Its futile. The NA market will welcome it just like how they welcomed XBLive despite its price increase.
I honestly think they are cutting out a lot more people than they realize though.
For example there is a very good chance that their online DRM will get snagged on blocked ports, etc. at universities across the country. Somehow they even managed to block Xbox Live on the University of Florida campus while I lived there.
Hell, I was actually in an apartment complex NEAR campus completely unrelated to the school and had to argue with the management for weeks to get them to unblock the ports I needed for Xbox Live and several other games.
Never move into an apartment with internet worked into the services. Lol
I also used to live on the Gulf Coast near two of the biggest military bases in the state and had tons of friends in the military.
Anyone who has lived in America should know that almost every damn Marine, Ranger, Pilot, Sailor, etc. plays games. Almost every person I met who recently rotated back battled their borderline PTSD with CoD and other games. Or made it worse. Not sure which in all honesty.
I know they are just two groups, but university kids and people in the military? Those are two groups that MS had in the bag this last generation. And they are risking losing them pretty easily.