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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Xbox Live adds 6 Million members in a single Year, is the hate unjustified?

 

Does Xbox Live deserve the criticism it gets in the forums?

Yes Xbox Live is a rip off 221 45.19%
 
No Xbox Live is the best ... 208 42.54%
 
No opinion / don't care 60 12.27%
 
Total:489
Goatseye on 18 April 2013

-I watch football,basketball and European soccer leagues on HD.
-I find anime gems that I didn't know existed on Manga TV.
-I never play online and I pay $39.99 a year for that instead of buying Aliens: Colonial Marine, generic FPS and JRPG.

Instead of buying crappy games, dlc's and season passes, for 12 months I pay $3.33 for a service. I'm pretty sure I can hold off on buying a can of Red Bull a month to pay with the savings. And also the competition don't give out free games but they rent them while you're subscribed. I don't like that.



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VGKing on 18 April 2013

Yes the "hate" is definitely justified. Microsoft led the way this gen with their online services and it looks like they are being left behind. Their online strategy is definitely anti-consumer. If I buy a $60 Call of Duty game, I expect to be able to play everything on the disc without any additional costs. These aren't unfair demands, we're not being greedy. There are plenty of free online services that match and even surpass XBL in some areas.



VGKing on 18 April 2013
NotStan said:
Mmmfishtacos said:
NotStan said:
People seem to be overly butthurt over the fact that there are people that would prefer to pay for xbox live rather than seek out free alternatives which could be considered lesser in some respects. If you think it's so moronic to pay and that MS are making a fortune off Live, go invest into some MS stock, because Live is here to stay, and will continue to grow over the years. The price per day works out at peanuts, which I personally don't really care much for paying, I mean you can get a subscription here in UK for about £30, that ends up at less than 10p a day. 10p. I wish I would use that to purchase a Munch bar instead I guess. Oh wait, I work, £30 is nothing.

I think it's the whole "Live is a rip off, MS are greedy pigs" is what's getting out of hand, I had PSN, it was utter crap from my experience, if I had to pay for that I would be pissed off and would likely vent on the internet about how foolish people are for paying for it when you can get something better/similar on a Wii. However, Live keeps alot of people satisfied, and is worth practically nothing by today's standards. Old song that the birds just keep on singing constantly, it was funny at first but I think now it's just getting bit annoying.

 

I discredited everything you just said, calling PSN utter crap. It’s uncalled for and totally false.

 

Note the words "from my experience" I have had PS3 for about 3 months, other than the single player games, there really was nothing there. The multiplayer games that I have sampled were either desolate or took about 4 hours to patch, just to be put on the supposedly dedicated servers that Sony offer which still provided me with consistent DC's and lag. The UC2 multiplayer completely refused to start (Not even sure why), I found XBM clunky and annoying to use, god the worst bit probably had to be the patches, I must have burned through about 6GB worth of patches in 4 games. There is no cross-game chat, the store took a decade to load, all small quips but everything that I have noticed was a drastic comparison to something that Live offered at the time, in a much better fashion.

Granted the new dash is a pile of shit on Xbox, and the focus on the entertainment rather than gaming is lacksture, but end of the day, if I want to play FC3 while my friend plays Skyrim and another plays Minecraft, and we can still talk about the different elements/storyline/plot/events seeing as we do have similar gaming taste, I would much prefer that, and considering it only costs 10p a day just for that small luxury I don't mind paying it at all, I think you greatly underestimate the social element that Live provides, and without being a consistent user that has a significant amount of friends that play daily on there, you will continue to do so. Of course it's easier to judge something that you haven't used consistently or probably even experienced that much, just because it's easy to do so.

Really, majority of the people that seem to be anti-live are those who don't even have it, or even experienced it for a prolonged period of time.

I don't like the new direction Xbox is going in, but all I do is put the disk in, join a party with friends and chat, or go on cod, or some other multiplayer/single game that we can work on, so the "ads" which everyone keeps joking about have no significant effect on me whatsoever, or the supposedly wide range of entertainment apps on offer.

So basically cross game chat is the only reason you pay for Xbox Live. That's what I got from your post. Let me ask you this, when PS4 offers free online service, faster PSN Store and OPTIONAL premium features such as Cloud Services and best of all for you.......cross game chat....would you buy a PS4? 

(LOL at your 6GB of patches complaint though. Such an exagerration. If you bought some 360 games that are years old, I'm sure you'll encounter similar problems there as well. In the future, when comparing XBL to PSN, try using the same game and see if you notice any difference, because I don't)



S.T.A.G.E. on 18 April 2013

Still a rip off. At this point theres nothing Microsoft can do that Sony cannot until we see the OS at E3.



Pemalite on 19 April 2013
VGKing said:
Yes the "hate" is definitely justified. Microsoft led the way this gen with their online services and it looks like they are being left behind. Their online strategy is definitely anti-consumer. If I buy a $60 Call of Duty game, I expect to be able to play everything on the disc without any additional costs. These aren't unfair demands, we're not being greedy. There are plenty of free online services that match and even surpass XBL in some areas.


I agree.
It is anti-consumer, I'm also guilty of spending 70 bucks a year here and the *only* time I use it is during a Halo launch, then only for a couple weeks tops, I just don't wan't to be without live on the super rare off-chance I might fire up the console.

From a business perspective though, it's actually a brilliant idea, even if the machine only sells half as much, they would still be very profitible as it's a re-occuring income and it helps get the gaming division out of the red and into the green much faster after a console launch, which pleases the investors.

