So MS should just lose money on the service. Look at PSN and it's loses and then tell me what is the smart business choice. Plus it cost money to be in the driver seat and dictate the way online gaming or it's services n how it should be done. The extra things that are provided are not cheap and have to be paid for, not only that but the Programs/apps etc..... Are always first on XBLA. Also cross chat and the many things others do not have add to it. See I don't mind paying $60. I never had my info stolen or hacked. I also always have the new and exciting thing being provided. What does PSN have  that is so over the top? Yea, I thought so and also what does there profits look like? Ok then, Looks like it's not working to well.

Care to answer the question?

Are you getting your money's worth? Do you know? I know $60 isn't all that much but that is every year. That's $60 you could spend on a game or several, it could be money that Microsoft had to compete to attract. Others have had their info stolen or their accounts hacked, XBL was even taken down for a month a few years back. Are those apps on XBL first because of the service fee? How do you know? Perhaps it could be part of the contracts that Microsoft has them sign? Maybe they are there because 360 is easier to develop for than PS3, so it is part of the system and not the fee. It could be unrelated.

How much have you used PSN? Have you seen all of the games it has, the exclusives, the PSone and PS2 titles, the Netflix app that is better than the one on 360? Perhaps you haven't tried PS Home, the free games they offer on there or the giveaways? PS3 has had an internet browser from day 1 despite its shortcommings, shall I include that even if it isn't part of PSN? Maybe I should use the exclusive games as the justification for using PSN, afterall there are more of them.

The more you examine XBL the more you should question what exactly is the money being used for? For all we know it is pure profit which means that they are charging solely for exclusivity, extortion is a harsher sense. If I owned a 360 I would probably pay it out of neccessity. That's why I've avoided buying one despite countless friends pressuring me to and my brother (the person I played games with my whole life) buying one despite my reservations on the practices of Microsoft.

What I want to know is whether or not XBL would suffer or flourish by eliminating the fee? Where does your money actually go?

lol the article is actually a brilliant satire. :)

Btw, PSPlus > XBLGold.

Hmmm... your reponse is asinine and I'm not going bother explaining why.

MS definitely isn't the only inspiration. They blatantly took some ideas from NIntendo as well.

I think Xbox Live is a lot more complex than you imagine. MS operates all the servers except EA servers. Most games are P2P, but there are still servers for matchmaking. Furthermore, you have to take into consideration the massive amount of bandwidth that's used by a service like Xbox Live. Sony passes bandwidth fees to publishers, but MS does not.

As I mentioned before, Sony said PSN was in the red for years. So cost are definitely justified because its not free to offer these services. LIve is very profitable for MS, but so what? This is a business and making money is a pretty important goal.

I thought you were going to have a reasonable argument, but it seems you're using commie logic as well.

If XBL went free that would be great. If Taco Bell gave me food for free that would be great as well. But XBL isn't free and I enjoy using exclusive content on it so I'll continue paying.

Wait.....I thought you were arguing XBL was better then PSN! Being American is a counter arguement!!!

Being American means shitty build quality. Wasn't the original 360 failrate 33%? Let's think of other American companies. General Moters (Now Government Moters), Ford, Dodge (now owned by Fiat), Acer Computers, Apple, Wal-Mart, Nike, Reebok, Bell, Rogers, etc. All terrible companies.

Nike and Reebok make shoes for under $1 in former slave shops, and sell them for over $100. Apple and Microsoft products (like 360 and iPhone) have the lowest relibility among electronics and are made user the most minimal conditions at Foxconn (China).

GM, Ford, and Dodge are shitty cars (well Ford is ok), and they used to follow a car module called planned obselence, where after 3 years (80,000km) all of the parts would simultaniously break down, making it cheaper to buy a new car then fix the old one, thus maintaining sales. Then the Japanese came in and in order to keep costs low, quality (as in material quality) dropped fast. Now all American cars look like shit, and even now GM and Dodge make cuts in productions which lead to terrible issues (like steering wheels falling of Cruze's, google it).

Acer Computers.....yea lets just not go there, complete shit.

Wal-Mart, Richer then Poland, but the Waltons deserve it. Zero funding to charity, cheap quality products, most often made in China under slave shops.

LOL, seriously, that was a funny comment.

But really XBL isn't better. I own a 360, and used to own a PS3 (might rebuy one, just want to know if PS4 is backward compatible or not), and I liked PSN a lot more.

