Congrats, you managed to get ripped off in excess of $500.

This is something I'd expect from montana

Why do I think Microsoft raising the price on XboxLive would be in order to get people to sign a 2 year gold contract to get a 'free' 360?? (Figuring, people would think it was a scam to pay a monthly rate on live if it were only $50 a year - and that wouldn't cover the costs of the system if the contract was for only $50 a year)

I keep thinking this is where Microsoft is going, and I don't like it - sure the cell phone model works extremely well with your broke average joe idiot in business.. but I don't think it works well for the people actually paying for the service. It's deceptive and misleading designed to suck you into an expensive contractual obligation that you really didn't realize the costs of. Microsoft is already pulling that angle to some degree with the expensive proprietary peripherals and online fees - along with the hdd-less arcade model.

Ok, I love my 360, but:

-Their mics are garbage.

-Their wireless adapters (yes, I own one) are way way way way overpriced even though they perform just fine.

-If you bought HDMI cables for any more than $5 to $10 each, you got royally ripped off.  In general, HDMI cables are HDMI cables. 

-The life span of the rechargeable battery packs for the controllers is pathetic.  Mine died in less than a year.

-The hard drives are a rip off no matter which one you buy.  I'd rather delete stuff to make room on my 20 GB that came with my system than buy a bigger one.

On the other hand:

-360 controllers (save for the clunky D pad) are awesome.  Much more comfortable than the Dualshock 3.  If I go in any direction for too long on those analog sticks on the Dualshock 3, my thumbs slip off.  They should have made them concave and more friction-y.

-Many will disagree with me, but I think the 360 has a pretty awesome look and feels like a solid piece of hardware when you pick it up.  I wish I had a black one so it matched the rest of my stuff.

-I like that they used standard USB ports, even though the 360 is not nearly as connectable to other types of media as the PS3 is. 

Also--Uncharted 2 is an amazing game.  You should actually try things before crapping on them. 

Damn...i did not expect that response at all.....

I personally think that MS is going to do the following. They're going to allow free online play to silver users as well, but, the other stuff, like parties, private chats, twitter, facebook, zune, last.fm and netflix, are only going to be available to gold members. They will probably add some new stuff as well. If they do this, the Gold price will go up, and people can't complain about not playing online for free anymore. I think that's their plan.

They can't really make it free right now, because people who already paid for a year, are gonna ask what happened to their money, and Gold does not give a real advantage over Silver now, except for the online gaming itself, so they need to make a big difference between Gold and Silver that is worth the money, if they are going to make online play free. They must, otherwise people will keep seeing more value in Sony and will eventually ditch the X360 for multi-plats, and that's basically the X360's strongest point right now....

didn't u had a ps3?

so all that kz2 bad control story was?

LOLLL, cmon M$ u expect to beat SONY by dubbing the price of the thing that sells your consoles hahahahahaahah, are they retarted or something. LOLLLL

I don't know why Microsoft won't just knock off Patcher's comment cause its dumb, but lets be real. Do you really think MS is gonna double the fee when PSN and WII's is free? hell no. If they do, lots of people will be disappointed and have a better reason to move to the PS3 and they dont want that. 50 a year, ok, but 100 is too much especialy since were used to payin 50

I actually thought the interview responses were quite funny. I love watching these reps use propaganda to advertise their product.

Our accessory attach rate is higher than anyone's,"- Perhaps because a few features are not included out of the box? (HDD, WIFI adapter, play and charge kit)

"I don't foresee a scenario where we're going to double the price of LIVE anytime in the next couple months,"- You mean in the next 2 years right?

An entertaining read..