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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by michael corvin
(Post 10346422)
:hscratch: hasn't it been $50 a year since it launched 8 years ago?
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
You know what's great about MS softening the blow by offering a year for $40? They're basically subsidizing the next two years for people. Oh, they'll buy the $40 one now, but when then go to spend $60 next year, they'll forget all about how it would have cost the same at $50/year for two years.
Really, Microsoft would have been better off charging $100 for those same two years up front. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by superfro
(Post 10346426)
OH YEAH that's right. ;)
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by UncleGramps
(Post 10346440)
The point is not that they should stick to the $50 price point forever. The point is that they should clearly communicate the thinking and reasoning behind the change. They did a terrible job explaining why the price is changing now. Without such an explanation, it just feels like they are bumping up the price because they feel that they can get away with it.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
I just posted this on another forum and I think it bears repeating here:
I'm gonna have to go ahead and call this statement out. The fact is it costs a lot of money to house server farms. From the 24/7 99.99999% uptime, full support staff, utilities, facilities, data-warehousing, etc, etc. Also, every week more and more games come out. More and more people buy Xboxes. And more and more people join XBL. Every new person and new game adds to the load. Increased load means increased demand on those servers. How do you alleviate load? Scaling. You have to expand those server farms. You have to continually improve the back-end to keep the users from noticing the extra impact. It's an amazing technical feat and the cost is totally justified, they're just not coming out and saying all of this because, really, people don't understand what they're paying for nor would they think it's necessary because "It works fine right now, you don't need more!" Well, yes, they do. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346204)
It doesn't even take 10 minutes for me to make this much money from my job.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346470)
I just posted this on another forum and I think it bears repeating here:
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346470)
I just posted this on another forum and I think it bears repeating here:
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by superfro
(Post 10346453)
Why so people could go "FUCK ESPN! I WON'T USE IT!"? See previous posts. No matter what they pointed to as the reasoning people would just focus their ire on that particular thing. I actually love that they didn't say why or try to explain it off as part of other services. It's left everybody just bitching about it in general and saying retarded shit like "I'm canceling!" or "PS3 here I come!" all of which will never happen from the majority of folks. But they have nothing to react to other than generalities of the Xbox Live service and Microsoft.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by PixyJunket
(Post 10346477)
Um, aren't most (if not all) online Xbox 360 games P2P?
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by Liver&Onions
(Post 10346475)
You're cheating on us too?
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by UncleGramps
(Post 10346480)
If they can't justify the price increase, then they deserve to have everybody bitching at them. They don't have to point to one specific thing - just feed us some B.S. about the cost of maintenance going up, or "new features and services" coming soon. But the Major Nelson announcement has nothing. If you don't see that as bad business, I don't know what to tell you.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346487)
Probably. Does that mean they're completely independent of the infrastructure? Um, no.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346470)
I just posted this on another forum and I think it bears repeating here:
a) Actual game servers aren't hosted by MS. Most of the bandwidth and processing is offloaded to users and users' Xbox 360s. b) Server farms get cheaper (per user) as more people join. The cost per user is going down, not up. The new users coming on are paying their yearly fee too; it isn't like they're coming on for free. c) Computing power continues to go up and up. MS gets more server bang for their buck now than they did when the service started. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by superfro
(Post 10346493)
I understand what you're saying, I just personally feel it wouldn't have changed the response or matter at hand.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by PixyJunket
(Post 10346496)
But it would mean that the blunt of what most people actually pay for (playing online) is handled by their own connections, not MS's servers.
I don't know how matchmaking or TrueSkill or social play are implemented. I don't know where the server ends and the host(s) begin. I don't know where Microsoft's servers end and the developers' begin. I don't know. Do you? Does anyone? My point is, strictly technically speaking, there's a lot of shit going on behind the scenes and for some dude to say it's completely unjustified is not thinking of what it takes to make a service like that run. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by Jeremy517
(Post 10346501)
That is pretty wrong considering that
a) Actual game servers aren't hosted by MS. Most of the bandwidth and processing is offloaded to users and users' Xbox 360s. b) Server farms get cheaper (per user) as more people join. The cost per user is going down, not up. The new users coming on are paying their yearly fee too; it isn't like they're coming on for free. c) Computing power continues to go up and up. MS gets more server bang for their buck now than they did when the service started. There's one dude with his feet up at a desk watching a dashboard and pushing a button every 108 minutes to keep it all working smoothly? |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Oh and I forgot....
d) The game companies are footing some/most(?) of the bill for game-specific server functions that aren't done on 360s. This is why, for example, EA has shut down servers for dozens of games. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346528)
So, you're assuming these servers have infinite processing power and bandwidth? They don't fail? Don't antiquate? Aren't replaced or updated?
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
But those games have content that housed and provided by Microsoft.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346536)
But those games have content that housed and provided by Microsoft.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
And all I'm saying is that over the last 7 or 8 years, the sheer amount of stuff they do directly support has increased significantly. If they want 2.74 cents more a day from me, well, I think I can scrounge that up.
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re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by pinata242
(Post 10346514)
I don't know. Do you? Does anyone? My point is, strictly technically speaking, there's a lot of shit going on behind the scenes and for some dude to say it's completely unjustified is not thinking of what it takes to make a service like that run.
I do know everybody else offers this service for free. Clearly there's a disconnect in what Microsoft is offering for $60 a month. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
Originally Posted by PixyJunket
(Post 10346557)
I do know that the majority of bandwidth for P2P gaming is handled, well, peer to peer.
I do know everybody else offers this service for free. Clearly there's a disconnect in what Microsoft is offering for $60 a year. |
re: The official Xbox 360 thread - the console of choice on nuclear submarines
I don't mind the increase. I'm also covered until 2013 and would probably buy more cards if they are around $30.
I also think that PSN+ somehow helped Microsoft for this increase. PSN+, ESPN, etc. And please, Xbox Live is not a web service where most of the points apply about reducing costs over time. This is a custom system that has been heavily modified over time. If you have worked in any IT project you know how hard is to deploy new versions in a live application and all the costs included in that. |
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