You Can Now Buy the $99 Xbox 360 In Places Other Than Microsoft's Barely Existent Stores

This would've been amazing before I switched to PC Gaming haha. But nonetheless this is still a cool deal.

Seems like a crap deal. Might as well get a micro-loan and buy it normally to get the same horrible effect.

Someone who can't afford the full price should consider if their financial situation and a current gen HD console fit together for the time being...

@TwoSe7enFive: @TwoSe7enFive said:

Yeah we get it, it's a terrible deal for most people. But @Alex maybe try writing with less snark once and a while.

"in" a while, maybe?

TLC is already filming a show where repo men come and collect your xbox if you have failed to make your payments.

Well if everybody thought like alex nobody would ever buy a house or a car or own a credit card for that matter. In this deal Microsoft is basically loaning you 300 dollars up front that has to be paid back over 2 years...with interest. Not to sound like a dick but its how our economy works. Stuff is always more expensive if you have to borrow money to buy it.

Wonder why they didnt mention this @ E3...

Microsoft have their own shops? Interesting. Not in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as far as I'm aware. Probably for the best, eh!

Two words: Poor Tax.

And what becomes of the willing souls who enter into this bullshit, then can't honour the contract? Presumably the hardware is repossessed and they get sued and/or their credit rating gets shredded. Over a games console.

Please...

Your better off ponying up $300

You can get Gold or not and if so for cheaper $50 a year in some cases for a totally of around $400 for 2 years

With no contract obligations

P.S. You can buy DLC as a Silver Member

@Duxa said:

@HydraHam said:

@Duxa said:

Why would I pay $450 for something that can be bought for $250 from the same store? If you are really in the position where you can not afford to plop down $250 and have to finance that small sum of money over 2 years... then you should not be investing in a video game console in the first place... play all the F2P games on the PC. Or even better... find a better paying job.

Same reason people go to those rent 2 own stores where they end up paying $15000 for a $999 tv in the long run. It's the same reason people use services like HSN and QVC or the billion other buy now for X and pay X monthly services, because people are fucking impatient.

From a logical standpoint i can see why people would do a QVC/HSN buy on lets say a $2000 TV for 5 payments of i don't know $450 w/ small interest from the place where you only end up paying a few hundred more then what you would of paid upfront because throwing a couple of grand at something gets fucking expensive but something like this is just ridiculous but it must make business sense or they wouldn't of done this, it must of done pretty well at those "focus" stores or they wouldn't be rolling it out at all these other stores which brings me back to people are fucking impatient, and stupid.

TL;DR, similar models for more expensive things makes sense, this doesn't. People are stupid and impatient.

I totally get the model, but not at nearly double the price.. i dont see how anyone in their right mind take advantage (or disadvantage) of this deal. I mean thats 45% interest.... you are better off putting it on your credit card, most of which are around 20%... even 2 years out ull pay less to the bank.

Lets not confuse this with the phone company model either... there you are paying for a service... phone service/data etc... wether you buy that iPhone for $200 or not, you will not pay more or less for your service... but as a customer, comitting to the service for 2 years, you get a great deal on the phone $200 instead of $600. That $400 is not subsitized over 2 years, because you dont pay anymore for getting that phone....

Lets say you have a plan for $30 a month. Over 2 years thats $720 over 2 years. For the service. You arent paying anything off... as a thanks they give you a deal on the iPhone.

WIth Xbox though, the Xbox is $250, and they penalize you for committing to 2 years. Especially considering that around Thanksgiving you can usually pick up an xbox for $99 (with $199 down and get 100$ gift card) deals... thats how I picked up my last 2 Xboxes.

The only way this deal would make sense if they went like this.... Xbox $250+ 2 years of XBL (2*60) = $370.... they give you a deal... for comitting for 2 years... and selling you that for $350. So 350-99 = 251/24 = ~$10 a month.

What happens when someone cant make a payment anyways? Does MS go after you?

Complete agree but people are stupid :-/

I have used services like QVC multiple times, i ended up getting a 55" w/ 5 months of payment and in the end i ended up paying about $200 more then i would at a best buy, places like that make perfect sense for big $ purchases but this is just goddamn outrageous but then again look at places like Rent-A-Center where it ends up costing you 2 grand to own a current console if you were to rent to own, we live in a world full of stupid people and if you can make money off stupid people then go for it i guess. Personally as someone who runs a business (similar to geek squad but on a much smaller scale) i make it a point to be fair in price because i don't like to do business like but sadly most of these companies are only there to take your money and as much as possible.

@Majkiboy said:

I am giggling, because the 360 isn't worth that much today and certainly not in two years :) (payment plan or not)

I didn't even realize this point. During the two years that people will be contracted on this plan, the 360 is going to inevitably have a price drop. Unless the monthly contract becomes cheaper to match, people who buy into this will be ripped off even more.

