I prefer Steam!

Seriously though, out of the two options, I'll go for the free one (PSN). I refuse to pay for something when I get the same level of service from an alternative provider be it Steam or PSN. I've been gaming online on PC for years and the closed network of X-box Live feels too... closed. The stuff I tried with the Silver membership is nice, the demos download fast, and the interface is easy to navigate and the friends system is good, but at its core, I get more value from PSN as I still get to play online for free.

With Sony's policy of being open to third party software (e.g. Steamworks) and allowing more dev freedom (for MMOs and updates) I see more room to improve PSN as well.

Which is about a weeks wages out of the 312 weeks for the realitvely average paid.

And? Even if you make $500,000 a week, you're still paying $300.00 for something that's free somewhere else. Maybe that person would rather have that money spent somewhere else?

Off course LIVE is better after all MS is a Software company, PSN at least is free.

I prefer to get my pizza for free out of the dumpster at the back of the pizza store. My friends are stupid they go in and they pay for the pizza, what are they thinking? Sure the pizza out of the dumpster isn't as good as the pizza that you pay for but who would pay $5 to buy a pizza once a month when they can get it for free?

i like PSN better. cause i know more PS3 owners. wich all have mics. never really used cross game chat on live. so dont really care about it. dont really care about not everyone not having a mic on PSN. less people i need to mute. i found myself muting half the lobby with live. my live account just lapsed this month. and i dont plan on renewing either. just dont play the 360 much anymore. i didnt get 360 when they first came out. i bet if i would have. i would like live better. bought the PS3 first. and thats why i like and know more people on PSN. it boils down tothey both work and thats all that matters.

I prefer PSN because no matter how much I try I can't get XBL to work on my PS3.

I'm a bit wierd in that I only like being friends with people on PSN that I have some connection with outside of PSN, so I'm not really interested in meeting people through online gaming or any other PSN experiences.

I do wonder at the issue of download speeds between XBL and PSN, and installing a game/demo that's taken 1/2 hour to download adds another 10 minutes to the process which is a bit naff. What's behind it?

I don't play a great deal online, but I've played many hours, especially on Demon's Souls. The only time I ever get kicked offline is because PS3 loses connection with my wireless router. Which is definitely the router's problem because other wireless devices we have (laptop, iPod) also lose connection at the same time.

Well PSN has SOCOM so...

This is so stupid. You have to pay for Xbox Live. Do you not realize that? Why make a thread saying you think it is better, when you have to pay?! Yes, live is better. Is it the worth it in comparison to PSN? No. And PS PLUS completely shits on the Live price. 

Live wasn't very good in the first year of 360 for me at least. It almost made me give up on console online gaming entirely.

Voice was pretty bad, everything I said came back as an echo. Nothing seemed to help. Bought a new headset, no use. When we played PGR3, all 3 of us could talk during track selection, but only 2 of us during a race? In Test drive unlimited 8 out of 10 games resulted in a disconnect, unable to connect to host. Same in Gears of War. And when it worked I could hardly understand what anyone was saying anyway except for the obvious swearing.

Cancelled live after a year then got a ps3. Tried burnout paradise online and it actually worked. Had a lot of (mostly silent) fun online in f1 championship edition, gt5 prologue, wipeout hd. Bought a 2nd hand ps2 headset with usb and I can actually talk to people without echos.

I tried live again in a free weekend, the echos are gone yay. Still couldn't understand much what anyone was saying. Haven't tried it since they chanced the voice codec.

I still don't spent a lot of time gaming online (<5%), so no point going back to live. I just buy multiplats for ps3 in case I want to try out the online portion.