BBC iPlayer postponed on Xbox 360 indefinitely

hehe. oops!

Microsoft seem to be trying to use everything as a means to get people to subscribe to Live. First it was just multiplayer which was fair enough. Now even demos are locked for a fortnight if you don’t have Gold and free services like Twitter aren’t free on the 360.

Clearly MS feel confident that they don’t need to provide new services to sell the console, but they do need new features on Live to drive subscriptions. If they’re being this aggressive about it, it either means they’re desperate for subscribers or it’s where they make the real money on the Xbox and they want to keep people subscribed. It’s a bit like an MMO!

I know Microsoft like recurring revenue from subscriptions, but at some point people are going to see most of these services on the PS3 for free and wonder what they’re paying for, at which point Microsoft’s precious subscribers might start to abandon ship…

It really does show the contempt MS have for silver account holders, when they’ll go so far as to deny the entire service from the 360, just to prevent silver users from getting free access to it. In the face of Sony and Nintendo’s free offerings, it’s mind boggling.

M$ really are prats. This is not the BBC holding out on them, they have no choice, the BBC cannot allow anyone, even you microsoft, to charge for the iPlayer. Err Sony get this so do Nintendo just you money grabbing gits that don’t. Get a grip.

“I know Microsoft like recurring revenue from subscriptions, but at some point people are going to see most of these services on the PS3 for free and wonder what they’re paying for, at which point Microsoft’s precious subscribers might start to abandon ship…”

Judging by the numbers: it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon: http://www.vg247.com/2009/11/28/xbl-1-million-profiles-created-for-last-fm/

Yeah we leave in a zombie era…people are brainwashed

What did Microsoft hope to achieve? They’ve behaved like complete twits, here, simply because they should have been fully aware, before they’d even presented the idea, that the BBC wouldn’t have it.

iPlayer alone would sell 360 hardware in the UK. MS are a bunch of fucking muppets sometimes.

The problem is Sony needs to bring the software of the PS3 to the hardware standard of the PS3 which is their main problem. PS3 has all this power etc but the software which they offer just doesnt take advantage, they need more things to make being on your PS3 a lot better. Not just games. I mean look at Xbox Live, its got something that makes people wanna subscribe so why doesnt Sony get that special something, then they will be same or better. I really wish Sony would realise this and open their eyes sometimes.

I disasgree their Yoshi. Joe Bloggs public buys the slightly cheaper better advertised 360 which has 3 months gold. They like it, then it runs out and their left with a shitty silver service… What to do? Its not a question of want to pay its a question of have to pay.
It’ll be interesting if the old rumour of the Gold account doubling in price turns out to be true, just how many people will still be willing to stump up the cash.

Microsoft was, is and always shall be a nickel and dime outfit. They found exactly what they were looking for in the Xbox-360, their version of an iPhone where they can have complete control to rape and pillage their customers into oblivion and beyond.

Fuck em. I’ve never been a fan of Sony but if I were to buy a console tomorrow, its would be a PS3.

I still think the model for online services should be free basic model supported by advertising with near full functionality and then a premium version removing advertisements. As long as the adverts dont suck too much bandwidth i dont care. The ads in Vidzone for example dont bother me at all.

Or you can have the MS model. You pay and you get ads.

Actually, that’s more the Sky model

(And demos are locked out from Silver for a week, IIRC, not a fortnight)

But yeah, this is just bloody stupid. iPlayer is one service, surely they can just accept that it’s a selling point and the other offerings could just be on Gold.

Gah.

/Would bloody love iPlayer on 360, stupid MS

Hey ,Clearly MS feel confident that they don’t need to provide new services to sell the console, but they do need new features on Live to drive subscriptions. If they’re being this aggressive about it, it either means they’re desperate for subscribers or it’s where they make the real money on the Xbox and they want to keep people subscribed. It’s a bit like an MMO!
Attorney
Moremony

Don’t know whether to laugh or cry. All consoles are getting loads of great extra services; some free, some paid, some content-paid, and then Microsoft turns around and does – expecting a free service to become paid, just because its Microsoft – a company that’s not exactly God in the console space…. really, really, lame.
It feels like its holding back the whole push to bigger, better, wider, more. Oh well, back to the PSP comic store!

I can understand paying MS for Live for its online gameplay services, but paying to get access to Twitter, etc – or iPlayer if BBC did allow it – is just nuts.

I’m just amazed people are paying for access to stuff that is actually, via other mediums, free. Insane.

This also shows that MS want Silver to be the weakest service they can get away with offering, while trying to make everything else seem worth the money – even though increasingly the other services shouldn’t technically require further money for the consumer.

“I can understand paying MS for Live for its online gameplay services”

Ok.

“I’m just amazed people are paying for access to stuff that is actually, via other mediums, free. Insane.”

o.O But you just said… Ah, never mind.

Bizarrely, Microsoft insisting on charging for extra features like these actually makes me less interested in upgrading to Gold. I get the idea that if I did decide to upgrade they’d then invent ‘Platinum’ or something and want me to give them even more money.

In the face of extremely similar ‘free’ services from the other platforms, the continual withholding of fairly unexciting features from the non-paying community seems somewhat dickish. Nobody on Earth was ever going to decide to upgrade to Gold just to get access to iPlayer, ffs.

Yep and this is why I stopped paying for a Gold Subscription a long time ago.

This is pretty much why I stopped using the 360 and switched to the PS3.

Are Microsoft stupid?? BBC cant charge for iPlayer even if they wanted to.. due to the unique way the BBC is funded. So its free or not at all… and Microsoft choose not at all, oops..

Actually iPlayer isnt free, all us Brits fund it. It might make sense to charge for people using it outside the UK.

The BBC probably license their programs out worldwide, so they may not have the rights to charge for streaming in other countries unless they wait until their current agreements expire and renegotiate.

Anyway, it’s a games console first and foremost. I don’t use for anything else apart from streaming media from PC to TV.

All these “features” that are free on other machines don’t interest me in the slightest, tbh.

You’d be hard pressed to fit a 360 inside a PS3 or Wii, so I guess there’s literally no way you’ll ever be interested Mike.

Mike said: Anyway, it’s a games console first and foremost. I don’t use for anything else apart from streaming media from PC to TV.

All these “features” that are free on other machines don’t interest me in the slightest, tbh.

Bullshit we all know you stick your dick in your 360 and try to fuck it. M$ must be stopped!