Michael Pachter, the internet’s favorite gaming soothsayer, turned up on GameTrailer’s Bonus Round once again this week. What did the Wedbush Morgan analyst see in his crystal ball this time around? Not only did he declare that Microsoft has given up on PC gaming, but he also predicted that the price of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will be going up sometime in the near future.
“It’s a profit deal,” Pachter claimed, responding to a fan question about the dearth of ports from Xbox 360 to PC. “Microsoft wants you to never play a game again on your PC and play everything on your 360,” he went on to suggest, adding, “You give a PC gamer an incentive to buy a 360 if you put something that he really wants only on the 360.”
But why would Microsoft want to lure customers away from one of their own platforms?
“You can’t hook a guy into Xbox Live Gold if he’s playing on PC. So, I mean, that’s the other problem is you really wanna hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay you 50 bucks a year so that in a couple years, it’s 100 bucks a year. And that’s going up — we all know that.”
It might sound crazy to actually raise the price of Xbox Live, especially when neither of Microsoft’s competitors are currently charging for online play. Then again, Microsoft has attempted to add value to Gold memberships for years now by piling on exclusive features like Netflix streaming and, any day now, Facebook integration — perhaps in anticipation of a price hike further down the line?
Coming this November Xbox live will be getting access to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. Now you won’t have to get off the couch to announce to people that you just got done playing Xbox.
Unlike Twitter the Facebook app will require downloading but only a few megabytes of HD space. You’ll be able to browse photos and see which of your friends are on Xbox live. The new Zune video marketplace will feature full 1080p HD streaming and you can both rent and buy lots of movies and TB shows.
Also there will be a free video section that will include MSNBC news shorts, and Dilbert. Finally Xbox 360 is getting a free internet radio app called last.fm. The program will sync with your last.fm subscription on their website.
Overall I’m very excited for the update, finally I’ll be able to have free streaming music with sideshows on my big screen via the Xbox 360.
For those of you who love the puzzle rpg genre, this game looks promising.
Square Enix is teaming up with the “broadly appealing” e-crack peddling masters at PopCap Games on Gyromancer, a new puzzle RPG for XBLA and PC. At its core, Gyromancer is a re-skinned version of PopCap’s Bejeweled Twist with Square Enix delivering the … um, big hair? Maybe some writing — or 20-minute cutscenes? We have no idea.
Conquer four new campaigns as the Red Alert 3 saga continues in Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising for Xbox Live. Featuring 12 new units, the new Commanders Challenge, 30 minutes of HD cinematics
