slow ass connection here) at 1 minute flat.

Three more screens of trying to talk me out of cancelling automatic renewal (online games! perhaps you would like a different subscription plan? are you sure?) it was finally done. Good riddance.

You think Halo Reach online and 1 mo. timed exclusivity for a few shooters is that special Microsoft? Congratulations M$ (you fully deserve this moniker now, there is no denying it), Sony has eclipsed you in paid online services to gamers, and you still had to tack on another $10? If games or valuable features that I (and many of my fellow gamers) want to actually use are not added to the Gold subscription before mine expires (Mar 2011) you just lost another Gold customer, and the only reason I have it now is because I am locked in and can’t get a pro-rated refund.

I encourage all dual PS3/360 gamers to vote with their dollars for the gaming/feature value that PSN Plus/PSN offers over XBL Gold, and I’ve been a loyal subscriber to XBL Gold for the last four years… no more… UNLESS Microsoft makes a sincere effort to bring real gaming value to XBL Gold. How can they do this?

PSN plus currently rules for people who value games first by offering at least 4 full game downloads per month (7 in August). What Microsoft should do is counter with their own monthly downloads of 1 Arcade game, 1 XBox Originals Game, and 2 Indies games at the very least with XBL Gold; and if they really want to compete, add a game from the Games on Demand monthly.

What I don’t like is being charged for all the stuff I don’t want or need from both services offered regardless. I think the ideal solution to this would be offering the option of customizing your monthly paid service: don’t want free monthly themes or avatars? Take it off and save $1 or more a month. Don’t want ESPN or Kinect video chat? Opt out and save $1 or more a month.

So this generation games went from $50.00 to $60.00 a pop. Games have a ping limit set on them so you cant play online if you dont pay for their online service. MS said its titles would not go over $49.99 but that was quickly forgotten. Then map packs that use to be free last gen after timed exclusives are now $20.00 and there are many of them. Now publishers are talking about adding PER GAME online charges plus Live has jumped to $60.00.
You know Nintendo only lasted 2 generations with market leadership then it took some time for them to get back to that level. Sony made it 2 generations and stumbled out the gate on gen 3 but has worked to catch up. I dont think MS will lead next gen because of stuff like this.

i’ve been a live member since 2002. thanks for rewarding my support MS!

i’m glad this announcement came out now.

halo reach console package – canceled – save $400
nhl 11 preorder – changed to ps3
fable 3 preorder – canceled

xbox live gold – expires nov – canceled

selling my games and console and becoming a pure ps3 family – profit!

@Orionz Dream

I don’t think gamers will forget about stuff like this. This gen their investments are made. Most own one console or the other along with games for them, but this is exactly the kind of faux pas people will not forget about.. Microsoft was brought NOTHING good to this industry yet. Nothing.

Good morning Larry and the community

Honestly I don’t think 10 dollars is THAT big of a deal. I’m sure this was a hard decision even for Microsoft. They are a company who are here to make money just like anywhere else. I think its more of a frustration having to 50 dollars for Xbox live to begin with is the reason so many are upset. I have a Ps3 as well and I do enjoy free online gaming but the chat system is terrible! I can only talk with a mic to people who are only in a game that I’m playing I have to use a chat (typing) system only and its terrible seeing the only time I can check what everyone is saying is finding some where to hide while I play the game. I wish Microsoft would give online gaming for free and everything else if you want it would cost extra. But like I said this is a company that is trying to make money and you can’t get mad at them for that because that is what most company’s are here to do. Do I fully agree how that’s done no. But again we don’t know the full picture. Times are tough for everyone. I just wish that this was done with a better economy.

Well, I guess maybe I should thank Microsoft for raising the price, as it has caused me to re-evaluate and realize that I don’t need or want a Live Gold subscription anymore. Now that my PS3, my Wii, and even my TV itself can do Netflix (all for free), Microsoft no longer has me by the balls for that one. I have no interest in having Twitter or Facebook on my TV, and if I suddenly have a change of heart, my TV does those as well (for free). Last.fm is nice on my computer (for free), but I rarely use it on the XBox — certainly not often enough to justify paying Microsoft for the privilege. I couldn’t care less about ESPN3, but if I really want it, I can watch it on my computer (for free). And that upcoming Hulu Plus service? Oops, my TV already does that as well. For free.

(As a side note, it has continually amazed me that Microsoft thinks they can charge me money to access *someone else’s content* — not one of those features is content from Microsoft, the only thing that Microsoft does is act as a gateway. But, surprise, other devices have caught up, and it seems those manufacturers don’t feel the need to charge a premium to let me access someone else’s content. Funny, that.)

So it looks like the only thing that I get out of my LIVE Gold subscription is online play. I’m not really a huge fan of online play anyway, but you know what? I can play online on my PS3 for free as well. So it looks like I’ll be buying those titles that I want to play online on the PS3 from now on. (And those Microsoft-exclusive titles? Oh well, I never much liked Halo anyway.)

So congratulations, Microsoft. Not only have you made me realize that I don’t really need or want to continue to pay for your subscription service, you’ve driven more of my game purchases over to the PS3 as well. Unless you come up with something to truly amaze me, rather than just continuing to try to charge me for access to other people’s content (which I can get for free elsewhere), I won’t be renewing when my current subscription runs out.

Let me just say that I am more than capable of paying an extra $10 for LIVE but I really don’t understand the timing of this announcement. What extra options are being added to justify the new cost? I have been a loyal supporter since MS first announced they were making a console. I was there day one waiting in line for the original xbox along with 5 launch titles. Jump to the xbox 360 launch and I was there as well and bought 4 launch titles and 4 controllers. Jump a few years later and 5 xbox 360 consoles later and I can honestly say my love for the brand is in jeapordy. I have converted so many people to the xbox camp over the years, now I don’t know anymore. I’ve had a PS3 for about a year and hardly play it but I think it’s time I give it a fair try and will also be trying out their premium service. Oh and I’ve also read alot of rumors about why the xbox isn’t getting FF14 and if it’s true well that’s another reason why I’ll be on the PS3 more when it launches. I don’t know, not trying to be petty or whiny, I know this is a business but I’m just really really disappointed. I don’t want to see the xbox 360 slip into 3rd place but at this rate I believe it will only be a matter of time. I will also be canceling my automatic renewal……..once I figure it out @_@

ugh. Good thing I’ve got another couple of years of live stacked. 3 year limit sucks. I jump on every deal for live I can find, whether it be 3 months for 5$ on newegg once, or years for 25 as the daily deal on ebay, or even free one months from netflix.

I never have paid the ridiculous price of 50$ a month, and don’t plan on paying now.

I already pay $35 per year for an ever extending warranty contract, also known as my XBox lease (I’ve had to repair 8 times since 2005). Add $60 for a gold subscription. So, without even buying one game, it takes nearly $100 per year just to keep my XBox running? I think I’ll go to another platform. You can definetly forget any revenue from online centric games from now on. Thanks for the good times. Its been a good 6 years, but I’m not feeling the value anymore.

Wow 24hrs later and approx 765 post most of which are saying how bad this is! (listen to your public!) Luckly I’ve just renewed my subscription out of some wierd loyality to MS even though I rarely play online anyway?!? But in case you just cannot be bothered doing a full UK breakdown and the UK will also have the full price increse for the 12 month subscription then it will also be my last year, not only for live but for Xbox which I have been using since 2002.

I may have just renewed my subs but I soon have to renew my Cell Phone contract (what,eh?).
In the UK a lot of cell phone companies offer things with contracts, such as free console and I am considering such deals, so if I do I can have a free PS3 then also free online gaming ’cause afterall MS has offered me less and less in content, services and even game releases and at least the PS3 has an internet browser included, lol!

@Gears of Monkey

You are backing up Microsoft and you don’t even have Gold.

