$99 Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle with Two Year Contract Officially Official
That so-called subscription Xbox 360 Bundle rumored last week is now available wherever there might be a Microsoft Store (which my sources say is nowhere). For $14.99 a month, you can enjoy a brand new Slim Xbox 360 with a Kinect Sensor and a two-year membership with Xbox Live. Adopting a contract similar to most cellphone plans, the system comes with a 24-month warranty and a termination fee that claims your firstborn if you decide to break monthly payments.
Everyone with sense and a calculator will tell you that, in the long run, it’s cheaper to just buy the bundle outright sans the contract – a fact already fueling dissenting opinions from the gaming public. Personally, I believe Microsoft is introducing the new payment model in an attempt to normalize alternative methods for customers to attain their product, so that going forward, people aren’t put off by the company initiating the very same business model for future devices and consoles.
Many may cry afoul this generation, but imagine the next lineup of consoles that hit the scene with price tags sure to zoom right past our current $300 comfort zones. If you offered me an Xbox 720 at release for a hundred bucks…well, let’s just say I wouldn’t quite snub my nose at it. We could be looking at a new trend, folks. We’ll see how this one plays out.