Pachter Predicts $100 Xbox Live "Platinum" Membership

[Treblaine]

Pachter said a "Platinum plan" could include exclusive items for use in Microsoft games and possibly more advanced media center applications. "If members could get specialized Halo armor or weapons worth the extra $40, they might be more willing to sign up, and it doesn't really cost Microsoft anything to offer things like that," he said. He even suggested that Microsoft could make a deal with Apple to allow 360 owners to manage their iTunes accounts through their consoles.

At first I was like

then I was

Spoiler

No shill, but what does the rest of the forum think? http://www.myfacewhen.com/

Jesus Christ why did I ever get an Xbox 360?

 

[Andy Chalk]

The problem is, the message it sends to other companies, that they can milk their fanbase for such trivial services, as soon as they can get their fans to believe that they are incapable of getting the service on their own.

But who gets to judge whether these services are "trivial?" That's incredibly presumptuous. The fact is that the mass market has embraced console gaming, and console gaming online is all about running through proprietary services provided by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

It's got nothing to do with making console owners "believe" they can't get these services on their own. They can't, plain and simple. And that's going to become increasingly the norm as consoles and services like Xbox Live mature. Don't like it? Get rid of your console or get used to playing offline.

 

[Protocol95]

Didn't pachter say he thought something like News Super Mario Bros Wii would sell more than MW2 and there would be a Wii hd? From what i've heard of him, he isn't that great at predicting things and IMO it's unlikely MS will do this.

 

[Treblaine]

The problem is, the message it sends to other companies, that they can milk their fanbase for such trivial services, as soon as they can get their fans to believe that they are incapable of getting the service on their own.

But who gets to judge whether these services are "trivial?" That's incredibly presumptuous. The fact is that the mass market has embraced console gaming, and console gaming online is all about running through proprietary services provided by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

It's got nothing to do with making console owners "believe" they can't get these services on their own. They can't, plain and simple. And that's going to become increasingly the norm as consoles and services like Xbox Live mature. Don't like it? Get rid of your console or get used to playing offline.

All Microsoft the company actually does for Xbox Live does is act as a keyholder for an almost self sustaining network, the actual processing power of runnign the network is carried by the ISPs and the home-consoles (that each user has already paid for).

Technically, Peer-2-peer online multiplayer IS a trivial service, and the social aspect compare to Facebook that has 50x as many users and so much more stats, PSN and Nintendo's network are similarly trivial and right to be free... 360 offers nothing to justify it's subscription fee.

There are games that have dedicated servers on 360 but those are run, paid for and managed by the developers+publishers who actually made and released the game which use those servers... Microsoft does NOTHING for that network!

"Don't like it? Get rid of your console or get used to playing offline."

This implies that Xbox Lives premium model is the norm... when in fact it is the EXCEPTION! Don't need to get rid of all consoles or stay offline; just go to ANY of the competition with PS3, Nintendo Wii or PC gaming. Yes there are subscription models for certain individual games, but why pay to play Modern Warfare 2 multi on XBL when you can play for free on PC or PS3?

"It's got nothing to do with making console owners "believe" they can't get these services on their own. They can't, plain and simple."

But they CAN! Plain and simple.

Peer-2-peer based multiplayer or ANY online interaction is simple and incredibly cheap to run. The data being handled by central management servers is low volume and high-latency type... no harder than running a social networking website.

Dedicated servers are reasonably expensive but not a single penny of XBL's Gold fee goes to paying for any of them, but for decades it has been proven they are sustainably paid for by publishers and enthusiasts in the PC model.

 

[Jumplion]

Make Netflix searchable from my 360 and I might just pony up for a Platinum membership. Maybe. That's an awful lot of money, so whatever extras came with it would have to be really special. A free XBLA game every year, perhaps, or permanent discounts on all content.

One free XBLA game a year? Darlin', ya need ta know how ter haggle! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3LL338aGA] PS+ offers 4 games per month for $50, surely you can get more out of $100

 

[vikeif]

*snip*

Yeah, but that's more because everything else besides WoW is free on PC..., with the same or better performance (a server running in my State, or between my friends and I will always outperform anything live can offer). WoW's just proven it can be worth a subscription, because the amount of time people invest in it, makes other games look silly. That still doesn't negate the fact that everything else, XBL offers, other than what a handful of games, is available on PC, and is free. That's the difference with the WoW subscription..., you're paying to play that game. With XBL, you're paying for the ability to play ALL the games (and functionality)...that would normally be free elsewhere.

(I know it a bit late, been gone a while but I wanted to reply cause you do have a good point.) First off, who was implying the Wow was fun? XD But I get what you saying but my point (I think at the time.) was people will pay more for a second job that end in a stress attack. (anyone in a hardcore raiding guild on WoW can tell you first hand.) Now It is BS that they raised the price of XBL but only if you doing monthly only, the year package is still 50 bucks, and if you do that, your pretty well golden. as for the platnium thing... thinking back on that I was thinking they could do some cool shit with it... but I now remember that it IS microsoft so it will probably be just for the halo junkies anyway.