Xbox 360 $99 Deal - Would you get it?

MrShine

So Microsoft are currently offering this deal in America, get a GB Xbox, plus Kinect for $99. Using a currency converter, and rounding it off, that'd be the same as about €76 here. The catch is it comes with a 2 year subscription to Xbox live, at $15(€11.50) a month, bringing the total price to $459(€354) over two years.

Now the 4GB 360/Kinect bundle would cost about €248 (Argos w/ Kinect Adventures) and two one year subscriptions to Xbox live would cost €60 each, bringing it to €368, being obviously higher than the total.

That said, judging by the differences in pricing on American and Irish Xboxs, I'd say the price of the deal would be higher. In America the deal has an overall price hike of about 15%, so I'd estimate it being maybe €423.

Ok, sorry about all the rambling. My question would you avail of a 4GB Xbox/Kinect bundle of, say, €99 with a monthly subscription of €13.50 for live, for two years totaling €423, or would you rather spend €368 in one lump sum?

niallon

MrShine wrote: »

two one year subscriptions to Xbox live would cost €60 each, bringing it to €368, being obviously higher than the total.

Where the hell are you buying subs? RRP is €50 so taking €20 off the total, this works out cheaper!

I don't think this new 99 bucks offer is bad though. It's obviously handy for people who can't pay up front, and when a company is getting something paid off in installments they will always want a bigger cut for the "inconvenience". Think of any down payment system in the world, lump sum would always be cheaper.

Although, I'm sickened that the abomination that is the 4GB is still in existence, a 20GB would be so much better

Owen

It's a good idea in principle, but there's 2 downsides. The 720 or whatever it's called is a year away, and there's early termination fees for people who miss payments.

A2LUE42

€38 for 14 months subs is a more realistic figure.

MrShine

Personally I wouldn't touch it. I play a lot of xbl arcade games, and often buy dlc, so 4GB isn't nearly enough for me. I don't really have much interest in kinect either. I'm mainly curious about what other people think. Judging by including kinect and the small HDD my first reaction was they're aiming this at very casual gamers. In that case 2 years of live is kinda useless for them.

Mr Bloat

Owen wrote: »

It's a good idea in principle, but there's 2 downsides. The 720 or whatever it's called is a year away, and there's early termination fees for people who miss payments.

I don't think that the 720 (or whatever it will be called, as you say) will be a factor for the people that will be targeted for this offer. The early adopters of a new console will be people who have to have the new shiny shiny and/or 'hardcore' gamers. Most people who will be taking advantage of this offer will be those that don't have an Xbox already and have toyed with the idea of getting one to use for Netflix or similar and maybe a bit of light gaming. These people probably have a Wii and are thinking that the Kinect might be a bit of fun.

Those people would look at this like a mobile phone contract, pay a bit up front and a few quid every month.

Microsoft have always wanted the Xbox to be more of an entertainment hub than a just gaming machine. They want as many consoles under TVs as possible. Anyone who uses this offer will sign themselves up to XBL for 24 months, after which they most likely won't be the type of people who will go online to check out how they will get a cheaper XBL sub, they will just let the charge roll onto their credit card which equals nice money for MS, even if these people never buy more than a couple of games a year. Microsoft are getting them used to paying a small amount every month and after a while they won't even notice this small amount so will keep on paying it.

I don't think this offer will interest anyone who would be into gaming enough to post on a forum like this but we all know lots of people who would probably take up this offer.

Phew, I waffled on a bit there, eh?

DARK-KNIGHT

If they do a deal like that with the new system I'll use it then alright as funds are tight but no point taking a two year sub out with a new console due in a year

mcgovern

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

If they do a deal like that with the new system I'll use it then alright as funds are tight but no point taking a two year sub out with a new console due in a year

You are paying your sub for Xbox Live, not Xbox 360 Live, so the sub should carry over to the new console.

DARK-KNIGHT

mcgovern wrote: »

You are paying your sub for Xbox Live, not Xbox 360 Live, so the sub should carry over to the new console.

are we guaranteed that xbox live will transfer over though?

MrShine

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

are we guaranteed that xbox live will transfer over though?

As far as I can remember, it did between the original and the 360. I wasn't on it then though, only one of my friends was, so I'm not 100%.

I'll be pretty raging if it's a different service, and my I have to begin my gamerscore over again. I'm fairly proud of that thing....

feelgoodinc27

I had xbox live on the original xbox and it did transfer over to the 360.

Riesen_Meal

feelgoodinc27 wrote: »

I had xbox live on the original xbox and it did transfer over to the 360.

Same as, kept my gamertag aswell, was pretty ****ing painless if memory serves.....

Fingleberries

DARK-KNIGHT wrote: »

are we guaranteed that xbox live will transfer over though?

It would be extremely likely that Microsoft will carry XBox Live across to any new console (whenever it's available), it carried over from the original XBox to the 360 - with new features.

They are making a push with Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 to integrate XBox Live into the other ecosystems, making it a safe bet to stick around for some time to come, and with new features added for whatever the new XBox is all about.

In fairness, it would suicidal of Microsoft not to carry XBox Live across from the 360 because that is really one of the key things that has set them apart in this generation.