it's not about the servers it's about the product. You get the same (and even more) from xboxlive windows.

oh and steam was like the inspiration for ps+ and steam doesn't give you free games every month but yes they do have great deals. That is why Sony has opened up their platform to be more pc gaming friendly and are trying to be more and more like steam. That is moving the the right direction. The same cannot be said for microsoft.

Well you brought up servers on PC so.. yeah. Idk if you have ever played a Games for Windows Live title but it's certainly not the same product you get on the Xbox 360. And that's as it should be, since it was designed for consoles. Either way we can go back and forth all day about differences between the PC and home console markets. It won't result in anything. Again just like Steam and PS+. Free on PC, just gotta download the Steam client. $50 a year on PS3. I guess you've been had if you're a PS+ subscriber :(

And Steam gives away free games all the time, just not "big" retail titles. You can keep their free games though, forever. But there's no comparing the discounts, nothing beats Steam. All free. Of course, like I said earlier in response to the other guy, the fact that Steam does what PS+ does for free, doesn't mean I'll go into a PS+ thread and talk about how those subscribers have "been had" or have "no standards".

It's mind bottling some times how bothered people are in regards to Xbox Live. People who don't even own the console or use the service.

And STAGE please refrain from telling others not to attack someone's "financial status" when you're in here saying people are gullible and have no standards :)

I never said anyones gullible, you don't have to be gullible to grab a dangling carrot. It's called checkmate.

Actuallyt the only difference is that ps3 exclusives are not available on pc.
And yes the live windows is the same product. Only difference is that you don't need windows live to use netflix.
Tell me, what is the rationale for needing gold to watch netflix? There is no matchmaking or servers, or anything else that is supposedly part of the live package.
Everything you pay for on live is free on live for windows. That is the difference between products, and doesn't make a lick of sense.

Microsoft tried to charge people for WIndows Live and they found out that people wouldnt pay, therefore they stopped charging and Windows Live is just an annoyance to PC gamers now. Microsoft knows they can only charge people at will on a closed OS. If people stopped paying for Live Microsoft would make it free. 

I don't know if anyone mentioned this but if MS decided to use dedicated servers people like me would have no problem paying for gold. But they don't and that's why I get ticked off. With my ps3 i get lag free gaming through my ethernet port and when i had my 360 gaming online on both felt the same. I don't mind paying a fee to use a company's server since it costs money to maintain but otherwise not worth it.

We'll see if GW2 has any staying power.  They didn't charge for the first GW1 because it wasn't really an MMO, just instanced stuff so the fans don't expect it for the second.  But every service has to have monetization, and if it isn't recurring, it's going to be either higher retail price, microtransaction, or advertising.  Nothing in life is free.

You said Live users have "been had", it's the same thing. And I'm sure you're a PS+ user so you'd know all about grabbing the carrot.

I can't play Halo 4, the upcoming Gears, or Horizon on PC either. Not sure what that has to do with the topic at hand though.

And no, the product is not the same. I'm going to assume you simply haven't played a GFWL title or at least not many. The interface is different and the performance is drastically different. Or, at least last I saw they were. It has been awhile since I played a GFWL title on PC. It's not the same product and it's not the same servers.

I would guess the rationale for putting Netflix behind a paywall is the same as Sony putting automatic updates behind a paywall. I don't think Netflix or anything else that has a subscription already should require a Gold subscription though so you're barking up the wrong tree here.

Console gamers pay for a lot of things PC gamers don't. This isn't new.

well, you seem like a decent bloke anyway. That's what I got out of this.

Though, automatic updates is just silly, where netflix is an actual annoyance.