Should Xbox Live Really Have A Monthly Fee?
This article was written by: Danny Colmenares (Disciple027)
As a PlayStation 3 owner, I constantly wonder why Xbox 360 owners are content paying a monthly fee to play games they already own online. I know that when the PlayStation Network was first introduced, it was nothing to brag about, in fact it was quite sub-par. Back in those days, Microsoft had a very good reason why they charged for Xbox Live, as it was clearly better than PSN. But now, as the PSN has matured, it has grown closer and closer to Xbox Live quality but managed to stay a free service in spite of its constant upgrades. In fact, it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish which is the better service.
What is Microsoft’s rationale behind keeping their monthly fee when Sony doesn’t offer one? Is it simply because they know people are willing to pay? It is hard for me to believe that Microsoft doesn’t have enough money to support Xbox Live without charging their customers a monthly fee. So what do you think? Should Xbox Live still really have a monthly fee?
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If I were Microsoft and I could get away with charging a monthly fee or not, I would. Plus doesn’t Microsoft have it’s own servers, whereas online PS3 games have to have their own servers? We must remember that Microsoft is not a charity, it’s a company.
I don’t have a PS3 so I can’t comment on the PSN, but from what I’ve heard, the differences are still pretty great. The ease of access, the depth of content, I feel Xbox LIVE is well worth the subscription cost.
But again, as I don’t have a PS3, I’m not up to date on everything PSN has to offer. It could be awesome or it could be crap, but I do know that LIVE has a lot to offer and I’m sure it costs a pretty penny to accommodate the sheer number of LIVE users.
Xboxlive subscription is a must in an age where we have all these crappy child molesters and online experience terrorists and so on….
I personally think the contents between the two networks just says it all…it’s just that huge difference and ease of use that makes the xboxlive network da bomb.
Microsoft are the richest brand (fact), because of such a high status they know people are willing to pay.
But the more Microsoft earn the more they can bring you elsewhere. I mean they have free coding software for programs and website that is miles above any pay software including Dreamweaver, so Im not all that bothered.
There is a big difference. On XBL you have demos of all the games, on PSN you don’t. This because Microsoft requires there to be demos and Sony charges the publishers for downloads, thus free demos cost the publishers.
So while PSN is free for the user, it cost publishers. XBL OTOH cost the user because it is a subscriber service but then since the publisher don’t have to pay there are more “free” content for the users.
Having said that, I prefer not to pay just to be there, rather to pay for the content I want, so I choose PSN over XBL any day of the week. YMMV.
Anyway, who cares in the long run? For me they both are content delivery systems, I don’t spend time there just because I can. I rather spend it in-game. Again, YMMV.
The Psn is getting a little better in terms of their downloadable games but they are still extremely lacking with demos and extra content. XBL is growing and they continue to add features such as the Netflix streaming and the upcoming Twitter/Facebook support.
All the extra features on XBL are nice but they have one huge flaw, which makes me mad im giving them $50 a year, the servers are SO SLOW. It takes twice as long to download stuff then it does on my PC from free sites like FilePlanet. It even takes up to 30 seconds some time to load certain parts of the market place which is simply unacceptable.
PSN is okay, still no where near XBL but i think Sony is stuck now. Charging for online helps bring in money and develop the service further, if Sony tries to bring out a pay service it would have to be a premium sort of thing because i dont think alot of people would be happy that they have to shell out money to play online. If they had pay service i probably wouldnt have got my PS3 in the first place
I don’t really think it’s worth the price for XBL compared to the PSN, but it’s such a small amount of money that it makes little difference to most people (yes, £30-40 is a small amount of money, and any americans who start complaining it’s too much should come and live in the UK for a while and see if you still care that your games cost $60 etc). Basically, I resent having to pay for the service (especially with the amount of lag I get, but that’s down to my shitty connection), but am still willing to do it to play with my friends because its such a relativelly small fee.
On the PSN there are a few downfalls (yes I own both before you ask) like the lack of demos for everything, and the lack of cross-game voice chat, but is that service worth the price tag? Not really. It also makes up for it a bit with some better (IMO) arcade games (Wipeout HD, Fat Princess, Super Stardust HD, Rag Doll Kung Foo, Burn Zombie Burn, WarHawk etc). Of course that is all personal opinion, and I also prefer the disk based exclusives, so maybe it’s just that I’m more of the PS3s target audience than the 360s. Bear in mind that I’m predominently a PC gamer.
What I really wish is that they’d upgrade GFWL a little bit – include parties etc for example.
I own a PS3 and a 360. And I can say that the only reason people pay for LIVE is because its what everyone else is doing. I am perfectly happy with my PS3 but ALL of my friends have a 360. So if I ever want to play with friends I have to use my Xbox.
