Why do people pay for Xbox Live?

[Adam28]

Is it really that hard to understand, we pay because we have to, we knew we would have to when buying the console. If someone owns a 360, has Halo Reach, and wants to play online then he is going to have to pay once his trials are up.

You should of called the thread "How does Microsoft justify charging users?" or "Why choose a 360 over a PS3 if you are just going to buy multi-platform games?" which are both two totally different arguments.

 

[cthulhumythos]

because i own an xbox. because i do not own a ps3.

because i like to talk to my friends whilst playing games. because i like playing halo multiplayer. because it's not too hard to afford.

because i can't use xbox live gold membership without paying for it.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The only reason I can think of for you to make this kind of thread at this point is that it's easy post bait.

I posted because a bunch of friends of friends pissing me off about the PSN incident and saying how great Live is because it's up and PSN is down. Literally the only thing I've missed with having PSN down is not being able to play Metal Gear Online survival on Wednesdays and Thursdays, that is all. And, all the people who live off online gaming when there are very few online games worth playing to begin with plus offline games usually have better gameplay as several mechanics just don't work in an online environment. Just everyone blowing the whole thing way out of proportion like network news does with political things. Nothing in my initial post is subjective, it's all objective facts. I never even said PSN is better, I just said I wouldn't pay Microsoft (or anyone) for a service they aren't providing, simple as that.

 

[unoleian]

I pay for it because I have to, and I really don't mind.
It's not like boycotting it is going to get me into my next Slayer match any time soon.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Beacause it is better than psn, it does not get hacked to shit and give people your credit card numbers, and it's $50 for the whole year.

Live got hacked before PSN. I assume you want to pay every online store a yearly fee to keep your information safe, so why don't you send checks to amazon, walmart, and any online stores you use to keep your information safe. All the costs for running and operating a store are included in the price of the items they sell. A store buys say item X for $10 and charges you $15 to make up all the costs of running the whole store plus some profit.

You don't even pay your own back a yearly fee to keep your information safe.

 

[Dense_Electric]

Because people want to play online? Where is the question?

 

[Saviordd1]

Better service, better servers, better system, better games, better controls, earlier downloads....

oh yeah

AND OUR PRIVACY REMAINS OUR OWN

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Because people want to play online? Where is the question?

Microsoft or Sony are not required entities in order to play a game online.

 

[OManoghue]

I don;t personally use it, but it's a good reliable service that people don't seem to mind paying for.

 

[Adam28]

Because people want to play online? Where is the question?

Microsoft or Sony are not required entities in order to play a game online.

If you own a 360 then yes, Microsoft is. You got an alternative solution which doesn't require buying another system?

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Better service, better servers, better system, better games, better controls, earlier downloads....

oh yeah

AND OUR PRIVACY REMAINS OUR OWN

My privacy is fine, I got a new card over my bank's website is less than a minute just in case. I'm not worried about anything.

I don;t personally use it, but it's a good reliable service that people don't seem to mind paying for.

But the stuff Microsoft actually provides (outside of cross-game chat) comes free with a Silver account.

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

microsoft really cares about xbox live users.they give us good protection,deleteing freind requests is easy as hell.sony really does not care about psn users at all.you guys got hacked because the manager of psn said that becaus it was free they dident have to give you protection.

Steam is free, are you saying Steam gives you no protection as well? Microsoft cares about getting free money for their customers. You might as well send me a $10/month and I "promise" to make COD even less laggy than it is now, it makes the same sense as paying Microsoft to play COD.

Stop using logic here. They don't care man.

 

[-Samurai-]

"We pay for security and to not get hacked."

Xbox Live has been hacked at least twice before, and that doesn't include hacked MS Points and general hacking in-game. In 2007, Xbox Live was hacked and credit card numbers(and MS points..and XBL accounts) were stolen and immediately used by the thieves. You pay for security?

 

[Andy Shandy]

Because I want to play online, talk to friends etc...Perhaps Microsoft don't need to charge for these services but they do and me "boycotting" it wouldn't do a damned thing

You may believe people are wasting their money, and that's your choice but these people are paying for something they can trust, which at this moment in time at least, Sony can't provide.

Oh and chances are Sony would've charged people, were it not for the extortionate launch price

I won't even go talk about Steam because I've never used it besides installing Civ 5

 

[Chappy]

As far as I know PSN doesn't have party chats so chats and other functions and can PSN party up? I don't own a PS3 so I'm not sure may be wrong. Also there is a better degree of online security (not trying to troll PSN just saying money probably = security)and if I remember right microsoft sometimes will have games released earlier on Xbox which is what I assume some of the money goes towards.

So I'd take a guess and say it goes for all the things that people will take for granted.

Oh yeah and Bill Gates is saving up to buy Europe so we are also paying for that

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You wanna know what you're paying for when you pay for Gold? Timed exclusives and what is essentially a reasonably priced Ventrilo. There are servers for online games, you just don't use them to play on (except most EA games). You are paying for extras that Silver members don't get, same as PSN plus users. The features are different, but the concept is the same. You seem to forget, however, that even with the PS3 games with dedicated servers, as well as any PC game with dedicated servers, somebody paid for that. Not only that, but have you seen the price of a dedicated server rental for something like Bad Company 2 on PC? It's fucking expensive.

I don't mind paying for something if it makes sense to pay for it. MMOs charge a fee because they have to use dedicated servers (which cost money to run), you can't do a peer-to-peer system for a MMO.

The timed exclusives are bullshit whether it's Microsoft or Sony doing it. If Microsoft sends a truck of money to EA for something, Xbox users don't get it sooner, PS3 users just get it later. There's no consumer benefit from timed exclusives. Now, if the 360 version is done first, then I'm fine with Xbox users getting the game first.

Stop using logic here. They don't care man.

I expected better from the Escapist. I wouldn't post this on GFaqs.

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

we can use FB,what are you under the impression we can't?

If you have a Silver account you can't use Facebook or last.fm or all the other services that are FREE but you have to pay for through a Gold account. If the 360 had a web browser, you could have access to all those services without paying Microsoft. I'm pretty sure Microsoft is a huge PC software company that already has a web browser that can be easily put on the 360. Even the Wii has a web browser. Microsoft only withholds (they get off on withholding; arrested development reference) a web browser so they can add "features" that are free to their PAY service.

so i am guessing you believe the 2(PSN & LIVE) are equal? they aren't no matter how much you try to fool your self LIVE is a better service,its worth the 50 bucks a year,we don't get hacked,we get good customer support,and we get a lot of nice features. and silver doesn't matter,PSN is equal only to silver btw,but back to my point,most LIVE user have gold,therefore it doesn't matter what silver does and doesn't get because almost no one uses it.

WTH? If a legion of hackers like Anonymous decide to hack XBL they will. Sony has excellent customer service, I got banned last summer for an inappropriate name (lol) and I resolved the whole thing over the phone, they even allowed me to change my username over the phone so I could keep everything. XBL silver is terrible. You can't play online and can only download demos. (I hope you weren't bing serious there bu my sarcasm detector didn't go off reading your comment) All the features on XBL are on PSN FOR FREE.

I also don't think its called 'using silver', if you don't buy Gold you automatically get silver. Which basically means you get access to nothing but demos and propaganda all over the dashboard.

Spoiler: Heres a debate on this such topic

 

[natster43]

Well, we pay to not have our information stolen >.>

<..>

This. Also I am willing to pay for the stuff they give me. so there.