Xbox Live Subscription Prices To Rise From 1st November 2010

Written by Rob Nichols on August 30, 2010 · Filed under Games 

Xbox Live is perhaps the very thing that attracts budding gamers away from the lure of Sony and the PlayStation 3 and to that of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.

Before the latest generation of consoles the PS2 was by far and away the more highly acclaimed console, but since the evolution of gaming into high definition and the inclusion of web connectivity into consoles, Microsoft has taken the bull by the horns and delivered an undoubtedly fantastic service in Xbox Live.

However, as always you get what you pay for, so as news emerges that the monthly pricing is going up in the UK, US, Canada and Mexico, is Microsoft well within its rights to jack up the cost?

We could sit here all day and debate how much the service is worth, but what is without argument is the fact that the price is actually going up, so live with it. It’s not a huge price increase by any means, in fact here in the UK it is moving from the current price point of £4.99 to £5.99, which equates to a mere £12 a year increase.

However, with there being more and more services accessible through your Xbox Live subscription, such as Sky Player on the Xbox 360, which make up a great proportion of the overall attraction of the service, it is more the principle of having to pay more than we once did.

Over in the States of course they have a variety of options regarding the duration of the subscription, and the pricing for those will increase from $7.99, $19.99 and $49.99 to $9.99, $24.99 and $59.99 for the 1 month, 3 month and 12 month packages respectively.

In Canada the lone 1 month subscription option, similar to here in the UK, the price is being hiked up a single CAD from $8.99 to $9.99. In Mexico, the 12 month subscription, the only option, is being jacked up from 499 pesos to 599 pesos, so as you can tell the increase is pretty much consistent right across the board no matter which nation you happen to live in.

So I guess the big question is, why now? I mean, more and more services are being added to Xbox Live all the time, but what I think is clear thanks to the timing of the increase, is that the inclusion of Xbox Live gaming into Windows Phone 7 will see further development of the service, leading to further costs. Alternatively, I may be reading too much into it and Microsoft just thought, hey why not make even more money?.

It’s an interesting move, especially after the recent Playstation Plus subscription option for PS3 gamers on PSN, but I highly doubt that the increase will deter any serious gamer from subscribing every month to Xbox Live. It seems even more unreasonable to switch to PS3 as the costs of buying new games and a new console simply outweigh the extra £12 a year.

But what do you make of the Xbox Live subscription price increase? Will you rush out and grab all the £4.99 1 month gold subscription cards you can before the price hike on November 1st? Will your next game be a PC game? A PS3 game? We’d like to hear from any (disgruntled) Xbox 360 fans in the comments section below.

Via – WinSuperSite