Analyst Says Live Price Increase Won't Hurt Microsoft

[Logan Westbrook]

Analyst Says Live Price Increase Won't Hurt Microsoft

How will the Xbox Live price increases affect the 360? Well, according to EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, not very much.

If you're expecting yesterday's announcement [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103114-Microsoft-Ups-Price-For-Xbox-Live-Subscription] of a price increase for Xbox Live to spell the doom the Xbox 360 and send everyone to the PS3 or Wii, Divnich says not to hold your breath. In a note to investors, he said that the raise hadn't come as a surprise, and that the effect on the 360's "positive momentum" would be minimal.

Divnich says that the increase - the first since the service launched - is in line with inflation and when additional features like Netflix, Twitter and ESPN are taken into account, the service represents "incredible value to consumers." Divnich added that despite the cost involved with Xbox Live, EEDAR's consumer polls suggested that Xbox 360 owners played more games online than either PS3 or Wii owners. He also said that the increases would be unlikely to affect current subscribers until late 2011, as he expected Microsoft to run a number of promotions allowing existing customers to renew at a lower rate.

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that Microsoft is being greedy, but Divnich's comments help put the increase into perspective. There's always going to be a certain amount of customer dissatisfaction when something becomes more expensive, but as Divnich points out, the relative cost of the service will be the same as when it launched in 2002, and today's Xbox Live offers a lot more for your money.

Source: Edge [http://www.next-gen.biz/news/analyst-xbl-price-increase-unlikely-to-harm-360-momentum]



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[A Pious Cultist]

Divnich says that the increase - the first since the service launched - is in line with inflation and when additional features like Netflix, Twitter and ESPN are taken into account, the service represents "incredible value to consumers."
I'm sorry but if Netflix isn't free on that service then they can go and kindly go jump off a cliff. Pretty sure Twitter is a free service anyway and ESPN probably requires an additional subscription as well (either way I don't care I don't follow English sports much less American ones).

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Of course it's not going to hurt Microsoft. It's going to make them more money! It'll hurt the Live subscribers.

 

[Woodsey]

I still don't get this whole Netflix and Facebook thing - you're telling me people own a 360 but not a PC?

Not to mention Steam: totally free, and a lot better. The price rise is minimal, but that's not the point - the point is that people are having to pay at all.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

But did they ever think that all that consumer value they go on about is something most people don't particularly care about? And yet they're willing to pay 60$ a year even when they have no intention of using half the content offered? You know, when all we want to do is play some fucking games on a gaming console, yet Facebook, Twitter and Netflix are being shoved into our screaming faces for no adequate reason?

This is half the reason I got a PS3. The other half is the Last Guardian.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

What?

No mention of the party chat system that I use all the time?

 

[Nightfalke]

Of course this isn't going to hurt Microsoft. XBox Live is so ingrained in everything that is the 360 that people will pay whatever price Microsoft will tell them to pay, so they can get back to pwning some n00bs on MW2.

 

[hudsonzero]

it wont mater because it is nearly imposable to find where to change it with out going to the website

 

[edgeofblade]

Everyone is having an emotional reaction to this rather than seeing any of the multitude of reasons for the $10 increase. And since it's Microsoft, or Micro$oft as the snarkier among us would say, it's all too easy to call it greed.

We could talk about inflation, the massive losses from RROD, or the improvements to the service since it was introduced in 2002 at $50. And I'm not talking about the freebies, like Facebook. Think about Achievements, Indie Games, Arcade and its piles and piles of demos.

The point is that if you want to find a reason to hate Microsoft for increasing the price, you can site all the things that don't make a difference... to the detriment of the things that do.

 

[Jared]

Its so minor that it really wont hurt most peoples wallets - Some will be annoyed, but overall - Its just a lil for us, but huge for them

 

[John Funk]

Frankly, if PSN charged money, maybe it wouldn't suck so hard.

It's goddamn $10 a year. Do you go to Starbucks once in a while? Cut back on two Starbucks trips. There, you're golden. I cannot believe people are whining about this.

 

[scrambledeggs]

Think about Achievements, Indie Games, Arcade and its piles and piles of demos.

and it's not like Playstation is giving them away for fre- .. oh they are?

Zzzzzzzzing.

The majority of the offerings of Live either cost additional money anyway or are obsolete - eg twitter and facebook.

Sony has the same problem, trying to sell PS3 as a media centre for music and photos. Its bullshit. Game consoles are for games. Noone goes on to a ps3 to look at their photos. They use it as a blu-ray player and a game console. Xbox 360 users use their xbox for watching dvds or playing games. El fin.

All this extra stuff is just gimmicky stuff for fanboys so they can have bragging rights on the internet.

 

[JeanLuc761]

Frankly, if PSN charged money, maybe it wouldn't suck so hard.

It's goddamn $10 a year. Do you go to Starbucks once in a while? Cut back on two Starbucks trips. There, you're golden. I cannot believe people are whining about this.

I would have thought you'd spent enough time on the internet to NEVER be surprised

That said, an extra $10 is really not all that bad; Xbox Live has had a flat rate for the last 8 friggin years and during that time they've probably doubled or tripled the features. Paying an extra $0.90 per month isn't so much to ask is it?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

So I hold back on buying one video game and instead buy Xbox Live for a year. Not that bad, especially since nothing good comes out in August.