That has nothing to do with it is not what he was talking about,he is trying to imply that on hardware you get charge for access to content,that is not right at all.
He is right. What does purchasing a console provides? The ability to access the console's services and library. In fact consoles offer very utility outside those services and library as who wants to spend $300 a DVD or BluRay player nowadays or services that could be provided by a $99 product.
You get charge for the hardware,the software is charge to you apart,it has been like this since consoles started,and i don't think netflix or hulu,can increase the cost of a console,that is silly every one get those apps for free every where.
The software is still charged apart
The xbox getting cable providers will mean nothing,since i am 100% sure cable companies will charge you for it or MS.
Working with cable companies can mean alot of different things as using the xfinity app on the 360 doesn't count against your data cap on comcast. The leaks show that MS wanted or wants to launch a paid TV service with its own content. MS and cable companies may come to an arrangement where TV service or gaming data in general doesn't count against your data cap (which would be a big plus for any download heavy service) in an exchange for a portion of the subscription fees that revolve around Live and XTV.
You are basically making assumptions without any real concrete knowledge about what Durango offers. All the rumors and outside leaks may just revolve around an application apu. The leak MS document showed MS was planning to provide a lot more than an APU for gaming. They wanted to supply every Durango gamer with 360 BC.
That implication alone could mean alot more than we have considered. A previous console's library is basically thrown away every new generation because it is not really considered of any real value outside a fraction of the userbase willing to make use of it. However, the average attachment rate on consoles doesn't even represent 1% of the games offered by your typical console's library. Your average gamer never makes any real use of the library offered by their hardware. And thats probably due to the retail model of software offered on consoles.
Digital download and a different pay model may alleviate that perceived lack of value.
What if MS offers BC in every console and a Netflix like subscription model for the 360 library? You pay a subscription fee in return you get access the whole 360 library. You could even find a circumstance where current gen games find a new life with a subscription based offering when retail sales die off. Do you see people complain about the lack of a strong presence of a used DVD/BluRay market? Thats because movies and TV series come with a tiered price structure. Something the game market truly lacks.
MS is definitely pushing towards a subscription model as its a more stable model that is typically more profitable but in exchange has to offer more value. Unlocking the untapped value of past libraries could prove to be a source of value addition. Another could be a different profit structure as the current one is relatively archaic. As the amount of bandwidth improves and data caps grow or are totally lifted, gaming has a chance to adopt a model more synonymous to TV and film. Where gamers traditionally purchase newly released titles but older titles and "straight to Live" titles are handled by a subscription model. A third tier could be a free to pay model based on ads.
The console ecosystem of today looks nothing like it did 10 years ago. And MS has been a big part of the evolution we have seen over that decade. Large memory storage, centralized online service, achievements and a host of other features offered on Xbox consoles have become standards across console hardware.
Given that, you expect MS to rest on it laurels and use its current dominating position of third in a three horse race and simply start ripping people off. Offering a similar product to last gen at a price that was easily reject last gen in an effort to make a subscription model attractive. A $500 dollar Durango doesnt make a $300 price point tied to a subscription attractive. $300 is a current price point that currently buys ownership of the hardware.
Smartphone is the biggest and hottest market right now. Telcom get away with things other markets could never do like selling you 5 GBs worth of bandwidth for $50. Do you think ATT could start selling unlocked iphones at $1350 and offering subsidized $400 iphones with $250 a month contracts with no ramifications? All while Verizon and others maintain the current pricing. Tell me why anybody would accept the such a thing from a console? Especially with Sony basically offering the same product under more economically friendly circumstances.
