Blog
Would You Pay $100 For Xbox Live?
Stay or Go?
by Sarah
Earlier this week, analyst Michael Pachter made waves when he speculated that the yearly cost of Xbox Live was going to rise, possibly to $100. Unlike a lot of the internet, we didn’t freak out about it because, quite frankly, Michael Pachter talks out of his ass. However, it did make me think about what would happen, theoretically, if Microsoft raised the price of their online gaming service to a hundred dollars a year. I’m not talking about years or decades in the future, when inflation will make that an inevitability, but soon—this generation. If it happened (and please remember that this is 100% hypothetical), what would you do? How would it affect the gaming community?
When I got my 360 a few years ago, I also shelled out the extra cash for a wireless network adapter and an Xbox Live subscription. Not having Xbox Live was simply never an option—it was as much a part of the system as the controllers, and I factored in the extra costs when deciding to buy it. When I first heard about Pachter’s claims that Xbox Live would be raised to $100, I thought, “That’s outrageous! Who would pay for that?” Sure, many MMOs charge $15 a month, meaning well over $100 a year, and that's only for one game, but is it really the same? Xbox Live isn't a game, simply a service that allows you to fully experience other games. Then I really started to think: would I have a choice? Some of my favorite gaming moments this generation have taken place over Xbox Live. In particular, the hours I spent playing Left 4 Dead with friends over the last year have pretty much justified the cost of the game and XBL. Would gaming really be the same without it?
I think, honestly, my reaction would depend on that of my friends. If they all jumped right in to a higher subscription cost, I would probably do the same, and cut corners elsewhere. Perhaps, instead, we would spend more time playing online games on the PS3, but it’s not quite the same. The PS3 may offer free online service, but you get what you pay for—Xbox Live is hands-down the more efficient choice. This is coming from someone who owns both systems, so I’m no fanboy; Xbox Live has always been a necessity to me and many other gamers in this current generation, which is why Pachter’s proposed price increase made me wonder what the reaction would be.
So what would you do? Would you pay the $100 for continued Xbox Live service, or learn to live without it? Again, this is all hypothetical, but I just want to know what the community thinks about the issue. If anything, it will give me an idea of what to do if and when an XBL price increase ever occurs. Tell me: would it be worth it?
Comments
I'm pretty sure when push came to shove, I'd probably pay the $100 for the service. Yes, the PS online is free, but as of now, it just doesn't have the features (cross game chat, party system) that make XBL ever so slightly better. If that changed, I might change my story as well. At the end of the day, that's a lot of money, but I think it's worth it.
I don't know... my instinct is to say that if XBL went to $100 I'd be out, but I'm not sure. I guess it would come down to how many of my friends would defect with me. If everyone continued playing Madden on Xbox, I'd be hard-pressed not to stick around. Hopefully it won't come to that.
Sadly, yes. I wouldn't be happy about it, though, they'd have to add some more features (Netflix streaming WITHOUT a Netflix account comes to mind) for me to not be upset.
You know I rarely ever use Live. I realized it the other day. Sure, 50 bucks a year is cheap enough for me to have it so it is there on the rare occasions that I do MP gaming, but I find so many of my experiences have been SP lately.
Oh, but yeah, even if my MP gaming habits don't change, I would probably still pay 100 to keep the service.
Microsoft: Please don't read this.
I'd pay. Sucks but I'm pretty sure I would. This isn't like college where people would come to my room and play. I've really gotten into co-op MP. Even if Sony's PSN were vastly improved, L4D/Halo/GoW makes it worth it to me. After all, everyone always looks at the current price as ~$1 a week so would ~$2 a week stop me? Probably not.
I wouldn't pay at all! You can only pay so much for anything video games. If this were to happen I would just stick to PC gaming since it's a hell of a lot cheaper.
I would get pissed at first and curse MS, but after a couple of months i may start to miss it and I may fork over the $100. Also, a good friend of mine bought a ps3 recently, so it would be very tempting to just switch once my 360 dies and/or my subsciption runs out. I just love Gears 2 soooo much.
sure maybe one year, maybe most would...then it would slowly but surely kill the XBL community.
100? HELL NO
Well if you think about it. $100 a year is roughly $8.33 a month. And if someone was stupid enough to go on xbox live and buy the 1 month subscription every month then they are paying $100 a year. But I guess thats what stupid people get for being stupid.
not 100, maybe 75 but that would just be so i could still use netflix (which is another 15 a month). Keep it at what it is now, im not even sure what it is cuz mine is automatically renewed every feb.