Nothing is free. Someone, somewhere is paying for the infrastructure you use, be it you paying XBLG or someone renting a game server. The issue is when you're hosting 40M+ users on your service, how do you scale the costs? Do you charge and deliver a stable, industry leading platform, or do you go broke playing catchup?

$7 is a far cry from the original number of $30 per month you were throwing around before. Again, you take any subscription based service and opt for a smaller subscription time, the average price for it will go up. This is economics 101. That's how businesses get people to sign up for longer subscriptions. If MS made a 1 month card or 3 month card average out to the same price as a 1 year card, why even make the 1 year card? Sony does this same thing with PS+ subscriptions. Every MMO around does the same thing with subscriptions. This isn't new. Regarding boosting, I never said anyone boosted in Lost Planet. I said people boosted in Halo 3. You personally might not have boosted, but who cares? Enough people were that Bungie stopped running their silver MP promotions. Has nothing to do with Gold or MS or achievements.

Twisted Metal, SOCOM, and MAG just off the top of my head. There are also games like Ghost Recon, Unreal Tournament, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 2, GTA IV, etc. Hell, IIRC in Crysis 2 or 3 you had to play a game, then 6 months later play another one to get the trophy. Publishers put these in so that you hang on to your game. Has nothing to do with XBLG. As ar as PS3 doing it also, as you say, isn't PSN free? So how is MS doing this just to get people forced into XBLG, meanwhile Sony does the same thing with their games, on a free service? Again, they do it so you hang on to your game. It's not to get you onto XBLG.

LOL and I guess Sony also blocks companies from offering cheap DLC on their games on PSN? Geez. And Live has sales all the time that aren't Gold exclusive. Sorry but you're too angry for me to take seriously.

Basically, I see it like this:

WHY should I pay for Netflix, when I can watch many of the same things for FREE on Youtube.

Well, the access is better, the quality is better, the reliability is better. Yes, many things you can (or could) watch for free on youtube, but it doesn't compare the good quality Microsoft Silverlight screamed Netflix.

I can't see why people don't like it, but nobody is forcing anyone to buy it. It is a new model - and other companies are bound to follow.

You can play games all you want on your Xbox 360 without it, but like paying taxes to keep the roads and freeways in good shape. If you want to get the most of something - and many extra cool apps, you need Xbox Live. It's like a 'expansion tax' you pay to get more out of your console.

Ok? But then, why should I have to pay for Live Gold, if what I want is an access to Netflix's servers for which I'm already subscribed?

$3 a month isn't either.

The majority of people who speak out on the internet are those who have to criticise something. Positive opinions are (more) silent. There are many reasons why. So even if there are 100,000 users who don't like it (of which most likely 50% favor Sony but own a 360), there are still millions of happy users.

But XBL is not $3 a month, and it can be as much as $60 a month, if you get a 1 year subscription, and only play 1 month online.

I know that's how I play, or I might play an hour a month online, maybe totaling 20-30 hours a year. That makes it $2-$3 an hour for people like me. Microsoft offers no other realistic payment strategy. I wouldn't critisize XBL so much if there was a $0.10 an hour online play - prepaid card option.

If I'm smart, I might only be paying $7 a month, bu I have paid for a full year subcription before, only playing a few dozen hours online that year. The problem with XBL is that not all people play online on a regular basis. So people who just want a 1 month online card, or to play a single hour a month, end up paying a ridiculous rate.

If I paid for a full year, I would be paying over $1 an hour for online play, and that's ridiculous considering the money goes to Microsoft and not the game developer.

Yes I know 3 month cards are more expensive per month basis, that's fine, but why is 3 months the minimum? Why can't I buy a 2 day card (like a trial) for $1? If I only bought 2 day cards at $1 each and I played all year, I would pay $183, so this makes sense. XBLG is not for every type of gamer, and that's why it's a terrible service for people like me.

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SOCOM- All achievements are related to kills, wins, or rewards. While it may take 100 hours online to get allachievements, no achievements are time based. AKA I could sit down for a week solid and get everything if I choose to, so if a game like this released, it doesn't require a long term subscription to onloine services to platinum.

Plus this is an online only game with a 6/10 metacritic, no one cares. Do you hear me whining about ShadowRun (MS published online only, 6/10, 360/PC exclusive) having difficult achievements? No, because I don't need a long term subscription to get these achievements.

You're completely ignoring my critisism about Microsoft published games having long term, time based achievements, which require long term XBL subscriptions, which milk you for $$$, by bringing up examples like this.

SOCOM 4 - Only requires a couple hours of online play to get the trophy's, so I assume you didn't mean this game

Twisted Metal - Only 30 days, not 1 year like Gears 3, or 10 weeks like Halo 4.

