I knew I was close so how much has that grown since then?

It's not about pleasing fans. They are just not able to do that because of lack of ram. Unless they lied about that. 

Honest question here. Why do people want to talk to others who are playing a different game. 

Good read, I just got a cheap secondhand 360 last week to play Lost odyssey (finally lol) I don't plan on taking it online cause im a Jew when it comes to things like paying to play online, I like value for money so I do use Ps+ only because I don't like paying full price for games so plus means I rarely have to buy games OR pay full price for anything haha :P

Hah, I love the Monty Python reference. =) I was going to put that short clip in here, but it doesn't exist on Youtube... (only the full bridge sequence does).

Anyways, I agree with the OP that Xbox LIVE is a huge ripoff. It's not the party chat thing (I didn't even know that), it's everything else they force you to pay for.

I lol'd

As far as I'm aware, Microsoft have never given the number of users that have subscribed to Gold, only the number of active Live users.

That 40 million is total users me thinks.

Edit: Yep, did a quick check it's total users:

http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-brief/60687-xbox-live-users-topple-40-million

"Of course, in order to do simple things like play online games and stream Netflix videos, users need to pay for a premium Xbox Live Gold membership. Ballmer did not say how many active Gold members there are."

That was from January this year.

You have put into words the exact same things I've been wondering recently. I've been a 360 gamer for the majority of this gen (and a happy one at that since I play a lot of MP) but I recently got a PS3. It really got me thinking as to what the whole point of paying for Live was. Yes Live has a much better dashboard interface than PS3 imo and it has party chat, which allows for very good communication, but party chat and a bit of glitter doesn't justify paying £30 every year just to access the ability to play online. If the free membership on Live included the ability to be able to play MP and nothing else, I probably would have never payed for Gold. And this is where PSN comes in. The free PSN has the basic online features that one should be given for free like playing online, but those who pay are given many free games, etc which Live doesn't come close to giving. So overall Sony's model is much more gamer friendly and if they continue it to next gen I'll be migrating back to the PS brand as my primary console. If they just add in party chat like in Vita, then the deal is pretty much set in stone.

I can be playing a single player game like Skyrim when my friends come online then they can drop me a party invite which I can accept and chat to them.  If I want i can then leave my game and join them to play.  If youre in a game lobby you can invite the entire party in a few button presses.  I've also used it a lot when me and friends have been playing through the likes of Assassins Creed, Batman,  etc.  Its just easier to arrange gaming sessions and more sociable when you're gaming.  It really has changed the way I game personally.

Why does Live offend people so much? If Sony had Live they wouldn't have been nearly as crippled by hardware costs and their financial position would have been significantly better. They subsidize expensive hardware with subscriptions...

If Sony had Live?

Hey what exactly are all the features that Live has over PSN anyways besides party chat and cross game chat? Serious question

my aunts boyfriend had a 360 but we could never figure out why we couldn't get online like we could on ps3. We realized later that we would have needed to buy a cord to get on the net and we didn't even acknowledge that we would have needed to pay for the online.i went out and got gears of war, perfect dark, king kong and Kameo before it red ringed. He was 1 of those lame gamers who only played madden and maybe Grand Theft Auto here and there.