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Question: how do you illicit anger in millions of gamers worldwide? Answer: by increasing the subscription fee for your already pricey online gaming service, that’s how! Microsoft showed gamers, and the world, the blueprint to upsetting your customers. But is the price hike for MS’s popular Xbox Live service justifiable?

Price increase across the board

Major Nelson – real name Larry Hryb – announced the hike with a statement issued on his blog, which read: ‘Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same.’ That’s called buttering them up before laying them down. Now for the laying part: ‘We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.’

So, what is the new pricing, exactly?

The price increase will take effect 1 November 2010 and will affect gamers in the US, Canada, Mexico and the UK. US gamers, who are accustomed to paying $7.99, $19.99 or $49.99 for a one month, three month, or twelve month subscription, respectively, will now pay $9.99, $24.99, and $59.99 over the same periods. In Canada, the price of a one month gold subscription will go from $8.99 CAD to $9.99 CAD. In Mexico 12 month gold goes from 499 pesos to 599 pesos. Finally, for us in the UK, the only price hike will be for the one month gold subscription, where we’ll go from paying £4.99 to £5.99 for Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. Everybody else need not worry – prices aren’t changing for you.

Why the long face? Here, have a gift

Photo: J.VillaretePhoto / Flickr

As if to put a smile on all those sad US gamers’ faces, Microsoft is offering a temporary discount on the Xbox Live subscription, wherein you pay $39.99 for a live subscription, representing a 20 per cent discount over the formerly normal $49.99 price tag. Expect gamers to snap up this option en masse, by the way.

Be smart – circumvent the system anyway

We’re still advocates of buying cards and subscriptions for the Xbox Live service outside of Microsoft’s channels. Stores online sell them for notably cheaper, and are significantly more convenient, too.

But back to the question, is it justified? Surely it’s relative. No price increase in eight years is a significant achievement, but, even then, with PSN being free, it seems a hard pill to swallow. I mean, it’s not as if the service isn’t already making bucket loads of money. Now, compare that to how much people pay for WoW monthly, suddenly Live seems more palatable. It’s all relative, and the truth is, we’re not about to jump ship in protest – it’s just too good a service to do so for a measly pound, for us Brits. For our US friends, though, it’s a whole other story.