Sunday means it’s time for one more version of Trusted Opinions Winners and Losers, and this week it’s Microsoft vs Ticketmaster.
Hold studying to find how the Xbox Sequence S earned our winner title this week, together with why Ticketmaster’s dedication to extra clear pricing merely isn’t sufficient.
Winner: Microsoft
Our winner this week is Microsoft after the corporate introduced a brand new configuration of the Xbox Sequence S with extra storage and a glossy new end.
Up till just lately, should you needed to save cash and go for the digital-only model of the current-gen Xbox, you’d must accept 512GB of storage. Whereas the prospect of spending much less is all effectively and good, we discovered 512GB to be far too small to retailer all of our video games and software program.
As we famous in our evaluation of the Xbox Sequence S, the customized NVME SSD delivered substantial enhancements over the HDD drives present in Microsoft’s earlier technology consoles leading to shorter load instances. Nevertheless, NVME SSDs are additionally rather more costly than HDD drives. That is possible why Microsoft restricted its cheaper console to 512GB, with a measly 364GB accessible for sport downloads.
Microsoft constructed a storage growth slot into the console however the Seagate SSD drives the slot is constructed for additionally weren’t low-cost at launch (although they’ve just lately change into a bit extra inexpensive). Actually, the stingy storage capability was maybe our greatest disadvantage when reviewing the Xbox Sequence S.
This week, Microsoft lastly addressed the difficulty by saying a brand new configuration of the Sequence S with 1TB of storage and a shocking black end that matches that of the Xbox Sequence X.
This received’t be significantly useful information for present Sequence S players, however should you’ve been holding out for an indication to select up the cheaper Xbox mannequin then this might actually make the prospect extra tempting.
Loser: Ticketmaster
This week’s loser is Ticketmaster – or, extra precisely, Ticketmaster prospects – after the corporate dedicated to providing extra clear pricing in a transfer that finally received’t save prospects any cash.
Ticketmaster has garnered itself a unfavourable popularity in recent times for hitting concert-goers with shock charges towards the top of the reserving course of, leaving them with no alternative however to desert their hard-fought-for seats or conform to the upper value.
In the event you’ve ever tried to order a ticket for an in-demand live performance or occasion, you’ll know that the method is commonly tense sufficient with out factoring in any hidden prices that make themselves recognized on the checkout. It isn’t unusual for customers to hit purchase to safe their seats with out even paying attention to the ultimate value, leaving them with a nasty shock when the affirmation e-mail comes by a couple of minutes later.
This week, Ticketmaster dedicated to ending this downside as soon as and for all (the confusion, that’s, not the charges).
The corporate joined SeatGeek and Airbnb in promising an finish to non-transparent pricing. As a substitute, the app will now make you conscious of the full price of a ticket and all charges related to that seat inside its search leads to a transfer often called “all-in pricing”.
These adjustments have solely been introduced within the US up to now, which means there’s no phrase of whether or not they’ll come to the UK. Ticketmaster additionally hasn’t addressed maybe the larger downside which is the price of these typically staggeringly excessive charges.
Transparency is actually a small step in the suitable route, however Ticketmaster might want to do extra to appease concert-goers.