BenVTrigger said: The thing is though is people are clearly satisfied with Live The way people in the forums talk about it you would think people would be jumping ship for PSN and PS Plus but this clearly isnt happening. In fact MS is adding LIVE users to the ecosystem at a huge rate |
Well, if they have a 360, then they're going to have to be satisfied. Even if it was a horrible deal, people would still rationalize it in order to keep from feeling like idiots. I'm not saying that's the case now, but that would be the end result if that were how the situation played out. No one is buying a 360 and a copy of Halo 4 going, "the console and games are neat, but paying for LIVE is what I'm REALLY excited for!" That's not the incentive for the majority of people, I'm almost certain. My guess is that a significant number of people who have bought an Xbox didn't know they had to pay a subscription, especially if it's the parents putting their credit card on the line. All of this kind of mitigates some of what you're saying.
Also, P.T. Barnum would lead us to believe that a lot of people doing something doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.
From what I've seen in the wild, a lot of 360 owners think of it as a necessary evil. It's not something they really want to do but it's something they've got to do in order to play with their friends. Most of the Madden and CoD weekend-gamers I've met aren't exactly happy about it, as some of Microsoft-centric forum-goers would have us believe, but it's also far from being a deal-breaker. I've talked with more than one person who said some variation of, "it sucks that I have to pay for LIVE but that's where all my friends play".
Personally, the LIVE subscription is probably why I don't have a 360. I certainly don't hate that the service exists and I have no problem with anyone else paying for it, it's just that I don't think it's worth the cost when I'm happy with the alternatives.