How gaming can learn from the cellphone industry.

I live in the UK. Everybody has a cellphone.I have 6.

13 years ago nobody had them except business types. Yet in such little time there are more cellphones in the UK then there are next gen consoles in the world.

Obvisouly this is down to a major turning point, which, many in the industry put down to pay as you go phones but alot also put down to the option of "free phone" with a 12 month contract. Apple have also jumped on that bandwagon.

Why does this only have to apply for phones?

Lets apply that same technique to games consoles:

a free xbox 360, free xbox live for 1 year, 1 free live arcade game a month...cost £20 per month. Is there anyone who thinks that is not good? The bennefits would be great for MS also...more money to be spent on games initially which means more money to MS, everyone goes on xbox live with a free sud so everybody is a potential customer for downloadable content, console sales would be massive due to the nature of impulse buyers (trust me the cellphone industry thrives on them).

It is my prediction that the first console manufacturer to apply this business model will win hands down. It would require such massive start up capital though (PRe manufacturing of stock with only 10% of normal return in first month) that only microsoft could afford to pull it off.

If you ask me that is the best way to ensure a console in every home, online and ready to purchase online content!

and for those who dont like it...purchase it the normal way!

non refundable deposit?

that would probably cover the cost of redistributing the returned console. Just again thinking of the cellphone industry...a nokia n95 8gig costs same as xbox360 to make.

besides im no ceo so i dont have the figures but im sure that a price close to that would be doable.

The cost of gaming console hardware is considerably more than the cost of a mobile phone, so we aren't in a position yet for instant monthly rentals without contracts to be feasible. Tieing people into a cellphone style contract of 12 or 18 months might work.

There are a couple of lesser alternatives that I think could easily be done with things as they are now, but instead of paying per item you pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited usage: XBLA games, and films off Marketplace (OK both xbox 360 specific ideas for now, but it could be done on PS3 with more changes).

xbox live arcade - you could charge a monthly fee and let people play the full versions of all the arcade games they wanted. When you stop playing any downloaded games revert to their trial status to prevent people downloading everything during one month, then cancelling.

Another thing I would like to see is unlimited video rentals for a fixed monthly fee. This already exists with online websites like blockbuster and lovefilm in the UK or netflix in the US. Now that Xbox Marketplace is setup to download film rentals from it seems they could easily do this

hardware wise the cost of console is more but when you take into account the different amounts of software that go into a cellphone the price matchs...symbian,flash lite, gps software etc etc...the main reason i think it will work is because technology is getting so expensive to purchase when new now...and risky (hd-dvd vs bray). People wont take the gamble in the first year which means developer produce utter rubbish which again effects sales...a vicious circle.

The flat monthly fee should be applied for sure with movies and stuff...the numbers of people using bit torrent and streaming movies shows that people are not willing to pay per view anymore but are willing to use online media...sooner or later the movie companies will bow to pressure...piracy always wins (half of it is committed by rivzal companies anyway lol).

Everybody has a cellphone.I have 6.piinshot

I stopped reading right there.

[QUOTE="piinshot"] Everybody has a cellphone.I have 6.UltimaSlayer94

I stopped reading right there.

then i saw free xbox 360. lol

wtf do you need 6 cell phones for?

actually cell phones start out insanely expensive. many of them typically start out at a cost of up to$1000. This is before a carrier picks them up and subsidizes them.

anyway to the main point no, i do not want this in any fashion. i hate the cell phone industry, and if the game industry goes toward it im really going to lose interest. i enjoy buying my console and owning it outright. monthly installments always cost you more in the end.

this is why i pay my gym membership up front. it costs like 130% if you pay monthly. this would also eliminate kids from being able to buy their own systems. what kid is going to pay that much money just to have their system?

no offense to the OP but i despise this idea tremendously.