11th January 2003, 7:45 PM
You know, the Live Starter Kits got me thinking. Subscriptions and gamers don't really mix too well. We don't like commiting future money to stuff, since we don't know if we will still want it then. However, the starter kits are basically an already paid for year. I think MS, and maybe other companies, should REALLY consider a calling card style pricing plan. All you need to do is pick up a few code disks at the store, each one netting you a certain number of hours, and then it's like you just bought a normal store item, instead of the scarry ogre-like prospect of subsribing. You wouldn't even need a credit card or anything like that, since the whole setup is on the disk and paid for.
Hey, Nintendo should consider that as their strategy. MS isn't too late to turn that into their strat (just keep selling a year's worth at $50 in the stores MS, instead of your plan to force people to subscribe to continue after the trial pricing is over).
Hey, Nintendo should consider that as their strategy. MS isn't too late to turn that into their strat (just keep selling a year's worth at $50 in the stores MS, instead of your plan to force people to subscribe to continue after the trial pricing is over).
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)