Look, I am totally in favor of charging for NEW stuff. You guys said that you were NOT going to charge for existing things. This is messed up. You cannot tell the community that the site will remain the same for free users, and then do something totally different. You said the original site would be the same, all of the payed stuff would be brand new. I wouldn't be as upset (I'd still be pretty upset), if we hadn't been promised free users would not experience any change. This is not at all what we were told. The rest of the stuff is TOTALLY cool. I understand the need for money for big videos and stuff. But your fee is the same as Xbox Live's, and you don't have to do NEARLY as much. If you guys gave the Bombcast a bit early, maybe a couple of days, I wouldn't mind. But I think its a real cheap shot to the people who love you guys, who want to keep up with you guys, but by the time they hear all of the stuff they listen to the Bombcast for, its already in the past and something else is going on. I will HAPPILY give you guys money. But, this was a dishonest move. Its a podcast. You aren't charging for early access, your PUNISHING people who cannot afford your fee, setting them back a week. I love Giant Bomb, I am more than happy to pay the fee for you guys to ADD things to the site. But this is a big hit to my respect to you guys. At the very least, make it so that there is a cheaper fee you can pay purely for access to the Bombcast. I can't imagine 5-10 bucks a year would bother either side for that. But for people who don't want things like HD footage, who just want the Bombcast, $50 is fucking insane.  

Your podcast is very topical, talking about the last weeks events. If you make people listen to it a week later, a LOT of people are just going to say "Fuck that, I already know all of this."  

You have done just fine with this site as it is without a fee. That includes the Bombcast. I understand that you have to work really really hard to develop these new features. I WANT to pay you for those things, because you guys TOTALLY deserve it. But the Bombcast? That is pure content, and it seems really dishonest for you to not only do it, but wait till the last second to say anything about it. Seems to me like you knew people would hate this. You wanna charge for the Bombcast being live? FUCK yes. I would TOTALLY pay for that. But I would never pay for a podcast, certainly not for timely access to a TOPICAL weekly Bombcast. I understand it takes a lot of time. I do, really. I understand that gets in the way of your time. But making people miss half of it really sucks. 
 
Let me be clear. I LOVE you guys. I really do. And I would love to pay more for OTHER things just to keep the podcast free for all other users. But this seems really fucking unfair to the people who cannot pay the fee. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to a lot of the people out there, but considering the hardships of this time, and how much of your audience is pretty young, you are really screwing over a lot of people. 

 You guys said that the change would be additive. The fact that you didn't see that it was important to keep that word is really disappointing. I am totally going to subscribe. Totally. I love you guys, and you are worth it. But I know what it is like as the person who cannot pay for this kind of thing, and it sucks. I know a lot of people often lose the awareness of those people, but that doesn't make it fair. 
 
Please guys, at the very least, think of a way to help out the people who cannot or will not pay the $50 fee. Maybe you can accept donations, or you can just allow people to pay for ONLY the podcast. Not everyone can or gives a shit about 720p, most people do NOT browse the web frequently on smartphones, etc. So break things up. Even some poor 14 year old can afford 5-15 bucks a year. So not only will people be able to just get what they want, but you will see more people who will be willing to pay for your content. I want to see you guys live like kings, but I hate that you feel you have to punish the people who built you. If I was a rich ass mother, I would totally just pay people's fees, or just pay for all of the costs of the podcast myself, but unfortunately, I cannot do that. You guys deserve money, but I hate when things like this and Live, and other payed services have a black and white format, when so much of those things are totally useless to a lot of people. I am willing to bet that like, 30% of people on Live would rather just get a cheaper fee for nothing but voice chat and online play. 
 
I really hope this works out for you guys, and maybe some day you'll do so well that you can stop charging for timely podcasts or something. You guys do amazing things, really, and you deserve to make a load of cash. You guys have more integrity then every fucking journalist out there in the industry combined. You guys make life great for me, and I love ya all to death. Really, you guys do amazing things, and you keep the industry at least a little bit pure, cutting through the bullshit and working for us, the consumers of the content. I really don't want you guys to think, if you read this, that I think you guys aren't worth it, that you don't deserve something for your troubles, because you do. I just hope you guys can give people a better solution, like changing it to a live stream of the podcast, or giving a smaller fee for just the Bombcast.