Living a Digital Existence Week 7 Back to normal this week with a “usual” length Living A Digital Existence... Paying the price for being a next generation gamer... This week, disaster struck. Whilst playing Gears of War 2, my headset decided to pack in, and left me speechless, literally. Yes tragic as it sounds, I did not fret. I thought to myself, “No worries David, just go out tomorrow and buy a new one, everything will be OK.” But no, everything would most definitely not be OK. You see, in all their wisdom, shops have seemed to stop selling the plain old wired headsets, in favour of the wireless ones. Now, I don’t actually have a problem with this, except that the wireless headsets cost double that of a wired headset. Yes, instead of paying around £15 for a wired headset, I had to get a £35 headset if I was to talk to my friends over Xbox live. This, my friends, is what I have a problem with. It doesn’t even stop there; I shall rattle off some figures for you... Microsoft Play & Charge Kit: £14.99; Xbox 360 Media remote; £19.99; Microsoft Wired Controller: £24.99; Microsoft Wireless Pad (White): £28.99; Microsoft Wireless Pad (Black): £32.99; Microsoft Messenger Kit: £24.99; Microsoft Wireless Headset: £34.99; Microsoft 120GB HDD: £89.99; Need I go on? Whilst I understand not all of these items are essential, some, such as an extra controller, an extra headset are pretty much essential if have any friends at all. Couple these prices with the price of a Premium Xbox 360 (£169.99) and the cost of say 4 games (£40 each) you are paying upwards of £350 for your Xbox “Experience”. And of course, you can only use Microsoft or Microsoft approved products (I’m including 3rd party controllers etc. in there) and so this means that you are locked into paying these prices if you want to use your Xbox 360 to its full potential. I just think it is bang out of order that these companies are able to get away with all this. But wait... Microsoft is not the worst culprit. After defending them a couple of weeks ago, I’m now going to attack Nintendo. Yes, Nintendo will still charge you £189.99 for the console itself (no price cuts here you’ll see!) and then a classic controller will set you back £14.99, a nun-chuck will cost you £14.99, a Wii Remote is £29.99, and if you want to play Wii Fit with the balance board, a further £69.99. Scandalous I’m sure you will agree. Now, I could demand lower prices here, but really, what’s the point? These companies aren’t stupid. They lock these products into their consoles and don’t allow any cheaper products to be made, so we have to pay these high prices to use the products we want. Why should they lower prices, when they know people will pay them, and they’ll reap the benefits? All I can pray for in the future is that we see similar cuts in the prices of accessories as we have in the prices of consoles themselves. But I think I may just be wasting my time... As always, comments appreciated, I’m sure a couple of you would like a good old rant, and if anyone owns a PS3 and would like to comment on how much they’ve had to spend, please do. By the way, in the end, I ended up getting the bloody wireless headset. Until next time... David (MunkyMagikUK)
A very good blog post Munky. First I'm going to rub salt in the wound for a little bit. I picked up a wireless headset for £14.99 on Play.com when they were on offer and they are fantastic. While you paid a lot for it, its a much better headset. Freedom from wires and hard to break (compared to the cheap plastic ones you got with your 360, which I have broken two) In the long run, you will find it a good peice of hardware. However if you went to different retailers, or perhaps the online world you could have picked up a £12.99 official wired headset (Xbox 360 Headset (Live) (Xbox 360) at Gameplay - FREE UK Delivery). While I guess you wanted one quickly, its a case of the retailers selling the money makers, not Microsoft withholding the wired ones to force you to get wireless. I agree add-ons for the 360 are expensive, but 360 addons are cheap considering other consoles addons. Though the Wireless Adaptor for £45 it a total rip off and I dont know why that isnt included for Free in the Elite, and even made a more reasonable price like around £29.99 max. Like you said with Nintendo, the cost of an additional controller is £45 (Nunchuck and Wii Remote, considering you need both for most games). I don't know PS3 prices off by heart, you must remember the basic experience for that still costs you £300 and gives you longer load times and graphics not up to par with the latest 360 offerings. So in that respect you are ripped off from day one with that console. I would honestly put the 360 at one of the better value consoles out of the current three considering console costs, and extra costs. Also it would appear when getting your prices, you choose an expensive retailer. For example a Wired 360 controller can be got online for around £20 and a wireless between £25-£30. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but the prices are a little expensive compared to what you could get them from by checking a few popular online retailers.
Well I agree with everything you said mate! But the wireless headset is meant to be much better than the wired one to what I have heard such as obviously being wireless, big range and clearer voice so in my opinion you payed a good price for it. As you said the add ons are expensive stuff and I didnt know the Wii was that bad in price. Gladly I do not need half the stuff they have for the xbox.
Well I have to admit I have been impressed with the headset, very clear and seems a good quality product. But finding out Nimrod got one for £14.99 is a bit of a shot to the knackers!!
The only thing I was going to say has been pointed out already, that the 360 should have a built in wireless connection instead of the stupid add on that's quite expensive just for wireless connectivity. I'm gonna have to buy one before Christmas as I'll be moving back into my old bedroom as my room needs redecorating and the parents don't want wires running along the floor I was also thinking of getting a wireless headset as I'm sick of the wires getting tangled up with my current headset especially when I want to take it with me to a friends house.
The price Nintendo charge for the Wii is disgusting to be honest, even the premium 360 is now cheaper and has a 60gb hard drive. I would say Nintendo make £120 at least on every Wii console sold, you gotta remember they were the only company to profit from day one with hardware sales. It must be cheaper for them to manufacture the Wii by now if Microsoft can sell a 360 arcade for £110 to 130 mark and make profit. Remember consoles are sold at a loss to begin with so I guess MS, Nintendo and Sony have to make that money back somehow, but I agree it’s no excuse to ram up the prices to insane high’s. Anyone else noticed most games retail for £40-50 now? I remember been able to pickup games for my Gamecube and Xbox for around the £30 mark. My tip to people in the UK is to check HotUKDeals before buying anything to do with games consoles, chances are there will be a nice deal on there. Example: 360 wireless headset £19.99 when purchased with anything else from game.co.uk Sorry to hear you were forced to pay £35 Munky, that is a bit of a kick in the nuts.
You should have told me when you were at our house Trebor, you could borrow/ have mine as I don't need it now. Cables FTW!
Oh yeah I forgot you used to have wireless. Let me know how much you're willing to sell it for. Friend discount price included of course
I sold mine for £30 to a freind. At first we had a deal at £40 but my dad said to do it for £30... so I did. Anyway that is quite good! £20 for the wireless headset.. Might have to do that one aswell..