This is a bad idea for a current gen system. For a next gen system that's gonna be around for at least 5-10 years? I don't know. Sounds interesting.

This is a rip-off.

@HydraHam said:

@Duxa said:

Why would I pay $450 for something that can be bought for $250 from the same store? If you are really in the position where you can not afford to plop down $250 and have to finance that small sum of money over 2 years... then you should not be investing in a video game console in the first place... play all the F2P games on the PC. Or even better... find a better paying job.

Same reason people go to those rent 2 own stores where they end up paying $15000 for a $999 tv in the long run. It's the same reason people use services like HSN and QVC or the billion other buy now for X and pay X monthly services, because people are fucking impatient.

From a logical standpoint i can see why people would do a QVC/HSN buy on lets say a $2000 TV for 5 payments of i don't know $450 w/ small interest from the place where you only end up paying a few hundred more then what you would of paid upfront because throwing a couple of grand at something gets fucking expensive but something like this is just ridiculous but it must make business sense or they wouldn't of done this, it must of done pretty well at those "focus" stores or they wouldn't be rolling it out at all these other stores which brings me back to people are fucking impatient, and stupid.

TL;DR, similar models for more expensive things makes sense, this doesn't. People are stupid and impatient.

I totally get the model, but not at nearly double the price.. i dont see how anyone in their right mind take advantage (or disadvantage) of this deal. I mean thats 45% interest.... you are better off putting it on your credit card, most of which are around 20%... even 2 years out ull pay less to the bank.

Lets not confuse this with the phone company model either... there you are paying for a service... phone service/data etc... wether you buy that iPhone for $200 or not, you will not pay more or less for your service... but as a customer, comitting to the service for 2 years, you get a great deal on the phone $200 instead of $600. That $400 is not subsitized over 2 years, because you dont pay anymore for getting that phone....

Lets say you have a plan for $30 a month. Over 2 years thats $720 over 2 years. For the service. You arent paying anything off... as a thanks they give you a deal on the iPhone.

WIth Xbox though, the Xbox is $250, and they penalize you for committing to 2 years. Especially considering that around Thanksgiving you can usually pick up an xbox for $99 (with $199 down and get 100$ gift card) deals... thats how I picked up my last 2 Xboxes.

The only way this deal would make sense if they went like this.... Xbox $250+ 2 years of XBL (2*60) = $370.... they give you a deal... for comitting for 2 years... and selling you that for $350. So 350-99 = 251/24 = ~$10 a month.

What happens when someone cant make a payment anyways? Does MS go after you?

@TwoSe7enFive said:

Yeah we get it, it's a terrible deal for most people. But @Alex maybe try writing with less snark once and a while.

I'd quit reading Alex articles if he ever toned it down

Buy a Refurbished Console, don't waste your money.

For 3 Reasons:

1. The Xbox 720 is coming soon (less than 2 years...supposedly)

2. The new Slims have Lite-On DG-16D5S DVD-rom on (1175 Firmware) that can't be flashed to play back-ups.

3. The new Dashboard Updates ( 2.0.15574.0 & 2.0.15572.0) won't allow you to run a custom NAND/Jtag, unless you have Dashboard 2.0.14699.0.

I do not play games on Xbox Live anymore because of all the annoying children who scream on the mic & all the "Tryhards" who get murdered by me then send hate mail constantly cause they want a 1v1 just so I can embarrass their sorry asses again and again in front of all their friends. Microsoft would have to pay me to play on Live...

@sandweed said:

@Humanity: to be fair you also pay for the use of their (admittedly shitty) network.

Indeed. For someone who want a 360, can't afford to pay full price up-front, and already decided that they want / wouldn't mind being a Gold subscriber, this might be a good deal for them. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people fall into this seemingly unlikely demographic.

Dumbest deal ever, you are paying more than what it's worth

I'm poor as hell, want a new xbox, and I still don't think I'm going to go for this deal. I'll just, you know, be patient and save up.

This is great, Microsoft has cornered the market on getting poor people to buy a "next gen" console.

They can totally play it on their Rent-A-Center TV.

@Humanity: to be fair you also pay for the use of their (admittedly shitty) network.

@Napalm: Sure they do but in light of a rate-driven buying model the purpose of a phone has no bearing on the argument itself. The fact that AT&T STILL charges you $200 for an iPhone upon signing a 2 year contract despite the fact that you will have paid the phone off 3 times over by the end of it is just as bad a ripoff if not worse.

I'd say that, given the time value of money, this is a pretty rippin deal.

@Humanity said:

[...] since the idea here is that you're getting something cheaper up front and end up paying more in the long run as opposed to dishing out the full cover price up front. This is true for literally any rate system and it's not for suckers but people that have a steady income albeit a lower one.

