http://www.fanboyism.com/ For general XBOX 360 gaming, news, etc en Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:14:33 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.fanboyism.com/images/brave/misc/rss.png http://www.fanboyism.com/ http://www.fanboyism.com/threads/3563-XBL-price-gouging.?goto=newpost Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:28:27 GMT So, how does everyone feel about the new (higher) price for Xbox Live Gold accounts? Surprisingly, I've been seeing quite a few people supporting this and saying "What's another $10?" but these are probably also kids who don't pay their own hard-earned money. Personally, I find the price raise incredibly unfair, largely because they claim that it is a result of new features, but these are features that we aren't asking for! I don't know about anyone else, but I don't even want half of these features!

Last.FM is a cool feature, but I never use it. I hate the Zune crap and I'm still mad that they forced it upon me, making it more difficult to view my downloaded videos. I really couldn't care less about Twitter and Facebook; I've never even used these web sites and I sure as hell don't need them on my gaming console. And I flat-out don't want ESPN because I hate sports. I might eventually get a Kinect, but the support they're adding shouldn't warrant an extra fee.

With all of these different features, I don't benefit in any way. Sure, I use Netflix, but that's free on PS3 and Wii, so I don't even need it. I really think they need to have Live packages of some sort. There should be a base price and then they can simply charge for each additional feature (like an extra $5/year for ESPN). This would be far more reasonable and it would give Microsoft an excuse to create a bunch of different features, add-ons, and Xbox "apps" that they could provide for a fee. I know there are tons of people who would be drawn in by stuff like this (and more people would be willing to get a basic Live Gold account for maybe $30), so in the end, Microsoft could potentially end up making more money than by hiking up the price. I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't even consider doing this, but it would certainly be nice.

At least Pachter was wrong about the $100 price...but when is he not wrong? ]]> XBox 360 Murgatroyd7 http://www.fanboyism.com/threads/3563-XBL-price-gouging.