MS: Exclusives Justify XBL Price Hike

From Eurogamer.

When asked to justify the increase at a time when the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network offers its core online services free, Davison [of Microsoft's Xbox Live marketing] pointed to Xbox 360 exclusives.

"Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does."

"ESPN is a great example. No extra charge for Xbox Live Gold members."

From Eurogamer.

When asked to justify the increase at a time when the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network offers its core online services free, Davison [of Microsoft's Xbox Live marketing] pointed to Xbox 360 exclusives.

"Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does."

"ESPN is a great example. No extra charge for Xbox Live Gold members."

shinrabanshou

ESPN3 is free for everyone as long as you have the right ISP, and for CoD fans I guess the map packs are something. :?

original article

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31153/Interview_Microsofts_Davison_On_How_Kinect_Will_Help_Xbox_Live_Ramp_Up.php

Exclusives??? Where?

WHAT ?!!

We have no NETFLEX, ESPN, SKY,etc. We just play and buy some stuff -we can not buy anything or everything we want- here in Saudi Arabia and still pay like everyone else

And now they raise the supscreption 10 $ and they do not even bother to explain why ?!

Do i care about Exclusives like map packs ? NOOOOOO

Do i play CoD games ? NOOOOOO

Do i have plans to buy CoD games in the future ? NOOOOO -unless if it is sooo good-

If i am a fan of CoD, Can i wait a month and buy the map packs ? Yes i think i can

So tell me MS why do i have to pay you 10 more dollars :evil:

The sad thing is that i think iwill pay :cry:

thats a pretty poor reason haha, Mircrosoft is full of fail :|

But if they didn't pay for them, the users would still get the map packs at the same time... it's just PS3 and PC users wouldn't have to wait an extra month... Mad logic.

M$$ has really lost it, they're ripe for a mental institution. What a bunch of fake gamers, and if there are gamers at Microsoft, they probably have a PS3 anyway.

From Eurogamer.

When asked to justify the increase at a time when the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network offers its core online services free, Davison [of Microsoft's Xbox Live marketing] pointed to Xbox 360 exclusives.

"Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does."

"ESPN is a great example. No extra charge for Xbox Live Gold members."

shinrabanshou

Every business can come up with excuses. Just say the truth about it.."we want to hike up the price and there is no real reason other than we are greedy" There I said it for them..:)

Oh so now its $60 for cross game chat.

Oh so now its $60 for cross game chat.

erglesmergle

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

Oh so now its $60 for cross game chat.

Brownesque

And 25% of my morality every year.

You know MS, I could care less about multiplats and DLC.

Price hike for me to play MP and to watch netflix? HAHA, I got your deal for 2 years of XBL for $88 after that you can kiss me good by.

Will not pay any more for your BS. I don't care how many features you add... I only use 2 and that's it! Maybe if you were smart and not money hungry you would see that people like me are tried of your crap.

I just hope Sony curb stomps them now. I used to root for MS alot. But there own success is driving them away from once loyal customers. I'm not putting up with there BS any more. After my 2 years is up with them I'm officially done with my xbox until MS shapes up and becomes respectable again.

I'm officially done with my xbox until MS shapes up and becomes respectable again.

Truth_Hurts_U

The saddest thing is if you go on Major Nelson.com or Xbox.com and visit the forums, people are content with this. They'll even defend it the same way MS justify it

But Live is the best!!! Get what you pay for! The Xbox has loads of games, it's nto all about exclusives! We get COD Maps first, teh xbox is the best!

Hmmm, Someone needs to tell MS that they have the wrong definition of exclusives. Gamers want exclusive games not exclusive offers to purchase map packs early and how are they exclusives if PSN is going to get them within a month or 2?

At E3 2010 in June Microsoft announced an "exclusive multi-year agreement between Xbox and Activision" that will see Call of Duty add-ons and map packs appearing first on Xbox 360 for the next three years.

Eurogamer

I honestly think this is more news worthy than the price hike. I don't remember this at all. :s Anywho...

"In 2002 it was strictly multiplayer gaming, And it still is for many, I assume. I want to see some numbers regarding extra feature usage." he said. "Now we get those Call of Duty map packs before anybody else does. A whole thirty days of exclusive DLC [that you have to pay for] for a game not everyone with a Gold subscription plays. We've got Gears and Halo, of course, as exclusives. And Sony has...Go ask a cow. We continue to get exclusives on the service as well. And Sony has...Who do you think you're supposed to ask? And we've gone from 400,000 members in our first year to 25 million. Why would you use the userbase as a justification? Shouldn't the revenue from the 24.6 million increase in Gold subscriptions cover content servers, maintenance, and then some? This'd be like Blizzard charging more as more people play World of Warcraft.

"So during that time, we've definitely got to fund it, and we want to add more and more and more. ESPN is a great example. No extra charge for Xbox Live Gold members. Wait, what? You were thinking of charging another dollar per month for Gold? I thought the charge for a feature that just about nobody here will use was included in the price hike. But we want to continue to bring that content in. We also want to continue to innovate on all dimensions, whether it's social, entertainment, or gaming. And you can use that 24.6 million I mentioned earlier to fund said innovation. So there you go."

Craig Davison

Microsoft needs to do better in PR. Seriously, lemmings are better at this.