I don't think any of us are arguing against this. I was only arguing that a cell phone and a videogame console serve two very different purposes, and beside that at the base level, what I quoted above, they really aren't the same in any aspect or respect, so bringing up, "this is what cell phone companies do!1" really doesn't hold any water. A cell phone serves a fundamentally different purpose than what a household videogame console does.

Going by the Windows 8 surface tablets and Phone events I am hoping a MS manned Xbox event could still be on the cards before the year is out with an announcement of the New Console. At E3 you would have goes on the new games coming o the console with this years event being only the announcement.

MS new approach to these things and the fail on Nintendo's part on how they have handled announcing the WIi U - I think that would be a good move.

Shifting games, delayed games, games that can not work on current consoles being shown off, price cut of the 360, sales finally slowing down..

I think this is on the cards.

I am giggling, because the 360 isn't worth that much today and certainly not in two years :) (payment plan or not)

@umdesch4 said:

@Humanity said:

@Napalm said:

@Humanity said:

@Napalm said:

@hughesman said:

I find it interesting that most the people criticizing this business model have probably been doing this with their cell phones for years.

Apples to oranges.

It's the exact same thing.

No, it's not. I'll give you a clue: one is a cellphone, the other is not.

You couldn't possibly be this dense? I'll help you out as well: most comparison aren't limited by the physical attributes of the objects in question.

I think what he's probably getting at is that something like a cell phone (or in my case, a student loan, or a house) is a lot easier to argue as a "need" than a game machine. If you can't afford a cell phone up front, you should probably have one anyway, so that a potential employer can call you any time, anywhere. If you can't afford an xbox up front and you go for this deal, well...there's one born every minute I guess...

It's not even that. It really is apples and oranges. With a cell phone you still have to pay the full monthly charge even if you pay for the phone up front. You're just not locked into a contract. And that just lets you go to another company...to pay monthly. As long as you want a phone you gotta pay. There really isn't a choice. This is not analogous to the Xbox deal.

Whatever, I think this an okay deal, I'll be all over this if they do it for the next-gen system

Do you think Microsoft will have this sort of payment option when they launch the their next console, or is it just their last effort to get everyone to purchase a 360 that wants one?

I would love to see the numbers how successful this is within a time frame of 6 months later.

They throw in a 2 year warranty as well which our training guides use to tell us that you actually save money.

I'm glad you are so trusting of the vendor while I would suggest "If you haven't gotten a console yet, hold off". Especially from Sony and Microsoft, they have a less than stellar track record on this information where neither have incentive to start now.

@EXTomar said:

@CH3BURASHKA said:

To be fair, a 70 dollar premium over 2 years isn't that terrible. As the Bombadeers have admitted, they've let MMO subs laps for months on end, so as long as you make the conscious decision of overpaying in exchange for paying slower, go for it.

I believe the issue is that at 2006-7 a similar deal would be a fair deal. At the end of life it is like "shady used car sales" stuff.

I honestly think the 360 and PS3 have at least another 2 years of life in them. Adoption of next gen consoles is going to be pretty slow this time, at least that's the vibe I get. PS1s sold well way into the PS2 life. You can still get new slim PS2s. It's not really all that crazy. It's not like they're out to trick people, it's just another option if they want to take it and to encourage slowing sales in the golden years of a system's life.

What will be kind of weird now that I'm turning my attention toward the future is how quickly gamestop is going to clearance out PS3 games once this generation is officially over. They did it with Dreamcast and Xbox games, and with Wii and 360 having the most significant presence this generation, PS3 is going to have to give up that extra shelf space in stores.

@CH3BURASHKA said:

To be fair, a 70 dollar premium over 2 years isn't that terrible. As the Bombadeers have admitted, they've let MMO subs laps for months on end, so as long as you make the conscious decision of overpaying in exchange for paying slower, go for it.

I believe the issue is that at 2006-7 a similar deal would be a fair deal. At the end of life it is like "shady used car sales" stuff.

@onan said:

Keep in mind it depends on how you want to cut the XBL cost pie up. The console with Kinect is 299.99. It's $59.99 retail for a 12-month card, or $9.99 for a month to month account. Ignore the very obvious cost savings if someone is trying to cut corners by getting a monthly membership. By paying up front, you're only saving $40 over the next two years. That's forty dollars over seven-hundred and thirty days. I'll do the math for you: You can play the Xbox today for $420, or, you can pay $99.99 to play today, pay the rest later, with the added convenience fee of an additional $0.0548 per day. You save a nickel. If someone put the purchase on their credit card, depending on their APR, the compound interest might actually make it more expensive to buy this bundle in full on day one. (And let's be realistic here: If someone is considering this $99 deal, you know for a fact that putting it all on the CC is the only other option.)