I just want to play games online, like I can for free with any shooter on my PC. With an active Netflix account, streaming is free on tons of other devices. That’s not really an Xbox Live feature. Facebook is free, Last.fm is free, PC game demos are free, and why am I paying for ESPN when I don’t watch sports? Also: Hulu Plus, like Netflix, is a 3rd party paid service that is free to use on any standard PC.

My suggestion would be offering the media services as a higher priced tier above the online gaming/voice chat/party features. Online gaming accounts for 90% of my Xbox Live usage, and I don’t feel right paying for the software and server infrastructure of a fleet of media services I don’t want or use.

You have to be kidding, really a price hike?! I have been a paying member of Xbox Live since BETA…and this is how your going to be to me. I am so sick and tired of getting gouged for being a gamer with Xbox. Every stupid little thing costs MS points and all the damn advertising I am subjected to for a paid sub. There is NO value here. I won’t be renewing my sub with Xbox Live!!!

I’ve been on the fence regarding renewing my Live subscription for quite a while. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Borderlands and Halo 3: ODST in the last year, I probably would have already let it lapse.
—
I realize value is a subjective concept but, to me, Xbox Live wasn’t much of a value at $49.99. Many of these “new” features in the last year and a half, including Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, and Last.FM, can be accessed, out-of-the-box, with internet enabled TVs and through easily obtainable, free, applications for most major smartphone OS’s. ESPN3.com is sometimes free depending on whether or not your cable or satellite provider is one of the partner subsidizers of ESPN3′s online component. The online gaming component is nothing more than a matchmaking service for P2P gaming or an authentication server for third-party publisher dedicated server hosts (eg. EA) and VoIP is strictly peer-to-peer.
—
The few things which have been added in the last two years which did add significant value to being a Gold subscriber were things such as 1 vs. 100 Live, Primetime Channel and Game Room. Let’s recap what’s happened to those, respectively: Cancelled, pulled, and languishing in mediocrity.
—
I’m not unreasonable and expect XBL to be free. Storage and on-demand delivery of content does cost a lot to operate, a fact I know well from professional experience. However, Microsoft is seeing money by the truckload with Xbox Live, a fact that was confirmed back in July with the announcement that it had cleared $1Bn in revenue with a 65% profit margin for Microsoft. Selling advertising plays heavily in that revenue number, alongside recurring revenue from subscriptions. There’s really no justification for this increase, not even factoring for inflation.
—
So, thank you, Major, for helping me to make up my mind. I checked my account and I’m good through December 2010 which is more than enough time to get burned out on Halo: Reach’s multiplayer. Afterward, I’m done; Not only am I not renewing but I’m currently in the process of liquidating my 360 game collection outside of the Halo and Gears franchises. I’ve been too heavily invested in the 360 for the last couple of years, and far too heavily invested in Xbox Live since 2003 and this, really, is the final straw after years of defending shoddy hardware, having to buy multiple console units, and nickle-and-dime accessory practices.

lol at gold members from Australia and other countries that pay more. Just because you let Microsoft take you from behind, doesn’t mean the rest of us should!

I cant wait until this goes into affect and riff raff are weeded out. YYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS MS please move the date up so I dont have to wait. Thank you

Here’s the thing: I know for me, I don’t really play a lot of multiplayer games at the moment, but of all the features you get on a Gold account, that is the only one I’d utilize in the future. Problem here is that XBOX competitors allow this feature for free on their systems and most of the other things (FB and twitter, etc) you can do as well from say a wii, or better still, from your computer.

I guess ultimately if you are a heavy multiplayer and XBOX Live event participant then the extra 10 a month won’t kill you, but I’m not too sure Microsoft is making that great of a case anymore for there to even be a subscription service for the things they offer under it. Kinda greedy for the most part these days, or at least that is how it comes off. Apologies to you for even being on the front lines of this one since its obvious you’re not the one in the big leather chairs making these kinds of decisions, but yeah. :/

You spend 60$ a year on live, this is 5$ a month, lol EVEN RUNESCAPE DOES THIS DO YOU SEE THAT “RUNESCAPE” They are limited to ONE game ONE!!! ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

You play xbox, so many features, thousands of games, you can log in as many hours as you feel in any given day, any given month, but, when they up the price to 60$ you moan the world is over just do me a favor sell me all of your xbox games for 10$ each and jump ship to playstation 3 because I assure you, you may find some good games but, for online gaming sony has nothing going for it.

Plus they are upgrading the xbox voice system from a rumor I think but, I hope its true.

You spend 60$ a year on live, this is 5$ a month, lol EVEN RUNESCAPE DOES THIS DO YOU SEE THAT “RUNESCAPE” They are limited to ONE game ONE!!! ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

You play xbox, so many features, thousands of games, you can log in as many hours as you feel in any given day, any given month, but, when they up the price to 60$ you moan the world is over just do me a favor sell me all of your xbox games for 10$ each and jump ship to playstation 3 because I assure you, you may find some good games but, for online gaming sony has nothing going for it.

Plus they are upgrading the xbox voice system from a rumor I think but, I hope its true.

@x Obstruction x
Announcement about Voice upgrade – http://goo.gl/68Jt

People who claim PS3′s online gaming has nothing going for it have clearly never touched the system and are blinded by pure fanboyism.
—
REALITY CHECK TIME: The only thing PSN is lacking versus Xbox Live is cross-game chat, party chat and the ability to jump in to a multiplayer game straight from the dashboard. Everything else, every other aspect of online gaming, is parallel.
—
Stay classy spreading half-truths fanboys. We all know the addage about fools and money. Enjoy shelling out more for less and for a fixed controller that should have been fixed in 2007.

Just give us a fair choice Microsoft. That’s all most of us want. You think we should pay for add ons like Facebook and Twitter? Fine, but give us a choice outside of everything or nothing. It’s a gaming console afterall.

Silver: Same as now. Free.

Gold: Allows you to play MP, party chat features and the basics for playing games online. $45-50

Gold Plus: Everything from Gold plus all the other features like Twitter, Facebook and so on. $60

Inflationary increases happen, but holding it until now doesn’t look too smart in retrospect does it, with the economy in this state.

The UK increase is silly – nobody buys the one month subs anyway, what do you get out of this other than bad publicity? You’d gain a lot more by reducing costs, by for instance stopping shipping out points cards and subs in jewel cases – which is simply insane, and terrible for the environment to boot.

And please don’t try to justify inflationary increases with extra features. You just upset people that those features are completely rubbish. The Facebook and Twitter clients are complete disasters that don’t do the one bloody thing that would justify them – integrate and allow people to post their achievements or recommend content. Last.fm is not terribly worthwhile on a console that makes such a crazy amount of noise. You advertise services such as ESPN that aren’t even available to the majority of people affected by this change – why? That is bound to just piss people off, me included. Certainly in the UK your VOD services are terrible – Sky was the worse of all possible companies to partner with, if you’d delivered the terrestrial broadcasters catch up services you’d be much better off, but you’ve blown that by trying to make them gold only.

MS needs to get a grip strategically – because this shows all the signs of insanely badly thought out business planning.

“nobody buys the one month subs anyway” Those who only occasionally play online games do. 90% or more of my gaming is single-player, because those are the sort of games I like, and it suits my (usually short) gaming times.

Fortunately, you don’t need Gold to play multi-player on GFWL games, so I’ll stick to those for my Achievement-scoring online hit.

Maybe the price increase thing is just a early April Fools Day prank. Yes, that’s got to be it.

I’ve been a paying subscriber to Xbox Live since the original xbox. And this is how Microsoft thanks me for being a loyal customer for so long?

I don’t even use all that nonsense that was added to Xbox Live and I’m being forced to pay extra for it.

Fuck this shit.

