Hey, remember when Microsoft announced that super weird $99 Xbox 360 deal that required purchasers to sign up for a two-year contract with a $14.99 monthly fee, like you were buying some kind of gigantic cell phone? And then they made the deal only available through one of the handful of existing Microsoft branded stores? If you don't remember what I'm talking about, I probably sound like a lunatic right now. But I assure you, it happened.

Now, Microsoft has brought that same deal to participating GameStop and Best Buy locations. According to Major Nelson, the deal officially launches at those retailers today, so if you want to get up on this right now, you theoretically could.

As I've mentioned before, however, the math doesn't necessarily work out in your favor on this one. The contract includes a 4GB Xbox 360, Kinect, and two years of Xbox Live Gold. With the $99 up front and the $14.99 monthly charge, that equates to about $460 total spent over the two years. You can get all that same equipment and two years of Xbox Live for roughly $399 nowadays. Of course, the idea here is to give those who can't afford the up-front investment a way to enjoy a new Xbox, but if you're the sort who enjoys not paying more money for things than they're worth, maybe skip this whole deal.

Hey, remember when Microsoft announced that super weird $99 Xbox 360 deal that required purchasers to sign up for a two-year contract with a $14.99 monthly fee, like you were buying some kind of gigantic cell phone? And then they made the deal only available through one of the handful of existing Microsoft branded stores? If you don't remember what I'm talking about, I probably sound like a lunatic right now. But I assure you, it happened.

Now, Microsoft has brought that same deal to participating GameStop and Best Buy locations. According to Major Nelson, the deal officially launches at those retailers today, so if you want to get up on this right now, you theoretically could.

As I've mentioned before, however, the math doesn't necessarily work out in your favor on this one. The contract includes a 4GB Xbox 360, Kinect, and two years of Xbox Live Gold. With the $99 up front and the $14.99 monthly charge, that equates to about $460 total spent over the two years. You can get all that same equipment and two years of Xbox Live for roughly $399 nowadays. Of course, the idea here is to give those who can't afford the up-front investment a way to enjoy a new Xbox, but if you're the sort who enjoys not paying more money for things than they're worth, maybe skip this whole deal.

Finally!

Hopefullly I'll be able to buy the Surface elsewhere, too

Gold is $60 a year, so shouldn't it be $420 paying upfront?

It's not the price of the box that's stopping me, Microsoft, it's you charging for your online service.

@Dany: You can usually get the Gold Cards for less than full retail price. Amazon, for instance, has them for $49. http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1336412301&sr=1-1

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'm really curious to see how this plays out. I could see myself going this route with the next line of consoles if it makes sense at the time.

It's really such an odd deal. If your financial situation doesn't allow you to buy a system up front at full cost, I can't imagine being able to populate that system with actual games or services.

This definitely looks to be a sort of experiment; a slightly troubling experiment.

@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.

What are you talking about?

@zanshin said:

Finally!

You sound like you've been waiting a long time for this new $99 deal. I'm glad you're clearly excited about this specific piece of news.

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

It's not the price of the box that's stopping me, Microsoft, it's you charging for your online service.

yes, this. Maybe if they offered some bonus software with their service like playstation + does, that would make it better. As is, I don't understand why anyone would pay for XBL gold.

Microsoft should have probably done this in the first place since there aren't that many MS stores around. I would have also expected a price cut or something instead of this strange deal.

@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.

Snark is all Alex does. Without snark, I think he would cease to exist. I look at it this way: It makes me appreciate the articles written by Patrick all that much more.

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

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.

@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.

@Alex Don't listen to this person, they are obviously crazy.

Any words about Canada?

Wouldn't be an Alex article without snark in the title.

@Dany said:

Gold is $60 a year, so shouldn't it be $420 paying upfront?

ZING!

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 know there's always a comment about Alex's headlines, but goddamn if he doesn't make himself known.

You to can get ripped off 

i am with JETHUTY and raise him. shut up in your face.

@Alex said:

@Dany: You can usually get the Gold Cards for less than full retail price. Amazon, for instance, has them for $49. http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1336412301&sr=1-1

Of all the scams Microsoft pulls, the best has to be convincing the world they got a deal on something they shouldn't be paying for to begin with...

I don't get why people are so upset about this. It's a payment plan. Of course things cost more in the long run on a payment plan. Things cost more when you carry a balance on your credit card too, and people (unadvisedly) do that ALL THE TIME. Hell, there are plenty of people who can't even afford the yearly XBL Gold price up front, so they're stuck paying monthly. Yes, it's borderline unbelievable that people can't save up $60, but it happens. For some people, rightly or wrongly, it's more about cashflow than overall cost. If you don't think it's a good deal, don't buy it. But it's not some tremendous ripoff. It's $40 over two years above the regular price.

ill make it easy me & you smart, people that buy and fall for this dumb

This makes perfect business sense for a new console, but not 6 year old tech.

