How Much Xbox is Really Costing You

Without a doubt, gaming is definitely a major impact on your everyday lives. Most of your savings and earnings go towards gaming and it’s aspects. For days, months, maybe even years, your gaming-time clicker counts up, amassing all the time you have spent on videogames. Usually, you wouldn’t expect video games to be that expensive all together, and usually they aren’t. Saying so right now, Xbox 360 and all of its aspects are amassed to be one of the most expensive entertainment investments of all time. But how does it all add up? Here’s how;

The Console – 250
Buying an Xbox 360 console usually isn’t a big deal. They range from about 150-300 Usually, and usually without the HardDrive either. Buying the console doesn’t really amass to the big portion of what makes Xbox 360 in general expensive. The console is what the the entertainment system is all about, and without it, you wouldn’t be able to even play videogames.

The Games – 650 (Multiply by However many years you have had Live)
This is really where the big amount of money nestles in. Around once or twice every 2-3 months, you expect to buy one video game, or around that total. Think again. Around every 2-3 months, yes you will buy around 1 game or so, but around the holidays, you will buy around 6 Xbox 360 games. (Around $340) This range goes from about Early November to late January. Every 2 months, up to November-January would equal around 5 games until then. Add the Holiday time games, and you’re now up to $650. This is not including DLC and what not.

The Membership – 60 (Multiply by however many Years You have had Live)
Unlike other online gaming associations, such as PSN and Steam, Xbox Live is one of the only online gaming experiences in which you must buy a membership to play online. Now, this part will vary based on how you buy your membership. I’m going to just stick with the one year membership which equals pricey $64. Remember, this price varies, so depending on whether you buy 12 one months, or 4 3-Month cards, this price will depend.

The DLC and Game Marketplace – 80 (Multiply to however many years you had Live)
Xbox Live has one of the priciest amounts of DLC drops in all of gaming. Each DLC can vary from around 10-20 Dollars, or 1200-1600 MSP. MSP are also very pricey. One 1600 MSP card sells for around $20 each. If you buy 1 DLC for half of the games you have (To what we added up to around 11, so we’ll average to around 5) chances are you’re buying around 5 MSP cards each year. Add this up to around $100. Now, we couldn’t be forgetting extra game marketplace demos, and indie games. Each Indie game rounds up to around 5-10$, so that won’t make a big difference. Based on the average play time of all around Xbox members, that will equal up to the average Xbox player to own at least 1 indie game per year. Add that up to around $110.

Batteries – 100 (Multiply by however many Years you have had Live)
What most people under estimate, is the price of batteries, and how much you actually spend on buying batteries for the Controller. If you play around 1 hour every day for a month, in order to have batteries with just enough life to carry on, you must buy one pack of a 4-Battery packs. If you were to play 1 hour every day for a year, you would buy 12, 4-Battery packs. Rounding up 4-Battery pack prices, would equal around $8.52, and we’ll round that to $8.00. Multiply that by 12 (1 Hour every day for a month) and we have $96.

Controllers – 70 (Multiply by however many years you have had Xbox)
Controllers do not really interfere with the amount your really spend on Xbox, but we’ll add them anyway. Now, according to some statistics, one out of every 3 Xbox players has at least 2 controllers. One controller (Black) equals around $35. Double that, we have 70. Per year, you will spend your money on at least 2 controllers, in which will probably break the same year. This will equal up to $70.

Microphones – 50 (Multiply, then add)
With Xbox Live having over 40 Million members, 76% of those members have an Xbox Microphone. Now, once again this part will depend solely on what type of headset you have. One standard microphone costs $10. Now, of those 76% out of 40 million, around one in every 7 Xbox users has an advanced headset. If one advanced headset costs around $50-90, we can average all this up to around $25. Also, around 1 in every 2 xbox user’s buy 2 headsets per year. Double that, and we have $50.

Internet Connection, and Routers(Optional) – 60
Now, I know that a majority of Xbox users tend to have already had a broadband internet connection before they set up there account, but around 35% of those users have had to set up some kind of wireless internet connection, or buy some type of internet related product to set up there Xbox live. I, myself had to spend 110 on a new router for Wireless internet, and 40 for the newest Macintosh software, as the router did not support OS below that OS. A new router – 100. Other internet related products – 20-40. This category is optional, as I understand that not everyone had a whole broadband internet connection set up already.

Total(Without adding Years of having it) = $1450

Conclusion
Once again, this solely relates to how often you play, how much you actually do spend, and what type of accesories you buy for certain games and what not. Multiply the final amount by however many years you have had Xbox. I know these calculations are not completely correct, but you get an average estimation on what you are reallyspending on Xbox and Xbox Live.