In certain parts of the world, like the US, UK, and Australia, mobile devices are offered at a cheaper price, and sometimes even free, as long as the customer is willing to sign with the carrier for the next 1-2 years, depending on the contract. This ensures that the customer is locked into the service and any attempts to break the contract would result in a penalty.
Interestingly Microsoft attempted something similar with the Xbox 360 a couple of year ago. The company started offering its customers the option of paying $99 for the Xbox 360 along with the Kinect as long as gamers would sign up for an Xbox Live Gold subscription valued at $15 for the next two years. However it looks like Microsoft has not offered that option to Xbox One gamers, and has since revealed that the plan had been scrapped sometime back.
This is according to Microsoft spokesman, David Dennis, who confirmed that the plan had been scrapped almost a year ago back in July of 2013. According to Dennis, this move was also an experiment, which we guess did not pan out otherwise Microsoft would have kept the model around, wouldn’t they?
“This program was intended to be a pilot experiment from the start, and Microsoft routinely adjusts the mix of offers available to its customers and this change was simply standard business practice.” It has also been speculated that this was a testing ground for the upcoming Xbox One.
One analyst, Lewis Ward, said that this was a way for Microsoft to continue milking sales of the Xbox 360 which had been waning, unsurprisingly so given that the console was launched in 2005. What do you guys think? Is this a pricing model that you would have much preferred instead of dropping $499 on the console?