MAG - Another online only game, in which all trophies are kill/award related, and not time related.

PS3 exclusives do not have time related trophy's which require you to hold onto the game for a minimum timeframe to get the achievements. There is no arguing this fact, and since 360 games have them, and XBLG costs money, I feel that MS is using their own published games to push XBL sales, and milk me for more $$$.

Also again, PSN is free, I don't need PSN + to get online trophy's, so even if Sony published games which made time related achievements like Twisted Metal, that doesn't matter. I can still buy the game used for $20, and get all the trophy's, and I don't have to pay for any additional services. You can't do that with Gears of War 3.

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As for Crysis and that 6 month achievement, that's simply a matter of logging on and playing a match. I can get the achievement with 2 trial cards, I don't need a 6 month subscription. None of those games you mentioned require subscriptions, you can cram those achievements if you play a lot within a month. You can't do that with Gears of War 3 or Halo 4 (You can boost Halo 4's achievement though).

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As for Live sales, yes now Microsoft has started to make sales on XBL available for silver members, but that's only been for the last few months.

However they aren't permanent reductions like they are on steam.

PSN isn't perfect, they do perma-cut game prices, but not as frequently like Steam does, but damn they have a lot more game sales then XBL does. PSN + also blows XBLG out of the water in terms of bonus price cuts & exclusive sales.

Also some games on PSN have cross play between PC gamers on Steam accounts, so in the case of Valve games, PSN is supperior, and free.

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Anyway, I don't mind that Microsoft charges for XBLG. The problem is, they are charging money for nothing. XBLG does not improve the PSP infrastructure of 3rd party games, and does not improve the connection, or online quality. The 360 console offers so cool features, like Party chat and cross game invites, but that's not a feature of XBL, that's a feature of the 360, you can enter party chat as a silver account holder, and still recieve game invites (although you can't play online lol). XBL is a waste of money because the money does not go back to the user, it goes to microsofts pockets, and into advertizing, or paying for integrations of new features, regardless of how few people use them (only 1/4 360 owners, own a Kinect, but all XBLG pay for its integration).

Plus there are no real short term XBLG use plans. There are no 2 day, or 2 week cards, there are no pay as you go cards, you have to subscribe for a long period of time, and that's very expensive if you only want to play a game for a few hours online. If I only play 5 hours in 3 months, a $30 card should not be my cheapest option.

Also, in regards to Microsoft as well. The quality of the Silver membership has been reduced, and MS no longer perma-cuts DLC prices like they used to. Plus MS published games have achievements which require XBL subscriptions, and that just makes me feel milked for cash.

This last point is a big one for me, on PSN you get a platinum trophy by getting all other trophy's which are part of the original game. You don't need to get DLC to get that "completed status." On 360 you need to buy all the DLC, because if you have a complete game, and then DLC releases, it is removed from your complete game list. If DLC releases on PSN, you still keep your platinum.

You can't buy Halo 4 for $40, and then get all the achievements which are required to put in on your "complete" game list (BTW, this is an actual manu on the 360, which lists only completed games, it's not a mental note or anything), unless you spend another $60 more for all the DLC and a 3 month XBL subscription. XBLG and Microsoft are milking users, and butchering their own games.

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If you disagree with me, fine, but this is my experience with XBLG as a 360 owner, and these are my complaints towards to the service, and reasons why I'm switching back to Sony. You can't tell me I'm wrong here because while these reasons may be insignificant to you, they are still real flaws, and they are responsible for my opinions about the service, and are drastic enough to loose a customer.

P.S. I will probably get a XB 720 down the road, but not till the end of the gen, and I won't care about achievements like I did before, nor play on XBLG. I will buy a 720 for the single player exclusive campaigns, like Lost Odyssey and Gears of War for 360.

I never said your complaints are not valid or wrong. I simply said you're complaining about things that aren't XBLG related.

Regarding the trophies, I only listed a few PS3 games I remembered off the top of my head. And Twisted Metal takes more than a month, especially if you're someone like yourself, who says you only play online a few hours a month or whatever. Outside of the 30 straight days with a ranked win, you also have other trophies that require a ton of grinding like killing someone with every missile type 100 times each. Takes a long time unless you boost. The Crysis trophy just proves my point. These online heavy requirements are there to entice you to hold on to your copy of the game. Nothing more.

If you understand that subscription prices get higher as the length gets shorter (ie, a 12 month subscription is cheaper than four 3 month subscriptions) then why are you complaining about it? Again, Sony does it too. Everyone does it. It's how the business works.

And I don't know what to tell you about sales. There have been sales that Silver members can access for as long as I can remember. And DLC reductions rarely happen on either console but its up to the publisher, not MS. And again.. entirely unrelated to XBLG. So yeah, whatever, feel free to take the last word here.