Ever since I’ve had my original Xbox, I’ve subscribed to Xbox Live Gold. It’s been about a decade now, and over that time I’ve used the service for online game play, downloading demos, and streaming video.

Lots and lots of streaming video. And to be perfectly honest, that’s all I’ve really used it for as of late.

So I’ve decided enough is enough; I’m an Xbox Live Gold subscriber no more, which effectively sends my aging, energy-sucking, fan-whirring streamer that is a 360 into retirement.

Why now? Well, I tried to renew my service for a month only to have Microsoft’s kludgy Xbox Live interface account management fail to register my new credit card (the old one had expired) for payment.

But for all of Microsoft’s account-management incompetence, in reality it just bought me enough time to realize I was sick of paying $60 per year for the privilege to stream Netflix and HBO Go. After all, streaming is supposed to be affordable, and paying $60 per year — more than what basic cable costs me in a month — to stream OTT services I already pay for seemed, well, kind of dumb.

Especially when I considered the fact I could give a similar amount of money to Roku, Western Digital, or Netgear and get a more optimized streamer without the higher energy bills, fan noise, and annual fee required to stream on a 360.

So that’s what I did. And while I don’t have the data to validate this, I imagine some of the 5 million Roku customers and even more Apple TV customers have come to the same conclusion.

Now, do I think Microsoft is in danger of losing a large percentage of Live customers? Probably not, or at least not yet. But I do think in an era where everything is connected and where streaming services are a tablestakes feature for any living room device, Xbox Live Gold as a prerequisite to stream feels like a stubborn holdover requirement by Microsoft, one that will no doubt cause others to do the math at some point, math that could make them realize they could buy a low-cost streamer for the same price of Gold.

Will I buy an Xbox 720? Maybe. But it sure won’t be for video streaming, since I have a Roku for that.

It’s time, Microsoft. Drop the fee.