| NightDragon83 said: Yeah, because that extra $50 for a YEAR (which you can usually get online at Amazon or other sites cheaper) is a real deal breaker, but paying an extra $100-$200 for a system with "free" online is fine right? If you take the difference between the 360 Arcade and the recently reduced PS3 160 GB bundle, that's enough to cover 5 years of XBL at full price of membership. And even if you don't wish to pay for Gold... you still have access to all of the movies, arcade games, and other DLC that's available on XBL, you just can't play online multiplayer. |
It was a deal breaker for me. It wasn't the cost, it was that, at the time of me choosing a console, I didn't have a steady income, the initial console purchase and the proceeding year or so, I was tight on money, and so every game I chose had to have lots of replayability - making me pay for an online service would mean either having to buy fewer games (as I could only really afford 3/4 games in that year), or buying an extra game, and having cut back replayability on all my games.
Having a larger initial cost isn't as bad for people in my situation, as I would have burned through the money anyway, but the odds were that I probably wouldn't have the money around the time of requiring a subscription renewal.
So, yeah, it has effected sales... if only by one. 
