Yesterday Microsoft announced a raft of new TV partnerships for Xbox LIVE, but it appears you may have to pay for some of them. A small asterisk at the end of the press release explains “Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or other subscriptions/fees required.”
A Microsoft representative told Edge magazine the following:
“With regard to Gold/Silver we will be releasing more information over the coming weeks. Some will sit behind Gold, some Silver, and others will require additional subscriptions.”
It appears voice and gesture control using Kinect will also be restricted to those who pay for Xbox LIVE Gold.
Source: Edge
TheBlamBow
“It appears voice and gesture control using Kinect will also be restricted to those who pay for Xbox LIVE Gold” – is that sarcasm or serious? If the latter then that is just plain wrong for those who own Kinect! They dropped £130 on a device they are then expected to pay extra to use :-/
Together with MS “bullying” devs with the whole “don’t release extra content on competing platforms” I’m really beginning to develop a hate for MS tactics this gen….a damn shame as Xbox and LIVE are brilliant
Paranoimia
Is anyone really surprised?
It’s like the Twitter and Facebook integrations… aren’t they bundled in with Gold subs? So MS are effectively charging you to use free services.
These ‘tactics’ are nothing new as far as MS are concerned. I’ve had a strong dislike of the way they do things for a long time now. No, it’s not a ‘fanboy’ thing… it goes back to well before they entered the console market.
TROPtastic
Hopefully they will change their strategies for the next gen. Then again, maybe not. :/
shields_t
Yeah, the subscription price will go up for the 720.
cnutard
Surely this is obviously for the services joining them that already require a subscription like LoveFilm? Doesn’t seem too surprising.
Dimpoc
Standard M$ pricing model for Xbox360:
If you want all the features you have to pay…
… through the nose.
TheArgonian
This just in from Major Nelson, it seems that we are going to have to make a subscription to breathe
mr187uk
Lovefilm and sky are the additional subscription service I would imagine.
monty2k
Here’s the official statement:
http://majornelson.com/2011/10/05/xbox-360-teams-up-with-entertainment-leaders-to-transform-tv/
According to the fine print there, you only need Gold status and an additional subscription to access Canal+. Not surprising since it’s the French version of Sky…
I think this may have been blow out of porportion.