PixlBit

This is absolutely horrible and will further justify my refusal to pay for Xbox Live Gold. I wonder how Microsoft will explain the reason for the price increase.

The email sent out by Microsoft touted the introduction of Hulu, ESPN3, and Video Kinect as great new features, which are likely the cause of the price hike.

At this point, Microsoft should really just tier their gold service into gold and platinum, and keep all of these extraneous features only in the platinum service, leaving gold members with the ability to play online and have access to demos and such early.

Yesterday evening, Nick pointed out the absurdity that Nintendo would drop their DS prices while Microsoft raised the price for the 360's online all on the same day.

Had I a 360, though, I wouldn't personally be worried about the increase in price, specifically because of ESPN3. For some reason, I can't get enough College Football.

I actually read a few articles and I think on one of them, a Microsoft employee said that the reason of the price increase is because of inflation and the $49.99 price existed ever since the service launched in 2002. If that is the case then this is a terrible excuse.

I am more than willing to pay for it to get the ESPN3 connection as it becomes one more reason for me to not have to pay for cable. I do think a tiered service is better though for those not caring for tv streaming.