$100 Premium XBL service predicted

Earlier this week Microsoft announced that it is to increase the price of some Xbox Live subscription packages – but Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter thinks the platform holder is preparing to take things much further.

The extra $10 translates to around $100-150 million per year inadditional revenue for Microsoft,” Pachter told Industry Gamers.

I think that they will reinvest atleast this much in developing other new applications, and will roll outa premium service with $100-200 million worth of enhancements. Ifthey can get 2m users to switch from the $60 plan to the $100plan, they’ll make an extra $80m a year, and can keep investingto try to grow that business.”

But what additions could Microsoft offer to temp punters into nearly doubling their annual subscription costs?

The Xbox 360 can work as a media center, and conceivably could do thingslike managing a music library,” he speculated. Although Apple and Microsoft aren’t thebest of friends, I could see Apple letting Xbox Live members managetheir iTunes accounts through their 360s, and other such premiumservices.

I’m not the guy to speculate as to what they will offer, but I’m sure that there are many talented and creative peopleat Microsoft working on such a plan right now. For all I know, thePlatinum plan might include virtual goods credits for various Microsoftgames. If members could get specialized Halo armor or weapons worth theextra $40, they might be more willing to sign up, and it doesn’t reallycost Microsoft anything to offer things like that.”