If your going to increase the price for xbox live then a bet u that a lot of people are going to get a ps3. Instead you guys should think about lowering down the price by doing so even more people will to buy a xbox 360, instead of increasing the cost and making more people buy a PS3.

Yes, there should be different tiers…but I will be OK if ESPN and Hulu Plus are actually included with the +$10 gold. If I’m paying extra just to pay on top of that…then I’m not sure why I’m paying more.

I still want to know if this affects the announced $99 Family Pack that goes live at the same time (November 1)!

I like how Nelsons blog is abnormally active lately and posted multiple stories in a short amount of time. Trying to push away a certain story off the front page?

This sucks for me in two ways.

1) I have a single income for a family of four. This means I already have a tight budget for games. A live subscription was one thing I afforded myself. But now it means that if I want live, then I have to remove $10 off one of the maybe 3 games I buy per year, which means Ill only be able to buy 2, which means that Live really doesn’t hold any value for me with regards to playing games.

2) Also, Im in Canada. I get none of the features and benefits that US gamers get. No last.fm, no netflix, no espn, no nothing. just earlier access to a few demos.

I dont see how this benefits me in any way whatsoever and seriously makes me rethink getting my PS3 fixed and switching entirely to that.

Already saving up for a PS3 now. 2 years of XBL Gold already pays for half of a 160gb model. And in those 2 years I’ll be playing free online, the way its meant to be. Cya later, brainwashed shitlords.

I suspect that this price bump is going to cause a lot of people to realize that they are paying primarily for services that are free EVERYWHERE ELSE. Even the Wii does free online multiplayer, as horribly broken as it is.

WTF!!!!

I have been a gold member of Xbox Live for some time… it shows a 7 on my profile.
I am disappointed about the price increase but I was happy to see that MS was going to offer me a special deal because I am a loyal customer. Apparently, I can sign up for Xbox Live for $39.00 for the next year.
I do have a question about the offer. Is the $39.00 price for me and others like me that have multiple years of gold membership on Xbox Live or is this deal available to EVERYONE that is currently a gold member on Xbox Live?
If the deal is available to everyone on Xbox Live regardless of the number of years on the service, then I have another question. Is there any benefit or reward from MS for multiple years of being a gold member of Xbox Live? (game discounts, timed exclusives, DLC discounts, free games)

Thank you

Please, PLEASE put a tier system into effect. Your users have spoken. No one wants to pay for features they don’t use, so do us a favour Microsoft and actually listen to your consumers for a change. There is only so long you can string customers along for. Look at Sony at the start of this gen. They fell flat on their face because they made stupid decisions that alienated their customers. They made the silly mistake of assuming that the same, loyal PS2 userbase would follow them around no matter what. And they didn’t.
You’re getting far, far too cocky Microsoft and even your most loyal customers can see it. Carry on like this and it won’t be long before you start losing money faster than you can siphon it.

Wow… I’ve never wanted to pay $50 for the service, so I guess Microsoft can just shove the $60 up their USB port. MS doesn’t have to raise the price, they are just getting greedy.

I already turned atomatic renewal OFF.. Unless MS comes up with subcription plans that make sense I will not renew.. I dont care about ESPN, Netflix, Kinect, Facebook, Twitter,..etc etc. I use my 360 to play games.. Meaning I only use gold for the gaming features like party chat and online play.. I didnt like paying $50 for that in the firt place.. Not when I can game online for free on every other gaming device. So yeah screw MS and the 360.. make an option for people like me where its cheaper or I am just going to cut my losses and sell my 360 and games and just play games on my PC/PS3/Wii…

It seems to me Microsoft is padding its bank accounts for the inevitable failure of Kinect. This is really stupid. Maybe if 1 vs. 100 had stuck around… maybe if Joy Ride had been free as advertised last year… Maybe if there weren’t advertisements all over the dashboard… It just seems Microsoft is taking and taking without giving us anything. Facebook? Twitter? Last.fm? ESPN3? Sorry, I have access to all of these through my PC/ISP. Plus, $60 for a year when families can get 4 accounts for $100? C’mon. I understand the concept of discounts on “bulk deals”… but charging us over twice as much? This is incredibly lame. I’ll be seriously debating renewing my subscription in 2011.

Oh, and Microsoft better hope that the rumors of Call of Duty and such going to subscriptions themselves doesn’t play out.

I don’t know, maybe I’m naive. I just think that this price increase is nominal and what I get in return is entirely worth it. I watch Netflix, listen to last.fm or stream music or movies via Zune to the xbox.

You would think by the reaction here that the pricing had been doubled. Microsoft does a great job in streamlining this entire thing. It works really, really well. I can only imagine that the phone to Live experience will be just as seamless. Everybody should just relax. If you don’t like the service, go elsewhere. But don’t think for a second that if PSN or Wii thinks they can pull it off, that they won’t be charging for full access as well. It would be naive to think otherwise.

I want to first clarify that I’m okay with a price increase as long as it’s justifiable. However, I can’t think of anything current that justifies it. Which isn’t to say that nothing will come out by then, on that day, or in the future to make it worth the new price point. That’s simply bad marketing and, for that, they deserve flak. I expect more from Microsoft, especially with them in contention with Sony.

Now, to ANYONE who disagrees (I come across at least one person a page who thinks people should “quit complaining”), I would LOVE to hear your valid argument because, at this point, you don’t have one. First of all, everyone’s issue isn’t that they’re raising the price; it’s the reason. They’re arrogant enough to say that the “new features,” which technically aren’t new to us, only new to Live, are worth charging for. That’s a load of crap. Secondly, and this ties into the first one, everything available on Live has either already been available since the beginning, is available already for FREE as a service elsewhere, or already COSTS money elsewhere.

-Facebook: already free. Everywhere. Name a medium and it connects to FB. I don’t need to list them. It’s pointless to have on Live in the first place.
-Last.fm: already free. This is probably their most-used add-on, save Netflix, which I’ll go ahead and mention.
-Netflix: we already pay for. The Watch Now feature is also already available on PCs. I HIGHLY doubt Microsoft pays Netflix for usage, so it doesn’t cost them a dime.
-ESPN: as with everything else already, free. Who uses this anyway? Honestly? What’s the percentage?
-Twitter: free. I’m seeing a trend here.
-Demos & videos: free and DESIGNED that way so people can test the game out, create hype, and make us want to spend the money on the full version.
-Zune: I haven’t checked recently on how much a Zune costs to buy, but along with that you also have to pay for their service already.
-Avatars: on the off-chance it gets mentioned. I laughed after the update. Honestly, to me, a waste of software and time. The Wii already did it and with Sony’s Home somewhere on the horizon, this pales in comparison. I didn’t pay $300+ for an Xbox and Live subscription to dress my Avatar; I bought them to [i]play games.[/i]

Here’s something random: what the hell happened to 1v100? That MIGHT be worth paying a bit more for, as long as it stays constant and doesn’t go away off and on like a kid who’s bipolar and didn’t take their meds. Here’s another one: how can you even get off on trying to justify increasing the price in other countries that don’t even have the same functionality WE do? I’ve lost count how many of those posts I’ve come across.

Ultimately, adding a little functionality that’s already available everywhere doesn’t constitute a price increase. If I missed something, by all means, tell me. I’m all ears. Otherwise, you need a better reason than that, because my auto-renew is set to [Off], the same as several of my friends. There needs to be something worth it on the horizon or, from the sound of things, a chunk of your customers will start looking at other consoles and platforms, especially with no more Halo’s in production (which was, after all, what made the Xbox so successful). It’s your move, Microsoft.

-Jerk

I call BS. I don’t use Facebook or Twitter, won’t be using HuLu, not buying Kinect and can’t really see using ESPN since i don’t watch sports to begin with. So why exactly am i being charged $10/year more to just play games? YOu haven’t added anything that’s benefiting me that uses the console just for gaming.

