Microsoft justifies charging for XBL even though Games for Windows Live is free

@Y0j1mb0

Me too.

yea but Steam is also shit... so you get what you pay for.

In a nutshell, "We both know you've got no choice so hand over the cash bitches".

Speaking of turtles...

FD 10
RT 90
PU
FD 10
RT 90
PD
FD 10
BK 5
RT 90
FD 5

LogoWriter? Anyone?

Just great, not sure what justifies Live's "fee" to begin with.
Taking a break from being Gold for awhile. Honestly I don't feel assured about it altogether.

While i'm thinking about it, what makes people feel like they're entitled to some kind of free service in the first place? These companies aren't on your side, they're just out to make money. Sony probably made their online service free out of necessity, because nobody was going to pay for it but they needed it as a selling point.

Harassmentpanda: HOly shit, I remember that. One of the worst parts on middle school... I still don't know what was the point of that program.

if xbox live is all about multimedia then why do i still have to pay for any music or movies (not that i do or would unless that netflix merge thing doesnt suck)

can't they charge for all that multimedia crap i don't want and let me play my games for free. they could charge whatever they want for whatever they want as long i can play for free and i would be happy.

How many of you play world of warcraft? /end topic

Just they try and say its mainly multimedia. All we get here is 3 Robbie Williams videos, Viva Pinata and a southpark. If they really are aiming for multimedia itd be coming out my ears right now.

Meh, PSN offers practically everything that XBLA and Nintendo Wifi Connection offers free online, I won't be resubscribing since I feel like it's a waste paying 50 and this year I didn't play a lot maybe if I find a cheap subscription card. The only reason why Microsoft won't stop charging because they don't want to plug up a money well and it's the only way to play online on the 360.

I was pretty sure you could use all of Microsoft's multimedia without having a gold subscription.... so basically the only thing that we're being charged for is the online multiplayer.

XBL > PSN

feels good I don't have to worry about this paying crap :)

Free feels very nicendiddy.

@ pseudo hero:

I'd check your connection. I got the entire collection of Siren in a couple of hours at the most. Which, for like, what, 7 gigs, is pretty damn good if you ask me. I think the only two thing XBL has over PSN is a slightly better visual design and more people (which also equals more assholes), but if people begin to realize that there isn't that much of a difference except that one is free, it will begin to even out - only, Xbox can keep the assholes.

@necrozen: Thank M$ for making Halo, which seems to attract all those said assholes.

Personally I don't see why cross game invites are such a selling point for an online service. I guess it's just because all the people on my friends list are my actual friends and I can call them if I want to play something.

HarassmentPanda blew my mind. I hadn't thought about Turtle in like 20 years.

"Microsoft realized that the majority of PC gamers will never, ever pay to play games online."

Precisely. Well, except for MMOs.

XBL is BS. Firstly, you're being charged solely to play games for free online. MS doesn't even host the servers, it's all P2P (unless they're EA games, but they run their servers, no MS) so they're not paying for server maintenance. They are hosting multimedia content though, but shouldn't the cost of that shit be carried in the content you by, not in the subscription to maybe buy that shit in the future?

Steam is free. It is a digital distribution service, a friends list, it even has achievements for supported games now, and the service will continue to grow in the future. it's free, it has a cross games friend list, and games are completely moddable. You won't see something like Garry's Mod on the X-Box, ever, because not only is the possibility for nasty user content a legal swamp, but because users don't get access to information to play around with.

If all we had were consoles, there would be no Team Fortress, no Counter Strike, no Capture the Flag even. This stuff was user created, by people with access to the code. MS will never give up that sort of control to the community, and will make you pay just to host your own game on your own internet connection. It's BS.

@Necros: I think you summarized my thoughts much better than I did.