Xbox Series S/X: Thread 05

[nonny]

one step forward two steps back

https://www.ign.com/articles/halo-infinite-dev-343-explains-shop-price-hike-this-isnt-necessarily-what-everyone-wants-to-hear

So Halo is seeing a surge in player numbers and getting a bit of a resurgence so 343 decided now would be a good time to hike the store prices, way to go on slowing the momentum and good will generated with a decent update, somebody really needs to remove the idiots from the wheel.

Due to then rolling out cross core customisation, which means each helmet, shoulder armour etc can work across many armour sets.

I get the back lash on pricing but each piece is now more versatile and useful so equally I understand the devs position as well because there's less individual items and more re-use.

This coming from somone who hasn't bought a single thing from the Halo store besides the battle packs (which pay you back when you complete them).

[Lebowski]

Whats that you can mix and match different visors and shoulder pads, that must of taken the office junior all of ten minutes to do, wow your right it is worth a price hike

its more the point that they where riding the wave of launching a good season and getting some really strong positive player feedback that was pulling people back in which would have increased revenue already, but they managed to dump all over that and start a boycott of their store by increasing prices just as players started turning back up.

The cynic in me feels this was upper management looking at player numbers going up and saying if we increase prices by x we can hit our target for Micro transactions this quarter. its all about timing and they picked the worst possible time to roll this price increase out.

[Neon Ignition]

I feels like this wave of Xbox related price increases is like MS have said "Fine, you can buy Activision, but you are going to have to make sure you can cover the cost" so they're skimming on multiple fronts from day one

[nonny]

Whats that you can mix and match different visors and shoulder pads, that must of taken the office junior all of ten minutes to do, wow your right it is worth a price hike

its more the point that they where riding the wave of launching a good season and getting some really strong positive player feedback that was pulling people back in which would have increased revenue already, but they managed to dump all over that and start a boycott of their store by increasing prices just as players started turning back up.

The cynic in me feels this was upper management looking at player numbers going up and saying if we increase prices by x we can hit our target for Micro transactions this quarter. its all about timing and they picked the worst possible time to roll this price increase out.

I think it's just they didn't explain it well enough to the community and any price rise is seen as anti consumer.

Fact is every cosmetic piece was previously locked up a specific armour core and the community hated it and wanted every piece to work on every armour core.

So 343 spent months making sure it now works that way and that it will in future. I guess also ensuring it doesn't clip, look wrong or change hitboxes etc...

What they didn't do is then tell people who had bought this or were planning to buy it that the prices would all be re-adjusted with most being more expensive to reflect their wider compatibility.

I dunno ... it's free to play, they've got to make money somehow. Plus they've done absolute wonders with the game outside of this.

Quite a few people are naturally vocal about it but then I'm sure the majority of players are like me who never buy any of this crap anyway and just enjoy the game.

In summary I don't think 343v are nickel and diming the community here, the truth is somewhere in the middle...

[wakka]

The Xbox price hikes are in lockstep with explicit and implicit price hikes by every big tech company in the past few weeks. Netflix just went up again by a few dollars. YouTube are cracking down on ad blocking. Apple jacked up the price of its subscription services across the board. PlayStation are issuing cheaper-looking hardware and keeping prices the same (higher, compared to launch, of course).

Every one of those companies enjoyed soaring earnings and valuations during the pandemic. Now the good times are over, consumers have less money to spend, and all of them are trying to find ways to jack the numbers back up.

The easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to do that is by squeezing your existing customer base.

[Neon Ignition]

Swap US Treasury for Gaming Consumers

[Lebowski]

I think it's just they didn't explain it well enough to the community and any price rise is seen as anti consumer.

Fact is every cosmetic piece was previously locked up a specific armour core and the community hated it and wanted every piece to work on every armour core.

So 343 spent months making sure it now works that way and that it will in future. I guess also ensuring it doesn't clip, look wrong or change hitboxes etc...

Hit box work no their not changing the outer of a helmet by making visors swap-able at most they have had to make sure Armour doesn't clip into each other i doubt this would of taken them months.

I dunno ... it's free to play, they've got to make money somehow. Plus they've done absolute wonders with the game outside of this.

Free to play is massively lucrative when done right, (Fornite, Call or duty Warzone) these games Make billions in revenue every year. they keep things consistent and provide a massive amount of updates they don't kill their game by creating controversy just as their experiencing a boom in player numbers. If anything this has probably cost 343 more than if they had not increased prices.

[Neon Ignition]

Unless it's a glitch (given how many there are these days on it) MS appears to have slashed daily achievement rewards from 50pts per day to just 5pts

So an AVG of 1500 cut to just 150

There's always an element of not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth but the cuts are becoming so aggressive that it's getting closer and closer to defeating the point of keeping people going out of their way to use the ecosystem per day. The Xbox app hasn't given any points at all for around 4 days now either and the mobile app has nothing bespoke anymore or the rewards page which gets one tile per month. With the Puzzle Piece reward being utterly broken, if you're doing the daily PC Being rewards you're capturing most of what's up for grabs with Xbox becoming borderline redundant as a factor

[nonny]

Yeah that sucks...

[Lebowski]

I don't think Microsoft expected people to game the system the way they have, Macros for searches and a reddit community dedicated to maximization of points with all sorts fo tricks and tips. I bet its really problematic how people hoard points for years too, People saving up for years to get a xbox is crazy from a free scheme.

These reward schemes are supposed to push people to purchase with a small discount or use the Microsoft points to get discounts off new releases. they really are cracking down though, ive also seen a large amount more people complaining about not being able to redeem points on reddit. The term bad faith searches pops up a lot with accounts suspended, (hitting single letters for a search or doing the quick click through of an actors films every day or having a bookmark folder full of searches has seen people get their accounts frozen out of all rewards and them being unable to redeem anything.

[Neon Ignition]

To build up enough points for a Series X, at maximum tilt, now takes between 2-2.5 years

[Brad]

And you have to be involved with Microsoft all that time. No thanks

[wakka]

Two and a half years of doing pointless little digital chores for Microsoft every day to get a free Xbox.

The AI future is now folks. This is your next 100 years - performing futile tasks to prove your eyeballs are paying attention because the computers are doing all their real work and our only remaining marketable skill is our ability to watch ads.

Happy Thursday!

[dataDave]

At least the time spent performing those little chores means that's time not spent buying and playing Nintendo and PlayStation games.

[nonny]

Well at least it was good while it lasted.

I managed to grab a Series S & Series X heavily discounted... and a wireless headset and about 6 controllers over the past few years so I won't be complaining.

Plus lord knows how many games.