Microsoft Raising Xbox Live Subscription Cost

" Glad I got the 13 months for the price of 12 deal earlier this year. "

The real problem with this is, I'm a cheap bastard sometimes. Not to mention the competing market (PSN) is free and the service has come pretty close and, some would say, is on par with this now more costly product. I think MS could still charge but I figured a fee decrease would make more sense. 

An extra $10 a year is no biggie to me. I'm just wondering why they decided to do this? Maybe they'll have some new features coming out soon that will cost them more so they needed to bump up the price? Or maybe they just what more money, I'm pulling for the later theory.

  So, for an extra £12 a year for the UK, we lose a service (1 Vs. 100) DON'T get new services (ESPN) and still don't have some US services? (Netflix)

Pass. from now on once my subscription runs out, I'll play online with my Ps3, nice knowing you Xbox Live

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

Who know why they are doing this, to pay off more companies or to give more money to companies who feel they are due all this online money like activision. All i can say is just be careful MS i can roll with the punches $10 dollars more no problem, 15 dollars for DL games sure ok, 15 dollars for map pack not happy but whatever. Soon you will put the last strew on that camel and i will soon realize i'm spending over $ 100 a year just to play games which then i will be done.

" Wow, you really are a bunch of whiny idiots. Something goes up by less than a $1 every month and you are talking about canceling your subscription? Pathetic. "

" ... and the $50 subscription there actually lands you free shit. "

Meh, does not matter. :)

" Ugh, an extra $10 a year really isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it will make me rethink whether I need a gold account.  I just don't play as much multiplayer as I used to, and the other gold benefits are not worth it. "

" @Andrela said:

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

You know that price includes taxes and whatnot.  We have lower taxes in America, and our store prices don't include the sales tax.  That gets added at the register.  I don't know what your taxes are and how much it would cost you without taxes, so I can't give a direct comparison.  I am just saying that you shouldn't compare our price without tax with your price including tax. "

So if you pay $60 a year, you're effectively paying $5 a month.... or $0.16 a day. 
 
Not a big deal.

Time to hoard all those cheap 12 month cards.

*Sigh* 
 
The increase isn't large, but I can certainly see people feeling as if paying for live is becoming less and less worth it. 
 
I just can't switch over to the PS3 because the DS3 is too small for my hands, I don't like the triggers, and the stick placement is a bit of a pain. It really is too bad, because if I could just use my 360 controller with my PS3, I would have been using it as my main platform long ago.

" @Chubbaluphigous said:

" @Andrela said:

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

You know that price includes taxes and whatnot.  We have lower taxes in America, and our store prices don't include the sales tax.  That gets added at the register.  I don't know what your taxes are and how much it would cost you without taxes, so I can't give a direct comparison.  I am just saying that you shouldn't compare our price without tax with your price including tax. "

Was not aware of that, I've never been to America myself. So it'll be in the range of $65-$80 in reality? "

We will bitch.  We will moan.  We will complain.  And then we will hang our heads and pay up anyway.

But the advertisements and promotional campaigns will still remain... I love you Microsoft :(.

" @Chubbaluphigous said:

" @Andrela said:

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

You know that price includes taxes and whatnot.  We have lower taxes in America, and our store prices don't include the sales tax.  That gets added at the register.  I don't know what your taxes are and how much it would cost you without taxes, so I can't give a direct comparison.  I am just saying that you shouldn't compare our price without tax with your price including tax. "

Was not aware of that, I've never been to America myself. So it'll be in the range of $65-$80 in reality? "

Jeez, didn't realize I was in a synagogue.....

This is really shitty news for people like me who just want to play online. I don't use Netflix or Facebook or Last.fm or Twitter or Hulu or the Zune marketplace - none of that. A shame that I have to pay a premium mainly for features I have zero interest in.

599 pesos! ¡Ay dios mio!

Unfortunate.

I stopped paying for XBL about 6 months ago and I couldn't be happier. 
 
What a blatant waste of money. 

I'd gladly pay an extra $10 for a service that will crash during busy holidays and force feeds ads to me through the main dashboard.
 
... 'Kay. Sorry. Sucks real bad. :( Guess I'm keeping my Silver account.

I guess I'll continue to be a silver member then.

" We will bitch.  We will moan.  We will complain.  And then we will hang our heads and pay up anyway. "

Wait, is the US the only one getting price increases across the board or is this info just incomplete?

