Is Microsoft lifting the paywall for the XboxOne?

One of my biggest issues with Xbox Live and the Xbox360 is that you need to be a gold subscriber to use premium streaming services such as Netflix and Lovefilm. Is that all about to change with the XboxOne? Possibly maybe.

As reported by The Verge during the //Build conference Microsoft is telling devs that if they want to write apps for the XboxOne they should start writing apps for Windows 8. As Microsoft have previously announced the XboxOne has an Xbox OS and a completely separate OS based on the Windows 8 kernel that runs non-gaming apps which seems to suggest that the XboxOne will run either Win8 apps or slightly modified Win8 apps. Now Windows 8 already has streaming apps such as the Netflix app that do not require an Xbox Live Gold account to use. If and its a big if, the Win8 kernel is not governed by Xbox Live restrictions then we could be seeing existing streaming apps like Netflix and the VLC kickstarter ported over to the XboxOne and completely bypassing the requirement for a Gold account.

If not then serious questions have to be asked why the same app written for the same kernel requires no premium online account for one platform but does on the other.

Sorry link didn't work

correct link http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/27/4470658/xbox-one-windows-8-apps-build-2013

this would be the most shocking thing if they remove their paywall.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/06/26/real-reason-behind-microsofts-restructuring/

them sinking 700 million dollars into cloud server farms. and with their CEO steve balmer wanting to transform MS into a devices and services company, i expect more things to be behind the xbox live gold paywall. (especially when their entertainment division is like 10 percent of the company)

i think windows gets away, cause its windows, its the core pillar of microsoft.

but hey they are touting that the X1 has a windows 8 like OS in it and they are under heavy competition from sony, so i could be wrong.

NO ONE can defend buying xbox live to view net flix and even youtube so i hope MS removes these from the paywall.

I doubt they're letting anything out from behind the wall. Suggesting that devs make Win8 apps is probably a "because then you can release versions of those apps on all Win8-based devices, oh god please do that" move.

I would be shocked if this happened. They make a lot of money from xbl. Without netflix being behind a paywall, their wouldn't be a good reason to subscribe to xbl besides mp and not everyone plays mp.

I think this is a false correlation. The Netflix app is free on Windows because that would be ridiculous. No one would pay for the app because you can just open your browser and go to netflix.com. The Xbox One will be a closed system. I guarantee they will make sure that if you want access to a service, your only option on the system will be the official app that requires gold.

Well Id hope so. My gold just expired for the first time in 7 years on Monday. Getting tired of paying money for a service I feel im getting little value out of these days. PS+ may be required for PS4 but seeing as you have access to over $100 of games at any given time it almost instantly pays for itself.

Sadly I doubt it. They've made an immense amount of money off this service. Really, why stop now? It may sound selfish but I know if I had people paying me for this service for this long now I sure as hell wouldn't..

I don't think they'll ever drop the paid subscription for Xbox Live Gold. It's used to support the infrastructure, which has always been great IMO.

I think the real question is: Will Microsoft lower their $10 a month price? I mean how much does it really cost to handle an ultra-"stable" network? Same with PlayStation, I sure.

I can see them doing this, but not removing it all together.

then again, I couldn't really see them taking the DRM shit out so who knows

@animasta: Right. The thing is that Xbox Live never ever goes down, anymore. Just a couple of years ago, XBL would be spotty around Christmas time. XBL goes down for like an hour or so, more often than not. But they've certainly have never been hacked. If they got hacked tomorrow, and were down for like a month 'ala PS, I wouldn't be surprised. Anonymous are some wiley gents.

Anyway my point is that I wonder how much does it cost to keep these implodable networks muthafucking stable? Maybe!, its worth the $10 a month, if at least $7 month.

Last time I checked $60 a year is not $10 a month, it is $5 a month.

@ll_exile_ll: There's multiple options. Like you could pay per month and just have them charge you because "I'm just a lazy shit," like I'll probably be doing later.

That's still more money per month than should be paid in order to access subscription services that already have their own fees.

I don't see why they would abandon their current method with Xbox. Microsoft knows that Xbox serves a different market segment than their operating system — a much wider audience.

All they really have to do is put some fluffy buzzwords behind the idea that paying for a premium service results in better products and a large part of the target base will adjust to it. As long as sales figures aren't majorly affected by the paywall, it will remain for years to come.

Not the pay wall, but I could see them dropping a few walls to try and stay competitive.

Sony have recently said that f2p games, sub-fee MMOs, cross-game chat and Netflix-like services won't be behind their plus pay wall.

Given the current momentum that has built against them, I think Microsoft might be more open about these things than before.

I could see them taking netflix etc from behind the paywall. I have netflix, and the fact that I had to pay to use it on Xbox is one reason why I got rid of my 360 for a PS3. But if people are willing to pay it I'm not sure they would. We will have to wait and see how things shake out with Sony's new system.