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rf40928 on 05 September 2011
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oniyide said:
rf40928 said:
oniyide said:
rf40928 said:

i think this is a worn out topic.. but most Xbox non-fans like to bring up how XBlive cost 59.99 a year.. but from a relaibility stand point and features Live simply has more to offer.. they usually have it first.. they had netflix almost 2 yrs before PSN and the first year PSN had to use a netflix disc.. and although PSN has a sports equivalent , I like ESPN on XB Live..

If you can't afford 59.99 a year ( only 4.99 a month ) you honestly have no business buying expensive video  games multiple times a year for your console.. because if you already can't afford to EAT....an additional $4.99 a month might mean you cant afford to SLEEP ?!

I spend more money on a week of drinking 'mountain dew' soda then i do on a month of Xbox Live.. Im pretty sure the average person spends more money weekly on pretty trivial stuff as well.. my brother buys a new game for his PS3, Xbox 360, Wii almost monthly..  If you're doing well enough to buy alot of games yearly then the PSN free / Xb Live cost argument holds little value because GAMING is not a necessity, its entertainment and entertainment is never free.. If you buy a console to play  ONE game you love such as those who play COD ( therefore meaning you can waste money to buy a console to play a single game ) it means nothing.. If you own all three consoles like my brother.. it means nothing.. If you own a PS3 and want to say how MUCH of a rip off 4.99 a month is I guess thats fine..

its the principal, they are charging us to pay for a feature in a game we ALREADy bought. If they want to have extra features like ESPN for Gold, thats fine, but at the very least silver members should be able to play games online

 As a person who has owned a PS3 ( and my brother still does  - he all all three consoles ) and owns a Xbox 360 I can tell you when looking beyond basic online gaming there is a difference.  In basic function PSN does a good job for COD.

..but now that Sony has started Playstation Plus ( 49.99 a year in USA ), it seems Sony is trying to do something similar to MS... offer more premium services at a small cost.. Conversely, now that Playstation is gonna charge for PS Plus, Microsoft has decided to give some previously 'Xbox Live Gold Members Only content' to the (FREE)  'Xbox Live Silver membership content '... the changes should be happening soon.. so Xbox users using the free service should be getting alittle more bang for nothing..

When it comes to your above coment, I dont think you have a valid argument.  Any Xbox game does have a spot on the bottom back of the game case, it reads:  *Xbox Live System Requirements: Paid Subscription required for online multiplayer.* So if you actually own a Xbox and havent see this somehow - I will tell you that you 'AREN'T' getting charged for any feature you already bought.  Xbox Live Gold ( paid ) has always offered full game demos of new games.. Xbox Live Silver ( Free ) does not.... Playstation Plus ( 49.99 a year ) will offer a very similar thing over PSN's (Free ) content.. .. So I guess you can see why Xbox Live Gold cant be free?

When it comes to downloadable content I've been on PSN on my brothers PS3 a few times in the last few months ( again, he has all 3 consoles  ) The amount of demos, trailers and other gaming content available On XB Live is way larger than the Playstation Network. Xbox Live offers nearly 200 full retail games for digital download as well.. and im not talking older games - most of them are newers like Halo Reach..

From an online gaming community point of view... This is where the Xbox Live is way ahead of the Playstation Live. On Xbox LIVE talking to your friends, cross game invites, voice chat, video chat over cams, text messages ( texting can be done easier with the mini qwerty keyboard for the controller ) and many other things with the press of a single button- much more seemless and refined. In the Xbox Live community your profile will show your friends last played games, displays their personal slogans, latest gamer score, in game achievements and many other things. Now while most of this is in the PSN as well .. PSN has some drawbacks .. i.e. ..you would have to exit a game before you can look into one of your friends’ profiles... its small things like this that are so much easier to access and more useable on Xbox Live. 

One more thing where XB Live scores is the presence of sponsored events by MS which will keep gamers hooked. The Playstation Network never really has many Sony sponsored events although there are rumors that there will be more so in the future.

Subscription money is used by MS to maintain server quality, reliability, and continously update features and continously add content .. I can say unbiased that PSN is good for a free service, but when you have problems you can't really complain.  What do you say?  "Fix this or I'll say fix this, again.." ?

I think PS3 fans that enjoy a wider variety of content will pay for the PlayStation Plus.. I can say I dont mind paying what little I do for the service I enjoy.. Ive always payed for Xbox Live, but Ive always liked having more content and quality..


Xbox live Gold has some great features, thats not what this is about. IMHO I could give a crap about ESPN, Cross game chat and all that stuff, i just want to play games online, so when people tell me about all those features i really dont care so the cost of the service has no value to me, thats just me. Subscription money is usedd to maintain server quality and update features?? Xbox live cant be free?? OK thats cool, but why cant Silver members play their games online? Im not buying that they need the money to maintain server quality and add more content. Sony has been doing the same thing for years without charging Nintendo too and PC games have been doing it forever (MMOs notwithstanding). As for PSN Plus, it sucks, im just gonnna keep it real. Its a waste of money, the only thing you get is discounts which will probably end up costing the same if you never pay the fee anyway

I'll give you that one thing -  because  I do beleive they could make Xbox Silver offer free online play at this current time ( but looking at the whole picture this change makes little sense because most of us are ok paying for a service we feel has more content we're already used to - and they know this ) .. Case-and-Point: You have to consider Xbox Live went online 2 years before PSN was announced.  So they could charge, because nothing else existed !  To most of us this is OUR COCAINE, a very cheap cocaine.  XB Live Gold also  started off much cheaper then it is now ( back in 2004 it was a mere $2.50 a month if you paid yearly ) ..  since no one else had anything it was the very best of anything..

 When PSN launched online gaming was 'free' so to speak..( not really, you still gotta pay for high speed internet, buy a console , buy a game you want to play online, and pay your electric bill ) .. but PSN was very very basic back then  and very 'bare' ..PSN has improved, but since then PSN has always been a step behind Xbox Live.. and this includes reliability.  If you don't think MS uses some of that capital income to give more quality to the user you're sorely mistaken, more people play COD on XB Live then PSN ( which is a give-in because COD - both #1 games on both consoles - sold more on XB 360 ) and when more people play - this uses more bandwidth and cost more. You need to pay for more 'blades' (servers)  ..but honestly the real cost is  having thousands of games, demo's and videos  available for download like XB Live has ( and what PS Plus is offering - which is why it cost ).. the bandwidth you need on a free online gaming service like PSN  -sending a few packets for games back and forth- versus - 500,000 Xbox Live users ( of your 30 million subscribers ) downloading  the same 3 gig demo all within 2 hours is pretty vast in difference ..Also consider XB LIve has had BEEFY security from the start compared to PSN !  How many people do you think have tried to bring down Xbox Live ?!  ALOT !!  XB Live has proven more secure and reliable - and this isn't because its free and undermanned . Sony found out the hard way that not only does good security cost alot.. it cost even more if that security is breached.  Looking at Xbox Live's content-  again -  This is why Sony has launched Playstation Plus, to me this is recongnition by Sony that you simply can't offer all the content for free, unfortunately better things  arent free. 

Again, I do admit they have in the past 2 years made PSN alot better then it was.. they've tried to mirror and copy Xbox Lives model.. but they only now are charging for PS Plus because you can't offer full demos and other goodies without cost.. once again back to what I said - demos being available will LARGELY increase the bandwidth being used to Sony servers GREATLY and this COST ALOT of money..