WHy didn’t you guys add a Platinum membership level instead which includes all the media/social nonsense for those that use it for 60/year and leave Gold alone for what it is, multiplayer gaming level for 50/year.

Greed greed greed, just never stops. Have you guys perhaps heard the news that we’re in a depression? No? Read a newspaper once in a while.

Please move the date up

@JerkStoleMyName
I would like to hear the reasoning behind the price increase but I also believe they probably have good reason behind it and are not just out to take advantage of their customers. Costs increase as they add more and more support and improve functionality to their services. If that was the case I think you would have seen the price increased in the past. Also, this doesn’t take effect for about a year for most existing customers so they won’t see a big increase from this for at least a year.

They decided to get rid of 1 vs 100 but are going to be replacing it with another game that has yet to be announced. This was hinted at in one of their podcasts.

You may think you are just getting the same service you have always gotten, but I would have to believe that there have been lots of improvements that you probably don’t know about that occur behind the scenes.

I can agree that I shouldn’t have to pay for things I don’t use and think that a tiered pricing format could be a good thing. Either way, I pay for Xbox Live to play online games. As a benefit of paying for that, I am given the ability to use Netflix and other programs on my Xbox. These programs are my reward for paying for their service…that is not something I feel I am paying for. I know you can argue that differently, but that is how I look at it since most of my time online is spent playing Games. That being said, I don’t mind the $10 price increase since they provide a great service to me as a customer.

@VENOM MADNESS
I agree. Move the date up. Give Sony a head start on more PS3 sales.

Does no one else find it odd that on every other platform, you have full access to a game? Only here do we need to pay Microsoft to use online multiplayer, a feature developers choose to implement in their games. No wonder Scott Pilgrim and Shank are local co-op only, they don’t want to lock people out of an enjoyable experience because of greed, right?

QUOTE FROM eolh93
—
“Well, I guess maybe I should thank Microsoft for raising the price, as it has caused me to re-evaluate and realize that I don’t need or want a Live Gold subscription anymore. Now that my PS3, my Wii, and even my TV itself can do Netflix (all for free), Microsoft no longer has me by the balls for that one. I have no interest in having Twitter or Facebook on my TV, and if I suddenly have a change of heart, my TV does those as well (for free). Last.fm is nice on my computer (for free), but I rarely use it on the XBox — certainly not often enough to justify paying Microsoft for the privilege. I couldn’t care less about ESPN3, but if I really want it, I can watch it on my computer (for free). And that upcoming Hulu Plus service? Oops, my TV already does that as well. For free.

(As a side note, it has continually amazed me that Microsoft thinks they can charge me money to access *someone else’s content* — not one of those features is content from Microsoft, the only thing that Microsoft does is act as a gateway. But, surprise, other devices have caught up, and it seems those manufacturers don’t feel the need to charge a premium to let me access someone else’s content. Funny, that.)

So it looks like the only thing that I get out of my LIVE Gold subscription is online play. I’m not really a huge fan of online play anyway, but you know what? I can play online on my PS3 for free as well. So it looks like I’ll be buying those titles that I want to play online on the PS3 from now on. (And those Microsoft-exclusive titles? Oh well, I never much liked Halo anyway.)

So congratulations, Microsoft. Not only have you made me realize that I don’t really need or want to continue to pay for your subscription service, you’ve driven more of my game purchases over to the PS3 as well. Unless you come up with something to truly amaze me, rather than just continuing to try to charge me for access to other people’s content (which I can get for free elsewhere), I won’t be renewing when my current subscription runs out.

END OF QUOTE

–

This man pretty much sums it all up and voices my opinion.

Microsoft, you either Tier your services: Silver = free, Gold = $40/online play, party chat, Gold Plus aka Platinum = $60 Same as Gold but with Twitter/Last.fm/Facebook or you will lose everyone here.

the reason they don’t have a different price for online gaming only vs all the rest of the crap is because probably less than 1% of the user base would pay for any of that garbage.

lets face it, the majority of the people want to play games online. period. another large percentage want to stream netflix. after that, users of the other stuff is probably in the single digits.

both of those are free on ps3. so why people think its just wonderful that ms only charges $50 a year for this i don’t know.

if sony was smart they would run some sort of deal where you could trade in your xbox and get $150 off a ps3, and for every game you traded in you could get 50% off the same ps3 title. because the fact is, people are so invested in xbox at this point, not many people are going to ditch $1000+ setups over $10 a year. and that is exactly what they count on.

@Supreme Entity
“Silver = free, Gold = $40/online play, party chat,”
——-
Oh my god can someone please explain why you guys think you should still be paying for peer-to-peer online gaming? Microsoft is laughing at you because in youre “bright” ideas, youre STILL willingly wanting to pay MS for online gaming, when its supposed to be free.
=======
Silver- Online, voice chat= Free
Gold- Online, voice chat and everything else= $60
=======
THAT’s how it should be.

REALLY MICROSOFT……….COME ON. I’m not angry that I have to pay for Live, I am angry that you spew BS out of your mouth about the content you provide for that. What are you going to give me for the extra $10…….MORE ADDS, that most of my Live service now. GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!

@NoBullet78

I understand what you’re saying and I actually agree with you, but you and I both know Microsoft isn’t going to do that, EVEN if I/you like your idea better. I’m simply implying that even if we do have to pay to play online, they need a different strategy or tiered service.

I have all three systems (PS3, Wii, 360) and I realize it’s free to play online on other systems and on a PC, but like you said, even though it should be free to play online (via 360), MICROSOFT isn’t going to give in.

You suck! Raising rates? BS! The price should go down, not up! In this economy you are gonna run your customers off. Playstation still has free online multiplayer. Twitter sucks, Facebook sucks, you cancelled 1 vs 100, how do you possibly think a price increase is warranted? You suck!

I think it is time for a tiered service. I really only want to play online with my friends and access The Guild episodes on Zune, and perhaps some of the inside xbox stuff. I don’t care about facebook and twitter on the xbox. So make a silver, gold and platinum subscription perhaps.

I don’t like the fact that I already see ads in my dashboard, will this increase guarantee that I won’t see another ad?
I’m not going to cancel my subscription but it is going to make me seriously think about it when it comes time to renew in a year or so.

I know I may be late here but WOW Major, this is a bad time for MS to rasie pricing!! I would have bet my house that MS was going to lower the price to kick Sony in the teeth b/c of thier ridiculous pricing plan. I was thinking a 24.99 to 29.99 pricing plan and now THIS!! So it seems that WE the gamers are the ones paying for ESPN coverage huh?? Not cool @ at all!!

Hmm… I’m wondering if the live price hike was done so that Microsoft could kick back some money appeasing publishers like Activision
who have recently been demanding a piece of the online action?!?

This is absolutely terrible news . . .

For most people (myself included) its not the amount of the increase (less then $1 a month) its the sudden realization that microsoft can increase their prices for gold membership any time they want.

Like most people who have posted here, I only have gold membership so I can play games online, not for any of the other stuff they offer.

$60 a year is a lot to pay for peer to peer online game play, and with the threat that it could increase even more, I have made the decision that all my future game purchases will be for the PS3 so that I can enjoy peer to peep online gaming for free…as it should be.

Will this result in fewer ads on the dashboard then? How is it that with an increase in the number of ads that there is also an increase the amount for a subscription? For me, the worst part was the email sent to notify us of the increase. The email boasts:

“And we aren’t even close to being done. This holiday, Xbox LIVE is adding new Gold features, including ESPN and Video Kinect, with Hulu Plus coming on Xbox LIVE in 2011.”

