Why is Microsoft not giving Xbox Live free?

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Xyphon

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IamSofaKingRaw said:
Xyphon said:
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.
SHH! You are not helping MS
/s

I too have went from Live to PSN. I had Live for 3 months and there isn't a 'better' community, (BTW what the hell does that mean, other then your friends who is this community?), the services is the same, the games multiplat games lag just as much (but the first party Sony games like KZ2/3, Metal Gear Online, Resistance 1/2, Socom etc. all use dedicated servers and don't lag at ALL) and the games are great for both. I don't see any benefit for playing for Live other than playing the exclusives online, because nothing else justifies its purchase.
WAAAAAITWAITWAITWAIT! Metal Gear Online has dedicated servers? All I've ever seen are games hosted by the community. o-O"

Azaraxzealot said:
Xyphon said:
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.
well, some have said that the PS3's connectivity quality depends on the quality of your ISP.

so anyone playing on cheap 10 dollar a month internet would see problems while someone playing on 100 dollar a month lightspeed internet would claim there is no problem.
Thing is, bud, I don't have such a grand internet speed. The highest speed I ever get when I download is 156kbs. =\
 

Worgen

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dietpeachsnapple said:
Worgen said:
Valkyira said:
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.
and yet pc gamers have the best service and its costs us even less
Jeebus! You come to the game lookin' for a fight, don't you?!
oh you know it

 

Caligulove

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Because it not only allows Microsoft to support and maintain the service that I still think is better than PSN overall, but also goes to incentive for third-party developers to not only work on the X360 but also to work on their multiplayer- since they know that Microsoft and the customers will actually be fronting a bill that they would otherwise pay.

Not to mention that it's only $50 for a whole YEAR, or basically $4/month- which really isn't much at all
 

the_green_dragon

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If people are willing to pay, then they will charge. They are money grubbing capitalists, which is why they make canceling your subscription a pain in the ass to do as well.
 

Jaime_Wolf

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Hellblazer12 said:
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.
I really doubt they've lost too many customers to the PS3 over this. In fact, I would bet my life that they haven't. If they were losing too many customers to the PS3 over this, they'd stop doing it. With something this obvious, you can trust they're not just flying blind - they know exactly how they should price their services (especially with the amount of customers and consequent data they have by now).

Also, remember that subscriptions tend to be more advantageous for a company than one-time sales. A company can try to predict game sales based on available data (and again, there's no lack of data there) and they can make surprisingly robust guesses, but they can predict their income from subscriptions almost perfectly. They know exactly how many people are likely to join and how many people are likely to unsubscribe and the overwhelming majority will do neither. This is especially nice because it means the company's projected profits from subscriptions will almost never be high. If anything, it's much more likely that they'll be low with a new game always having the potential to sell a lot of subscriptions.
 

the_green_dragon

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Worgen said:
dietpeachsnapple said:
Worgen said:
Valkyira said:
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.
and yet pc gamers have the best service and its costs us even less
Jeebus! You come to the game lookin' for a fight, don't you?!
oh you know it
Hahaha PC gamers have the best service and costs less? If you taking into account the price of a console VS the price of a decent gaming PC I don't think it costs less overall in any way shape or form.
 

teknoarcanist

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Because they completely pioneered the idea of a console-level online service integrating all games for a single system. Sony then offered this free. Microsoft will almost definitely offer it free on their next console. They won't do it now because they're making money from it.

Surprisingly, corporations -- yes, even gaming corporations -- do not have your best interests at heart. They're looking to make money.

The fun flip-side is that by only purchasing the things you like most, you can tell them how best to go about doing so.

Welcome to a competitive marketplace.

You're now ready for the rest of Econ 101.
 

Gennadios

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Steve Ballmer is a tubby, evil, f****** scrooge, that's why.

Also, for the same reason XBox won't allow developers to give away freebie DLCs. Because they're trying to condition gamers to pay for all their content.

Watch that video from a week ago.
 

