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Microsoft is teaming up with GameStop to offer you, the awesomesauce consumer, great deals on a brand new Xbox 360! You have the choice of two bundles one with an Xbox 360 console with a 250GB hard drive or one with an Xbox 360 consoles with a 4GB hard drive and a Kinect! I am in the market for a new Xbox 360 because I currently have to move mine back and forth between my room and the living room when I broadcast which can be annoying. I saw it and thought "Ninety nine dollars? I can afford that! This is a great deal! Hey... what's that small writing under the $99?"
Here's the BIG catch; you have to sign a contract with Microsoft for 2 years of Xbox Live at the monthly rate. That means your credit card will be billed $14.99 a month for 2 years. A bit of quick dirty math tells me that adds up to an extra $359.76 + tax! That's just shy of $400 meaning this bundle cost $500 with taxes. Does that make sense to you? Time for more math!
GameStop currently sells an Xbox 360 bundle that comes with a 250GB hard drive, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham City, and a one moth Xbox Live subscription for $299.99. Well then you have to add a subscription to Xbox Live right? So two years of that is $120 bringing the total to $420! There, I save you $80 and got you two extra games. Also I for one haven't spent $60 for a year of Xbox Live since the first time I purchased it back in 2009. Sites like buy.com and Newegg have 12 month Xbox Live cards on sale at least once or twice a year for around $35. So two years at that price is only $70 bringing that bundle to $370 saving $130! Or save $100 more and get the base console with 4GB hard drive for $199.99. Not to mention you can buy refurbished and save even more money!
How this deal works is you go to Xbox’s website and fill out a form signing up for the two years of Xbox Live and they give you a coupon you can print out and take to GameStop to get this fantastic deal. You might be asking yourself, “Why don’t I just do all that and then cancel my subscription or change credit cards?” According to the terms of this deal on their website:
Microsoft reserves the right to suspend or cancel Your Subscription and access to the Xbox LIVE service and the Xbox Product(s) if we do not receive an on time, full payment of Your monthly Subscription fee. In addition, as stated below, if we cancel your Subscription because You fail to pay your Subscription fee on time, we may charge You an Early Termination Fee (“ETF”) as further described in Section 11 below.
Uh oh, early termination fees! How much are they? To Section 11!!!
Schedule of Early Termination Fees to be paid to Microsoft:
Year One of Subscription (Months After Purchase)
Months Post Purchase
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
ETF for Cancellation
$250
$250
$250
$240
$228
$216
$204
$192
$180
$168
$156
$144
Year Two of Subscription (Months After Purchase)
Months Post Purchase
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
ETF for Cancellation
$132
$120
$108
$96
$84
$72
$60
$48
$36
$24
$12
$0
Those are some pretty steep fees! Is this deal still looking good?
I know what some people are saying. Not everyone has three or four hundred dollars to drop on a new console right now and that $99 now and a little more in the long run isn’t so bad. That might be the case for some, but I personally would rather buy a refurbished console with a 250GB hard drive for $250, pay $70 for 2 years on Xbox Live, and save $180 to buy some games. That's my two cents. What do y'all think?
Comments
11 years, 1 month ago
There's no guarantee that the subscription will carry over to their new console (sure to be out in the next two years) either, or that you won't end up preferring the PS4 over Microsoft's next thing. An XBL subscription for 360 might be way less valuable next year. This is a real dirty fucking scam.
11 years, 1 month ago
Yeah I thought about that as well. Locking you into a two year contract a few months before they launch a new console. I didn't know what to say about it since we know so little about the new Xbox and how their live service will work. Heck it could be the same service they have now with added features so they may allow people to carry over their service but that's doubtful. I do agree though, this kinda traps you in a 2 year contract you may regret.
11 years, 1 month ago
Realistically they could afford to give this deal for $0 + ($14.99 * 24) and still make a hefty profit, especially after software sales and service cutbacks like Netflix.
Does anyone else see a strong resemblance to a typical cellphone plan here? If I were in charge, I would want to distance myself from that gouging, anti-consumer market as much as possible.
11 years, 1 month ago
I am curious does the US have catalogue stores like in the UK? They tend to be places where u buy an item(s) sometimes for a bit higher price but you get to pay it off in installments or they offer buy now pay 12 months etc at no interest. Because if you have those sort of stores i dont see why anyone would go for this.
11 years, 1 month ago
You're the man for bringing attention to this Nolan. I honestly feel bad for anyone who just sees the $99 price tag and thinks this is a good deal to jump on.
Microsoft just has no idea how to provide any decent sales or special deals for its customers. I used to believe they just didn't WANT to, but now I'm convinced they literally don't know how. They actually think fleecing the customers with a 2-year monthly XBL Gold subscription is a good deal. Maybe if it was, at the very least, a 2-year 12-month subscription plan at 120 bucks total it might have been more acceptable, but as it is now.... this is just fucking stupid.
11 years, 1 month ago
This made me lol. How many people do you think will fall for this? I am assuming ALOT!
11 years, 1 month ago
This is part of the growing war that's going to get very hot indeed between Playstation and Microsoft in the run up to the new consoles.
They both know that loyalty will play a big part in the new console choice for many gamers and they both want to make their live/online services as enticing as possible since they look to be counting on those as a very large source of revenue on top of the consoles themselves. (possibly using projected live subscriptions to offset initial console costs for the consumer)
So far I'd say Sony is winning with the slew of excellent free games on Playstation plus and though Microsoft responded with their ultimate sale hardware 'deals' like this may be pointing to some heavily subsidised 'deals' of a very similar kind for the new Xbox.
I'd expect yet more sales, free games and other online enticements as the year goes on. Which, to be fair, can only be a good thing for gamers as such competition will force both sides to keep trying harder to win the online battle for their live services before the new launch.
This 'deal' is pretty laughable once you examine it but it won't be the last and there will be far better deals in the months to come.
11 years, 1 month ago
Just when I thought Gamestop and Microsoft couldn't be any scummier... This is such a blatant scam it's ridiculous, but I know for a fact that there will be people who get ripped off by it and it probably won't even stop them from buying more Gamestop and Microsoft items. Disgusting.
11 years, 1 month ago
There's always a catch.
11 years, 1 month ago
Bleh, that's a DIRTY fucking scam if I ever saw one. Disgusting. I've always had a low opinion of Microsoft and this certainly doesn't help it.
11 years, 1 month ago
I actually grew tired of purchasing new consoles after my previous ones would kick the bucket after a few months of playing. I started using the refurbished consoles from GameStop about two years ago, trading in my broken console for $40 trade-in credit and then just covering the cost difference, also throwing on a one-year warranty (if anything with the console goes bad, bring it back to the store for an exchange) for $19.99.
I have had a few refurbished consoles go bad after just a couple of months, I simply just take the console back to GameStop, show receipt, get another console (you can pay $19.99 for another one-year warranty if you want). Essentially getting consoles for $20 each. Works great for me, and is a pretty good deal to take advantage of.
So seeing this "$99 deal" just makes me shake my head. :c