Xbox Series S/X: Thread 03

[Family Fry]

Officially confirmed price increase

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/...-gold-pricing/

Quite telling where MS want people to subscribe.

If you’d like to upgrade your Gold membership to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate your remaining Gold time will also convert directly to Ultimate (up to 36 months). For example, if you have 11 months of Xbox Live Gold now, and you upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, those 11 months convert to 11 months of Ultimate at no additional cost.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think it's pretty ****ty of ms to be honest. Not everyone can pay £120 for a year, especially if you only want to play 1 game online like Fortnite.

[wakka]

Quite telling where MS want people to subscribe.

Yeah, it's basically a way of killing the Gold tier without outright doing so.

[BIG EDD]

Here we go again. A new case has yet again been opened against me by PayPal and that deranged woman with the One X. I've started to PayPal that I'm seeking legal assistance now as this is bordering on harassment.

Bought Hitman 3 for Series X, hoping it pops through the post tomorrow or Monday

[dvdx2]

Here we go again. A new case has yet again been opened against me by PayPal and that deranged woman with the One X. I've started to PayPal that I'm seeking legal assistance now as this is bordering on harassment.

Bought Hitman 3 for Series X, hoping it pops through the post tomorrow or Monday

Sorry to hear that - I thought that was resolved? What’s the issue with her this time??

[BIG EDD]

Sorry to hear that - I thought that was resolved? What’s the issue with her this time??

Defective or item not as described. Total bull****e from day one.

[Lebowski]

Yeah, it's basically a way of killing the Gold tier without outright doing so.

They need to drop the gold requirement to play online on xbox its confusing for less savy consumers and more than likely pushes people away form the system, or do what other platforms do where free to play games don't cost anything to play online. If its this way on Switch, PlayStation and PC why are Microsoft being so miserly with this sort of thing.

If you have gamepass you should automatically have xbox live for online play.

[Atticus]

Here we go again. A new case has yet again been opened against me by PayPal and that deranged woman with the One X. I've started to PayPal that I'm seeking legal assistance now as this is bordering on harassment.

Oh dear lord, it’s still going on? eBay needs to draw a line under it. Can’t believe it. Must be a right ‘mare for you. Hope it gets put to bed soon.

[wakka]

Bloody hell that buyer is a psycho.

[fishbowlhead]

Defective or item not as described. Total bull****e from day one.

Is this person local? If so, go and retrieve the goods, then do a refund on the doorstep with the console in your hands. Then chuck a grenade in the place, fire is also effective.

[Neon Ignition]

It's a pretty disgusting move by MS really, particularly in light of it happening a mere two months after the launch of their new consoles. Given the intended pitch for Series S it's akin to a bait and switch as they're basically saying that if you bought the new system on the basis of having a cheap entry point to next-gen they've hoodwinked you and will rip you off an extra $60 going forward per renewal. Now, Game Pass currently softens that blow as intended but we know only a % of Xbox owners sub to GP and have therefore chosen not to use it. The case can be made that it makes GP even more valuable now (as long as it doesn't also increase) but it's effectively trying to drag people into subbing to it against what would otherwise be their will and in turn then means they're spending $120 per year more than they were or intended to when buying the system.

Value of GP or not it's exactly this kind of nonsense that will hobble XSX and enshrine it falls behind the pack like XBO did. They'd likely make a chunk of that extra change simply by removing all the wealth of Live and GP loopholes. I know GP is great but I think they've just made bunch of people think getting a PS5 or Switch is an increasingly attractive idea.

[Cassius_Smoke]

So let me get this straight... Xbox launched with no exclusive games and now has the most expensive option to play online? Are MS trying to kill the console? Is there a reason to buy one?

[nonny]

It's a pretty disgusting move by MS really, particularly in light of it happening a mere two months after the launch of their new consoles. Given the intended pitch for Series S it's akin to a bait and switch as they're basically saying that if you bought the new system on the basis of having a cheap entry point to next-gen they've hoodwinked you and will rip you off an extra $60 going forward per renewal. Now, Game Pass currently softens that blow as intended but we know only a % of Xbox owners sub to GP and have therefore chosen not to use it. The case can be made that it makes GP even more valuable now (as long as it doesn't also increase) but it's effectively trying to drag people into subbing to it against what would otherwise be their will and in turn then means they're spending $120 per year more than they were or intended to when buying the system.

Value of GP or not it's exactly this kind of nonsense that will hobble XSX and enshrine it falls behind the pack like XBO did. They'd likely make a chunk of that extra change simply by removing all the wealth of Live and GP loopholes. I know GP is great but I think they've just made bunch of people think getting a PS5 or Switch is an increasingly attractive idea.

I think they've mis-handled it as well. I mean, it was only a matter of time before XBL disappears because it just confuses options... But raising it's price now just the wrong move.

I think they should have phased out the 6-12 month options and made all F2P titles actually free to play. So if you want to just stay a gold subscriber you would now have to renew monthly and that's it.

They've of course made games with gold fairly enticing for February (Gears 5, Resi Evil, Lost Planet 2 etc...) but it doesn't make up for the fact a price hike is a bitter pill to swallow.

[Cassius_Smoke]

All Sony have to do is start expanding PS Collection and leave the price as is and that's Xbox chasing coat tails again.

[Neon Ignition]

A bit like has been mooted on Era, it would have been curious to know if MS really thinks this will be a more successful strategy than dropping XBL charges altogether and coaxing its subbers over the the more expensive GP