Microsoft are upping the anti with more benefits for Xbox Live Gold subscribers as reported on Electric Pig/Ars Technica...Microsoft is upping the incentives to hand over your credit card details and subscribe to its Xbox LIVE Gold service with a weekly sales promotion for Xbox LIVE Arcade titles. The superb time-shifting platform puzzler, Braid, will be the first to get the discount treatment, being offered to paying subscribers for 800 Microsoft points (£6.80) instead of the usual 1200 (£10.20).
Each deal of the week aims to add more value to the £39.99 per year service, which already counts early demos and trailers, Netflix access (in the US only), and the chance to play multiplayer games online as a lure to Xbox 360 owners.
Future promotions won’t just include Xbox LIVE Arcade titles; game add-ons, Xbox Originals and ‘other great content’ will be available as well.
Even so, faced with the free alternatives provided by Wii’s Nintendo WiFi Connection and PS3’s PlayStation Network, coaxing players into paying for a multiplayer service is going to be an increasingly tall order in the coming months.