The people who say Nintendo's "free" online is good enough are the same ones who said dial-up was good enough for them when broadband started becoming widely available.
And people seem to forget that when you're gaming online on a console, you're utilizing a network infrastructure that Sony and M$ have built from the ground up and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into over the years. Monetizing their expensive to maintain online service was a smart move on M$'s part from day one and allowed them to expand and get a leg up on the competition. Sony finally saw the writing on the wall and was forced to follow suite for PSN, although they disguised theirs with a glorified game rental program.
The reason online gaming is "free" on PC in most cases is because it's decentralized compared to consoles, often left up to gamers to set up their own servers, and for major digital distribution platforms like Steam and Origin, they make enough dough from game sales and advertising to afford making most of the online components to their games free. (Funny how you always hear complaints about all the "advertising" on XBL and now PSN, but these same folks never complain about getting bombarded with ads whenever they load up Steam or Origin.)
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