This is criticizing people who can't scrounge up $400+ for an impulse purchase and really doesn't validate the snark. $400 isn't a tiny amount of money, and while many of us might be able to drop that much just because we like the new color or design of a system, a lot of people don't have that kind of extra scratch laying around. For the cost of a World of Warcraft subscription though, people can afford a brand new console *today* instead of a few months or a year from now. That's worth the small premium, I think.

You could ask why anyone here bothers with a Silver membership when a Gold Giantbomb membership costs less money in the long run. It's the same idea. Should people put off those impulse sign-ups because they don't have $50 for you guys today? It's a bit hypocritical.

Thank you for coming at this with a moderate mind frame. This isn't necessarily a bad dead.

All this is is a marketing experiment that has proven to be profitable. Just like a marketing campaign where you invest 100 dollars and your return is 125 dollars, you've proven profitability and move ahead with scaling up the campaign.

The contract xbox is a product campaign that has proven profitable on a small scale (microsoft stores) and is being expanded because people are buying it. Is the contract a good deal? No. Does it offer a new way to pay for a fancy toy for people who can't pay in full up front? YES.

Just like no money down, easy monthly payments. People want that sort of deal.

Not a good idea....

So what the eff does everyone involved in the purchase do if there's a price drop or a new console within the next 2 years?? Sounds like a recipe for confusion and resentment. This should've been done at the start of the life cycle.

@sins_of_mosin said:

Its all about your situation.

100% this. A lot of people don't have a couple of hundred dollars upfront to buy a console so they go with a monthly plan knowing it'll cost them more in the long run. People are happy to pay that extra if it means they get it right now.

You'd be stupid to buy this, in the end with the 2 year agreement you are paying $460..... M$ must think people are stupid.... oh wait.

To be fair, a 70 dollar premium over 2 years isn't that terrible. As the Bombadeers have admitted, they've let MMO subs laps for months on end, so as long as you make the conscious decision of overpaying in exchange for paying slower, go for it.

Smart phones just like consoles are expensive and not for everyone. Changing the price scheme isn't a panacea either.

@DonPixel: Polite, great maple syrup, hockey.

It really is a great idea.  Its sad that people are so clueless that this is just like a lot of other things.  Take insurance.  You can save money by paying all six months right now or pay a little more to do it monthly.  Its all about your situation.

Keep in mind it depends on how you want to cut the XBL cost pie up. The console with Kinect is 299.99. It's $59.99 retail for a 12-month card, or $9.99 for a month to month account. Ignore the very obvious cost savings if someone is trying to cut corners by getting a monthly membership. By paying up front, you're only saving $40 over the next two years. That's forty dollars over seven-hundred and thirty days. I'll do the math for you: You can play the Xbox today for $420, or, you can pay $99.99 to play today, pay the rest later, with the added convenience fee of an additional $0.0548 per day. You save a nickel. If someone put the purchase on their credit card, depending on their APR, the compound interest might actually make it more expensive to buy this bundle in full on day one. (And let's be realistic here: If someone is considering this $99 deal, you know for a fact that putting it all on the CC is the only other option.)

This is criticizing people who can't scrounge up $400+ for an impulse purchase and really doesn't validate the snark. $400 isn't a tiny amount of money, and while many of us might be able to drop that much just because we like the new color or design of a system, a lot of people don't have that kind of extra scratch laying around. For the cost of a World of Warcraft subscription though, people can afford a brand new console *today* instead of a few months or a year from now. That's worth the small premium, I think.

You could ask why anyone here bothers with a Silver membership when a Gold Giantbomb membership costs less money in the long run. It's the same idea. Should people put off those impulse sign-ups because they don't have $50 for you guys today? It's a bit hypocritical.

@tophernav said:

It's not even that. It really is apples and oranges. With a cell phone you still have to pay the full monthly charge even if you pay for the phone up front. You're just not locked into a contract. And that just lets you go to another company...to pay monthly. As long as you want a phone you gotta pay. There really isn't a choice. This is not analogous to the Xbox deal.

Ah yes, definitely that too. I have an xbox here that's never been connected to the internet. It's still very useful, and best of all, IT STILL HAS BLADES ON IT!!!

@tophernav: Are you saying that a two year contract with a cell phone company isn't defraying the cost of, for example, an iphone? They give you a consumer electronic up front at a discounted price then you sign a contract to service. Do you think they would ever sell you that phone at that price without the contract agreement?

I get that your saying a phone is useless without a plan but your assuming that those plans would cost the same without the "deal" on the phone.

If your implying that part of that monthly service bill isn't marked up to not only recoup that hardware cost but to make a profit on that hardware "deal" they gave you then your wrong.

It's the same.