Then follows with fine print explaining how we’re going to have to fork over even more money to even use these features:

“*Netflix unlimited subscription required, sold separately. ESPN on Xbox LIVE provides great content from ESPN3.com and ESPN.com. For access to ESPN3.com content, including live sports, you must have an ESPN3 affiliated broadband provider. See ESPN3.com for details and providers. Hulu Plus membership will also be required. Video Kinect requires Kinect sensor.”

Just doesn’t seem well thought out.

Thank you Major for providing us a place to voice our complaints. Love the podcast.

It seems like in Canada the price has fluctuated quite a bit anyway for one thing (Cdn dollar has been on a roller-coaster for years).

But this IS a kick in the nuts no matter how you look at it. Due to some differences in flags we can NOT get Netflix, ESPN, or Last.fm.

I remember back in the day when we use to get free themes on Canada Day, or Christmas…or even free game content (Bioshock, GoW are just two big ones I can think of).

“1 vs 100 is doing way to well, lets shut it down…”
“Okay we have the most subscribers of any console…let’s increase the rate”

I’m disappointed but I’ll keep subscribing…I think, we’ll see how the finances are come renewal time.

Thanks for nothing.

Are you guys kidding me?
.
.
The ONLY reason Microsoft (or any “for profit” company) exists is to maximize shareholder value. They are here to make as much money as they can. Yes, Bill Gates is worth Billions, BECAUSE HE IS MUCH SMARTER THAN THE REST OF US.

But he gives away more each day to charity than anyone on this site makes in a year.
.
If you don’t want to pay more for live, DON’T.
.
If you don’t want to buy this new controller, DON’T
.
If you ask me, the marketing guys at MS are geniuses; they know most will keep on paying because we enjoy the service.
.
I am 40 with a degree and I play for a few hours at night after the kids are asleep because it helps me relax.
.
Will I pay more for live? Yes.
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Will I buy this controller? No because I don’t need a new one.
.
.
.
All of you need to answer these questions for yourselves and stop complaining because your empty threats about leaving are as likely to happen as my wife telling my boys they won’t be going to Disney this Christmas if they don’t keep their rooms clean.
.
.
Please Major, take the GT’s of all that say they are quitting and then post the results of how many of them actually dropped the service over $10. I would rather it was free too guys, but it isn’t, so get over it or quit.
.
And lastly, your threats might seem better if there were not so many typos.

Any price increase is going to be unpopular with users. However the reason they give to raise prices is total BS. Facebook, twitter, last.fm are nifty but I don’t use them on my xbox and not like they are hosted on xbl servers and kind of like apps. Rather much use them on my laptop. The deals are the week are okay but there is too few deals that i’m actually interested in. To use this video kinect you have to buy another $150 accessory. If I want to watch ESPN i’ll turn off my xbox and change the channel to ESPN. This move royally screws users not from the US. Most of these new features they probably will never use are available in their countries. LAME escuse. Just say you want more money or blame the price increase on higher costs of maintaining xbl. I can take that excuse better than some BS excuse.

Darn, I thought I had this beat when I took advantage of their $39.99 renewal offer for a one year subscription. This was last month and I stupidly assumed it would just kick in after a 3-month self-renewing subscription ended. But noooooo … They still showed the 3-month renew on auto and had the 12-month showing up on another page. Then I turned the auto renew off, and all of a sudden, BAMMM, that 12-month subscription that I bought disappeared. These guys at Microsoft must have had a Rube Goldberg software engineer design their subscription software.

I just realized something Major. Why the heck isn’t Destination Arcade an actual..y’know….IN-DASHBOARD APP? How many people have bothered with it since it released? If it was on the app as a ready-to-use thing instead of having to go through my game library just to get to it, then it would have been better.

Take your guys’ heads out of your asses for once.

How will this impact the announced Family pricing?

Also, with all due respect Larry, most of the features touted for the service are garbage, and you guys know it. Last.fm, Twitter and Facebook are all free on my PC or my phone. Netflix is not available to me in the UK, if it was it requires a monthly subscription. Times are hard for people right now, and this increase, while trivial, is one of the things that is starting to make your service look like less of a good deal compared with your competitors.

The slap in the face for core gamers that was the Kinect launch, cancelling 1 vs 100, and now this?

Well I don’t know about the rest of you but this price increase makes sense. HOW!?! Well my angry gamers it’s simple WINDOWS PHONE 7. My guess it will launch either Nov. 1 or sometime around this price increase and kinect.

My guess would be that with every Win 7 phone sold you need to have at the very least a silver account if not a gold account. That’s a lot more dedicated severs and staff to monitor the system. If you don’t feel your getting enough out of the service then when WIN 7 Phone launch throw your iPhone and your Droid away and get a Windows Phone 7 you’ll be glad you did with the added games and avatar and marketplace functionality. That’s really where your extra 10 bucks or however much extra is going to.

Me personally I rather pay 60 and have it include a year of Zune Pass or at least a Zune Pass bundle. But this price increase is no different than when At&t changed their data plan when the new iPhone came out. Get a grip people it’s only 0.84 cents a month more, really your going to miss 84 cents a month? When they connect Live to Win 7Phones, offer Netflix, Hulu, and the best online community and multiplayer experiences. Well if you don’t like that then go get your free under dedicated servers from Sony and enjoy lagged MW2 sessions and get off my Live Service.

But I think by announcing this they might have just announced when the Wins Phone 7 comes out and I again under stand the price increase because more users will come to Live even when they don’t own a Xbox. There’s 40 million plus consoles and over 20 million Live users just think of the numbers when Live reaches the phone.

that’s my 2 cents.

The greed is immeasurable.
Last financial year M$ only made a net profit of $14.57 billion USD, so you can understand how they’d be feeling the pinch.

So in a bad economy you wanna give us another swift kick in the nuts? Nice.

I say make a bronze package because all I want is to get online with friends, chat and play MP.
You can keep all that other CRAP I can get online for free anyway.

For what it’s worth, they ought to change Silver to ‘Rusty Iron’ or ‘Fool’s Gold.’

Why can’t anyone from the UK understand it only effects 1Month subs by £1. Bunch of retards.

You are guys poor. its just few bucks more. and i dont even know if it effects here in Finland. LOL

I doubt anybody will even read this comment (as I write this, there are already 824 for this article alone) … but here goes.

After looking at the chart, does this mean that the 12-month cost for Canadians will not go up? It only mentions the 1-month going up one dollar.

@Legitti
Stop being ignorant and see that its about the principal, which is what most of the comments are talking about here.

Hey chiruno99.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...

Thank you to the Xbox team for all the value you’ve provided me over the years.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to use a version of Twitter that is basically broken and unusable. Thank you for not giving me a web browser too. Thank you for providing a version of Facebook that has less features than the one I’ve have on my mobile phone for years. Thank you for giving me a dashboard that is riddled with advertisements and that I can’t customize. Thank you for allowing me to pay you money for Xbox Live Avatars, premium themes, DLC and other premium content. Thank you for allowing your scummy partner publishers (thanks EA and THQ) to nerf games in the secondary market so that they can’t be used online unless I pay even more money. Thank you for allowing me to use video-on-demand services that I already pay a monthly fee to use for free on my PC and mobile phone. Thank you for allowing me to spend $150 buying Kinect, so I can enjoy all those shovel-ware Wii look-alike titles. I like me some shoddy kiddie games. Thank you for restricting my friends list to 100 people. Thank you for removing support for Xbox games. Thank you for charging more for digital downloads of older titles than Amazon charge to deliver me the disc and manual. Thank you for cancelling 1 vs 100.

And above all, thank you for announcing a price increase based on all these great “content and entertainment experiences” I’ve listed above.

