Why does M$ charge for XBL?

Inevitability said:
Observation #1:
If someone is paying $60 a year, you can be sure they're gonna make use of it.

Observation#2:
PSN users are doing quite well... almost a 1-to-1 sign-up rate.
33% of XB360 users (like myself) are unwilling to be held to ransom
Click to expand...

Yep but like the second article says, Everybody signs up for a free service even if they never use it. And as sony has not released a "most online" figures it is impossible to really compare the two. heck i have a PSN ID and i am hardly even online.
 
Toxin said:
My 2c.

PSN is slow. Like terribly slow, even on my 4MB line. PSN updates take forever and a day.
Xbox Live is soooooo much faster.

IMO, for that reason alone Xbox Live is better. But other than that there's not much difference that I've seen. If you're willing to wait eons for your game to update then either way is fine.
Click to expand...

So its not just my line then. Awesome.
 
Inevitability said:
Observation #1:
If someone is paying $60 a year for the XBL subscription, you can be sure they're gonna make use of it.

Observation#2:
PSN users are doing quite well... almost a 1-to-1 sign-up rate.
33% of XB360 users (like myself) are unwilling to be held to ransom
Click to expand...

Observation#3:
Give it up and get back to work
 
Ok, i must admit that it makes sense to charge someone for a premium service.
Whether the pricing is fair is another question altogether, and i can always throw in the idea of a 'basic' and a 'premium' service (if people are really that serious about QoS).
But ya... i see the point that's being made here.

Still, I will carry the torch and keep my $60 firmly in my pocket.

Like the annoying Vodacom idiot says ... "Freedom ... are you free, or are you dom"
So, which is it, M$?
 
My POV: It's capitalism. MS is providing a service that you are willing to pay for, there is a alternative, but it's not as good, so MS can dictate the price. The only thing that will convince MS to drop the price is if enough people stop paying for it, and while it's the only way to get certain features, that's not likely to happen. MS and Sony does their best to make you buy only into their system, if there was a way to communicate between the two eco-systems, or if there was a better and cheaper alternative to Xbox live and PSN all the gamers would have jumped on to it very quickly, which would force MS and Sony to improve their services.
Unfortunately we're sitting in a dual monopoly situation, with not much choice, short of totally dumping the consoles and playing exclusively on PC.
 
Mandarb said:
My POV: It's capitalism. MS is providing a service that you are willing to pay for, there is a alternative, but it's not as good, so MS can dictate the price. The only thing that will convince MS to drop the price is if enough people stop paying for it, and while it's the only way to get certain features, that's not likely to happen. MS and Sony does their best to make you buy only into their system, if there was a way to communicate between the two eco-systems, or if there was a better and cheaper alternative to Xbox live and PSN all the gamers would have jumped on to it very quickly, which would force MS and Sony to improve their services.
Unfortunately we're sitting in a dual monopoly situation, with not much choice, short of totally dumping the consoles and playing exclusively on PC.
Click to expand...

Yep pretty much. See if PSN was really a threat to Live the live sub prices would be going down not up.
 
Strifehart said:
How could it be a threat? It's a completely different platform.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing he's referring to the 'free-dom' of PSN vs the 'rape-dom' of XBL being a threat to potential XBL-ers jumping ship and heading on over to their friendly neighbourhood PS3 dealer
But I'm sure you knew that anyway.
 
Strifehart said:
How could it be a threat? It's a completely different platform.
Click to expand...

A threat in the sense of if PSN got so good people would rather go out and buy a PS rather than a Xbox because of it.

Just out of interest what's the going rate these days for Xbox Live Gold? I got one of those 13 month voucher scratch-card thingies when I was in the UK last year and I can't remember how much it cost. :confused:
 
OmegaFenix said:
As in more people bought PS3s simply coz they didn't want to pay for live subs. Make sense now? :S
Click to expand...

No, I don't think so. You listed the fact that the PSN attach rate vs console sold is very good in comparison to the attach rate of Live vs Console sold.

We live in an age where the majority of gamers are people like us (working class dudes, etc) who own both platforms (if not more).

So it's not really a case of rather going to buy your bread at store X because they are cheaper than store Y.
 
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