Microsoft: No Live Price Hikes (Yet) & Why Our Drives Cost More
During a recent sales call Microsoft answered questions regarding Michael Pachter’s prediction that Xbox Live will be doubled in price. He stated that the subscription would rise from $50 (£40 in the UK) to $100 in the next couple of years. Microsoft’s David Dennis responded with “I don’t foresee a scenario where we’re going to double the price of Live anytime in the next couple months“. (Emphasis added) IndustryGamers.com has speculated that Dennis is speaking literally and that after Christmas, the prices could go up. This news is worrying for those already struggling to justify, or even be able to afford (such as myself) the hefty annual cost.
However in the last portion of the article, Dennis talks about the cost of the Xbox 360′s hard drive:
“A lot of the price comparisons you hear have to do with the hard drive, but your average off-the-shelf PC hard drive isn’t as exhaustively tested or run through the same quality and safety compliance checklists we employ.”
So just to be clear, Microsoft’s hard drives are more expensive because they’re safety checked and tested. Intrigued I went to Amazon to do a quick price comparison. Amazon sells the official Xbox 360 120GB HDD for $134.49 (£93.79 on Amazon UK) and a 2.5 inch 120GB internal drive for $64.99 (£40.95). That’s a $69.50 (£52.84) price difference. So they can test it. You might argue, “Of course they’re going to sell it for loads more,” but for them to claim that you get a safer, more failure-resistant drive is bullshit. It can’t cost them nearly $70 to test it and make sure it’s not going to explode when you turn it on.
Microsoft also talked about their “attach rate” which is corporate speak for people buying and actually using the accessories that Microsoft sell. They claim they have a better attach rate than both Sony and Nintendo, which frankly makes sense as you need to mortgage your house to buy a hard drive so you better get use out of it. Industry Gamers notes (and it was the first thing that crossed my mind) that you can swap out the PlayStation 3′s hard drive fairly easily. It’s also considerably cheaper, with Amazon selling a compatible 320GB drive for $59.99 (£41.32), nearly three times the capacity for $74 less.
Microsoft, we know you love money, but come on. We’ve already given you hundreds of our hard earned for consoles, controllers and games. How about you give us a break, there’s a recession on you know.
Source: PCWorld.com Via: Kombo.com
I will state it publicly for posterity; if Xbox Live INCREASES in cost next year I will “transition” to a Silver member until the price goes back to normal. It’s unbelievable that we pay to play peer-to-peer networked games on a console. Microsoft, please don’t add insult to injury!
i am wondering what microsoft has to say about them battery packs (that fail after 5 months) costing 30 bucks.
“because they are filled with unobtanium”, maybe.
Or placing the HDMI port in such a way that you cannot use the optical out without using the proprietary cable (also 30 bucks) or modding your component cable (which will get blocked sooner or later, because its easy to detect)
and thats why i get my gold on ebay. 30 bucks for 14 months.
I’m considering dropping Xbox Live Gold in November anyway, this would be a nice bit of encouragement.
@NoZart: I bought 4 rechargeable batteries and a charger for £7. They last the same as the official Xbox pack and I can use the batteries for other things too.
i know that.
but having a battery that can be charged while playing is a convenience factor you get for free on the PS3, IIRC ;-)
I really can’t see the price of LIVE going up anytime soon – they must know that even the current cost is getting harder and harder to justify as the PSN steadily catches up, and even without that competition it’s a fairly hefty fee considering that aside from online gaming all you get is a lot of ads and microtransaction opportunities. I imagine all the new social networking functionality will make a price-hike seem feasible to the bean-counters, but it’s all stuff you can get for free on a PC/smartphone anyway, so it’s definitely not chargeable – all it’s done is make Gold feel like a bit less of a rip off.
Also, attach rate usually refers to games not accesories – I haven’t seen the call transcript but could they be talking about games here? I have seen docs that show the Xbox attach rate (for games) is the highest, though both H4RDC0AR consoles are way out in front of Nintendo.
How exactly do the companies “measure” attach rates? By looking at the savegames/achievements? By their wholesale throughput? Or are they talking to all the retailers and condense the sales?
Shame they don’t do the same amount of quality assurance testing the rest of their console as they do with their hard drives.
BA DUM TISH
@Sup3rT3d: They measure both accessories and software with the attach rate.
“Our accessory attach rate is higher than anyone’s,” said Dennis. “It’s 4.1 for us, 2.2 for PS3, and 3.4 for the Wii. That mirrors software too. We typically have a very high attach rate, which–getting back to total dollars spent–shows the high level of consumer engagement with the platform. They don’t just buy it once with the pack-in game, then sit around and not use it. They’re out actively spending, which is great for the industry.”
From the PC World article.