Congradulations sir, you have made about the only con-xbox statement I agree with thus far.Shymer said:Perhaps being able to change your Gamertag for free, rather than charging 800MSP for it?
There's a few flaws that I percieve just within this paragraph. Now this is just my perception of things, not like absolute fact but here it goes.Raikazu said:Despite it's pitfalls, PSN is free. And with free games for the downtime, you can't really be too angry at Sony anymore. Then there's Steam, the biggest gaming network for PC gaming. There's something in common here: they're both free. And the Wii, despite your reserves is the exact same.
First, the fact that Xbox Live lacks those pitfalls is something that in my opinion justifies the cost entirely. 60$ US is not a large amount of money, and Xbox Live is a better service than PSN. I understand that some people would rather have it free (because even though Xbox Live is better, PSN is still damn good and the difference isn't dramatic) but I'm content with the quite frankly negligable fee.
Second, the fact that other services are free doesn't nessisarily mean that free is or should be the standard. PSN is free but the slightly lesser quality of the service and (as the recent hack indicates) slightly lesser levels of security compensate for the fact. At this time I'd like to point out my use of the word slightly. Though slightly worse PSN still offers a very high level of service and I'm in no way trying to say that PSN is bad. Continuing the point, Steam is part of a much more competative and diverse market. Everyone (Just about) who owns a PC has internet access, unlike Xbox or PS3. There are also many other ways of aquiring and playing games online that are not Steam. Being free is just Steam's way of staying competative. Lastly, Wii Connect 24 is shit. Enough said.
Lastly, free games for the downtime may be enough for some, but it certainly isn't for many others. My trust in Sony has been shaken, and I certainly won't be as quick to give them personal or credit card info any time soon. The free game is a nice "Sorry, here's a cookie" type thing, but the simple fact is that they fucked up big time and the free game and PS Plus time is a token. A well appreciated token mind you, but a token nonetheless. I doubt it does any of the thousands who's credit card data was sold on the black market any good.