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XBox (Games) Networking

New Xbox Live Pricing Revealed 72

Posted by Zonk from the option-options-options dept.
NiteStar writes "The new packages and pricing of the Xbox LIVE Gold service have been leaked. The 'Premium Gold' 12 month pack, retailing at 70USD, will include the Gold Xbox LIVE subscription, a communicator headset, "Billiards" Xbox LIVE Arcade game, $20 discount on a games purchase and 200 points in the Xbox LIVE marketplace. The 'Gold' 12months will just include the subscription and an extra free month for 60USD/year. Packages for 3months and 1month will also be available."
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New Xbox Live Pricing Revealed More

New Xbox Live Pricing Revealed

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  • Cheaper on eBay (Score:3, Informative)

    by LordNimon ( 85072 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @06:40PM (#13440114)
    One thing to keep in mind is that even though the official price for Xbox Live today is $50/year, you can buy a 12-month subscription on eBay for under $35, which is a 30% discount. I expect that to still be true when the Xbox 360 is released.

  • SOunds good, but..... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fodi ( 452415 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @06:46PM (#13440177)
    Price sounds great, especially if you plan to use the discount voucher. What worries me is that individual games may add their own charges for playing online.

    I hope MS forces game developers to provide online gaming capabilities without the option of charging extras.
    • Games haven't done that for the Xbox, and the situation is the same. Typically only MMORPGs take this direction because of the costs of the running the servers. It would drive people off from any other game, and the XBL subscription pays for master servers and all anyways.

  • Puh leaze (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The hassle of having to pay and renew is going to turn off most 360 buyers (especially the younger crowd). Nobody likes the feeling of a $70 tithe hanging over the back of their head.

    People will ask "$70 for a subscription to what?" The only thing I'd pay for would be downloadable content (i.e. mods and full fledged expansion packs with new levels, bosses, equipment, etc.) but aside from a few Splinter Cell maps and some multiplayer maps for Halo, Xbox Live hasn't released jack *&^%. Considering mods al
    • Considering mods alone, the PC/Internet combo has Xbox/Live whipped.

      Yawn. Easily play your PC/Internet combo from your sofa, on your big screen HDTV with 5.1 and all for under $500 and then we'll talk.
      • Yawn. Play online via your Xbox without paying a cent (besides what you already pay for your internet connection), get mods for free, and then we'll talk.

      • Re:Puh leaze (Score:3, Insightful)

        by nb caffeine ( 448698 )
        Not to be nit-picky, but the 360 plus a game to play online plus a subscription to XBL is going to be more than $500

        assuming you get the $399 version (which most people will, imho) and a year sub to xbl
        • How was that insightful? XBL is an add-on to the console, the price of the console is assumed to be a generic entrry cost. That's as insightful as saying that internet access will cost you $620 for the first year ($500 for the PC and $20/month for the ISP)
      • A big screen HDTV with 5.1 sound for under $500! Where? TV is worthless trash, but at those prices I might get one nevertheless. Might even get me one of those sofas.
      • Woah, you got a big screen HDTV and 5.1 for under $500?

        I bet my 20.1" widescreen LCD, 5.1 desktop theater, PC, and Aeron combined were cheaper than your Sofa, TV, Reciever and Speakers. It runs at higher resolution too, and I don't care that it's not 50" because I'm not sitting 15' away.
        • ... and when you have mates over, do they all crowd round you monitor whilst taking turns to use the chair? Don't get me wrong, I like PC gaming as much as anyone (BF2 being my current favourite); but for social gaming you can't beat friends, beers, sofas, a big TV and the console of your choice.
    • Yes, because having to pay and renew sure did keep Xbox Live from becoming popular on the original Xbox.

      After dealing with online gaming on both the PC and the PS2, I won't hesitate to pay a fee (one that is actually quite reasonable in this case, compared to say, the $15 a month that WoW costs me) to be able to play all my Xbox 360 games online on a polished service and be able to text or voice chat with anyone else on Xbox Live, etc.

  • Not to troll, but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by earthbound kid ( 859282 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @08:34PM (#13441071) Homepage
    The announced cost of Nintendo's WiFi internet connection?

    $0.00/month

    It looks like Nintendo is really lining up to be a price leader in the next generation, even more so than they were in this one. The question is whether consumers will go for it, or think, "Oh, Nintendo, they're just cheap, not any good." It really does seem like Microsoft is getting a lot of negative buzz about the cost of its new consoles and services though. Will it hurt their bottom line? My instinct is that better graphics are fine and all, but not enough to drive console sales by themselves. XBox-PS2-Cube games all look pretty decent. Would looking even better really enhance gameplay for consumers? It's doubtful in my mind. If anything, it would be nice to see the same level of graphical detail, but more character models and maps packed into the game and on screen.

    Nintendo's WiFi connection probably won't be nearly as sophisticated as Microsoft's Live. But will consumers who've plunked down $1k for a console really be excited about paying yet another fee every month?...

    We'll see.
    • The question is whether consumers will go for it,

      No, the question is whether developers will go for it.

