S.T.A.G.E. said:
gergroy said:
scat398 said:
I'm still amazed by gamers who believe they should get something for free. Of course if a company is foolish enough to give it to you for free "zynga" they'll pay for it in the end. You could say Sony is starting to see the negative effects for not charging for onlive service, increased debt, inability to compete on price, quality control. Unless you plan on PSN being one giant advertisment like google or facebook you need to charge. In the end MS is looking like the man among boys in this department. |
I agree to some extent here. I pay for live and dont have a problem doing so because it is a superior network. However, microsoft really does need to up their features to justify the cost if they want to stay competitive going forward. Microsoft basically already does the giant advertisement thing like facebook, and they are the ones charging for their service.
Microsoft cant keep withholding features given for free on other services and tout them as a reason for paying. They need to actually add some more differentiating features to justify the cost going forward...
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Microsoft doesn't make you pay for those same services elsewhere (PC) and they couldn't because people wouldn't accept it. They cant because its an open online system. The 360 is perfect because Microsoft owns it, its a closed system and because of that illusion to enjoy the online world of which is free elsewhere you must pay them.
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Thats why I say Microsoft needs to increase their features if they want to stay competitive. Looking at this from a business perspective, if they can make a profit from service fees, why not do it. It works as long as the service is competitive with other services. However, when other services come out with similar features at lower or no cost, then you either have increase the value of your service or reduce the price to compete.
Personally, I see Microsoft upping the value of the service instead of ditching the price. I think we have already seen rumors and hints at what microsoft could do. Exclusive media content for subscribers like tv shows or movies (remember conan almost signed up for an xbox show)
they could also do exclusive gold games like they did with 1 vs 100.
Cloud storage and game streaming is another feature they could implement.
Microsoft has to do stuff like that if they want to keep their hold on the online market and still charge a fee, otherwise they will lose that business to their competitors.
