I know someone who actually got a 360 from a Rent A Center years ago (maybe 2009).

Not sure what he paid, but I presume it was significantly more than what MS is offering.

You aren't stuck in a contract. Just pay your balance and its done. Not everyone knows you can shop around for cheaper Live subscriptions, not a matter of lazy.

Buying everything outright isn't gonna save you a ton money and taking advantage of this subscription plan doesn't mean you don't have the money.

It's okay to have it as an option. On the other hand, one might expect that people who need a payment plan to be able to afford a 360 are still busy paying off last year's cheeseburger. ;)

But seriously, if possible, payment plans should generally be avoided, because ultimately you're paying more than if you simply bought the product. For a few very expensive things like buying a house, a payment plan can be unavoidable. But if you cannot even afford a 360 within reasonable time, it would be wiser not to buy one and wait until you can. In such a case, chances are that previous payment plans for things you shouldn't have bought are the main reason for your bad financial situation. (At least that's my personal experience: I know two people who are constantly asking me to borrow them money; they are exactly the ones I know who like to pay even rather small amounts with payment plans and then constantly run out of money, often because they forget that this month they are due for another payment of their 17th payment plan)

If you absolutely cannot live without a 360 for another month, better buy a cheap and/or used model instead; you'll pay even less than the initial 99$ of the payment plan.

I posit this sort of practical business strategy is why MS is making record profit while competitors are slashing prices and selling assets.

$15 a month for 24 months is $360.

Well played MS.

While I mostly agree with what you say you need to understand not all debt is bad debt and given the contract is only to pay what you would have paid anyway outright pls a small fee it is hardly relevant. I could buy a car outright but I lease instead so I can claim a percentage on tax for business use. I could pay off my investment property but the interest rate on the debt is so low that at the moment I am better off leveraging those funds elsewhere. At 4.5% it is actually not a particularly bad option even if you have the money to buy it outright (that is if you have some other use for the money at the time, while I would not bother for such a small amount I would actually be better off with the payment plan and putting those funds into my investments which average betweeen 10-15%pa).

"Compared to the Entertainment-For-All option, consumers will only pay $278.88 at the end of one year."

Even though you are committed to paying for Xbox Live for 2 years?

http://www6.rentacenter.com/rent/electronics/gaming-systems?WT.z_position=snav&WT.z_content=Gaming%20Systems%20Electronics

rent a center and companies like them dont have deals with any body, they just let people buy stuff on high interest rates. compared to them i am sure the EFS deal is great.

Yes, regardless of whether or not you're committed to 2 years of Xbox LIVE or not, at the end of 12 months you've still only paid $278.88.  The math isn't that hard, a third grader can do it.  I even included the spread sheet output at the end of my post. 

At the end of one year you'll have $81.10 in the bank over buying it outright. 

You're still committed to the 2 years, but it takes another 10 months before buying it outright costs less.  In the mean time, in those previous 21 months, the $245.99 difference paid on day one can be used to work for you.  Either to pay other bills, or earn interest.

I thought it was supposedly extremely easy to get a year of live for under 30$