Since the topic of Live is so controversial, let's talk about it ;)

My question is twofold. If being able to play multiplayer on your Xbox 360 was free, would you pay for LIVE for the other features it has such as party chat, apps, kinect stuff, etc? Also if MS did make MP free, would Xboxes have sold more than what they did this gen? I am not talking profit but rather just the raw number of Xboxes sold.

To answer my own questions. I personally wouldn't pay for the extra features and I think 360s would have sold more if MP was free. A lot of my friends bought PS3s because they didn't wan to pay for MP. I know my friends aren't a large enough demographic, but I think personally that there are probably others who felt the same and bought the PS3 even though they may have wanted an Xbox.

Yes, I would still pay for xbox live. And I definitely think free mp would have helped sell more systems.

Depends what the features were and how much they cost, if it's anything like the current XBL just with online play free, then no, definitely not.

Would depend on the features that were Gold exclusive. I don't think this would work very well for anyone involved. MS makes less money thus they'd surely invest less into XBLA exclusives, timed exclusive content. And most importantly, do they then charge for bandwidth? If so, no way does every XBLA game have a demo. And do they invest as much into their matchmaking system, which they provide to every developer on XBL that wants it? Probably not. So the result is you get a less quality online experience.

Who knows about sales. Do they do that Rockstar loan deal for GTA IV if Live isn't making them a lot of money? Or CoD 1 month exclusive DLC? Who knows how much these little things add up to in sales. I would guess there would be no huge difference in sales. Sony has free online play and pretty much never advertises it.

No way I would pay for the other stuff, but I didn't pay for matchmaking either. It wouldn't have made me buy a 360 cause I already had one. It might have, however, stalled my purchase of a WiiU. I wanted the WiiU anyway, but I picked it up asap because I wanted to play Blops2 online and wanted Netflix, so why not save $50? Also, if Live still costs $50 on NextBox, it may make me not buy one. Right now I'm happy with Wii U, and if XBox is the only one charging for matchmaking, I see no reason to buy it. Over a 6 year console life that an additional $300 for nothing.

Yes, and yes.

Oh look, another Sony-fan dominated poll.

The Xbox sold due to Microsoft winning the price war against Sony and having all the multiplats and timed exclusives. They also primed themselves for a victorious first half by taking exclusivity of Tekken, GTA and FF from Sony in 2008 at E3 which was pretty much their only good E3 they've had this gen. That was what it was initially and secondly, because of word of mouth and marketing due to a revamped Xbox Live. They got friends to buy consoles because of friends and even though friends might like other consoles they have the Xbox to game with another friend. That might all change when they hear that Sony has online on par in a new gen thats free and they can get their hands on it. People finding more reasons to pay for Xbox Live Gold out outside of multiplayer is debatable. I am sure the majority wouldnt because they wouldn't be forced to.

Who's to say they are Sony fans? Maybe they're just Microsoft fans who are actually capable of criticising their preferred platform.

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