Rumor: Microsoft Launching $99 Xbox 360 model

[Guild McCommunist]

Would someone who already has an Xbox Live Gold account need to pay the subscription fee? If not, I'll buy the Xbox, hack my old one and keep it offline, use this cheap-o one for online games like Halo, BF and Forza.

You do need to pay the fee but the fee also covers Xbox Live Gold. The fee is to equate for the price of the system, not just Xbox Live. (seeing as a similar Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle is roughly three times as much as this without the fee included).

 

[Rasas]

The very idea behind pricing it higher is to make up for the fact that you didn't pay up for it Day One. You get access to all the features while virtually paying nothing the moment you recieve it, so Microsoft adds a manipulation fee plus interest simply because other than the console, you were sold the possibility to play it without paying full price for it when you got it, which is the real product here.

I get that but I sort of want to use it to my advantage and I'm honestly better off buying a new console every time it breaks then doing this every two years. Still wondering how much it would cost to cancel if it is true.

 

[Foxi4]

The very idea behind pricing it higher is to make up for the fact that you didn't pay up for it Day One. You get access to all the features while virtually paying nothing the moment you recieve it, so Microsoft adds a manipulation fee plus interest simply because other than the console, you were sold the possibility to play it without paying full price for it when you got it, which is the real product here.

I get that but I sort of want to use it to my advantage and I'm honestly better off buying a new console every time it breaks then doing this every two years. Still wondering how much it would cost to cancel if it is true.

Probably the remainder of the money you owe + penalties.

 

[tbgtbg]

So what happens if you don't care about XBLive and don't pay the $15 a month or the cancellation fee? They send Master Chief to your house to break your legs?

 

[KazoWAR]

I hope this is released soon, I want to get one.

So what happens if you don't care about XBLive and don't pay the $15 a month or the cancellation fee? They send Master Chief to your house to break your legs?

No, they will just go straight for your credit score.

 

[qlum]

Nice thing to have just before you announce a new console so people will be stuck with the old thing for 2 years.

 

[kthnxshwn]

What's wrong in paying $5 more for the XBL subscription and getting a free XBox360 with Kinect for it?

Sony's already doing it with the Vita, Apple does it with their iPads, why not Microsoft with the 360? It's freaking convinient.

Am I missing something or is none of this actually true?

 

[Foxi4]

What's wrong in paying $5 more for the XBL subscription and getting a free XBox360 with Kinect for it?

Sony's already doing it with the Vita, Apple does it with their iPads, why not Microsoft with the 360? It's freaking convinient.

Am I missing something or is none of this actually true?

Where I live there's quite a cool deal for Vita's - get a 3G internet subscription and you get a Vita for 1 zloty, which is the equivalent of about 25 eurocents. iPads are sold in a similar fashion.

Basically you pay the "entry price", which in this case is $90 for the XBox 360, then pay a monthly subscription for which you get internet service (here XBL Gold) and by the end of the deal the hardware is yours.

 

[chartube12]

15 dollars a month...No, just No. I only get gold when there are gold deals available.

And when you want to play online. That's usually a pretty big draw.

I'm wondering what extra content they'll provide to make it worthwhile.

Many xbox 360 games can not be played online w/o a proper harddrive. Meaning the 4gb model is very near useless for gold. Microsoft is trying to rip off ignorant costumers aka parents of young children. So they are basically tricking them into over paying for gold and hoping those who fall for it buy a hdd.

 

[Gahars]

I'm not sure how many gamers would go for something like this, but I could see a deal like this drawing other people in. If Microsoft markets this aggressively, and figures out the best crowd to target, this just might take off.

 

[FAST6191]

Not to mention, with the placement of the cancellation fee, they're more than likely expecting some people to cancel.. I think someone at Microsoft needs to lay off the LSD, they believe XBox 360s are cell phones..

Both hacked and unhacked I have seen and put together things using consoles for people to enjoy much like they do with the mobile phones and cable boxes- I still put XBMC on xboxes for people and how many people purchased a PS2 or indeed a PS3 solely as they were cheap media players for the optical disc formats of the day (or in blu ray's case wishing to be the format of the day). For better or worse (I vote better even if I do not really care for the services or can otherwise do better for myself) consoles are not dedicated games playing devices any more.

Equally every time you make a mass market credit agreement you factor in that people will want to or need to cancel at some point.

On a different note myself and others have often joked about technology moving in circles (find us on facebook being the equivalent of AOL keywords for instance) and if this does not bring us full circle to the likes of compuserv and old school AOL I do not know what does.

 

[Kioku]

I'm seriously thinking about doing this.. No joke... $100 for the console + kinect.. $300 right THERE mind you... PLUS $15 a month covers the cost of Xbox Live and might introduce TRUE premium services..

 

[Pleng]

Well this won't be available where I am. May well have considered it otherwise. Looks like the only chance I'll get to play Daytona, Sega Rally and Sonic 4 pt2.

Anyway, the UK has had deals like this for years, though not nearly as attractive. Get a shitty mobile phone and a 24 month contract at £40 per month and get a free X-Box, PS3, Wii, Whatever

 

[gokujr1000]

Wow the price is a fucking amazing deal. As long as your allowed to upgrade the Hard Drive you basically pay 15 dollars per month for Gold, Bonuses and a console and only for two years. I wish this was around when I bought my xbox o.o

 

[FireGrey]

It only equals to $39 more so not much of a big deal.
What determines whether to buy it or not is if this new model has much to offer.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It only equals to $39 more so not much of a big deal.
What determines whether to buy it or not is if this new model has much to offer.

Well you may also not be able to pay the $300 upfront, this gives you the option of getting a Xbox and Kinect without saving up a lot of money and just paying as you go.

So that's one draw to it.

 

[FireGrey]

It only equals to $39 more so not much of a big deal.
What determines whether to buy it or not is if this new model has much to offer.

Well you may also not be able to pay the $300 upfront, this gives you the option of getting a Xbox and Kinect without saving up a lot of money and just paying as you go.

So that's one draw to it.

While that is true, someone that can't pay that much upfront shouldn't be going for the newest console.

 

[freaksloan]

Depending on what the extra streaming content is, this might finally get me to buy an Xbox 360.

 

[Omega_2]

I constantly see gold being spammed on the dash for 1-5$ for a month.
But WHY ads on the dash for crap I never cared about in the first place? It's idiotic...
(You want to advert a movie to me, do in in the XBL newsletter, that's what it's for aside product promotions)
And no way is this worth getting scammed into. Just wait for failstop to put the 320GB HDD's on sale again for 99$, then just buy the slim. It's what we did.(Well...still need to get the slim because tires shouldn't have slashes in them, if you know what I mean.)

 

[FAST6191]

It only equals to $39 more so not much of a big deal.
What determines whether to buy it or not is if this new model has much to offer.

Well you may also not be able to pay the $300 upfront, this gives you the option of getting a Xbox and Kinect without saving up a lot of money and just paying as you go.

So that's one draw to it.

While that is true, someone that can't pay that much upfront shouldn't be going for the newest console.

Much as I have many problems with the implementation of it much of the current financial system is predicated upon credit as a response to a lack of liquidity.

Now if you will excuse me I am sure my landlord, gas, electricity, internet, usenet, water, fuel and hosting* suppliers are eagerly awaiting my payment for more than a month at a time- landlord aside any one of those probably totals less than the sum in question and MS seem to be billing this as more of a service which well it is (streaming content and private network access being two of the oldest forms of such a thing) and as was discussed earlier in the thread these boxes are quite capable of doing (both technically and in terms of existing licensed content/frameworks).

*actually I did pay for three years upfront. I meant domain registration.