Verizon wants you to pay for your Xbox like you do your phone
Verizon is looking to get hip with the kids by selling a payment plan for Xbox consoles, known asXbox All Access. The plans start (keyword start) at $25 a month and go up from there, depending on which console you choose, either the Xbox Series S or Series X (the X coming in at $35 a month), and comes with two years ofGame Pass Ultimate, which is precisely how long you’ll be paying off the console you get by joining Xbox All Access. While Microsoft already offers plenty of partners where you can sign up for Xbox All Access (like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy), Verizon has entered the fraywith an announcementthat select Verizon retail stores along with its online storefront will be selling Xbox All Access starting July 28th.
If you’d like to learn more about Verizon’s effort to hook parents into a two-year payment plan for Xbox consoles, the above video offers tons of cringe that will assuredly convince everyone that this isn’t some ploy to extend payment plans from phones and tablets into payment plans for gaming consoles, with a little help from Microsoft, of course.
Here’s the thing, this all comes down to how economical these Xbox All Access plans are, which Verizon suspiciously forgot to mention in the above video. If you choose to go with an Xbox Series S as part of your Xbox All Access plan, then you’ll have to pony up $25 a month, which comes out to $600 over two years. Seeing that the Xbox Series S retails for $300 and that Game Pass Ultimate retails for $15 a month, coming out to $360 over two years, you’ll save $60 for signing up for Xbox All Access. Basically, you’ll save enough to purchase one whole AAA game if you choose to go with the cheapest Xbox available.
Moving to the Xbox Series X at $35 a month for Xbox All Access over two years come out to $840, for a console that retails for $500 that comes with $360 worth of access to Game Pass Ultimate, which adds up to $860, so you only save $20 over two years you’re subscribed to Xbox All Access, which is pretty paltry.
At the very least, in celebration of today’s announcement, Verizon will be offering discounts on a few Xbox accessories whenever it launches sales for Xbox All Access in two days, like 50% off an Xbox Elite controller, which just so happens to be one ofAP’s picks for the best gaming controllersto use on Android. There are also discounts available for headsets and third-party controllers, which will all go live on the 28th.
Personally, I don’t think there are enough savings to bother with Xbox All Access while locking yourself into 2-years of payments, especially when those savings are pretty dang low. While I can appreciate that it may be easier to score an Xbox for the family with no money down through Xbox All Access, I’m unconvinced that the mobile industry’s insistence on pushing people into payment plans is good for anyone but them. But perhaps I’m being too cynical? If only Verizon didn’t make this cynicism so easy with such low savings and the painfully cringy videoannouncing its foray into Xbox gaming.
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