I am glad the 360 is selling better than the Wii. For one of the HD console to consistantly outsell the Wii is what I have been waiting two years to happen so obviously I don't think the company is completely ripping people off.

Now as far as live goes they are leading to a world where everything is charge. The charge for gamer pics, avatar crap and all under a system that uses itsd own made up values that just confuse the consumer, until they do a little easy math still its retarded. Live just continues a trend of giving you more crap that I don't wan't but I must pay for to play Reach.

WOw annoys me and I think it turns people ito addicts, but I dont care about it myself because I dont want to play. I care about live because I do like to play and other platforms let me play for free. Yet to play a few games I want to pay live for I have to pay more and that annoies me. I mostly think you act as if Microsoft is the holy grail of gaming when they are not and you always defend the company and never the consumer, you.

lol, actually that's so funny. That's the funniest part of it, Valve is making money on MS products where MS themselves can't lol

I'm sorry, but are you really implying that Microsoft makes no money on Windows? If so, I lol in your general direction.

no, I'm not. so your lol was dodged, sorry.

Ooh!  I want to make one, too!

Microsoft:  Can you believe McDonald's is charging $5.99 for a bacon cheeseburger?  This is McDonald's, not Ruby Tuesday's!

Sony:  I got a milkshake.

Microsoft:  You know what?  I feel like getting a milkshake, too.  It's pretty warm today.

Nintendo:  Hey guys.

Microsoft & Sony:  Hi, Nintendo!

Nintendo:  Scott Pilgrim was a good movie.  I just saw it!

Microsoft:  It sure was.

Sony:  I agree.

At the how to make money conference in Bruxelles

Day 1

Microsoft: just take something free, put a price tag on it and your consumer will think it's better then the free alternative

Nintendo: take some old old old hardware buy some duck tape, tape two of those old hardwares together and sell them as a brand new product

Sony: ...

Day 2

Microsoft: defective, defective, defective. sell defective product so your clients will have to buy your product numerous time and enjoy the free cash, overprice accessories can't hurt neither

Nintendo: cheap ass software is the way to go, build a game with a team of 3 then sell the game full price the entire generation.

Sony: ... Home...

disclamer: I love microsft, Sony and nintendo =

I already tried Xbox Live, my brother had an X360. Steam, and other DD services, are far better than retail stores:

1. They can have as many games as they want, without the worry of shelf space.
2. They make dozens of awesome deals every week. Tell me where you can buy on retail Mass Effect and Bioshock for $5, 30 THQ games for only $50, and every single game made by Bethesda and id Soft for $60 combined(Oblivion DLC, Morrowind, all Quake games, all Doom games, Fallout 3 DLC, etc...).
3. They allow for the release of games priced below $30. It's almost impossible to release a PC game on retail if the game is cheap.

Sorry, but there's many reasons why Steam is the juggernaut it is today.

It's funny you're making Valve complain about Steam. Not only are they making billions, but they are also doing it WITHOUT Starcraft, World of Warcraft AND The Sims!!!

You just made up stuff because you can't find a single argument against what I wrote. The thing is, everything I wrote comes from truth:

2003:

1. Valve did go to Microsoft to talk about making Steam, and Microsoft did refuse and say it was 10 years too early. Gabe Newell said it in an interview.
2. Since going to consoles they stopped focusing on PC games.

2006

1. Steam is starting to become a force and for FREE, while Xbox Live is still a paying service.
2. With the release of the Wii and PS3, more and more people are saying PC Gaming is dying while looking at NPD sales.

2007

1. Microsoft launches GFWL to get a hold on PC Gaming. Many of the PC Gaming community predicted it to fail miserably.
2. GFWL initially had the support of many publishers, which used GFWL integration in their games.

2009

1. GFWL failed miserably, forced Microsoft to make it free.
2. Microsoft closed down all their major PC studios, among them was the Ensemble, ACES and FASA studios, which made multi-million selling series like Age of Empire, Mechwarrior and Flight Simulator.
3. More concentration on NPD, stating PC Gaming is dying because many people only looked at retail numbers.

2010

1. Microsoft released several press releases stating that PC Gaming was important to them, although they haven't done anything to support that so far.
2. They haven't released an relevant title on PC in the past 3 years, and won't release until 2011 (if at all).
3. GFWL is still crap, and has barely been improved.
4. Most publishers that supported GFWL have abandoned them, and instead started supporting Steam. Read this thread: PC Devs Abandoning Microsoft for Valve.
5. Xbox and Xbox 360 have both lost billions.

The only thing that you can argue is the date when Valve and Microsoft talked about making Steam. I don't know when the meeting happened, so I put it in 2003 just for comedic value.

If Windows didn't exist, then it would be another OS. Don't kid yourself. Who knows, maybe then Linux-based OS'es would have a shot at being mainstream, which would probably be far better than Windows.

As for the X360, Gabe Newell has always said that they release their games there just for extra change. It's so easy to port from PC to Xbox 360, that it's almost free money. Xbox 360 is just a pocket with coins compared to what they make on Steam.

The reason they're now supporting PS3 is that Sony allowed Portal 2 with some Steam integration.

I defend  consumers option to buy whatever console they want. The Xbox 360 is just entertainment, MS is allowed to charge whatever they want, and consumers can spend their money any way they want.

Playing Reach is by no means a necessity. Neither are any of the features you get with Xbox Live. But if you'd like to use any of them, it comes with a fee. Simple as that. Also, $60 is pretty reasonable for a whole year of service. Xbox Live is one of my cheapest entertainment expenses.

The holy grail crap you're spewing is just stupid. Microsoft delivered my favorite console this gen and I've spent countless hours with it. I don't love paying for Live either, but I use the service enough to justify paying for it. And like I said, its one of my cheaper entertainment expenses.

You also gotta remember offering online services isn't free. Sony is probably spending a fortune trying to compete with Live with their free service. Online gaming on the PSP and Wii is a joke even though they have wifi.

Apple: I drink your milkshake!

I demand more Microsoft said, Sony said, and Valve said shenanigans!