Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

redcroft — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:34:11 GMT

It's not unusual (as Tom Jones might say) for it to be cheaper to buy from anyone other than directly from the company who makes the product. There is a difference if you use controllers as your example though since they all do the same thing and you then use your choice as a customer to buy it for the best price. To continue with that example, it would be as though MS produced a great controller but in the UK ony the left stick worked not the right (which worked in the US).!

If MS said they were reducing the price to reflect the service then i'd say yes, i would be happy. If they reduced it to £28.99 maybe you'd buy it from MS rather than the third party retailers?

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

China White II — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:36:40 GMT

"There is no justification for a 15% markup on the cost of digital product when sold in the UK compared to the US."

It's called license agreements, blame collection companies like the BPI, RIAA etc... recently they put up the costs of how much you have to pay, this puts the cost up, where does that fall on to? the consumer I dunno if you've followed web raido for the last 12 months? But costs all around the world have gone up, digital products will always be different for different regions due to collection agencies and due to license agreements.

Here is a question for you current price of xboxlive is £39.99 if MS where to reduce it to £35.99 would you be happy? To me it's a moot point considering anyone can buy 12 months plus and extra 1 total 13 for £28.99 reasonably priced from third party retailers. I don't complain that controllers from MS cost £35 compared to £29 from Amazon, I don't complain that apple charges 2x the amount for a TV show or song, when I can get the CD 2x cheaper then their store and have more freedoms with it. I think the moral here is shop around £28.99 is a great price for any person, or are you saying you want it even cheaper then that?

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

Chris — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:28:16 GMT

The xbox avatars look to Wii-ish to me and I really hate the Wii. Just my opinion though.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

BryceS — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:55:22 GMT

For the comparisons I used the Microsoft prices for 12 months service as listed on Wikipedia. I know there are probably ways to get a cheaper prices, but the prices buying direct from Microsoft, subtracting local taxes, is the fairest comparison. If Microsoft cannot offer the full service in all territorys, fine. But scale the price so that those of us with fewer services pay a lower price. At the moment it's the complete opposite where the fewer features are available the more we seem to pay. And there is no justification whatsoever for not having regular reviews of the cost of Xbox Live Points to ensure that, before tax, they cost the same worldwide. There is no justification for a 15% markup on the cost of digital product when sold in the UK compared to the US. Licensing issues are of course always going to cause problems - the film and television industry are still stuck in the business practices of the 60s, which is even worse than the Video Game Console industry which is still stuck in the business practices of the 90s. But a lesser service should be reflected by a reduced cost, or at the very minimum, a cost that is no higher than those with the greatest service.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

robbie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:06:05 GMT

just want to know if you could still see your friends while your doing something else except for being in the dashboard. because iv watched the video walk through and i cant see were you could assess this menu.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

AnotherSociety — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:17:55 GMT

Good podcast just started listening recently.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

redcroft — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:30:11 GMT

China White II

I hear what you say and as i've mentioned i'll accept that, for TV & movies, there are legal arguments as to why we (the UK) can't get everything the US does.

This isn't a case of asking "why don't we get more in the UK". My point is that MS are unable to provide UK users with the full service the offer in the US. Therefore i think they should only charge a proportion of the "full price" to reflect this. Maybe they feel they already do?! It would be interesting to hear Major discuss it.

As for being able to buy time from ebay. Great, but it's not the point. And anyway if the official MS price fell any third party sellor would also drop their prices.

p.s. thanks to all who commented on this. I amhesitant to post on any boards as I feel most avoid sensible comment/discussion and go straight to personal insults. Obviously this is a good site (or maybe it's becuase the thread isn't top of the list anymore!!

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

China White II — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:00:25 GMT

The reason why us in Britain get a lesser service is due to international copyright and license agreements. This same problem is with Itunes as well with regards to film, music and Tv shows. The American XBL can watch Tv shows like Heroes etc... because license and copyright agreements are already setup in America (you can stream heroes or d/l it off itunes after the ep has aired), over here we need to pay another license for this region which aren't cheap. Due to Tv networks over here getting first dibs on the shows, Itunes and any other service will get them at a later date because whoever licensed it first gets exclusive rights, why would they allow you to watch it on XBL or itunes when they want you tuning into their Tv channel?

It seems only way around it really is using an American Xbox360 I dunno if changing you address to American would work.

Out of curiosity where are you guys buying the service from? If you look around you can get it from £25 (49 USD) at computer fairs and ebay (which is more then reasonable) and at retail £28 ($55 USD) from play.com for 12+1 month great prices if you ask me. I would never pay the £39.99 (79 USD) from Microsoft, you would have to be mad.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

Elphinkiller — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:52:39 GMT

Yeah you guys a right and it wasn't really meant at a dig at you, just to merely point out the further disparity within the service. I have no problems in paying for the service as I have a Wii and the online experience doesn't even compare. As someone else has already pointed out, I can understand if they had to ship something all the way down here but for a digital service there shouldn't be such a difference.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

FURCHES — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:18:55 GMT

Another great blogcast, loved all of the new stuff announced at E3 can't wait until later this year.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

BryceS — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:17:04 GMT

For info, I wrote the Anon 95 post above.

@Elphinkiller

Yes, it appears that you have it even worse than us. But a 35% markup (before adding another 17.5% for tax) for an inferior service is still a perfectly valid cause for those of us in the UK to feel abused.

Australians pay AU$79.95 (US$76.47) for 12 months of Xbox Live. If this includes your sales tax then this equates to US$61.52 before tax. That is only just more than we in the UK pay, but it is still more and by your account, you get an even worse service.

Americans complain that the service isn't free. We in the UK complain about paying even more but getting a reduced service. And you in Australia complain about getting even less of a service than us while paying even more.

This is probably far too far down the list now for the Major to be reading all the posts (especially as he is now so busy shuttling between different trade shows).

But it would be extremely helpful if we could get some reasoning behind why those with progressively less service pay progressively higher prices.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

China White II — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:15:07 GMT

You say the guide is the same? How come there was no link to friend list within the new guide menu? It's in the old guide menu, if it's not because you're on the main "dashboard" in the demo vids ,will it be in games, and if not how can we invite people to games?!

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

redcroft — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:01:28 GMT

Elphinkiller

I hear you. My experience is with the UK service but I appreciate that you, and no doubt users in other countries, have got even less.

But, rather than saying the UK has nothing to complain about, how about positively joining the debate? We share the frustration of not getting the full service and my argument still stands - with Australian users using the same principal and paying less than the UK users.

It shouldn't be the case that only those in the worst situation get to comment on it.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

Elphinkiller — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:52:45 GMT

@ Redcroft.

You guys in the UK have nothing to really complain about. In Australia we don't get Video Marketplace at all, nothing, it isn't even an option nor do we get any Inside Xbox stuff, we would probably be happy with a poor relation version and all for the bargain basement price of $80 AUD. I love my Live and wouldn't get rid of it, but it frustrating not having even hlaf of the functionality of Europe and the US.

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

patrick — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:29:16 GMT

soo can i send/receive talk to people while im playing an xbox 1 game?

re: Show #287: E3 and the new Xbox Experience

Alex Shepard — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:05:18 GMT

Why the hell is there not ONE piece of Silent Hill Homecoming content on the Marketplace?! Can we at least get the E3 trailer? Does MSs XBLM devision not care about this game? Or is it Konami's fault??