Why do people pay for Xbox Live?

[Finebrew]

Xbox friends list - about 20 people
PSN friends list - 0 people

guess which one I play online the most.

 

[Megahedron]

Well, from personal experience quite a few Xbox players bought the console not planning on getting Live. We got one month trials, realized it was worth the money to subscribe, and here we are. Would I prefer to have free online gaming, sure. But it'll cost $120 to pick up Live until the next gen starts (I assume it's 2014... maybe not) so I could:

A. Sell my Xbox and all my games, and use the money to pick up a PS3 and its games (in the process, probably going from my 14 360 games to... about 4 PS3 games due to lost money in transactions like shipping). Or use that money to build half a gaming PC.

B. Shell out the 120 and keep what I have.

I picked B, largely because I bought the 360 in the first place, meaning I considered it the better console (because of my friends, a few exclusives, not really the important part). This topic really doesn't matter until we all move on to the PS4 and Xbox 361, because until that point, no one will be switching camps over online support.

 

[Katana314]

- PC gamers will butt in uninvited to stand on the soap box to set us "poor, unwashed masses" straight, say Steam is a better distributor than LIVE and PSN, and claim superiority over console gaming in general as the "golden haired and golden skinned PC gaming master race" with the infallible logic of a hipster saying "You just wouldn't understand."

You know, I'm starting to wonder where these guys are. I know there's been a long-standing joke of PC gamers thinking themselves of a master race, but I actually think it's been a long time since I've actually seen someone act this way.

All I WILL say about Steam is that if the XBL-supporters are solely using the PSN attack as ammunition, then I'd just like to offer up Steam as a comparable, fully-featured gaming network that doesn't have the monthly cost OR the security problems of PSN. If XBL only shines in comparison, then compare it to Steam. What's the comparison then?

 

[Zantos]

You know that these sort of threads are fairly pointless. You aren't going to buy it, fair enough, but no one's going to look at the OP and think "Oh god, I must cancel this subscription immediately."

People will pay for it because it costs pretty much nothing a year. The £40 subscription fee is less than I would spend if I go out twice. It provides people to game and chat with their friends online. You can argue that PSN offers the same service for free, but at the end of the day that makes a loss for Sony. The only reason it's free is so they can market it as cheaper than the xbox live, and Sony being an evil multicorp will begin charging for it as soon as they know people are willing to pay.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

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

<..>

Two things. Zing! And nice avatar!

Anyways, is anyone else noticing that a lot of threads like this are popping up? I thought we settled this. Everything that everyone is is playing sucks, and what I am playing is clearly the bestest...

Sarcasm.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

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

<..>

this. microsoft does pretty well at keeping our info safe


although it really does piss me off that they try to make us pay for player servers. i would happily pay for XBL gold if they had dedicated servers. as it is i like playing online, so I currently pay for XBL when i can afford it, but it is seriously stupid that they try to get us to pay for online gold

hacked.

twice.

how's that safer?

You can't say that since something happened to you that clearly the Xbox Live system is the more flawed of the two. Now, if more Xbox Live users were getting hacked on average then PSN users that would be okay to say.

Odd ya got haxed twice though. Mayhaps you made someone made on CoD?

 

[Thundero13]

I see your point but it's really just that gamers will stand by their favorite conole no matter what, within reason of course, besides the Xbox does other things better than PlayStation so its all about even in the end.

Oh also will everyone shut up about how "Microsoft actually protects its user data, Sony just made a mistake, Microsoft could've too, oh no i'm defending Sony, WHAT HAVE I BECOME?! *cries*

 

[Kadoodle]

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

oh yeah

AND OUR PRIVACY REMAINS OUR OWN

All wrong except for the last bit.

 

[Saviordd1]

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

oh yeah

AND OUR PRIVACY REMAINS OUR OWN

You right. Xbox live has only been hacked twice. And the PSN has been hacked SOOOOOOOOOO many more times than that..... >.>

Maybe you should do more research, theres a difference between attempted hackings and hackers that steal millions of peoples credit cards

 

[Dr. Feelgood]

Maybe because we don't mind paying for it, and like the little features that come with it. I'd bet that the main reason Microsoft charges for it is that most people will pay for it. Could you imagine if SONY realized some people would pay for PSN? I think they would start charging too, but the way it is now, they need to keep it free because its flaws have been exposed.

All the features are free everywhere else and Microsoft is not providing online gaming, Netflix, last.fm, etc. It's kinda like buying say Assassin's Creed (or any non-EA game) and giving EA a couple bucks just for the hell of it.

We still don't mind paying for it though. Netflix and Last FM are there just for convenience and for those who wanted it, and by your posts I'm going to assume that you don't own or frequently play on an Xbox.

 

[Hive Mind]

well why dont you?
also flamebait

Or they wish to discuss an issue like intelligent human beings, without throwing around played out phrases and childish shots like troll and flameabait.

 

[Dogstile]

I pay so I can use online multiplayer.

But why are you paying Microsoft for a service they aren't providing you? It's like paying EA a monthly fee to play COD, why would you do that?

Because if you had to pay each and every company money to play on their servers, you'd rack up a hell of a lot more than 60 quid a year.

Even if thats not the case, do you really want to handle putting in a subscription and cancelling it every couple weeks? Its unneeded hassle, live puts it all into one service, sorts out the payments to EA, Activision, etc and it does it all for the low low price of £40 a year.

Can't afford £40 a year? Get a job.

I realise companies provide a service over PSN for free, but from what I hear, they shut down the servers faster too.

 

[charlest92]

Simply said people are dumb enough to pay for gold and thats why microsoft still charges for it. If we stopped paying for it microsoft would stop tryin that shit. I have the money and I still don't pay for it, if I wanna play multiplayer I go to a friend's house.

 

[Elijah Ball]

i pay because i have to to play online. i only have a 360 because I liked halo 2 so much on the original xbox. when h3 came out i upgraded to a 360 and got live. (never play h2 on live, just with friends via system link)

i've never played a ps3 game online or used psn, but everybody (whos not a complete console fanboy) has said tht psn sucks... I'm not saying it does because i've never used it. this was before the psn hack, obviously, but whatevs.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

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

<..>

this. microsoft does pretty well at keeping our info safe


although it really does piss me off that they try to make us pay for player servers. i would happily pay for XBL gold if they had dedicated servers. as it is i like playing online, so I currently pay for XBL when i can afford it, but it is seriously stupid that they try to get us to pay for online gold

hacked.

twice.

how's that safer?

You can't say that since something happened to you that clearly the Xbox Live system is the more flawed of the two. Now, if more Xbox Live users were getting hacked on average then PSN users that would be okay to say.

Odd ya got haxed twice though. Mayhaps you made someone made on CoD?

I don't think the xbox is more flawed. but these people who throw the fact the PSN was recently hacked in the face of PS3 gamers as evidence that the 360 is better are ignorant and piss me off to no end.

And you still didn't answer the question. how's it safer?

Oh, and over the two consoles life spans, the 360 has proven to be far less safe, with more "sensitive information" being stolen over the 360's lifespan than in the entire hack on the PSN a couple weeks ago.

Woah, someone is super touchy. Sorry to riffle your tail feathers there big guy. And honestly, I don't really have an opinion either way. Both my of my consoles have remained fine and unhacked for as long as I have had them (except for the PS3 thing, but that doesn't count), as have my friends. Just saying.

Oh and, there are more Xbox Live users then PS3 users, just throwing that out there. It would make a lot of sense if more of them got hacked then PS3 owners. Then again, most of the random Xbox Live users I meet don't seem to be very bright...

And furthermore, I am not that other dude you were arguing with. Just to be clear.