In a year that has seen the PlayStation 4 dominate the market with low price console options and regular exclusive game titles, Microsoft is looking to change the way gamers buy their consoles.
Aug. 27, Microsoft announced that it would be offering an all-access bundle for Xbox consoles that customers can finance over 24 months. The Xbox All Access bundle combines the hardware of an Xbox console with online access to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft will be offering two bundles: The Xbox One S bundle and the Xbox One X bundle. The Xbox One S bundle capitalizes on the console’s affordability. Customers pay $21.99 per month during the 24 month time period, coming to a total cost of $528. The retail cost of the bundle would normally be $658.78, saving customers $130.72, or about 20 percent.
The Xbox One X bundle is for those who value console performance. The bundle costs $35.99 per month, leading to a total cost of $770, about $68.76 cheaper than the retail cost of the bundle. Both bundles offer zero percent interest during the two years and no cost up front.
If you spend your time playing Xbox exclusives and a lot of indie games, this bundle deal is for you. Xbox Game Pass allows gamers to enjoy unlimited digital access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles, giving customers a wide array of games to play, such as “Halo 5: Guardians” or “Sea of Thieves.” Xbox Live Gold allows gamers to play online multiplayer games, also providing exclusive discounts on select games or add-ons.
This deal isn’t just a lease. At the end of the 24 month period, customers get to keep the console. Similar to how cell phone companies offer payment plans on smartphones, Xbox All Access helps you pay off your hardware at a cheaper price than retail.
The strange thing about this bundle deal is that you have to physically go to a Microsoft store to enroll in it. In an age where customers can generally get any form of entertainment downloaded to their hard drives or shipped to their door, forcing people to go to a store feels very odd. And while most states have at least one Microsoft store, 15 do not. Sorry in advance for those of you in South Carolina, New Mexico or Vermont.
If you only play a select group of games, such as console exclusives or specific genres, this deal might be a waste of money for you. Paying for the extra services you don’t use would make it cheaper to buy the console at retail value.
Ultimately, it’s a shame this deal isn’t available on the internet, or even anywhere outside the United States. This form of console financing could change the level of accessibility that consumers have to high performance gaming consoles. It is not hard to picture PlayStation adopting a service like this in the coming years as new generations of consoles release and hardware gets more and more expensive.
With a chance to get more people gaming on consoles, Microsoft’s new deal might just show us the future of gaming.
