And coming back soon the return of the Xbox Diamond Card.
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Xbox Live Apps no longer behind paywall coming?
- Thread starter Miles X
- Start date
And coming back soon the return of the Xbox Diamond Card.
grosvenor_92
Member
It would be awesome if they did this but then how would they justify paying for a xbox live gold subscription ?
Multiplayer, games with gold, and other services,
Like, it doesn't make sense that MS would lock Netflix behind a paywall, since we already have to pay for it. Instead, have something like Netflix included in the price of gold. That would really increase the value, I should think.
Match Best Buy and offer 20% off all new digital games, 10% DLC, and 15% off season passes.
Dragonborn
Member
MS would never do that but it'd be one heck of a big deal if they did.
KeyboardThug
Member
This would be huge. But I don't think it will ever happen.
Miles Quaritch
Member
I can't see many third party publishers or developers being happy with those kinds of discounts. The most you can expect is 10% off some digital releases and no discounts on DLC or season passes until a few months after release.
And this is a step in the right direction. If they remove the apps, they will have to find something of value to add to Live Gold. They'll actually become competitive. I was cynical that they wouldn't do this (and I guess I should stay cynical until I see it happen) because it seemed xbox fans were happy to give them the money and it wasn't costing them too much to have those stupid policies (and sadly I have seen people who proved that it worked to convince people to pay for Live Gold).
I figured I was in the minority (I just refuse to condone that behavior). But maybe MS is finding it is biting them in the butt. If so, good. Let's see them truly get competitive (Sony better watch out cause from what I've seen of them this past year, they've been having it too easy and being too relaxed. I'd like to see them actually come out with some good updates, they promised some a few weeks back but I haven't heard a date. Also, I would like to hear some more AAA games out for PS, particularly for me something I'm actually interested in. Since Witcher 3 is moved to next year and we have no idea when Fallout 4 is coming out there is nothing I am super interested in on PS4 coming out this year. And yes, that's just what I am interested in, but that's what is important to me
).If he actually removes the paywall for apps, I'd say that is a very good move on his part . It's late, and MS doesn't deserve praise rather than a, "Finally, what took so long?" but I'll give him personally a pass since he's only had control for a short bit so that probably wasn't up to him how long it took. Honestly, if he does this, I'll see why people are very happy to have him on board (I just don't know enough about him now to have an opinion either way. But it does seem xbox has improved since Mattrick left so I am willing to believe Mattrick was a lot of what was wrong with xbox. Seems him and Zynga are a good fit).
I don't think this is about removing the paywall for MP, just for the apps. I think that would be a killer move for MS now that Sony paywalls certain MP, but I agree with you that the method works so I doubt they'd stop that (and honestly that isn't what offends me, it's the apps, particularly ones I already pay a sub fee to some one else to use, that offends me).
But since Sony followed suite I think it shows that it does make them money to do so, so I don't see MS stopping something that makes them money.
On the other hand, maybe my cynicism is wrong about the paywalling of apps making MS money and they have seen that the paywall of apps has lost them money from people who wake up and realize the stupidity of that policy especially when they can get those apps elsewhere without paying an extra yearly fee. Hell, buying a device specifically for Netflix/HBO Go/whatnot can be cheaper than paying one year of Live (that is if your tv doesn't already do it, mine does Netflix but I still use my PS for it cause it's a better app and it's free. If it weren't free I'd just suffer my TV's netflix app which honestly does kinda suck). So the only people who are paying to use their xbox for Netflix and whatnot are people who have failed to do their research.
We'll see if MS actually removes the paywall for apps (and then they'll remove the one major reason I rant about xbox. Everything else is just more personal preference really. But the paywall crap is what truly offends me about xbox).
Well, I don't know about Netflix but it would work out great for MS. That in itself would have me totally subscribe to Gold just to get cheaper Netflix
(well, long as they didn't paywall Netflix anymore cause until they remove the paywall for apps I refuse to pay for Gold).That's actually not objective at all. A collection of subjective opinions are still subjective. Justin Bieber isn't objectively better than most other performing artists.
I like Halo and Forza, but don't give a shit about either Gears or Fable. Despite this I still have massively preferred MS' offering to Sony's over the previous gen due to other franchises like Viva Pinata, Project Gotham, Crackdown and others (including some of their Kinect stuff).
On the Sony side, I didn't enjoy Uncharted, or Killzone, or LittleBigPlanet, or Infamous, or Resistance, or Ratchet and Clank, or God of War and I'm currently not too enthralled with TLoU (just under halfway through atm). Pretty much all Sony offered me for PS3 that I cared for was Wipeout and Motorstorm.. and one (both?) of those is dead today. The disparity is currently even worse between my X1 and PS4.
Also you state that MS has exclusively relied on Halo/Forza/Gears releases for the past few years, which seems weird considering I've been playing Ryse, Killer Instinct and Crimson Dragon lately, and so much of the animosity towards them in previous years has been due to them offering a load of new Kinect material. Just because what they offered didn't appeal to you, doesn't mean they didn't offer anything. By that measure, Sony rarely ever offers me anything... ever.
I pay more yearly for Netflix, than I do for Live Gold. I don't see how the numbers for this would possibly work out.
grosvenor_92
Member
That is probably the most likely scenario if this actually happens
Microsoft probably won't include anything like that but we'll have to wait and see
Steverulez
Member
Insomniac dont want to just be making R&C games for the rest of time because they dont own it and dont have control over it. Clearly Sony dont agree that it deserves better, otherwise they would give it to someone else.
I enjoyed the previous titles they made that I played... Sony owned and published Resistance, the game had a complete lack of identity, which was shown on a basic level in the completely contrasting boxarts the game had. Its as much on Sony as it is Insomniac (and looking at the recent Vita spin-off it seems Sony dont really care about it anyway) in my opinion. Not to mention whenever I see Resistance mentioned people always say how good 3 was.
