Sega tried this with the Dreamcast. Microsoft made this kind of an option with the 360 (discount console with a contract). My phone company did this with my shitty router (buy it straight up or have it appear as a slight increase on my bill). DirecTV for this. You can't buy receivers anymore. You can only lease. The cell phone companies do this. Buy the phone itself at full price or get a discount with a contract.


This will happen. With good credit (meaning people with a history of paying their bills) I am positive that a lower price over a longer amount of time will become an option. We don't have to like it. We will go kicking and screaming into the future but this will happen. Hell, even GameStop has its own credit card. Totally free? Not likely. A discount with a service contract? Yes. Remember when Xbox One was almost online only? That time will come. It's just happening so gradually that we don't even realize it.

When it does, in digging up this post.

Only way I could see this working is if it's handled like cell phones.

The console itself is free but you sign up for a 5 year contract at say $125/year ($10ish/month) which includes online play, but games, controllers, etc. are obviously all extra.... As opposed to paying $400 for a console up front and $250 for 5 years of online play ($50/year).

Works out to the same either way so it wouldn't matter.

But if you just mean straight up giving them away free, in hopes the person buys Live each year, and a handful of games each year, maybe an extra controller or two....come on dude that won't happen in a million years. What's to stop hobos from walking up and grabbing one that obviously don't have a home or way to play it...and how will they know one guy hasn't just gotten like 5 of them so he has one in each room of the house? 

Nothing can be for free, they would have to bundle it with a forced subscription like with a cellphone