First of all the service is the same, you don't get shit extra when you pay for XBL and you still can't play XBL if you have no internet connection. All you get on XBL over PSN is party comminication, but in reality I rarely play games where I want to talk to my friends while they play something else. Usually I only use it to set up matches and invite friends to my game.

Facebook and Twitter? You do have a PC you know, and PS3 has a web browser. I never use these BS social medium anyway, if people want to talk to me, they can just call.

And what's with all the sex analogies? If you want to pay for sex, go right ahead, she probably has something anyway. The best sex is the one you get from your gf/bf/wife/husband. Why? Because they actually give a shit about you and don't just look at you as an income source. They also probably aren't all loose as hell down there, and can feel stuff still.

PS3 getting hacked....okay, so what? No ones credit card info was lost.

Advertizing? No....this is another counter. I want to go onto my system to play games. I don't watch cable to avoid ads and I'll do the same with games.

Organization? It takes me forever to edit my info on XBL, it's easy on PS3. 360 is so ad filled I dunno where I'm going anymore....it took me a minute to find where I play my game after the last update (lol, no seriously I hit right at the load up and didn't notice and couldn't find it in all the ads).

As for Call of Duty...another cash grab huh? I don't play CoD to the point where I go out and buy a $60 game day 1 and then $30 worth of map packs. I play my 360 for $20 games like Halo and Tales of Vesperia.

Also....XBL is expensive. Had I subscribed to XBL Gold this year, I would have paid $60 for the year right? I'm played online only a handful of times so far....so realistically I would have paid $5 each time I used it.

I think this blog is a joke, I just wanted to rant about the American bit....and I never got a copy of Undertow!!!!

This was hilarious to read. Pfffffffff im still laughing.

Nah.

I only go online at the very most once a month. Maybe for November and December I might go on more frequently because of Halo 4, but overall I barely play online. So $60 a year in reality translates to $5 a use to me.

This is why I don't subscribe to XBL Gold. I'll get a 3 month card for when a game like Halo 4 comes out, and the rest of the year I'll just use a 48 hour trail for the one or two times I really want to play online.

The pay to use XBL model discourages me from playing online, that's one reason I kind of switched my gaming habits to play lengthy RPG's back to back and then bulk my online playing into 3 months of the year.

Actually because of the pay to play XBL model, and reliability, I am interested in the PS4 over a NextBox. Although I love my 360's exclusives I hate the console, and in North America, during the holidays, 360's are cheap, and I bet the NExtBox will be no different. I don't need a large hard drive for the dozen or so exclusives I will want a NextBox for, and I don't want a shitty system which will break 5 times, or a pay for live model.

PSN has it all

Nah.

I only go online at the very most once a month. Maybe for November and December I might go on more frequently because of Halo 4, but overall I barely play online. So $60 a year in reality translates to $5 a use to me.

This is why I don't subscribe to XBL Gold. I'll get a 3 month card for when a game like Halo 4 comes out, and the rest of the year I'll just use a 48 hour trail for the one or two times I really want to play online.

The pay to use XBL model discourages me from playing online, that's one reason I kind of switched my gaming habits to play lengthy RPG's back to back and then bulk my online playing into 3 months of the year.

Actually because of the pay to play XBL model, and reliability, I am interested in the PS4 over a NextBox. Although I love my 360's exclusives I hate the console, and in North America, during the holidays, 360's are cheap, and I bet the NExtBox will be no different. I don't need a large hard drive for the dozen or so exclusives I will want a NextBox for, and I don't want a shitty system which will break 5 times, or a pay for live model.

PSN has it all

Nah.

I only go online at the very most once a month. Maybe for November and December I might go on more frequently because of Halo 4, but overall I barely play online. So $60 a year in reality translates to $5 a use to me.

This is why I don't subscribe to XBL Gold. I'll get a 3 month card for when a game like Halo 4 comes out, and the rest of the year I'll just use a 48 hour trail for the one or two times I really want to play online.

The pay to use XBL model discourages me from playing online, that's one reason I kind of switched my gaming habits to play lengthy RPG's back to back and then bulk my online playing into 3 months of the year.

Actually because of the pay to play XBL model, and reliability, I am interested in the PS4 over a NextBox. Although I love my 360's exclusives I hate the console, and in North America, during the holidays, 360's are cheap, and I bet the NExtBox will be no different. I don't need a large hard drive for the dozen or so exclusives I will want a NextBox for, and I don't want a shitty system which will break 5 times, or a pay for live model.

PSN has it all