I found this tactic with the subscription based model of 99$ rather interesting.

Does anyone know how many consoles Microsoft was able to sell this way? If it was successfull, they might employ it for the Nextbox. Which could be a big game changer IMO.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's good for some people on low incomes etc but only as far as it allows them to get an Xbox 360, it's not a good deal by any means, it's just an option. Of course in the UK where I live everyone uses the contract model for mobile phones, but that's because it works out cheaper than paying upfront "pay as you go". Pay as you go is for people who can't get contracts and very light users.

This Xbox pricing model is more for people who couldn't even get a mobile contact due to abysmal credit score and is predatory imo, the total cost of credit is diabolical and would give those 40% a year credit cards a run for their money in the "evil" stakes.

Even with contract mobile phones, you can shop around for the best deal and if you're savvy it can work out that you're basically just paying the price of the handset and with free minutes/texts every month.

With this you still have to buy games, I suppose you can rent them...still it's very expensive and to see it as a good deal is wrong. It's an option and nothing more.

It's also slightly different in terms of upfront cost with a mobile phone, a top end smartphone is going to cost you $600 up front. An Xbox 360 is going to cost you $200 upfront, and Xbox Live is optional you don't actually need it to use the system to it's full capacity. By adding on the Xbox Live Gold as a forced extra, at a price more than double the retail value locked in for 2 years to save...what...? $100!?

There's a big difference between being able to scratch together $100 and scratching together $600 so mobile phone contract makes sense, they are also basically consumable devices that get upgraded at the end of those 12-24 month contracts, and can be resold for a reasonable sum if looked after, so there's a kind of ecosystem in effect. With an Xbox 360 contract you have nothing to show since the backloading is on the service itselt and the actual item value is low relative to it.

....sorry, I sound on a mission here. :)

Well if the real price was 99 then 360 would probably be doubling in dales right now.

If MS can sell many units like that then why wouldn't Sony and Nintendo introduce it as well? 

Or the fact that the console is 8 years old and this subscription based model is only available at select retailers like GameStop and Best Buy.

At first I was going to jump on the deal because I was like $99 man that is a steal and I could always just get another HD for it. Then I saw the 2 year contract and it turned me away. I will have to wait until an official price cut comes around before I buy another 360, I sold mine a while back after every kind of stopped playing Gears 1 which sucked. But I want to get another one soon though.

But this deal....is kind of a rip off if IMO that is....

Lol "select retailers" followed by Best Buy. Too funny, add Toys R' Us and Walmart to your "select retailers".

Fair enough. Though even to this day, the $99 promotion has seen little marketing outside of apparently this new TV ad and some online buzz. I just checked, and you don't even find the $99 deals on any of the online websites for Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop, etc if you look in the typical places (Video Games > Xbox 360 > Console/Systems). You can only access the $99 deal if you happen to see the ad for it on their main Xbox 360 pages.

I really don't think it was meant to be a system seller promotion given the console is 8 years old and most people wanting a cheap Xbox probably don't want that added contract. However, starting off next generation with this type of promotion would do wonders. Xbox 8 for $199 with 2 year $15/month contract instead of paying $399 would be a pretty decent system seller at that point.

I haven't seen much either. The reason you aren't seeing the deal listed on the websites is probably because of the need for your John Hancock to lock you into that contract which is why Amazon doesn't have it.

Hard to disagree with this. Just need a non-contract version for $399 as well and you have some happy consumers.

I'm sure they would, if it were proven succesfull. That's one of the reasons why i would like to see numbers about this.

I was mostly referring to a game changer for the industry itself. With new pricing structures and all that.