Xbox Live adds 6 Million members in a single Year, is the hate unjustified?

[Michael-5]

KylieDog said:
This notion that if people did not like LIVE they would stop paying for it is nonsense.

There are loads of gamers who have spent a lot of money on their 360 console, games, DLC, downloadable games etc etc. The notion it is simple to just throw all that spent money away and move to PS3 is a joke, most people cannot afford to do that, and with the crappy prices you get for old trade-ins, who is going to trade in a 360 with for example 20 games and as an end result end up with a PS3 and may 1-2 new games? Not forgetting they will never get to play any of the downloaded stuff they paid for either.

For a lot of people they are trapped paying for LIVE, they need keep investing in the subscription just to use their existing investments, unless they want to take massive losses on their investment in switching to another console. Most will not want to do that, or cannot afford to even if they do.

I paid for LIVE for two years, but I saw the trap and cancelled my sub. Now I have a lot of downloaded content I paid for that I cannot play at all, and most of my games are now half a game or less to me because I cannot use the MP features. Taking that loss is easier for me, we are able to afford multiple consoles and we got a PS3 to play with an even bigger owned library of games. But at least we are now liberated and not forced to keep paying to use stuff we already paid for.

What I lost by cancelling Gold:
- MP in many games
- DLC I paid XBL for already, now blocked because MP related
- NOTHING else, its all free countless other methods including PS3, Wii, PC, Tablets, Smartphones etc etc

I did the same thing, but I started selling old X-Box 360 games on PC, and you'd be surprised how much you can make. I recently sold Most Wanted for a $10 profit (I paid $15 on Black Friday, kept it for 5 months, and sold it for $30 - eBay charges).

XBLG is a rip off, but if you really wanted to, you can still play online via trials, and short term subscriptions. How often do you play online anyway? I used to only play for 3 months a year or so, and now I want to catch up on RPG's.

kain_kusanagi said:

Michael-5 said:

kain_kusanagi said:

Michael-5 said:

When XBL costs <$60 a year, the deal is usually only available over XBL, using a credit card. You can't buy XBL Gold subscriptions over XBL without a credit card, and at retail, $60 cards are almost never <$50 on sale. As for Silver weekends, I'm pretty sure I've played on a wednesday/thursday before as a silver account user. Not until the update in 2009 (I think) did I ever have a problem playing Halo 3 online as a silver member.

I've never used my credit card on XBL. I bought ALL of my 12 month Gold cards from Amazon and I've never paid more than $39.99.

On sale? How?

Anyway I only want a 1 month card. Apparently US cards work here, and you can get a 1 month card off eBay for <$10 I think. I don't play much online, but when I get GoW: Judgement, I want to play it online a bit.

This is my method.

I buy 12 Month XBL Gold cards on Amazon. Since I only need to buy them once a year I watch for sales. If there's a sale I buy one or two even if I have months left on my last card. That way I never get to the end of a XBL Gold subcription and get forced to pay full price.

If I where you I wouldn't waste $10 on a 1 month card when you can get 12 month on sale. But if you can't find a sale before you need it I guess you'll be stuck.

Eh, well it's too late now. With poor reliability, overpriced online, stupid achievements in 1st party games, Forza going downhill after FM3, Halo going to shit (I think Halo 4 is average, a bit drop from Bungie games), exclusives being ported to PC's, no new IP's, No deliverance of promised games (Ryse was suppose to be a 360 game, and what happened to MechWarrior?), overpriced consoles and overall a feeling of being milked, I've given up on Microsoft.

I don't regret my voyage to Microsoft, but I shouldn't have strayed so far from Nintendo and Sony as I did.