So, today the price for my Xbox 360 Premium hit $930 Canadian and all I can say is Fable 2 and Gears 2 had better be worth it because although I've enjoyed a handful of games, this is getting ridiculous.

I bought my launch 360 in Canada for the princely sum of $450 dollars and I couldn't be happier. The promised of true "next gen" gaming made me salivate like Drew Carey at a pie throwing contest. And I wasn't disappointed...at first. King Kong was fantastic and looked great with my new hi-def projector and COD2 was outstanding. Then I got to Kameo and let out a slight "meh". Perfect Dark, despite it's glowing reviews also solicited the same response from me and back I went to playing my PS2 pausing only occasional to play Joust which I had downloaded from XBL for a good six months. Then Gears came and changed the landscape giving us a taste of the "next gen" games to come. And then...well...hey! Wasn't Gears of War a lot of fun! Yeah!

During this time I was happily paying $7.99 per month for X-box live after deciding I'd give it a couple of months I happily continued to pay until 2 years and $192 dollars later someone on these forums mentioned XBL was $50.00 a year and I said "Pardon?"

So that was $450 for the console, $60 for an extra controller, $60 for two charge and play kits and $192 for the privilege of playing online (I no longer bother with XBL gold. The fact that monthly payers are charged almost double the price is extortion). But wait! 2 RROD's, both requiring me to pay $170 each prompted me to consider the value of the extended warranty that Microsoft offered. $75 dollars later I was covered for an extra 2 years - and good thing too. Eventually (after hours on the phone fighting for my money) MS did refund the entire $340 I paid for repairs but my $75 extended warranty was put to good use when my 3rd 360 suffered from the terrible habit of scratching the hell out of ever disk that was put in it. Not covered under the 3 year warranty, says Microsoft. Aha, says I, but I have an extended warranty. Be that way, says Microsoft. Now I'm on unit number 4.

So how did I end up at $930? Easy. I moved. Unfortunately, my computer is nowhere near where my 360 will be in the new house and today I plunked down $100 for a wireless adapter, ½ the price of a new 360 console. $930 dollars for not even 3 years of 360 play. For those keeping score - that's the price of 4 Xbox 360 consoles now and I don't even get to play online without adding yet another $100 dollars to my running tally over the next couple of years.

I certainly hope Fable 2 and Gears 2 are worthwhile. It's been a long time since Halo 3 came out and my 360 is getting pretty dusty...