Worgen

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the_green_dragon said:
Worgen said:
dietpeachsnapple said:
Worgen said:
Valkyira said:
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.
and yet pc gamers have the best service and its costs us even less
Jeebus! You come to the game lookin' for a fight, don't you?!
oh you know it
Hahaha PC gamers have the best service and costs less? If you taking into account the price of a console VS the price of a decent gaming PC I don't think it costs less overall in any way shape or form.
in the short run its a bit more expensive but its much easier and cheaper to keep a good gaming pc up to current standards then a console, really you could make a pretty decent pc for around 400-500 bucks depending on what you need to get (monitor mostly since that is one of the larger single costs for a pc depending on the size you want) and if you factor in having to pay for multi like the 360 does then it only takes a few years for the console cost to be higher then the pc unless you manage to find lots of really really good deals on the 1year cards, which is possible but kinda hard since they sell out fast
 

The Apothecarry

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Because Microsoft needs to make enough money to recover from all of the financial problems that Windows Vista caused. Thank god Sony doesn't develop PC operating systems.

In all, Xbox Live is worth the money but a free service is always a nice wish.
 

ace_the_poet

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If people pay are willing to pay for it, why not? Plus then they can claim it's a premium service when compared to PSN, even if that wasn't the truth.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Laxman9292 said:
Worgen said:
Valkyira said:
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.
and yet pc gamers have the best service and its costs us even less
Go away you tosser. This conversation has little to do with you, and even less reason for you to be an absolute dick about console vs. PC. You just seem annoying and petty trying to turn every conversation into a flamewar. GIVE IT UP ALREADY!
WOOOO I just won *dances around the room* I have won the internet because of you and you have proven that my point was right, for you see, with only your righteous indignation could I truly have achieved victory, all the other responses were just too reasonable

so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this stunning victory today, Im not used to people handing me one so easily
 

the_green_dragon

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Worgen said:
in the short run its a bit more expensive but its much easier and cheaper to keep a good gaming pc up to current standards then a console, really you could make a pretty decent pc for around 400-500 bucks depending on what you need to get (monitor mostly since that is one of the larger single costs for a pc depending on the size you want) and if you factor in having to pay for multi like the 360 does then it only takes a few years for the console cost to be higher then the pc unless you manage to find lots of really really good deals on the 1year cards, which is possible but kinda hard since they sell out fast
I dunno, the price of a decent gaming video card will set u back a pretty penny
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
the_green_dragon said:
Worgen said:
the_green_dragon said:
and yet pc gamers have the best service and its costs us even less
Jeebus! You come to the game lookin' for a fight, don't you?!
oh you know it
Hahaha PC gamers have the best service and costs less? If you taking into account the price of a console VS the price of a decent gaming PC I don't think it costs less overall in any way shape or form.[/quote]

in the short run its a bit more expensive but its much easier and cheaper to keep a good gaming pc up to current standards then a console, really you could make a pretty decent pc for around 400-500 bucks depending on what you need to get (monitor mostly since that is one of the larger single costs for a pc depending on the size you want) and if you factor in having to pay for multi like the 360 does then it only takes a few years for the console cost to be higher then the pc unless you manage to find lots of really really good deals on the 1year cards, which is possible but kinda hard since they sell out fast[/quote]

I dunno, the price of a decent gaming video card will set u back a pretty penny[/quote]

not really, you can buy a pretty good one for just 150, the vid card is one of those things you should buy with the intention of having to upgrade it later since video card tech advances so quickly, really just buying something that works with dx11 should last a good awhile if its got 1 gig of ram

weird, the quote is messed up
 

solidstatemind

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Hellblazer12 said:
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.
What most people seem to fail to understand is that a persistent online gaming service has an infrastructure behind it: servers, administrators, bandwidth expenses, hosting costs, etc.

You're not getting nothing for that money that you're paying for the base subscription: yeah, they probably charge more than they need, but I bet 50% or more of your subscription pays for the infrastructure cost behind XBL.

And for those that think PSN will be free forever... well, let's just say Sony hasn't stayed in business this long giving away stuff for free. At some point (some number of subscribers, probably), I bet they'll do the same thing.