Xbox Live Gold Subscription Price to be Increased November 1

A complete joke, the "services" they've added with the exception of Netflix are free and superior on the computer, XBLA games prices are rising, Deals of the Week suck, and now games are adding online passes. Jesus I wish PSN didn't suck so hard otherwise I'd move over there for good.

Jesus MS..isn't it already bad enough that we have to pay 50$/year? Honestly, this is not cool at all. as much as I love the service, this price hike is not the right direction to go

Xbox 360. Proving to be the most expansive console on the market. One release at a time.

Nothing like paying a subscription fee for a service that doesn't even remove ads. =\

I'm happy that XBLA highlights independent gaming and all, but damn... Pitch such a system on anything other than Xbox and people will laugh at you.

ill renew in the month of october.

Since I always buy the one year card, and I live in Canada, I'm not affected by the price hike at all. Even still, it sucks for the people that it does affect. Microsoft should offer separate, cheaper plans for those that may not use the Facebook, Netflix, Last.fm, etc., apps on their 360. I believe the price hike is due to these apps and other services being added to the 360, including the ESPN channel coming soon. I just think that if a person decides not to use any of them, a cheaper plan should be available to them without those services.

This is why i'm gonna go on the ps3 alot. Stuff like this just makes me mad. Do they even remember that we are struggling economicly? I sense a small riot happening

This is why I love PSN.

I don't care how much you say it sucks.

Because it's free.

hell yes, now I REALLY want to upgrade to Gold. Fuck no, what the hell is wrong with microsoft, aren't they greedy enough? they have like...infinite money!
the gold subscription has become a joke to me, I'll stick with my silver, thanks, until they remove less and less features from the free subscription, then... fuck it, I'm out. (sry, but wth)
Ps3 only gets a more and more viable option as the xbox total price increases, even if the still paying xbox users doesn't understand it. "but I wanna play halo and MW2, now I need to begg my mom to pay more :(" yea.

i buy 1 year cards and it doesn't seem like it'll affect it that much. if you buy 1 year cards, it's less than 1$ more per month. 5$ per month is not alot (if they raise point card prices imma fight em though)

Wow, I'm sold! I'll be sure to subscribe on November 1st. Brilliant business strategy by Microsoft.

So let me get this straight MS wants us: to pay more for their services; pay £130 for Kinect; and pay £40 for Joyride (which was free originally) and all the other games. They sure do know their customers -_-

I don't play multiplayer very often, silver gets my downloads and that is all I need. I don't like spending extra money for internet services, it may be a good service but it sleazy, so an increase does not entice me the slightest.

They better not raise the price of the points cards!!!!

Being "Unable to join team" doesn't make me too pleased by this hike. Do I blame the developer or Microsoft for my teammates randomly disconnecting, Or some really laggy games at times?
M$ I don't understand them, But maybe they don't really understand us, Afterall they took down online support for old xbox games even though I know theres xboxconnect, But still!

I live in Canada, and I only buy yearlies, so this doesn't effect me. However, I do think it's quite bullshit for my United States brethren.

Glorious PC master race.

Starting note: I'm only discussing from the U.S. perspective of the increase.

So, from what I understand here is that they're raising the price for 2 new features they're adding in. ESPN3 and Video Kinect. Ok, first off I don't use any "Features" that they're explaining is the reason why they're raising the price. I don't use Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter or Netflix, and I don't plan on using ESPN3 or paying $149.99 for Kinect just so I can only use the Video Kinect feature with other people who use it. I'm not seeing the justification in this yet, but maybe if Microsoft was smart and maybe...JUST MAYBE...added in a $39.99 or kept the $49.99 a year price for the U.S. for people who don't use those features, then I could understand the addition of an extra price option for the added features.

But no, they're not doing this, instead they're forcing this price hike down the throat of every customer that is effected without realizing that the majority don't even use some of these features and WILL NOT use any of these features in the coming future.

I'll probably grab that price deduction renewal, but when the renewal rolls around next year...I'm not so sure I'll dish out that extra fee for the service.

Also, anyone who defends that it's only an extra 00.03 cents per day or less than a dollar increase a month for the U.S. Year Fee...are you not realizing that the supposed increase due to the new features is not wanted by the majority? We can even add an example, what if McDonalds were to change their pricing system to where you HAD to buy a meal with your 1 Double Cheeseburger, but yet you didn't want to pay extra for those fries and drink...you only wanted the Cheeseburger? Would you just roll over and pay extra for them, even if you didn't like fries? What if they forced you to get a drink of something you didn't like as well? Would you just roll over and take the drink you personally didn't want, but still pay extra for it?

And I was again considering buying a 360 and Microsoft pulls another greedy stunt. I guess I should have seen it coming, good news though I can spend that money to fix my car's stereo instead.

Just saw this on Major Nelsons blog and was curious if you guys have anything to say. As for me, I am fucking pissed off.

I noticed some people trying to defend the price hike which is hilarious. It's not really the fact that you have to pay $10 extra but it's the fact that you are basically paying more for a service when you could get an identical service for FREE. Now it seems this price hike is because of stuff like Netflix and maybe even stuff like Facebook but I think it's also because of all the stuff they gave away in 1 vs 100 which is why they canceled it. Now they want you to pay them back for all of the "free" stuff they gave out. The 360 even has more ads than they used to have (years ago on the older dashboard there were little to none). I guess the ads aren't helping pay for XBL.

"Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry."

Translation: We're sorry (not really) but we realize that we have, for far too long, been providing our users with a service for a somewhat fair and reasonable price. We have decided to change this because we believe that you all will be foolish enough to keep paying no matter what price we set. Cheers :D

I honestly think this is due to the ESPN Service. Disney (who owns ESPN) has been somewhat bitchy about providing channels for tv stations (I get commercials all the time informing me Disney is threatening to pull its channels). With this knowledge I'm willing to bet they may have requested more for the service. I'm not trying to say Microsoft is free of blame here though.

the XBox live gold model should have a base price of about $30 or $35 dollars a year (without the twitter, netflix, and facebook fluff). This would let you play online games and access the store (the basic functions people expect). Then you can add the fees per year of using the various aps. That way people who just want to buy and play games get a lower price, and the people who want the extras can pay for them.

Do you really think people are NOT going to pay for it anyway? How many people do you think will actually stop renewing their xbox live accounts? My guess is less than 5% of consumers. It sucks knowing that it's happening, but MS is smart enough to know that live gets used often, and people are going to continue to pay for it even if the price goes up, and even if they're unhappy about it. They might also just hope that the people who automatically renew it won't notice the jump in price. I bet this factors in around 50% of the consumer population (Parents paying for kids)

To be honest, I already thought I was paying 60 a month, so it doesn't make a difference to me, lol.

Looks like I am getting a PS3.

Usually I am the first one to defend the big rich companies, but fuck that. Microsoft is the most expensive gaming company out there, they dont need any more money.

everybody is gonna give this decision shit but stay signed up anyway.

The amount of rage I've heard about this is completely unreasonable, and if you read what Major Nelson said, this took in account inflation from 2005 to 2010. Not to mention if you are buying a year's subscription, you're paying something like 83 cents extra per month.

Chill out people.

I am very angry about this price increase, me being a advent XBL person, I play online download stuff and get my movie hunger on with netflix, but I agree with most of you, they should have 35$ as the base for just basic needs that you get, 40$ for Netflix 45$ for Netflix and Twitter, 50 for all three apps... Im just pissed off about this price.

"Stupid Inflation, Stupid Economy, Stupid MS executives, Stupid corrupt world"....