This is terrible since this year Xbox Live have not increase the services in Mexico we are paying for a service that you can find free on a PC, this is bad too bad, and we dont even have netflix or video on demand, what a piece of. ….. also arcade games are terrible i have seen superb arcade games on PS3 and Xbox have very bad arcade games, come on you want our money give us quality service

Bring back 1 vs 100 and then maybe i’ll continue buying live. If not it’s been fun and when my account runs out 11/27/10 I won’t be renewing it. Back to the ‘ol PS3 and PC for me

This is all about corporate greed, Steve Balmer (sp?) and his cronies are looking for a reason to get multi-million dollar bonuses in a couple months. Microsoft has not made a good product since Windows XP (sp2) and only exists because they choose to buy out all the competition to profit on their patents.

Wow that is such BS! The pricing they have now is fine. We’re in a bad economy and they have the nerve to raise the prices! It’s not even worth it. Xbox and Microsoft have enough money! I would think strongly about raising the prices cause if you do, you will be probably losing a lot of customers. Stupid.

Oh jeeze, when you work out the price difference for a years worth of live its only 84 cents a month of a price increase, seriously its $5 a month people, if you cant afford $5 a month for all that XBL offers perhaps you shouldn’t be playing video games and should be focusing your attention elsewhere

It dosen’t affect yearly prices for us in the UK, but I’m still against it. Your jacking up the price by adding useless features that we can easily live without. I don’t care about Facebook or Twitter. As long I can play online and download games and DLC I’d gladly give up Facebook access on my Xbox.

I’m actually really excited after reading these comments. From the grammar and spelling in them it seems that most commenters are around 13-16 years old and they all say they won’t be paying for live. I guess I can finally game without hearing screaming or obscenities in my headset anymore

i’m willing to bet most 13-16 year olds have parents that pay for this, so they wouldn’t care if it was $200 a month.

what you are probably losing is the more mature gamers that are sick of getting nickel and dimed to death by MS, and can more readily afford to go get a ps3

oops, hit submit too soon.

anyway, the 10-24 age range are probably the ones that spend the most time online playing games, as they are in school, and have plenty of free time.

the people that feel taken advantage of are ones like me, who only game online a few hours a week.

heck, if i played halo or MW2 or whatever 8-10 hours a day, i’d certainly have no problem forking over $60 and consider it money well spent

@ChiLobster
Except MW2 on PS3 you can play 8-10 hours for free. How was your $60 well spent?

umm, i dunno, because i’m chatting with some dude that is playing a different game?

This guy is obviously disillusioned. People purchase Xbox Live primarily for the online gaming experience. Anything else is just added junk that most us will never use and/or get somewhere else. Since the gaming experience with it’s severe lag is anything but spectacular how in the world could Microsoft ever justify a price hike?! I live in Japan where I have fiber optics broadband and some the fastest internet throughput on the planet and yet I experience lag so bad on Xbox Live, I’ve often considered seeking out a lawyer to sue Microsoft for not providing adequate service.

i love how people break down the prices, $60/yr = $5/month.
though you have a point, you guys are forgetting; YOU HAVE TO SPEND THE FULL $60 FIRST. if people had an option to just spend 5 dollars a month nobody would care about this announcement but they cant…just like most companies, you have to spend a lot upfront to get that “saving”

Basically until they improve and fix the online gaming experience (meaning little to no lag), they have a lot of balls even mentioning anything that closely resembles a price increase. What is this guy smoking? The main reason that people buy an Xbox Live membership is to play games online. Playstation and Wii offer their memberships for free and yet have no noticeable lag. Microsux charges for their piss poor service and can’t seem to get it right.

LOL, I am on my 3rd xbox, I love it, 2 red rings of death, second not fixed under warranty. I also bought a PS3 a couple of years ago for Blu-ray, I still have my Xbox hddvd player I didn’t really play many games on the PS3 because I loved the multiplayer on xbox so much but having discovered that online multiplayer is free on the PS3, and after cancelling my gold subscription I have decided that I will now make future game purchases for my PS3 instead of Xbox, way to go MS, for that extra £1 you tried screwing out of me, you made me wake up. You lost £4.99 a month and the next 1st person shooter I’ll be buying will be on for the PS3, lmao now at you utter incompetence.

PSN just released Playstation Plus. I don’t think it’s a good idea to add to consumer cost while Sony’s adding value to their own service. Microsoft needs to keep gamers in the mindset that LIVE is the best value for online gaming. This price hike at this juncture just creates a tilt if not an outright topple of the scales of opinion on the matter (quite a few here seem to already have poor opinion of LIVE to begin with). Doesn’t matter if gamers will still pay for it or not. Opinion is important to keep gamers from jumping to the first better alternative they see…

My own use of Gold is minimal compared to some. But I play online enough and use Deal of the Week enough to feel it worthwhile. Obviously this doesn’t apply at all to all the other features Microsoft wants to tout.

Someone had mentioned a price tier to further pare down the services available to give consumers more choices. Sounds like a good idea. That way people can choose the level of involvement/investment they want without feeling they wasted money on features they’d rather not have.

P.S. The 39.99 price lock discount deal hadn’t seemed to be working the last few days. Can you have some one check? http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/pricelock/default.htm

How is this going to affect the Family Pack pricing?
I’m not super opposed to the price increase, however PSN Plus seems to be planning more things that (I think) more people will be interested such as full game trial, free PSMinis (arcade), etc.
I’m not threatening to leave XBL of this change, but some are. And saying “We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.” doesn’t make customers feel important. It makes them feel like Microsoft is trying to squeeze every penny possible out of their wallet because it knows XBL is generally viewed as the superior online gaming service. I would like to caution a marketing strategy like this, because the less than 1% that may leave now could grow exponentially the next time, or the time after in which a move is made that few agree with.

What!? Why? Microsoft has had 5-6 percent sales increase on hardware and the new xbox slim model. Isn’t that enough? Seriously this is going to make some folks mad.

Well this is a bummer. Especially on the heals of losing Xbox Live for Xbox1 titles. Can’t say I agree with this, but it is what it is.

First off, I guess it’s not too big of a deal considering (with the exception of November) the price has Never gone up since launch.
So what better way to help pay for more experiments/Launches (kinect, Windows phone 7 OS, Zune Marketplace, ESPN), than to up the price of live?
The problem with using the “we’ve continually added new content” argument, is that not all of us (and in many cases very few of us) use this new content. I could care less about facebook, twitter, ESPN, Kinect, or the Xbox version of Zune marketplace.
In fact I think it’s a bit rediculous that my Zune Pass is worth nothing on the Xbox.
Oh well, fortunately I’m fully paid up until May of 2012. Hopefully by then, we’ll know if the hike was really worth it.

$10/month is $120/year, so basically two full new release titles. I think that comparison alone is proof that it’s a bad deal. Would you give up the last two full titles you bought just to have the exact same service you’ve been paying for?

To all those from other regions – I myself am in Canada so am only affected by the price increase for the already far overpriced monthly membership – but it doesn’t really matter whether Australia or areas of Europe are currently getting MORE screwed, it’s still getting screwed.

So when did Microsoft officially start screwing its customers?

Paying $50 a year for Live. ( against my better judgment )
Overpriced DLC ( won’t even allow any for free )
Xbox Live Arcade games that averaged 400, then 800, then 1200 points.
Overpriced Games on Demand ( at least twice the cost of the retail disk version )
Overpriced movie rentals on Zune ( who would rent these at those prices? )
Overpriced Game Room games
NXE covered with advertisements ( it’s barely customizable. I’m pretty sure this is to preserve valuable ad space )
Overpriced premium themes
Overpriced Avatar items
Faulty launch hardware
Shortage of exclusive franchises for core gamers ( It’s all about Kinect lately. Where are all the great games besides Halo? )
Overpriced Proprietary Hard Drives
Overpriced Wireless
HDMI cables no longer included with the system

And now you have the nerve to raise Xbox Live Gold subscription another $10 a year?
For what? EPSN? I thought this was a gaming system.

