yepp you are always right bro, you have proved to me that online gaming does not need a big userbase.  Now i know.  How my eyes are wide openand I can see everything like you can now.  Man it is amazing.  Now the Sega Dreamcast didn't fail in my eyes.  It was just aimed at a smaller usebase.  Sega, I get it now and it's all thanks to this guy Jay520

Are you doing this on purpose? I never said online gaming doesn't need a big userbase. It does need a big userbase. Not super big. But big enough to find matches quickly. And big enough so that you can play someone new every match. The PS3 has many games that are big enough to accomplish this. Once a game is big enough to accomplish that, it doesn't matter if it's any bigger. It doesn't improve your experience.

Also, nice job bringing the Dreamcast in this, when I never mentioned it. Now you've proven that you can't read and/or you just like putting words in my mouth.

The $60 superior service for Live sub is poorly claimed. The fact that Netflix is most watched on PS3 despite Xbox360 having a larger number in the US should be an example for that.

Microsoft should at least give some monthly freebies like the OP suggested.

I dunno...maybe if it came with a handy?

Nope I understand, small userbases = better.  You know exactly what I was stating from the beginning so I'm shocked you decided to argue with me.  XBL has a bigger userbase on XBL.  PSN has a smaller userbase and the only games with a big userbase is the games I've mentioned.  I also mentioned other reasons I said what I said but you ignored them and then started this debate for what reason?  This whole debate has went way off course now because you continue to talk about red dead redemption and how activity doesnt matter.  Well if you are unaware, online services need this activity.  Why is Unreal Tournament 3 bes on PC?  Because it has the most activity.  When I played it on 360 i had a 3.0 k/D and i was ranked in the top 300 people.  That is pretty sad because if I play on PC  I'd be horrible.  Not only that but XbL with the bigger numbers and it costs money doesn't that say something about the service itself?  People compain about it, but the people who pay for it are happy with it.  Free does not = better.  PSN has closed the gap since the beginning of the gen but it still needs more features until we call them to be on par.  Likely this will not happen until next gen arrives.

I had a gold membership with Xbox Live for several years, but I cancelled it about a year or two ago, mostly because I tend to alternate between using my PC, PS3, 360, and Wii, and felt that I was wasting money whenever I wasn't playing on my 360. I think that a gold subscription is essential if you only play on the 360, but if you play on multiple platforms, it's difficult seeing the worth in subscribing, at least for me.

As far as online play performance, I really do not notice much of a difference between the 360 and PS3, although I'll admit that I usually play different online games on the consoles (e.g., I'll play fighting games on the PS3 or PC, and shooters on the 360), so I personally cannot compare the online experience of a particular game between each console.

I will say that the subscription model is one of the major factors that I will be basing my decision on whether or not I will be an early adopter of the next Xbox or Playstation console. If online play is restricted to a premium account on either console, then I'll likely wait until there are a ton of exclusives out for each console before adopting, so I'm looking forward to seeing whether Sony continues with their current direction with PS+, or moves toward Microsoft's model (I'm hoping for the former).

With that said, I would like to see a gold membership offer something similar to PS+, such as free games and discounts.

the only reason i may not get the nextbox and xbox live is because i like to game and watch movies, at the same time. sometimes i game on my pc and watch movies on netflix with my xbox, and sometimes i play on my xbox and watch movies on my pc. Well when playing pc games with windows live it logs me out of xbox live and i cant use netflix. so i may get a ps4 instead, i just haven't decided and i want to see if they change that.

When the superiority over PSN is clear as day.

If Microsoft doesn't make Xbox Live free for the 720, I will have to switch over to the PS4 or maybe even the Wii. I'll just buy the cheapest Xbox 720 when Halo 5 comes out.

Well, a lot of people pay for live... so it already is.

I don't like it, and I can't thing of something that would make me buy it. My friend likes it, and he doesn't needs anything else to keep paying for it.

What I'm saying is: If you already like it, you don't need anything else. If you don't, they would hardly convince you.