Xbox Raises Prices! Consumers Should Say No!

As of November 1, users of Xbox Live Gold will be paying more for the online service. The price of Gold in the U.S. is going from $7.99 a month to $9.99 a month. Three-month buys will go from $19.99 to $24.99, and if you buy your Xbox Live by the year, you'll be paying $59.99 instead of $49.99 annually.  What a rip I say?!! For something that was suppose to go free when the 360 came out they raise the price?  You have to pay for XBox live gold so that you can play games online with friends.  Ok that I get I suppose.  But why is Netflix part of the pay service when people already have to pay to use Netflix itself?  Or why is Facebook and Twitter part of the premium service?  I can use these for free on my computer and why the hell would I want to use them on the XBox with the interface keyboard that is slower than a Grandma having her monthly consititution.  I'll tell you why?  So that they can pay for the deal they made with ESPN to bring content to XBL starting in November when the Kinect comes out.  Microsoft, who has more money than the entire population of Xbox players, is making us pay for their deal with ESPN.

     An Xbox employee says, “When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers.”  

     Incredible value?  That's how they justify it?  The richest company in the whole bloody world.  What the hell? I say screw Xbox and everyone go silver.  You can play Madden 11 just as well by yourself as you can with a guy who calls you a weenie head every time you throw 50 yards on his punk self!  Are you really going to be upset because you blew up that dude on Modern Warfare with a sticky bomb that probably made the youngster crap his pants because it was so awesome, that he had a nerdgasm.  No you probably won't be so don't let the all mighty Microsoft do this to us.  Go silver everyone and go back to playing games the old school way.  By yourself or invite people over!  There's a concept! (There's a uncensored version of this rant at my personal daily news blog here)