A lot of people say they bought the 360 because of the price but this was not my experience. By the time I bought the 360 and the wireless adapter and a charger for my controller I spent more on my 360 than my PS3 and my PS3 has a bluray player and yes I do use the BR player.
So people will keep paying for LIVE because its the cool thing to do.
Actually, I think I’m in the same boat as Bretnon C TBH. The 360 exclusives don’t really interest me that much (I enjoy them but wouldn’t really care if they just died. That said other than uncharted, and to a lesser extent LBP and Killzone 2 I’m not all taht fussed about the PS3s ones either. Resistance, Heavenly Sword, Motorstorm etc are all great but also, for me, not system-makers.) The 360s closed setup (no browser, proprietary accessories etc) and hidden costs are also a turn-off. I only have a 360 to play online with my friends (don’t really care about playing with randoms) and for the occasional exclusive.
The problem is that even though the PSN has matured it still hasn’t caught up to XBL and XBL has continued to evolve as well. XBL will continue to charge until the majority of people aren’t willing to pay. Its as simple as that.
The cost of Xbox Live has never bothered me.
Almost all games have multiplayer capability, there’s free demos available for many games, XBLA games are try before you buy and there’s a good number available to choose from, there’s a chat/party/video and matchmaking systems available. Chat is available in all mutiplayer games. You have friends lists, list of recent players for any game, profiles, achievements for all games. There’s a feature to prefer or avoid players. New features keep appearing, such as link to Netflix, and eventually LastFM, Twitter, and Facebook. There’s a new rating system for content. There’s been free content made available from games to backgrounds and gamerpics, movies and videos. Videos you want to watch can be streamed instantly. There’s an online game show. And there’s always a community event happening every week.
And even though there has been the ocassional issue, for the most part the service has been pretty solid.
Another thing that rarely comes up in these discussions is that PSN (or XBL for that matter) is not really ONE network. They are quite different in what they offer in different markets. For me that is a much bigger problem than that XBL and PSN are not equals and that they are using the same marketing models.
Why is paying less than $5 a month such a big deal?
Well that depends on what game card you get. But lets say it costs $5 a month to have XBLA, which is $60 a year. Now lets say you have XBLA for 10 years. You’ve now payed $600 more dollars for your 360. It’s not a big deal over a small period of time, but if you have a PS3 you can buy one more game a year than if you have a 360.
However, it sounds like a lot of people think the monthly fee is justified because of all the features you get, I mean it really does offer more than PSN does. But I’m curious as to how many people actually use a lot of those extra features. I know tons of people who only use XBLA just to play their games online.
I know XBLA comes in Silver and Gold memberships, but perhaps they should get rid of Silver and make Gold free, and then create a Platinum membership for those people who want to use all those extra features and only charge Platinum members a monthly fee.
I have both systems and I use the ps3 online more because it’s free and my friends are on that system. I think the choice is really personal about what system you use. The real question we should be asking is do we think it is worth our money.
PSN is not close to XBL yet, I own both consoles and I’m happy to pay 4 or 5 dollars per month for the additional services… chating in a game is a must!!!!!
Until PSN has party chat or even in-game voice chat period, as well as cross-game invites XBL will be superior.
I PS3 owners can afford a PS3, they can afford to play for Xbox Live.
Abso-mother-fcuking-lutely not.
Micro transactions are already all over the place – and they’re preparing to put ADS all over my “NXE” as it is?
Screw that… if it’s ad supported, there’s no place for a subscription fee.
What I hate more is to see microsoft make deal with let say: Netflix, last.fm and other service like that.
They sure did exchange some money, the money they used is the one for gold subcripter, these services are also gold only.
But I am the only one to figure out that every single people from all over the world are paying gold so microsoft can make some dealt which are only available in the US?
Yes, every gold subcripter are paying so that USA can enjoy more feature.
That’s a good point, if it’s ad supported, they should probably use that money to make the service free.
I also agree with a lot of people above in the fact that PSN still has a long way to go. In game chat, party chat, and cross game invites should definitely be implemented on PSN.
What is the rationale behind charging Playstation fans upwards of $600 to play many of the same games? Seems to me that rationale is PS3 owners see good value (as do I) with the added blu ray player and built in wi-fi among other things. What about just the gamer, the one who supported Sony through the years and paid $299 for a launch PS1 and $299 for a launch PS2 only to be faced with a $499 and $599 PS3 at launch?
So like the PS3 many Live members see extra value in Xbox Live. Such as a much better community structure where your friends are much more social orientated and other little things like voice messages and party chat. To me I like the way Live communicates with it’s members and with each game. It just feels more natural and structured. On PSN it feels more open based where some publishers go the extra mile and others just do the basics.
