Microsoft Announces $99 Subsidized Xbox 360 Bundle

[soporj1]

Link

From what I can tell this isn't a good deal. However, it may be a sign of things to come.

[HardcoreSadism1]

The next Xbox is in 2014 or 2015, if this isn't stunning evidence

[Adamant1]

Yeah, the comments there spell it out pretty well - it's a cheaper console that comes with a forced 2-year online subscription with a highly inflated price. Sounds pretty borderline scammy, to be honest.

[Leo1]

It's just a payment plan with interest. Nothing unusual or scammy about it even though it's hardly a deal.

This "deal" runs about $50 more than buying everything normally ($460 versus $410 for a Xbox 360 arcade model with Kinect along with two years of Xbox Live). And if your subscriptions are bought online on sale, which many people do these days, the savings is even more than $50.

And I don't think this is evidence that a successor is a long ways away. I think this is a market test for a new pricing option for the Xbox 720 to minimize the sticker shock by appealing to the credit card mentality so common these days. Next generation hardware is expensive and we're not exactly in the best of financial conditions these days and and it looks like it's going to be at least a few more years before economic normality returns.

So a plan where you get a system for a small initial cost and pay for it slowly over time, particularly since many Xbox gamers are already used to a subscription, is probably a smart option to consider for the 720 and something many people will find attactive.

[Leo1]

[QUOTE=Robotnik]Who likes the new Kinect Krazy Subscription B-Cable Provider that MS has become?

What happened to that 2nd wave of 'competent' and 'impressive tech' Kinect software? I paid $150 for that camera and all's I got was a Star Wars Dance Game!

How original! 2 years later and we are still hyping Dance Central and its many clones as Kinect Killer Apps. And Rareware is a poor mans Nintendo and that's just sad, given the current state of Nintendo![/QUOTE]

If there was any doubt who this guy was, this post should settle it.

[soporj1]

I think this is similar to the business model we'll see for the next generation of consoles. Buy the system cheap, be forced to buy a monthly subscription to a service, games are download only, and always-on internet required for most games.

[Pacman0001]

[QUOTE]I think this is similar to the business model we'll see for the next generation of consoles. Buy the system cheap, be forced to buy a monthly subscription to a service, games are download only, and always-on internet required for most games.

[/QUOTE]

I hope not.  I sincerely hope not. 

[N64Dude1]

Well at least only Microsoft seems to be doing this,hopefully it won't catch on

@Dr. Eggman As for Rare being the poor mans Nintendo,yeah no that ship sailed,precisely when they screwed up Banjo Kazooie. Grabbed by the Ghoulies,meh

Kameo,whatever

Perfect Dark Zero,.....what??!?

Viva Pinata,...you're kidding right?

And then Nuts and Bolts came,that was it

Frankly I'd be insulted if you even called the poor mans Sega at this point,or the poor mans Square Enix and the latter really seems to have lost it.

@David Yeah it doesn't appear to horrible a deal now,but who knows where it will go next. And I darn well hope that ain't the future of consoles.

[Irenicus1]

The money part is a bad deal, but I don't care about that. What bothers me is that this sort of purchase requires you as a gamer to be online. Some people don't have a good enough internet connection to use Xbox Live & believe it or not there are some gamers like myself that simply don't want our consoles online. Who wants to pay for something they don't want? Sure right now you have the option to play offline, but this business model is designed to eliminate that option, not co-exist with it.

 

 Even though the PSP Go failed it still opened the door for a digital-only console. This sort of Xbox bundle is opening the door for a subscription based console. I don't want a subscription based gaming console. Do you? Is multiplayer, dlc, one-time codes, cheap downloadable games and patches for games that programmers failed to properly test really worth having another bill every month? Who wants another bill every month?  

 

I just want to hook my console up to my tv, put a game in it & play it, just like I've been doing since 1982. Now everyone is trying to add the equation of internet service to it.

 

From a business standpoint I totally get it, but as a consumer I don't want it. This is guiding us to the "always needing to be online in order to play" method. A big fat F' to Diablo 3 & a big fat F' for this Xbox bundle.