The $10 price hike

If you're an Xbox Gold subscriber, then I'm sure you've already heard about the $10 increase for the service. This rate hike is enough for me to sever my ties with my account, but it isn't simply due to the price.

I'm a frugal gamer by necessity. I rarely purchase a game at full price and I borrow more then I pay for. One steady income limits the amount of games I can get in a year, but this wasn't always the way. There was a time when I was buying up all my favorite games the day they were released. My first payment to Xbox Live was during this run.

To create our family budget, chaff was cut. We didn't get rid of the XBL Gold subscription, though. While it would have freed up some extra cash, the Xbox didn't seem complete without the Live connection. I had some wonderful nights of online gaming on the original Xbox (few as they were) that the price seemed justified.

So why am I not re-newing a full-price membership? By raising the cost, Microsoft forced me to re-examine what I'm paying for. For as long as I've been paying for XBL, I've haven't examined the "value" of the service. I've been paying without question. It doesn't matter the exact amount Microsoft raised the price to. Living by a budget means knowing exactly how much money is being spent. When something increases, money needs to be shuffled around. We don't like to shuffle without knowing it is worth it. Here is a quick breakdown as to my usage of XBL.

1) I play L4D and lately RE5. I don't play Call of Duty or the Halo games online. If I did, I'm sure I could justify the cost more. I love playing Co-Op games with my friends and I'd love to do it more, but life gets in the way. At this point, I'm not available for spontaneous play. I need to schedule my gaming exploits on Google Calendar or it doesn't get done. I'd say I probably spend only 3% of my gaming time online with Xbox live. 3% doesn't quite seem worth a $60 tag.

2) There was time when Netflix was probably the most used function of our Gold account. We weren't going to buy a Roku box and we didn't want to watch movies on our computers. Now, the PS3 and Wii offer the function of watching Netflix films on our TV. I've heard the PS3 set-up isn't as nice as the 360 app, but it doesn't require a separate cost to watch our Instant Queue on the television.

With Microsoft raising their XBox Live price, they've forced me to reassess how valuable I find their service. It hasn't been worth $49 for years. It isn't worth $59 now.