I already pay Cablevision for all the ESPN channels. Why must I be forced to pay for it on Live?

Where does it end? All this stuff adds up.
It’s a bottomless pit of greed.

I currently buy only exclusives on the PS3 ( 9 titles ) and all multi-platform and exclusive games on the X360 ( 120+ titles – all purchased new )

Going forward, mutli-platform purchases will be on the PS3. So I can still play multiplayer online.

I hope the $10 hike was worth it.

Arcturous – Silver Member starting 1/1/2011.

This is not right. It is hard enough to get $50 with the way the economy is now and now Microsoft thinks it’s a good idea to add $10 to their Gold membership. I sometimes wonder if I should have just gotten a PS3. They have a lot of the same stuff but they don’t try to charge you for everything. What do we have on the 360 that requires more money? Facebook is a joke I could do more with FB mobile than I can with FB Live. And why would someone want to Tweet on their console when they can just take their cell phone out and do the same thing. The only two features I use are Netflix (wich I have to pay for) and last.fm. I won’t be surprised if people start going to the PS3. I mean we already have to pay for virtual clothes, Game add-ons, Pictures, and themes. If those were free then I wouldn’t mind it. Maybe we will be lucky and they are just getting more money to release something big.

I strongly agree with Arcturous. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Just that it’s completely unfair to those who only to play video games online not watch movies or stream through espn. That’s what the computer and TV are for.

crap! my absence of words. I blame my A.D.D.

Big deal, what’s a measly $10? I don’t mind paying an extra $10 because XBox Live plays such a big part of my life. I use it every day and I would pay even more. I heard a rumor of a $100 per year plan that I’d be interested in. I don’t understand all this whining and crying. If you don’t have the $10 extra per year then maybe you shouldn’t be playing videogames period, you can’t afford it. Go get some paper and a box of crayons. There’s cheaper services on the market but you get what you pay for. In fact maybe this will eliminate some of the foul mouthed children from the service. We are talking $10 per year people not per month,75 cents per month! What are you going to buy with that? A pack of Ramen noodles?

thankfully these price hikes don’t take effect in Australia because we’re already paying $79.95 AUD for yearly subscriptions but mind you the US is still cheaper by about $10 AUD at least.

Since this appears to be NEWS to Microsoft………

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_recession
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007-2010

@unhappymatt1 I think the big deal is that the price hike has been announced but there aren’t any new features announced to justify it. If Hulu Plus is added that is great, but it really does not add value because it requires a completely separate 9.99/month subscription.

I think Tycho over at Penny Arcade summed it up nicely:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/01/

Funny how MajorNelson hasnt respond to any of these posts, besides the PR crap that’s prewritten for him. I would like to see something from him concerning all our reactions. Also funny how new posts have been added to bury this subject.

The people that don’t think this is an issue might want to think about this. Microsoft will push the limits. Meaning if they know we will pay just $10 more a year a mere 83 cents more a month. They’ll start trying to push to see just how much we will be willing to pay for stuff that some of use just doing care about. Yea it’s great that you put all these extra services one box. However, these other services I can access from my PC as well. I don’t need to look at Facebook or Twitter on my Xbox. In fact it’s not exactly like I can browser Facebook and write twits while I’m playing a game, nor would I want to. So what was the point of adding these really. I will be the first to admit that for the longest time I was totally one of those PS fan boys. I finally was turned on to the xbox mostly because of the live. This was because everyone I knew had a 360 and we could all play games together, plus, the service was definitely better than PSN. However, I don’t facebook on the 360. I looked at it once and the interface is crap in my opinion and I’d rather just do it over the PC. The same with twitter, but I don’t do twitter. I like sports, but I’m not going to even remotely use the 360 to watch espn. Again I bought the 360 to play games not for anything else.

Now I do use netflix and I love it. However, is that $10/year going to pay for my subscription that I already pay for, for netflix??? I think not! Do I absolutely need to use netflix on the 360??? No, I can still get the same movies mailed to me. What M$ needs to do is make some other plan… Let’s say Platinum, which has all these services and for the people that want them fine they can pay that extra 83 cents a month for them or whatever they decide to hike it to in the future. However, for those of us that actually are using the 360 for what we originally bought it for charge us the 49.99 a year. Microsoft, for once, you need to listen to your community and not alienate us. I think there needs to be a middle ground here, which would be a different plan or even a plan with services. Other services provide these things. You don’t get something like a TV service for a single price and get everything! They have PLANS! You pay for the PLAN you want.

Again please tell me am I going to be able to somehow do picture-in-picture and multitask doing facebook, watching espn, writing twits AND playing on live all at the same time??? NO!!!! Therefore I don’t need all this extra stuff and I don’t need to be charged extra.

I will do the whole thing of paying the reduced price before the hike. However, after that year is up and things don’t change I will not renew and I will just simply play single player games.

OMG! wth?! does really M$ want us to jump into the FREE PSN?? Damn it…specially for Mexico, we dont get ANY content that justify 50$ no way im gonna pay for this next year…..guess ill just start to use my PS3 instead =(

I cant wait.

bye bye

If we get an option to disable ads I’m ok with the increase.

I hate the poor.

yeah once Final Fantasy XIV comes out for the PS3 im not fucking with Xbox anymore. not gonna renew or anything. might just sell it altogether if PS3 has some good exclusives

Probably been said already but I am not reading 800+ comments to find it out. Microsoft says you get all these features with the xbox live gold membership (Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You look at the Playstation and for no membership fee to the PSN you get: Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, web browser, free multiplayer..etc). At least with their membership you get free games, discounts and what not. Now granted Hulu and Netflix still require their respective memberships but nothing additional you need to pay to use them. Lets not forget to mention that the PSN already has Hulu up for preview and will be available before Microsoft’s 2011 release. Let’s also not forget that Playstation also allows you to edit photos and upload them to facebook and for those interested in sharing what trophies they unlocked you can link you facebook account and it will automatically update you status…much like those facebook apps. You also have a YouTube app for the playstation that, again, won’t cost you a membership fee. I am sure that someone will say “But Microsoft has [state some sort of feature here]” just remember you get most of the same features at no additional membership cost on PSN. I find it funny though how Sony announced a optional membership tier option for $49.99 a year and Microsoft turns around and raises their prices…I’m sorry but isn’t that a step backward on Microsoft’s part?

Here is the PSN Plus details btw:
http://us.playstation.com/psn/playstation-plus/

I just don’t get it.
You already get more for free on PSN and you people are RAISING PRICES???
Wow – I guess Pachter really is leading you guys by the nose now. Bring back Bill Gates – at least Xbox was worthy when he was around.

You know, 10 months ago I was getting fed up with all the crap was going on with xbox live (by crap I mean people CHEATING on multiplayer games like GoW2), so I sold my xbox and bought a ps3. Last week, I was thinking about getting a 360 again to get Halo reach, Alan Wake and Black ops. Now I reading that live will be $60 a month instead of $50, guess what, I changed my mind. I’m sticking with my Ps3.

I’m wondering if any of this is actually getting back to the suits that make these ridiculous decisions. We all know they won’t do the right thing and reverse their decision – they need to pay their pool boys after all – but I wonder what garbage ‘features’ they’ll come up with next to try and sweeten the deal.

Boy, I can’t wait to see what we get for reverse xmas next year.

Thanks Microsoft, what a lovely Christmas present. You crushed my dreams about Kinect being something cool at E3, then you killed 1 vs 100. Now this. You justify a price hike with a laundry-list of “features” that are either free to use on every other platform including my frikkin’ MOBILE PHONE, or that I have to PAY YOU MORE MONEY TO USE.

No more. Larry, feed this back to the suits – you’ve gone too far.