" Damn all those stupid timed exclusive contracts (CoD maps, GTAIV episodes, ESPN voting shit). They should make the current Gold plan into a 3rd tier called Platinum or whatever with your Twittering, Facebooking, Netflixing, OXM videos and offer just plain connectivity to online play for $20 or at most $30 (a year). "

What's that?! You want us to make the service free? How about you pay me more money for the service instead?!

" @Andrela said:

" @Chubbaluphigous said:

" @Andrela said:

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

You know that price includes taxes and whatnot.  We have lower taxes in America, and our store prices don't include the sales tax.  That gets added at the register.  I don't know what your taxes are and how much it would cost you without taxes, so I can't give a direct comparison.  I am just saying that you shouldn't compare our price without tax with your price including tax. "

Was not aware of that, I've never been to America myself. So it'll be in the range of $65-$80 in reality? "

No, subscriptions to services like XBox Live are not taxed in America, so it'll be $59.99 total. "

This isn't a surprise at all - after E3 and seeing the new services they plan to add to Xbox Live, I couldn't see them keeping the price the same.  An extra $10 is about what I figured and seems worth what I'll be getting.

Called their support service to get cancel my subscription. Seriously, fuck this.

 bad news to my already dusty 360 :(  
 
in my country i can't use half the content of what i'm paying XBL for, and  i can play  online with my ps3 and PC for free,  if they want to stay at a "comeptitive" price they should make something like:
 
Silver- like the regular current silver  for free
Gold-  all the services of silver + voice chatting, cross game chat, online play for 49$ a year 
Platinum- all of what gold have + day one demos, specials discounts on XBLA,  espn, facebook, twitter, netflix  for 59$ a year

It is still about the price of one game a year, so I am not upset.

So wait, what are they adding to even try to justify this increase?

So wait, US subscribers are complaining about going from $4.17/mo to $5/mo?  Are those 83 cents really going to affect your overall ability to live in "this current economy"?  Give me a break.  Man up and realize you're helping pay for a superior product to PSN. 
 
This also probably has a lot to do with the upcoming increase in bandwidth associated with Kinect.

I have two main points of contention:
 
1. This cost increase seems completely arbitrary. $50 for p2p seemed expensive but at least you could completely justify it with the basic features that XBL provided on top of that. As far as I know MS is adding absolutely nothing to XBL but they are still raising the price anyway.
 
2. XBL users cannot opt out of certain services to save money, so if they are trying to justify a more expensive XBL by adding more features, people should be able to drop those features and keep the price the same, or drop everything except multiplayer and make it cheaper. MS is too greedy for that of course.

People need to chill the fuck out. It's just money. You can earn it back by going to bed 5 seconds earlier each day to save on your power bill. I mean come on.

Ten bucks a year not a big deal.  Inflation is a bitch, but its life.  What's bullshit is all these 10 dollar online passes we are going to have to pay EA, Activision and their ilk on TOP of PSN + and Xbox live.  Its getting out of hand.

Looks like my dusty 360 won't get cleaned off when Black Ops comes out. PC is were it's at for me.

" @ChrisTilton said:

" @Andrela said:

" @Chubbaluphigous said:

" @Andrela said:

" I wont be happy until Americans are paying the equivilant to €60 like Europeans have to. "

You know that price includes taxes and whatnot.  We have lower taxes in America, and our store prices don't include the sales tax.  That gets added at the register.  I don't know what your taxes are and how much it would cost you without taxes, so I can't give a direct comparison.  I am just saying that you shouldn't compare our price without tax with your price including tax. "

Was not aware of that, I've never been to America myself. So it'll be in the range of $65-$80 in reality? "

No, subscriptions to services like XBox Live are not taxed in America, so it'll be $59.99 total. "

Erm, that's actually wrong... log onto your xbox, renew your membership, and tell me what the price is. Yeah, they charge tax.  If you buy the cards on amazon you can get around it, but that's because TECHNICALLY you are supposed to itemize it on your taxes later. Yeah, right. Amazon is pretty much magic. "

DO NOT WANT... i already think $50 a year is bs and dont have it, $60 isnt going to make me get it any sooner. i just the ps3 doesnt add a yearly cost to play online games or im gonna have to quit playing multiplayer games, i am not rich, and i can barely afford the very few games i buy already... paying for online isnt an option.

We pay the equivalent of $80 over here...

MS-give us more money so that you can play the game that you purchased with your hard earned money online. Oh, and so you can then buy more products while being blasted by ads.
 
I didn't have a problem paying for live when I had my 360, until I got rid of it and started with the ps3. Now I feel pretty dumb for all of the money I wasted to be harassed in game.

Man, fuck this
I'll probably continue with my subscription until Gears 3 comes out, play for a month, and then switch over to PC gaming