Insomniac wanted the freedom to own their own IP which Sony dont allow. They've gone to Microsoft who publish games that are some of my favourite series and Insomniac said MS believe in their vision for the game which is clearly something they like. I wont say Insomniac dont have anything to prove but I dont consider the issues with some spin-off R&C titles to mean they arent a good and highly rated developer. I assume SO has had the development time they need to produce the game they want.
Theres also the quote here at the top that I considered to be a dig at EA for not supporting them on the style of Fuse, I appreciate not everyone will agree with me on that.
In terms of core games, they did rely on those and I wont argue that but MS invested in plenty of other games for 360 in its latter years using Kinect which required Kinect:
Joy Ride, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, The Gunstringer, Star Wars, Dance Central (only the third was published by MS admittedly), some Disneyland games... then theres XBLA stuff, I never personally felt I wasnt getting a good line-up - I also didnt own a Kinect.
There was certainly investment and while this happened on 360 - seemingly a good idea too considering how many Kinect devices they sold - their focused on getting the line-up they did of "core games" Xbox One and so far they've certainly delivered on their line-up. Releasing Forza and Halo regularly is fine as long as there are other games too which so far there has been.
BouncyFrag
Member
If MS is trying to woo back gamers after the mess of the X1 build up and release, this is a step in the right direction.
You're definitely still paying primarily for the shipping. On-topic, good news it's about damn time.
Metalingus5150
Member
If that happens, I'm buying an Xbox One really soon. Would really love this new direction to happen at microsoft.
A discount then. People can use Netflix without XBL gold, but if they do get gold, it discounts their subscription for say, $20 a year.
Credit where credit is due. Phil is a godsend, but it was really Nadella who was the god-that-sent him.
If Phil is the best thing that could have happened to Xbox, Nadella is too, since Nadella is the best thing that has happened to Microsoft as a whole in recent years.
Fried Food
Banned
now that sony charges for multi, no way microsoft stops doing that. I can see them easy the App gold restriction through.
If MS proceeds with this then they better not make a big announcement out of it unless they add some other elements to the service in order to make it more valuable, so to speak. If they come out with a big announcement about how certain apps are no longer behind a paywall and leave it like that then they are going to be hit with "so what?," "about time," "that's how it should have been anyways," etc.
Actually, I could see them doing that now. Pull the old switcheroo on them.
Instead of charging for multiplayer, focus it more on being something like PS+ for the PS3 is.
That didn't work out for Sony.
What makes you think it would work for Ms?
Neither of them will ever make mp free again as long as they are really really seriously presured to do so.
Making mp free means loosing billions.
Steverulez
Member
What counts as a "big announcement"?
Most likely, they will do a blog post on it on Xbox Wire, and will be tweeted by the various Xbox staff on twitter.
crazepharmacist
Member
Again, they mark up most of the Prime eligible products so that "free" 2-day shipping isn't really free. You're better off making sure your order total is $35 or above so you get free shipping anyway, without being a Prime member.
Apparently there is even an on-going lawsuit over this issue: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/lawsui...e-third-party-prices-inflated-cover-shipping/
FutureZombie
Banned
I understand the appeal of this in a theoretical way, but are you all really buying an Xbox 1 and not getting Gold? I'm trying to picture the person who wants an Xbox 1 but does not want to play games online.
I was thinking something along the lines of announcing at E3. I think what you suggested is perfect. I think they should just put it out there, but not try and play it up as a huge deal, if that makes sense.
People don't play online at all or often so why would they subscribe yearly or ever?
Different strokes. People may just play single player or local multiplayer and others may not have the time to justify subscribing for online play so trials and short passes is all they need if they are interested.
Online players will still pay for Gold so why turn away everyone else for no logical reason. Silly policy.
ChosenPredator
Banned
pretty cool he reads gaf too :3
Not everybody goes online for online play (online multiplayer).
There are even those that either doesn't have internet from where they're at (Rural areas, mind you), or have very poor internet speeds/streaming.
Dreamgazer
Member
I bought a 360 and never took it online.
Happily played through ToV, Gears trilogy, Halo SP campaigns, Lost Odyssey with no problem at all. Did my online stuff on PC/PS3.
I plan to do the same with Xbox 1 later in the gen.
Please picture me
That's true. I guess what I'm saying is that there will be plenty of "incentive" for people to sub to Gold without inflating the value with this BS.
TechnicPuppet
Nothing! I said nothing!
If they do this and give away a small game for free every month it will be Sony who will need to add value to their service on PS4.
He's got the charm but that's it. All I see is just talk this, plan this.
It's a problem for MS, not Sony.
This makes no sense as it still wouldn't match Sony's subscription service.
TechnicPuppet
Nothing! I said nothing!
In what way?
Playstation plus is just better.
Steverulez
Member
He gets asked questions, he answers them. E3 is always their big place for news, but other stuff is scattered between Gamescom/TGS and other times.
I would imagine his intention of answering the questions he does is a lot more about letting people know hes listening rather than specifically trying to announce something on a particular time.
Plus hes had the job for less than a week (before that the XBL stuff wasnt his area) give the man some time.
Sony offers:
1 x PS4 game
2 x PS3 games
2 x Vita games
While MS would theoretically offer
1 x Xbone game
2 x 360 games
Also you have to take into the account that the 360 games are a lot older than the PS3 games.
Well at the BUILD conference they did say that Microsoft is working on an Xbox 360 emulator for the Xbox One but it's proving to be difficult.
TechnicPuppet
Nothing! I said nothing!
I clearly said the PS4.