This wasn't entirely unexpected, but Microsoft announced that it's raising the price of Xbox Live Gold, effective November 1.

 

Yearly subscriptions will increase from $50 to $60, quarterly subscriptions will jump from $20 to $25, and monthly subscriptions will go up from $8 to $10. Before the price hike, Microsoft is giving subscribers a chance to get one more year for $40, effectively negating the new price until 2012. Joystiq points out that several retailers are also selling $40 yearly subscription cards, which you can stock up on now and use over a longer period of time.

 

The troubling thing about this price hike is not so much the $10 difference itself, but the feeling of powerlessness that it instills.

 

For people who've been paying $50 for Xbox Live since its inception, the change is a wake-up call. It's a reminder that $50 per year is not a guarantee that comes with the console. Nor is $60, for that matter. Folks who've chosen the Xbox 360 over the Playstation 3 or Wii - both offer free online play - must now realize they are locked in to whatever price Microsoft decrees. At least one analyst thinks that price could reach $100 per year over time.

 

In essence, Microsoft makes itself look like a cable company by increasing the price of Xbox Live. Sure, you could switch to another provider, or quit the service and sacrifice the benefits, but both those options bring their own hassles and drawbacks, so you suck up the price hike and curse the company that brought it.

 

Short-term, that's fine for Microsoft. I don't foresee a mass exodus from Xbox Live over $10 per year, and if the Kinect motion controller brings in a new demographic of users, as Microsoft hopes, the Xbox 360 will have a lot of users who never knew about the old price.

 

Long-term, Microsoft is building a bigger price gap between its online service and those of its competitors, one that'll make consumers think twice about staying loyal to the Xbox brand. If the gap continues to grow between now and the next console generation, Microsoft will get its comeuppance

 

Credit: pcworld.com

 

 

The article misses the UK price increase. The monthly sub, if you pay per month, is going from £4.99 to £5.99 but a yearly sub is staying the same price.

Ouch!

The troubling thing about this price hike is not so much the $10 difference itself, but the feeling of powerlessness that it instills.

 

The $10 rise in one year isn't bad and if you consider its would be yearly people would barely notice it.

 

As for feeling powerless, that is rubbish, no one is putting a gun to there heads and saying you must pay for it now, Its a computer game service which isn't neccessary for life or actual for the X box itself. I have an X box and I don't use Xbox Live. If people are that bothered by it they could leave. I doubt it will have that much of effect on subscriptions as they would have looked into what they could charge people before it reduces there subscriptions either that or the profits will outweigh the leavers

I honestly don't care about the price going up, it's not exactly breaking the bank, is it? Those that complain about it are clearly idiots.

That extra €5 every three months is really going to kill me, I'm off to the free Playstation Network that costs exactly the same.

I honestly don't care about the price going up, it's not exactly breaking the bank, is it? Those that complain about it are clearly idiots.

 

Agreed, for now,

 

That extra €5 every three months is really going to kill me, I'm off to the free Playstation Network that costs exactly the same.

 

Except by the being free thing.

I honestly don't care about the price going up, it's not exactly breaking the bank, is it? Those that complain about it are clearly idiots.

 

QFT.

 

A ten dollar price increase over 12 months is nothing. Its works out to less than a dollar more a month.

I get mine yearly anyway and in the UK they're not going up in price, though the quarterly ones are.

The UK price is only going up by a pound on monthly. Quarterly and Annual subscriptions are unchanged.