@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.

If they do this for their new console I will be extremely tempted.

@RedRocketWestie has the right idea. It's not even a bad payment plan. It's light-years ahead of putting one on a credit card(that is carrying a balance). If you are tight on cash, spreading out that cash over 2 years makes the difference inconsequential. Imagine you are cash-strapped parents buying for Xmas. This deal gives you an extra $250 at the start.

@NekuCTR said:

I know there's always a comment about Alex's headlines, but goddamn if he doesn't make himself known.

My theory is that all the comments about Alex's style are posted by Alex himself because he knows we'll get his back. Well played, Mr. Navarro.

@Corvall said:

@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.

Snark is all Alex does. Without snark, I think he would cease to exist. I look at it this way: It makes me appreciate the articles written by Patrick all that much more.

Why do you have to be such an asshole.

Giving your credit card information to Microsoft is a very bad idea. Just throwing that out there.

This seems to be more of a "testing the waters" type deal for whatever their next system is. Imagine if their new console hit the market for about the same price as this, that'd be crazy, but since their "premium" online service gives nothing back outside of very basic access to bog-standard online features, I'm not sure how they'd lose money (oh, and let's not forget the ad revenue they must be pulling in).

Then again, this is Microsoft. Give me any reason at all to not buy your next console, please.

Alex article?

<clicks>

yep!

Man, this deal is so dumb.

@Dany said:

Gold is $60 a year, so shouldn't it be $420 paying upfront?

For some reason a lot of the videogames press forgets the actual cost of things. I guess maybe because they get a lot of it for free. There are several examples of a news story mentioning XBLG costing $50 as if Microsoft didn't increase the price almost 2 years ago.

@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.

Yes, I know its his thing, but it gets annoying when every story has it. I would prefer that sometimes just the news is reported and not the attitude.

@Draxyle said:

It's really such an odd deal. If your financial situation doesn't allow you to buy a system up front at full cost, I can't imagine being able to populate that system with actual games or services.

This definitely looks to be a sort of experiment; a slightly troubling experiment.

I think this is definitely an experiment. The cost of the Xbox 360 was able to be reduced over time, but the next generation of consoles may want to avoid what happened with PS3 when it was first launched. I can't see as many people rushing out for a $600 new Xbox when there are plenty of other devices to be entertained by. Being able to pay a monthly fee may make people more willing to buy.

Actually, forty extra dollars over a period of two years isn't really that much interest. I'm not saying i would buy a 360 in this way but it not exactly a huge rip-off or anything.

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

@Lurkero said:

It's really such an odd deal. If your financial situation doesn't allow you to buy a system up front at full cost, I can't imagine being able to populate that system with actual games or services.

This definitely looks to be a sort of experiment; a slightly troubling experiment.

I think this is definitely an experiment. The cost of the Xbox 360 was able to be reduced over time, but the next generation of consoles may want to avoid what happened with PS3 when it was first launched. I can't see as many people rushing out for a $600 new Xbox when there are plenty of other devices to be entertained by. Being able to pay a monthly fee may make people more willing to buy.

It is an experiment, I see them offering this deal when their new console comes out as well as having the ability the console outright. This would be a better deal for them instead of the consumer, because, well I think you know why.

Is there any sort of cancellation fee? Suppose I only wanted to have an Xbox for a year, woul this be a better deal?

You would be better off saving up for the system then becoming a bitch for MS.

@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.

Cell phone? That's nothing! You shoulda seen my student loans, and now my mortgage!

This deal really isn't that bad, and as long as they offered a way to own the thing outright sometime in the future I don't see it being that bad at all. Believe it or not, a lot of people use these kinds of payment plans not because they are impatient, but because it fits for their specifc flow of income.

NOT a deal.

This is like a price increase on the console, but done stealthily lol.

I was not impressed with the deal before when it was only available at the barely existent Microsoft Store. I am not impressed now.

And to think I was the only one tired of the Alex's Gawker-ish snark. There is nothing worse than someone trying to be funny or clever ALL THE TIME.

Plus, I thought the whole point of Giant Bomb was to cover only what they wanted to cover? Why waste time and money regurgitating press releases? Maybe it's the new directive from CBSi?

@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.

LOL @ Alex with less snark. That's like asking for a Pepsi with less Pepsi. What else would he bring to the table that you couldn't pay a freelancer $10 to do equally as well?

what they don't tell you is that it has to be a NEW Gamertag. you cannot get this if you already have a gamertag with gold. you could make an extra account and sign up for gold on it just to get the deal, i guess.

I don't get people's problems with this deal. I already have a 360, but if I was given the option of staggering out the price of the new Xbox, I would take it.

As a wannabe father, I can't really justify sticking up £400 for a new console.