With that said, I do love the fact how quickly things download on Xbox Live as compared to PSN's snail pace, but it's certainly not worth the price for a little patience.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

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Chark on 19 April 2013
NotStan said:

Ben you should know by now threads related to XBL won't swing in a positive direction, one way or the other, even if the service does become magically free, without any ads, with exactly the same benefits and with even free games every month, people will always find something to quip about. You might as well have started another XBL vs PSN thread here unfortunately.

Bearing that in mind, I see no reason to continue these debates further because it will just be nothing but a waste of time and serve as a catalyst towards my athritis. G'day.


Actually this would, you pessimist. I was becomming a pretty big Xbox fan before the 360 and the way they handled XBL and their industry policies. Free games aside, doing those things would attract me again.

Well, the whole thing wouldn't have to be free. Just the things that are generally considered free to access like online multiplayer and things like Internet Explorer and Netflix. Fine by me to charge for cloud saves and other dedicated server intensive features.



Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(

Mr Puggsly on 19 April 2013

Give Playstation fans an opportunity to piss and moan about Xbox Live and they'll always take it.

Even at $60 a year, Xbox Live is a very cheap entertainment expense. But so many people can't seem to do the math.



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Mr Puggsly on 19 April 2013
hinch said:

I just wish people opened their eyes and looked before parting ways with their cash.

Is how people spend $60 a year really an issue? Is that anyone's biggest expense?

You should open your eyes and realize $60 a year to do online gaming on a prefered platform is not a big deal.



Recently Completed: 
River City: Rival Showdown for 3DS (3/5) - River City: Tokyo Rumble for 3DS (4/5) - Zelda: BotW for Wii U (5/5) - Zelda: BotW for Switch (5/5) - Zelda: Link's Awakening for Switch (4/5) - Rage 2 for X1X (4/5) - Rage for 360 (3/5) - Streets of Rage 4 for X1/PC (4/5) - Gears 5 for X1X (5/5) - Mortal Kombat 11 for X1X (5/5) - Doom 64 for N64 (emulator) (3/5) - Crackdown 3 for X1S/X1X (4/5) - Infinity Blade III - for iPad 4 (3/5) - Infinity Blade II - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Infinity Blade - for iPad 4 (4/5) - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Origins for X1 (3/5) - Uncharted: Lost Legacy for PS4 (4/5) - EA UFC 3 for X1 (4/5) - Doom for X1 (4/5) - Titanfall 2 for X1 (4/5) - Super Mario 3D World for Wii U (4/5) - South Park: The Stick of Truth for X1 BC (4/5) - Call of Duty: WWII for X1 (4/5) -Wolfenstein II for X1 - (4/5) - Dead or Alive: Dimensions for 3DS (4/5) - Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for X1 (3/5) - Halo Wars 2 for X1/PC (4/5) - Halo Wars: DE for X1 (4/5) - Tekken 7 for X1 (4/5) - Injustice 2 for X1 (4/5) - Yakuza 5 for PS3 (3/5) - Battlefield 1 (Campaign) for X1 (3/5) - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare for X1 (4/5) - Call of Duty: MW Remastered for X1 (4/5) - Donkey Kong Country Returns for 3DS (4/5) - Forza Horizon 3 for X1 (5/5)

nnodley on 19 April 2013
Goatseye said:
-I watch football,basketball and European soccer leagues on HD.
-I find anime gems that I didn't know existed on Manga TV.
-I never play online and I pay $39.99 a year for that instead of buying Aliens: Colonial Marine, generic FPS and JRPG.

Instead of buying crappy games, dlc's and season passes, for 12 months I pay $3.33 for a service. I'm pretty sure I can hold off on buying a can of Red Bull a month to pay with the savings. And also the competition don't give out free games but they rent them while you're subscribed. I don't like that.

Don't come in here with this bullshit.  Yes, you have to pay $50 to play the games they give out free, but guess what the first two games I got from the instant game collection already added up to $60 and as of now I have downloaded almost $150-$200 worth of the games they give to us.  So, yeah everything I got after I had already fulfilled my $50 membership is free. And when my membership is expired I will pay another $50 which now adds to $100 of you didn't know and still half of the stuff I got from my first membership was free and I will likely keep increasing the amount I got free which in the long one will save be a boatload of cash.

That bullshit answer pisses me off as much as the hate for paying for Live pisses off people who like Live.   It's an endless circle of hate and bashing that really is the most childish thing I have ever read in my life. 

*end effing rant*

OT: Of course most Sony fans will say it's not justified and MS fans will say it is.  The hate will never end from both sides.  I know to me I would want to have a little more incentive to pay for Live besides playing with friends.  I think MS can spare giving out MS points, discounts, exclusive trials/betas, FREE games, and anything else they could just to actually make the $60 for Live a little bit better.



Carl on 19 April 2013
VGKing said:
Yes the "hate" is definitely justified. Microsoft led the way this gen with their online services and it looks like they are being left behind. Their online strategy is definitely anti-consumer. If I buy a $60 Call of Duty game, I expect to be able to play everything on the disc without any additional costs. These aren't unfair demands, we're not being greedy. There are plenty of free online services that match and even surpass XBL in some areas.


Call of Duty is a poor example if you plan on being anti-Xbox, considering how well the games actually sell on Xbox.

Call of Duty games sell more on the system where you have to play for online, rather than the system where the online is free. Why is this? Why does the consumer choose the 360 over the PS3 for Call of Duty? Why has this always been the case?

Actually. Online gaming. Its a well known fact that online gaming is far, far more popular on the 360. Why? If the online strategy is so anti-consumer, then why does the consumer flock to the service?