I'm not arguing your final sentence, but IP checks/email checks are definitely not sufficient. It's not difficult to just use a different email address and a proxy.

Hell my IP address changes everytime my router turns off, IP checks aren't sufficient.

Such as? I can't think of any way, other than making you upload a scan of your passport, which is even more bothersome. Even having to register and confirm a mobile number, you can just send off for multiple free sim cards and still get unlimited netflix for free.

Eh, you have to add payment information to download a completely free product, there's nothing that needs to be protected there. Personally I don't give a damn, but OP does I guess.

The ways you mentioned were completely inviable, and very easy to work around. They're eliminated as viable business choices. :P

I answered that in a previous post, the reason it wasn't quoted there originally was because it wasn't in your post originally, you edited in on after. I edited the post to answer it, not dodging anything!

I would like to know those services that offer free trials just with email/ip checks however, so I can exploit the hell out of them! Any service that relies on those two checks can be exploited by following a simple two step guide found on google, that's why it doesn't happen.

Step 1: install X extension on your browser.

Step 2: Create new email.

Step 3: Sign up for trial.

Rinse and repeat every month.

I think you're getting confused, the first time you mentioned it to me was a post that ended in.

"Making this seem like a Microsoft-only problem is silly."

My post in reply to that was "I'm not arguing with your final sentence."

We've never disagreed on that point, the one and only point I was trying to make over these past few posts is why payment information is necessary for free trial services such as netflix. Which really has nothing to do with the situation the topic is about anyway. You were drumming me to offer an explanation for something I never agreed with or claimed to agree on. xD

In my eyes it's not even a problem, I have no issue with entering my details online.

tisk, tisk, tisk....It must be karma, being portioned out by the cosmos. ;)

My original quote was just to make out that Netflix or Hulu free trial isn't comparable to a completely free product, there's something there to be protected, something that can be exploited. I wasn't disagreeing with any point you were making, just disagreeing with the examples you provided.

As for the OP's reason for the "Goddammit Microsoft", he clearly has issues with enterring personal information online for some reason, if he has such a big issue with doing that, and hasn't had to do it for other games systems, then fair enough.

Maybe it's "case by case". I lost my wallet back in April canceled my card. I couldn't get my PS+ games without adding my new credit card. I think I waited too long procrastinating and never got them. 

I was also logged into XBL last night along with my wife when we saw Burnout and Outlast for free. We tried to download them with her profile and it said she didn't have a valid payment method on file. We switched to mine and it worked fine. 

Not a dealbreaker for anybody (except the op) and if it's an advantage, it's in favor of Sony. I can only report what I see personally.

PS+ games are a different case as they're tied to a subscription service, I assume Azuren is referring to items that are free for everyone.

I just checked on psn with my kids psn account. You cannot start a free demo on a secondary ps4 that was downloaded by someone else, which is kinda fucked up in its own way. However it sends you to the store, you press 'purchase', which gives the cannot download error, content is already installed, and now you can play it. No payment details needed (just a psn account) You don't need payment info either to download free to play or any other free stuff.

So why single out MS, cause the competition doesn't require it? The WiiU never asked me for payment details either to download my freebies.