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?

Dude, I had XBL in 2003 and had NONE of those issues while playing online.

Well I prefer PSN but mainly because it's free, other than that and the lack of cross game chat they are basically the same thing, the only difference is Live Gold membership costs $59 and PSN is free, If we count PS Plus 1-Year membership which costs $49 you'd also get game trials demos early so thats another plus(pun not intended).

As for the problems with silent players and such, That doesn't seem to be much of a problem anymore. Maybe it's just me but almost everybody on PSN has a mic now, or at least the people worth talking to do.

In the end I can see why people like Live, it's an easy to use service and you get what you payed for. But you can't help but acknowledge that PSN is doing the same thing free of charge and keeps us updated and adding new features through firmware maybe 2-3 times a year. The way I see it, PSN is only going to get better and Live is eventually going to offer a free service to compete, I'd be surprised if they didn't.

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?

xbox live also offers betas, earlier demos etc to gold members. PSN plus offering the same things "early" is not actually true. They were offering old PSN users the same thing but delayed them when they brought in plus. 

Yeah I forgot to mention that but since PS Plus released most of the betas are PS Plus exclusive. Also I'm ot aware if Silver gets the same features as Gold aside from not being able to game online I think you still have access to betas ad demos of course, but I wouldn't know I never used Silver, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Good ole squilliam :p this exactly :) 

I think the better question may be would people pay 50 dollars for the psn? Or is the fact people prefer the PSN the fact that it is live. If that is the case why are people upgrading their accounts to that new premium or whatever it is called. I

Yes lets, even though there are rumours that Activision may eventually charge to play COD... oh wait is that not supporting your theory? Sorry :(

Rumours =/= Reality.

Valve is the best example. The DLCs that you so readily pay for in left 4 Dead on the 360 is free on the PC.

Have you seen australias version of L4D2, no i dont play it

And it would be free on the PS3 as well if left 4 dead was available on the PS3. Just because M$ is too greedy doesn't make Live better.

Ummmm say what? Name one DLC that is free on the ps3 that is not on the 360 that is not exclusive to that game for the console, coz then both have examples of that. 

People wouldn't pay for steam as well, because its been free all along and it totally sh*ts on both PSN and Xbox live. Out of these three services, the only one to charge is: XBL.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that's a rip-off.  Only delusional people think that paying more = better quality, and free= sh*t.

Yes PC online is better, there is no question to this except this is one option that was not in the original question, if we must add it.

Pc gaming > Xbox Live > PSN 

Dont excuse PSN sub par performance vs the 360 because pc gaming is better then both.

If you browse through walmart and best buy, and find a game you are looking for $10 less in walmart than in best buy, or heck, for free in walmart and for $50 in best buy, where will you purchase it from?

Obviously best buy, right?

PSN is not the same service, they are unequal. This has pretty much been stated through the thread

As a person who's used live as much as PSN, I know every plus and minus of both services very well. They are both the same when it comes to performance while playing a game, there's no difference.

No you find no difference, how many Australians and non Americans do you play against. I can play against Americans, Englishman, Europeans, Japanese, with not as big connection drop. I have a ps3 and 360. I pay for live and not psn plus. I used to get COD because of my bro in law on the ps3 but i dont anymore, it is that annoying for me :-/

Would people pay $50 for PSN? Probably, yeah they would. They would probably complain about it, create 50 page long threads about it but in the end most will probably cough up. I personally don't see any significant reason for complaint to be raised. Live being $60 is what it is, PSN being free is also what it is. In most reasonable discussion (read not here) people give Live the thumbs up for being an excellent service and for being a beacon for many things PSN ought to develop as well. The only major complaint with Live charging money that I feel is valid is that the person complaining doesn't see value in online or value in more than basic multiplayer connectivity features.