That was fun, huh Pachter?
By Nytrik 32 Comments
About a year ago the games industry's resident Economist, Michael Pachter, made the prediction that the price for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions would increase, everyone called him an idiot. I don’t believe I remember any person, including my self agreeing with his estimation. I more so don't remember having an opinion because it was just too far flung in the future. The proposition that Microsoft, after being overwhelmingly successful in most aspects, would increase the only other pure profit revenue they had seems extremely possible.
He proposed the idea that in order to bring PC gamers into the console market, Microsoft is going to need to put something that PC gamers can only get on the Xbox 360. Microsoft has only one thing that it can offer over the PC games that everyone has available: The online experience of specific games. These games of course are only accessible over Xbox Live Gold Memberships.
This is where I don’t see the logistics of this argument, at least brought into fruition with today’s announcement. If what Pachter said is true about Microsofts intent, wouldn’t this be counter-productive? Wouldn’t increasing the price of entry into a multiplayer experience (when PS3 or PC does it for free) only hurt the entrance of new consumers coming over? Even so, Microsoft has stated that they want to bring more PC support to the board. Maybe this whole 10 dollar increase is money they can put towards that, although I doubt Microsoft is struggling.
Still, If I can quote twitter today @HardGoreGamer: "pachter should just wear a wizards hat wherever he goes. He's certainly earned the right to do so."