The problem with Live is Microsoft doesn’t offer a free alternative. It’s either pay to play online or use Live offline. On the PS3 Sony also doesn’t cater to the gamer only. It’s either buy the PS3 with blu ray and wi-fi or get a Xbox 360 if you just want to play games.
You get what you paid for.
The point here is that you’re a PS3 owner, and not an Xbox 360 owner. So in reality, you don’t understand why it’s a pay service.
If you had only owned a Xbox 360, and then purchased a PS3, only then would you realize the differences.
Like the old addage goes, “You get what you pay for.”
If my 360 was taken away from me and all I had was my PS3 to play multiplayer, multiplatform games, I would be devastated. You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone.
So to sum it up, YES. Xbox Live is worth the $30 a year (I found a deal on my subscription). If you can’t afford an extra $3 a month for quality, than you shouldn’t be gaming.
@Levelhead
You are mistaken. Xbox does offer a free alternative. It’s called a Silver account. You can still download demos and send messages to friends.
First off I own both the ps3 and the 360 (more then 1)..
I do all my games on the 360, I just feel that the games are better on that format do to the fact of live, all my friends own 360’s and very very few of them have ever even touched a ps3,
the fee for live is not that bad it is only $50 a year and alot of the time you can find deals to make it even cheaper then that.
Yes ps3 has come along way but it still is not what you get out of live, for example there are people hacking the crap out of the games on ps3 such as world at war which totally take the fun out of the game, you really dont see that as much if at all when playing on live, there for I feel the money is being spent for people to police the service, however I do have 1 gripe, lately I have been getting commerical adds in my fight night round 4 in between rounds movie adds pop up and on the turnbuckels there has been ads, is this because of he new Dashboard which I got in on the preview program?
if they are going to be running ads in my games like that I feel that there should be enough revunue comming into microsoft to make there service free or at least even cheaper then the allready cheap price they have,
Also with games like 1 vs 100 I dont mind ads in there, like the commercial breaks but once again put more commercials in and please make it cheaper for the people who view these ads.. there should be a way to monitor how many commercial breaks you view and then base your next yearly payment on the ads you have allready watched like say 10 cents a ad view enough and your next subscription is free now that would be sweet…
I think playing games online should be free. Most Xbox games are p2p and don’t really use servers other than to save stats but to play it is all user connection. I think playing should be free but the rest of the service and features should be a fee because it uses more resources to use.
@Dmason
It’s true that I only have the perspective of being a PS3 owner (and only because I could only afford one system at the time, the 360 will be coming when I have some extra cash) and so yes I don’t understand why XBL has a monthly fee. However I have roommates that have 360s so I have been able to play both consoles online and I’m the kind of person that doesn’t use all of those extra features, so in that sense I actually like playing on PSN better.(Just my own opinion)
And in regards to your last comment: “If you can’t afford an extra $3 a month for quality, than you shouldn’t be gaming.” I believe I payed the extra money for quality when I bought the PS3 in the first place. (But once again, that’s just my opinion)
BTW I’m glad this hasn’t turned into one of those some sort of fanboy war. Both sides have made really good points.
I own all three consoles the PS3, 360 and Wii so there is no fanboy in me i’ve been a member of xbox live for about 5 years now and PSN about 2 years and to this day i have yet to play a game online for the PSN or on the Wii the whole structure of how the PSN and Wii networks are set up has never called my attention the store in PSN is bland looks more like a cheap website and home is mostly useless i wont even speak of the Wii. I can see why microsoft charges for there service not only because they can get away with it but because people who have experienced all 3 services realize Live is the easiest to access and has the most features by a wide gap yes PSN has added many features along the way but isnt Xbox Live adding as well you cant close the gap/catch up if your only going as fast as the competition is.
If you only use the PSN then sure, its hard to distinguish between Live and the PSN.
Those of us with both consoles though, the difference is like chalk and cheese. Everything on Live is integrated completely, everything works, and you have much more options and functionality than on the PSN.
For crying out loud, the PS3 has been out for 2 years and STILL doesnt have a universal game invite system. or a universal cross-game chat. or universal voice messages. it simply lags behind, and thats why im only too happy to pay for the better service.
DMason I’m not mistaken at all. I said it’s either pay to play online or play offline. Meaning if you want to play online you have to pay. Silver accounts won’t allow online play except the rare weekend they offer it for free.
Again both Sony and Microsoft don’t offer great alternatives to casual gamers. On the PS3 you can’t get a sub $400 console to play the majority of the same games on a cheaper Xbox 360 that can be had for as little as $199. On the flip side Microsoft isn’t offering a casual alternative to those who just want to play online for free.
I have both consoles and if your priority is too play cod online u r wasting your money with Microsoft, and now with that xbox crap update the only good thing that u got is to pay for customizing ur avatar, god damn assault!
content, please…. as if we have a choice. like, I can’t believe you people are content to pay $60 for games or money for rip off content that locks out players and degrades the community but hey… were all content here.
