What are they paying for? I see PSN having almost the same features, while Steam is way beyond PSN and XBL. Both Steam and PSN are free.

My question is, what are XBLG users paying $50 that is worth over PSN and Steam?

You are far away from your Pc section, shio

yes the mighty mighty steam. O wait it actually isn't way beyond xbl and PSN. Infact they both have more features then steam. Regardless, I pay for xbox live because i prefer playing games on the 360 then the PC. I enjoy playing with friends that don't have over a thousand$ to spend on a desktop. Its a service I can't really get otherwise. I only pay 30$ a year. You don't need to buy from bestbuy... The service is more reliable then PSN in my experience, and ofc steam would be free otherwise no one would use it because they have other options.

Online matchmaking and cross game chat.

some exclusive content,better match making,cross game chat.

atleast thats what MS says the fee is for,some better features

Community interaction with normal people. There are more normal people that play consoles online than PC gamers. When I say normal, I mean the average Joe that you see in everyday life. Most people are intimidated by PC gamers, becuase they are th3 l33t...

Universiality of your online identity. M$ did it smart, with making your hotmail attached to everything M$ related. They intigrated gamertags with th arrival of the XBL on 360. Even though this itself is free for all users, the moneys that gold members pay to go online, to play Halo before most likely, and now COD, is used to fund the building and maintaining of this infrustructure.

Now that you have a hotmail account, guess what bitches, you now have a gamertag, zune card, windows mobile account, and whatever digital rights cross intigrated with it.. we are taking over your life, deal with it...

I pay for it just to have access to play online, everything thing else is extra.

dont think iver ever paid 50 a year for it, generally between 26.99 and 37.99 i just watch new egg and amazon.

outside of that, hell of a lot less cheaters, and its where my real life friends game, and have gamed

Yawn

To avoid people with aimbots and map hacks.