Maybe that’s why Bungie is moving out from understand Microsuck’s umbrella. Microsuck’s owns the rights to the Halo franchise unfortunately, but Bungie will now be free to develop just as awesome a title for other platforms. Let’s hope they bring something to PSN that will compete with Halo, because quite frankly Xbox has only two things that make it a decent gaming platform over PS3 and that’s Halo and the remotes (which fit in the hands like gloves). Sony seriously needs to rethink their remote design. Too small IMO.

Anyway, if Bungie brings out a new title on PS3 it’s good bye to the laggy performance on Xbox Live forever for me.

And still no respond from Mr. Larry. Thanks a bunch you douche.

I honestly don’t care about all that “new” content you guys are talking about. Facebook on the Xbox is a waste, along with Zune and several other applications you guys got going on.
I’ve heard about Hulu being added to the network but I don’t want to spend $10 for their service, plus an extra $59.99 for Xbox Live’s Gold account. What a waste and what’s the point?

The only reason why I purchased a 360 was to play games and to play some games with friends that are out of state.

I believe you’ve just confirmed my idea of letting my Gold membership expire and perhaps moving over to Sony. Heck, they’ve got MAG which I’ve been dying to play. You might have noticed a lot of MMO’s out there are going free to play, but you purchase items. Basically their looking for more customers which is going to happen to Microsoft if things keep going the way they are.

It was nice to be with Live for 3 years, but I think I’m going to keep my money.

Are you guys really mad enough about $0.83 extra per month to go play on PSN. PSN isnt worth .83 cents a month in my book and I do own a PS3. Xbox Live has spent 8 years at the same price, the features are far better than they were with XBL in 2002 so $10 extra for everything they’ve done to keep XBL working over the years is fine with me.

If you really want to go try MAG, I’d say do it. You’ll find less than 10,000 players online at any point now days. I’ll stay with Halo where hundreds of thousands of players will be online at once. If you guys are stressing over $10 and posting about a recession you really shouldnt even be paying for internet. lol.

“You’ll find less than 10,000 players”
Oh god less than 10,000? I’ll never find a game.

I know this is waaay off subject (please forgive me) but I thought this is a question worth asking and this might be a forum where it might get some attention. What is up with Bungie mixing up the ranks of the playlists? It was the stupidest idea they ever came up with and makes Halo suck. EX: Why would a noob like myself who is only a Level 14 be pitted against a team of 40s and 50s? It makes the game fun for them because they get to destroy us noobs, but how in the world is it supposed to be fun for us getting owned every game? We should be pitted against people on our level and when we gradually get better, be pitted against better people. But for some of us, we may never get better. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a right to enjoy the game as we have also payed for it. Some of us don’t spend hours every day playing Halo and so our skill level may just move up slowly. Trying to force people to get better is just plain stupid. We are not playing in the gaming olympics, some of us are just casual gamers that just want to enjoy our time when we are online. We have rights (and purchasing power) too and Bungie you should respect that.

Quoting A FATAL ERR0R
“If you guys are stressing over $10 and posting about a recession you really shouldnt even be paying for internet. lol.”

Unfortunately in this time and age, you need to have internet access in order to find jobs. I don’t think I’ve seen any place where you can just walk into a corporation and fill out an application.

The bottom line is $10 extra is a huge deal for people and they are doing the math over the course of a year. That’s money that could be saved and put to better use. You already buy the game which is $60 per title, why should you need to pay extra for peer to peer multiplayer that was designed into the game?

Someone else had posted on here that their TV already does Facebook and Twitter, for free, along with Netflix. You don’t need to waste your money on Live to get access to those services.
Also Live has been adding a huge increase in advertisements lately. I just saw one for Wal-Mart’s Gaming Zone yesterday and you know Wal-Mart is paying a pretty penny to Microsoft. Along with the funds they receive from all that Avatar nonsense. Please, the whole system has become a joke.

To me it’s not worth giving my money away to CEO’s that need more gas for their yachts.

I have the perfect solution for you guys that dont want to pay 10.00 more for LIVE, don’t.

Why don’t you just make us pay for the ESPN app for 800 mspoint make sliver member pay for the app so the can us like Facebook and Twitter and Netflix and Last.Fm app and stop making them free and MS stop be a phucking dumbass prick and start listening to your consumer for once and stop ignoring the consumer what they want in the xbox live experiences and it’s a good time to add a God damn web browser to the system.

@AccipiterZ – I completely agree. The Zune app itself is the most pointless thing to date – all it did was make renting/playing films take longer!!! I never use the Facebook or Twitter app – and the LastFM app doesn’t play in the background on games – so what’s the f** point?
Yup – the glory days of 360 are long gone. Thank god there’s still lots of 3rd-party support otherwise mine would be in the bucket.

A lot of you need to understand what ‘principle’ is. It doesn’t matter whether the price hike is 10c a month or $10. The point is that you’re expected to pay JUST to connect to other people’s consoles via your own broadband connection to play them. It’s your console – you paid for it. It’s either your game or you’ve rented it, so at no point has MS contributed to your gaming experience. Why should we pay them anything? If you want the extra features, then make that a pay service. Otherwise let Silver Memberships play online.

To those who say “it’s only..”. It’s 15% more. MS are counting on enough of you idiots to accept the price hike and accept any further ones. Stop paying and the price will come down – it’s a certifiable fact that no company has ever reduced the cost of a product or service when it’s selling well at the marketed price. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Raising the price of live is just greed they announced they made billions on live they just want more. Thats my point microsoft is using my bandwith to play games i pay 60 bucks a month for my net. I use my net to play games free online for pc and ps3. If i got to pay more they better give us damn dedicated servers enough said. Im just paying microsoft for artifical lock they placed on my xbox. My xbox can connect to the net and play p2p just fine if microsoft stop blocking the connection by requiring i pay. The games lag online because im hosting on my net or someone elses net it makes no since.

It seems like everyone is out to get a extra $5 or $10 bucks out of the consumer these days, that is fine as long as I keep feeling that I am getting my money’s worth. If someone does a little shopping I’m sure they can get a deal on a year on Xbox live, don’t think I’ve paid full price for one since I got my xbox. So I guess for me it really is going up to $50 and not $60. Last Fm, Twitter and Facebook are nice additions but not really worth Xbox trying to get a extra $10 out of us. What would be nice is if for us gold members we got a discount on games or even some sort of program where the more games,dlc or video you buy gets you some sort of break on Xbox live like a free month or something here and there with a certain level of purchases… Anyway, if you want someone to really hate, hate Sony for not getting out there and competing and making PSN a decent alternative. Then Microsoft couldn’t raise prices like this.

AHHHHH come on Microsoft, really?

@ ‘The Bill Payer’ who wrote: “So what about seven year Xbox Live gold members like myself? I think with that dedication to your service I should retain the current price model.”

If you’ve been paying $50/£40 a year for fresh air for seven years you deserve everything you get.

I stopped paying for Xbox Live after 2 years, it was ridiculous for Microsoft to think it was acceptable for us to pay for online gaming before Sony offered an identical free alternative, and to continue doing so (and worse, charging even more for it) is down right disgusting. I buy all my multi-format software on PS3 (just in case I want to play online) and refuse to support such despicable money grabbing skullduggery. Any 360 exclusive game I buy, I sacrifice online gaming in that particular product – big loss(!)

Maybe all of you should have made a stand like I did, and they wouldn’t dare raise the price.

Pay £40 for a PS3 game and you get the full article, pay £40 for a 360 game and you get features locked out. Lovely to their customers that is.

Well since Canada as well as others outside the U.S. get less, pay more….and now even more with the increase, put another lost Gold Subscriber up on the wall at Microsoft….won’t be renewing.

fuck that im switchin to ps3. fuck you microsoft