Haha true, I guess I just meant that with the competitor having a free internet service, I don’t hear a lot of complaining and I was just curious as to why. $60 games suck, I actually miss when they were $50…
I have to chime in here as I have both an Xbox and a PS3 and at this point in time the PSN is actually SUPERIOR TO Live. It’s is more intuitive in design and much much quicker when exploring content.
At this point, I won’t be renewing my Live account which is up in November. It took a couple of years but the PS3 is now superior in every aspect of gaming. And then there’s the blu-ray. Microsoft should be embarrassed. If only you people new that you’re getting robbed of buying a new video game every year so that you can have the privilege of being able to play your other games online. People just ASSUME that they are getting what they pay for. And that’s why Microsoft is getting away with it and you xboxers are getting scammed with smiles on your faces not knowing any better.
I miss $50 games too, and I thought that with persistent connections we would get games supported like on pc with free maps or whatever but that’s not been the case with developers saying microsoft forces them to charge for content, is that even true? or just a cop-out?
what exactly am I paying for? I can’t even get free wallpaper to sexy of the fugly dashboard without paying, its ridiculous.
complaining doesn’t do any good. I’m certainly not content and I’ve resorted to bargain shopping xbox live cards. My current subscription was an opened but unused card I got off ebay for $16. I also picked up another for $30 when walmart had a sale.
other retailers have sales like amazon or buy.com, newegg, etc buy them when there cheap if you have to.
talk about being content, I’m shopping for my third xbox 360 right now. My first I bought in February of 08 died in 5 days would freeze on boot, took it back and exchanged it for one that e74ed in June of this year…. I’m real content… honestly I’ll be more contented when sony announces the slim and a price drop.
Demon Souls for the win.
Hehe yeh and ps3 servers are so much better i mean Resistance 2.. 60 players no lag.. Gears of War 2 10 players lag almost every match.. Theres the difference in servers
XBLA should be a paid service simply because.
1 i have never had any errors or problems connecting.
2 the servers are much much faster, i can download the same files first ps3 than once thats done 360 and the 360 will always be done first.
3 the 360s net connection is plug and play, i use wireless for the 360 and did not have to change my router settings.
for my ps3 it would not work i had to change my router settings add ports and few other things.
XBLA is much better and much more user friendly.
but i think 50 is to much they should drop it to 30 maximum, and add some incentives like every 2 years you stick with XBLA you get a free arcade game or something.
a little thank you for supporting us gift.
don’t take it personal “name” but the half of the things that you say are not true, ps3 have excellent servers with no lag and I never have to change my router config because there’s no need to do that in the ps3 and by the way how much u pay for ur xbox 360 wireless adapter? I know another assault of Microsoft.
after having a 360 for 3 years and then switching to ps3 it was a bit of a leap. the 360 still has cross game invite, private chat and a party system. something that PSN still doesn’t have and has been asking for it badly. live also gets the DLC a bit earlier because they can pay the big bucks that go behind it. they’ve done it for this long why bother now stopping.
Psn has come lepas and bounds past its early days….. and i dont care how much extra content it has, no online gaming service is worth a fee if a competitor offers one for free, thats how companies trick u, sell u a cheap console (360 arcade) but charge you for online service. just like the wii, cheap console but after you pay 200$ dollars for the 3 different type of controllers you need x4 then its more than a Ps3! i download videos, demos, psn games, etc and it is sufficient for me, also who cares about 360 getting twitter/facebook, from DAY 1 on the ps3 you can use a full internet browser to check all your social networking sites!!!
I agree with “name” on incentives, ive had XBL for like 4 years now, it would be nice to get some free points or a discount.
I always had problems with wireless on my Xbox, it would just randomly stop working and the only way to fix it would be to test my connection like 10-20 times. Since ive gone to ethernet ive had no problems, faster connection and its cheaper. Wireless = suck.
PSN is a little slower than XBL when it comes to downloads but both are way to slow. I can get up to 1.5MBs on my PC yet the fastest ive gotten on XBL or PSN is ~500kbs. What sucks on PS3 is that after i download it i have to install and there is no background download option or auto-install option.
(Jose, nice job on getting 40+ comments)
for the record my wireless 360 adapter cost me 40 AUD.
the RRP is 180.
Chinese markets really come in handy for these things.
and just because you dont have to reconfigure your router does not mean no one else has to.
Google error code 8002AD23 and see how many forums there are with people copping that error every 20 minutes.
Well I’m an xbox user and my little bro is ps3 I and my brother reckon xbox is better live but psn as improved and when I run out I just play ps3 but xbox live is becoming free 09 Christmas with a rumor that a live link between ps3 and xbox live is coming and with tat a final end to who’s better