Hmmm, Someone needs to tell MS that they have the wrong definition of exclusives. Gamers want exclusive games not exclusive offers to purchase map packs early and how are they exclusives if PSN is going to get them within a month or 2?

akira2465

MS is getting HYBRID XBLA exclusive and working on the Project Gotham Racing.

[QUOTE="Eurogamer"]

At E3 2010 in June Microsoft announced an "exclusive multi-year agreement between Xbox and Activision" that will see Call of Duty add-ons and map packs appearing first on Xbox 360 for the next three years.

Technoweirdo

I honestly think this is more news worthy than the price hike. I don't remember this at all. :s Anywho...

MS is building their war chest for Xbox 720 as well. This is great.

[QUOTE="Technoweirdo"]

[QUOTE="Eurogamer"]

At E3 2010 in June Microsoft announced an "exclusive multi-year agreement between Xbox and Activision" that will see Call of Duty add-ons and map packs appearing first on Xbox 360 for the next three years.

I honestly think this is more news worthy than the price hike. I don't remember this at all. :s Anywho...

[QUOTE="akira2465"]

Hmmm, Someone needs to tell MS that they have the wrong definition of exclusives. Gamers want exclusive games not exclusive offers to purchase map packs early and how are they exclusives if PSN is going to get them within a month or 2?

MS is getting HYBRID XBLA exclusive and working on the Project Gotham Racing.

Hell Yeah! Kinectimals for the win!

M$ loves to treat people like idiots.

Its going to be really hard to support MS next Gen the way they have been treating the Xbox 360 fan base. 360's fan base has over paid for Live subscriptions, put up with crappy hardware and the core gamers have been pretty much abandoned with the release of Kinect. Last gen Live members would get maps for Halo with out any extra charges. This gen you get nothing for your hard earned cash. MS promised to give Gold members a free game called Joy Ride but instead decided to add a $50 price Tag to it. Where is PDZ2, a Banjo platform game, the next Rallisport game, the next Crimson Skies or the next Conker game? Instead 360 owners get an over priced Kinect with copy cat Wii games and some dance games.Where is the Loyalty to your customers MS? I think that Loyalty is the difference between Sony and MS. Sony understands that you shouldn't make your customers pay for your mistakes while MS has NO problem with charging their customers an extra $60 per year to help make up for failures like Zune, RROD and Windows Mobile.

Wait, so. Essentially MS just told us the reason we have to pay more is in order for US to pay for early map packs :lol:

Ohh ms you so funneh.
Those are things you do for the customer not the other way around.

[QUOTE="Technoweirdo"]

[QUOTE="Eurogamer"]

At E3 2010 in June Microsoft announced an "exclusive multi-year agreement between Xbox and Activision" that will see Call of Duty add-ons and map packs appearing first on Xbox 360 for the next three years.

shinrabanshou

I honestly think this is more news worthy than the price hike. I don't remember this at all. :s Anywho...

I started watching at the 20-minute mark. Not joking. >.>

I guess it means that Microsoft plans on keeping the 360 alive for another three years unless they want to be robbed by Activision over how the contract was only for 360 games. Of course, Kinect's existence instead of the 720 already confirmed that, but still. As much as I like this gen being prolonged to get the Wii audience on the 'HD twins', those three years leave a pretty nice gap for Nintendo to get a head start for next-gen unless Kinect/Move will be used for the 720/PS4. Move I can see coming to next-gen. Kinect I can't unless all the bad things I keep hearing/seeing about it are a software/developer issue, not hardware issue.

The sad thing is, he's serious :? Doesn't he know we'd rather our own game. That he doesn't have to spend the amount it would cost to create an original IP on month-early map packs that they won't even see a cent back from. Honestly it's just bad business, too.

I have to admit, this is really one of the stupidest things I've ever heard a person say and it makes me fear for the future.

Wait, so. Essentially MS just told us the reason we have to pay more is in order for US to pay for early map packs :lol:

Ohh ms you so funneh.
Those are things you do for the customer not the other way around.

Animal-Mother

Why did the interviewer not bring that point up?

I wish interviewers were more concerned with asking what people want to know, then not flustering the interviewee

Microsoft is clearly peeing on their userbase. That's really sad, and that what make me realize I did the best choice (for me). I guess 30 days exclusive map is great for some COD fans, but that not even half the live accounts. What is left for the others? Nothing, but they still pay for those map packs they don't need.

There's a distinct irony in the fact that there's another thread on the forum front page where people are justifying paying for LIVE Gold for some of the reasons this marketing guy is using to justify the price hike.

Which leads one to wonder why they even bother to try and justify raising the prices, when the simple explanation seems to be quite clearly "because we can."

you mean timed exclusive's, like those two GTA IV Add-On's that were exclusive for only a year?

or do you mean Mass Efffect Which is also getting the PS3 treatment?

Excuses, you just want to hike up the price...and i really don't care for call of duty multi or even having ESPN on my 360, mostly because i could watch it on Direct Tv, at least give us silver people free multiplayer..:x

at least give us silver people free multiplayer..:x

mlbslugger86

They'd lose tons of $$$ doing that.

They should instead promise us that 50% of live fees would go into a new exclusive title every year. A title that would be put to vote from a bunch of potential ideas and concepts/

That's be one hell of a rewards program.

Then get rid of ESPN3 and timed exculsive DLC maps. Who cares if 360 gets them first. Big Woop. If I have to pay $10 more a month for THAT, I'm mad. I already get ESPN3 free with my ISP as well. Ridiculous justification.