      Otherwise, the new Nintendo console will be the same barren wasteland that the Gamecube and N64 were.
    • Must haves:

      - Unified login/username across all games
      - Global friend/team/clan lists
      - Single payment

      Also, whats up with "$1k" for a console statement? Stop being lame.

      • Re:Not to troll, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by earthbound kid ( 859282 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @09:41PM (#13441726) Homepage
        * The rumor is, how Nintendo will work it is, if you're in person, you can just add someone to your friends list directly. Otherwise, you have to enter in some kind of universal unique ID which follows the machine, no matter the IP address. Of course, this is all just rumors and press releases at this point.

        * I think they expect people will do that themselves using IM, etc.

        * Well, zero payment isn't quite synonymous with single payment, but yeah.

        * Have you been paying attention? All the stores like EB and whatnot have been announcing $1000+ XBox 360 "Value Packs."
      • They seem to plan a single login but allow the user to have a different screen name for each game. The friends list is confirmed. They also said they'll make it free so it'll be zero payment. Of course third parties have the option to charge money but how many do that on the PS2?
    • But...you are trolling. Every single article about XBox360 and the Nintendo trolls seem to come out and post about how great Revolution will be (not that anyone knows anything about it other than it's "revolutionary" and aimed at the a wide audience that includes the elderly). While Nintendo was the price leader this past round, that did not help them as they still came in second in Japan and third in Europe and North America. Your theory that consumers who are willing to pay $1000 for a console are unwi
      • After I wrote it, I realized I misworded it. Obviously, those who buy the $1000 value packs are going to get Live. The question is whether other consumers will look at the cost of the value pack and recurring costs of Live and just put off buying a 360 until the indefinite future, when things may be cheaper. The effect of consumers delaying purchasing a 360 may allow Sony and Nintendo to overcome the handicap of releasing their consoles later. I'm just saying that MS has built up some ill will at their pri
        • Sony, presumed to be cheaper? Huh? Lemme quote Ken Kutaragi of Sony, "...PS3 can't be offered at a price that's targeted towards households...." I imagine that this will be considerably more than the $299/$399 entry point of Xbox360. The original point that prospective 360 buyers will instead opt for a Nintendo or a more expensive Sony system because of a $50 yearly fee for online games seems absurd. The majority of games that they would play online with Xbox360 won't be available for either PS3 or Rev

  • I'm glad for this article (Score:5, Interesting)

    by toddhunter ( 659837 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @11:06PM (#13442332)
    I had actually forgotten about this. I had been swept up a bit in the hype and was looking forward to getting myself a 360 when they came out.
    But no, I refuse to have to pay to make my games work at the whim of microsoft. They either work for ever or not at all in my opinion.
    So bring on the ps3 or the revolution. Hopefully they show a bit more common sense!
    • Absolutely. They failed to make subscription to work for the Office suite, I don't know why they think it will work for games.

      ---
      jon_edwards@spanners4us.com
    • Huh? You don't need Live to play XBox games. Or rather you don't need Live Gold(and Live Silver which is crippled as far as we know is free).

      I don't think Live is worth the cost(coming from PC gaming where I have to put a bit more work in, but I don't need to pay), but jesus, get some perspective.

      All we know about the Revolution's internet play is mainly speculation(apart from it being free for first party games). All we know about the PS3s is that the PS2's online play was a joke you only treat as less

  • Existing XBox Live subscription? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Tuesday August 30, 2005 @11:30PM (#13442505)
    What if I've already got an XBox live subscription? Do I have to purchase a separate "gold" one for the XBox 360, transfer the existing subscription or can I use one subscription for both?
    • Something I thought about too. I assume MS has a plan. We shall see what that is though. I thoroughly suspect that MS would like to see the original XBox die a quiet death. They have learned a lot, but their first lesson was extremely painful.
    • From what I understand you'd transfer your existing membership. So fi you have 4 months left, you'd have 4 months left on your Xbox 360.

    • Re:Existing XBox Live subscription? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I can't find rhgt now where I saw this, but they have said multiple times that you can completely transfer your current Live to new service. In other words, you will keep your gamer tag, profile and however long you paid for.

  • Xbox live is sneaky (Score:3, Informative)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Wednesday August 31, 2005 @03:40AM (#13443721) Journal
    You register your credit card so you can play on Xbox live. Of course you're also using a prepaid card. The reason they make you register a credit card is so they can charge you for any little thing they feel like charging for. For example, they give you a disk with Xbox live filled with retro games, but each one of those games cost like $15 a pop. I probably wouldn't have put $15 in these games when they were state of the art! But Xbox live lets you purchase a game with a single click of the button. If you don't want to purchase it, but you hit the wrong button to go back, you're out $15 and you're stuck with a crap game. I don't feel comfortable paying for an online service. This is definately an issue for me when buying a console. I'm interested in seeing how the other consoles handle online.
    • You don't feel comfortable paying for an online service? Are you paying for internet access? Do you pay for MMOs? The 'silver' package is free. Doesn't cost you anything. The current xbox live purchasing system is idiot proof. There are about 3 "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BUY THIS?" warnings, as well as the option to require a password to require content.

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