Why is Microsoft not giving Xbox Live free?

[IamSofaKingRaw]

I own a Xbox 360 and repeatedly having to pay for a Xbox Live Gold Membership is quite annoying. After a while i started thinking about why Microsoft isn't giving Xbox Live free. Surely its to make more money and the Xbox Live service and benefits is quite worth it but surely they must realize that they lost many costumers to Sony's PS3 due to this and that this is always a major disadvantageous point when used in console wars. I am open to all views and opinions.

servers aren't free. microsoft supports it's XBL a lot better then sony supports the PSN. and both demand money. but microsoft asks it from you, while sony asks it from the developers- thus making it so less developers will be interested in putting stuff up on PSN.
for example, on PSN devs pay for bandwidth. every downloaded file from them counts toward that bandwidth. once that bandwidth is up, they have to cough up more money. so a lot of developers don't put out any free demos, because it adds up on the bandwidth.

for the small fee, you get a bigger library of games, more demos and a better service.
it's not a perfect system, but it works well enough.

Uhh, we get the same demos XBL does. If you are talking XBL games I'm not sure, but speaking of an abundance of PS3 games Sony holds the crown this year.

 

[Flauros]

You would think it was the opposite, but on the free-to-play ps3 online, ive only been called a ****** a couple of times.

Weird, huh?

 

[Bobbovski]

My guesses:

1. They want to make money.

2. They need money to cover the cost of the Xbox-live servers/services.

3. Because people are willing to pay for it.

 

[Wicky_42]

the real reason is it isnt free is because we will pay for it

sorry but Mr gates loves him some money

Bill Gates hasn't been at Microsoft for a few years. That explains how something as wretched as 7 could slip out.

I dun geddit - is that a troll post? You know, what with Windows 7 being easily the best OS Microsoft has ever put out? I mean, of all the things to harp on Microsoft for :/

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

Because they found out that people could pay, why stop?

PSN is just as good as XBL. They both have exclusive DLC, games, and demos, and they are both P2P.
The differences for XBL are that to do anything you need to pay.
For PSN you get everything already, but if you want more beta's, exclusive exclusives, free games, discounts and whatnot, then you can get PSN+.

So really, PSN is the better deal, because you get to choose if you want more, where if you just want to play online for Xbox you need to pay.

 

[Ken Sapp]

Because it costs money to keep a service like XBox Live up and running. Then there are the costs of improvement and development. These costs have to be paid one way or another. And obviously people feel they are getting value for their dollars or they wouldn't be willing to pay for it so why should it be free? Heck, it is still cheaper than a subscription for WoW.

 

[LeonLethality]

Servers cost money to maintain. And even if some people are choosing Sony over MS for their online service it's not exactly like XBL is lacking in numbers of people.

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

Having owned a 360 with LIVE in the past, I can safely say that the only difference I noticed between PSN and LIVE is that I now have an extra $60 in my wallet. I've noticed no difference between the two connectivity wise. None, nada, zero, zilch. I view LIVE as you're really just paying for the content they have, virtually the same content that PC's and PS3's get for free and you're just being suckered into a P2P system.

As many others have said and will continue to say, they know people will buy it, thus they sell it.

Having the friendship of not one but three different PS3 owners who use PSN and having each of them have different internet systems alike, I can tell you that I notice MASSIVE differences.

Playing Halo: Reach; Big Team battle (8v8) and having virtually no lag but a slight delay and a jump now and again, then playing MAG or even Black Ops and having at least 2 seconds of delay at best, and a large skips which result in me walking into a wall for about 10 seconds before I can actually turn around, I'm going with the 360 network being worth the 40-50 dollars I pay a year. I mean, not if one is gonna complain about 4 dollars a month for leagues of quality, then that's their own choice. Making a smarter decision is mine as well.

Black Ops lags like hell on XBL also. MAG is a 100+ player game, comparing it to an 16 player Halo game is pretty bad. A better comparison would be KZ games which from my hundreds of hours played online, have no lag also. (They run on servers, Halo is P2P)

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

I really don't see the problem with paying for it. 50 dollars a year comes out to 5 dollars a month. If you have any sort of steady income, it shouldn't be a problem in any capacity.

 

[tthor]

The reason why Xbox Live arguably a better online service than PSN is because we pay for it. Our money lets Microsoft make improvements to XBL.

That's why even though it costs money, more people are on XBL than PSN. It's an all round better service.

what improvements? you're still paying $10 a month to be called a noob-****** every 30 seconds and get t-bagged every time you die. I haven't had much of that problem on PSN; but then again, i don't play a huge amount of multiplayer games

 

[TiefBlau]

Why is Microsoft not giving Xbox Live free?

Because people are willing to pay for it.

Just that simple.

I really don't see the problem with paying for it. 50 dollars a year comes out to 5 dollars a month. If you have any sort of steady income, it shouldn't be a problem in any capacity.

I'm also willing to accept donations of 50 dollars a year.

Shouldn't be too big a problem.

 

[tthor]

EDIT: doublepost

 

[Ice Car]

Micro$oft.

They did it for the money. They know people will pay for it, so they keep charging us. While they're swimming in a sea of money, really.

 

[Ghengis John]

I own a Xbox 360 and repeatedly having to pay for a Xbox Live Gold Membership is quite annoying. After a while i started thinking about why Microsoft isn't giving Xbox Live free. Surely its to make more money and the Xbox Live service and benefits is quite worth it but surely they must realize that they lost many costumers to Sony's PS3 due to this and that this is always a major disadvantageous point when used in console wars. I am open to all views and opinions.

If you want to compare Sony and Microsoft's online offerings it's no contest. As an example, nothing on the playstation store has a demo, everything on the LIVE store does. That's because demos would cost the companies selling their games online money to host, microsoft handles those fees, thanks to you on live. More over you have incidents like in Super Street Fighter IV where capcom just couldn't afford to distribute costume data to all customers on Playstation network but could on live. Your money has a real, palpable outlet on live. This isn't to say there's no value in playstation plus either though, the "Free" games they have available make it pretty tempting. Ultimately, whether you're willing to pay for a service or not is related to how much value you derive from it.

I really don't see the problem with paying for it. 50 dollars a year comes out to 5 dollars a month. If you have any sort of steady income, it shouldn't be a problem in any capacity.

I'm willing to accept donations of 50 dollars a year as well.

Shouldn't be too big a problem.

But I derive no value from you.

 

[tthor]

the real reason is it isnt free is because we will pay for it

sorry but Mr gates loves him some money

Bill Gates hasn't been at Microsoft for a few years. That explains how something as wretched as 7 could slip out.

i'm not sure what you're talking about, i love windows 7 compared to XP and VISTA. Are you just trolling, or do you have an honest problem with 7?

 

[Mute52]

Because people buy it, and they make Loadsa Moneh (Killing floor style)

 

[TiefBlau]

What's that? You have to pay for servers? And they don't let you make your own? Is it, like, an MMO? *pctrollface*

 

[masher]

Service.
It's better than PSN, which is why PSN is free. Kind of a, "You get what you pay for," type of thing.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Because server upkeep costs money, and more money means better upkeep. We pay so there is more money, therefore better servers.