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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Online subscription. Fair or not fair?

 

Is paying to play online fair?

No. 37 58.73%
 
Yes. 21 33.33%
 
Don't know. 5 7.94%
 
Total:63
EricHiggin on 23 March 2018

In a future where the competition is more fierce due to closer hardware capabilities and closer first party title variety and quality, we can only hope that online sub fee's become a part of the battleground.



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0D0 on 23 March 2018
VAMatt said:
Sixteenvolt420 said:
I don't use my PS+ subscription for online gaming at all. I just use it for the monthly games. I pay anywhere from $40-$45 per year, rather than $60. It's worth the price, imo, just for the games.

I try to catch sales, or otherwise save some money on XBL and PS+ as well.  I don't agree that they're worth the money for the games though.  The games are almost all either several years old (I've usually already played them if I wanted to) or cheapies that I never even bother to try.  

If it was just about the games, I might be willing to pay $20 per year.  But, now that I do the math, its probably not even worth that to me.  In probably a decade of paying for XBL, I recall only one game that I played a lot - Forza Horizon.  I think I have one other Forza game that came from XBL as well, but I haven't played it yet.  That's several hundred dollars spent, for a couple of games worth $20 or so each.  Maybe there have been a few others that I got $5 of value from.  

I'm considering dropping PS+ after my current subscription ends.  The only games I really play online are shooters, and I prefer to play those on XBone.  I'll just limit myself to single player games on PS.  Just typing out the comment has reminded me realize that its foolish for me to pay for two of these subscriptions.

I guess this is going to be the behaviour for many gamers: owning 2 consoles and choosing one to pay for online subscription.

I'm thinking about picking up a switch down the road, but i'm not sure about paying nintendo online subscription. That'd be only for Splatoon. I may pay for one or two year tops.



God bless You.

My Total Sales prediction for PS4 by the end of 2021: 110m+

When PS4 will hit 100m consoles sold: Before Christmas 2019

There were three ravens sat on a tree / They were as blacke as they might be / The one of them said to his mate, Where shall we our breakfast take?


PSintend0 on 23 March 2018
0D0 said:

I guess this is going to be the behaviour for many gamers: owning 2 consoles and choosing one to pay for online subscription.

I'm thinking about picking up a switch down the road, but i'm not sure about paying nintendo online subscription. That'd be only for Splatoon. I may pay for one or two year tops.

So you are not planning to buy smash 5, pokemon, animal crossing or mario kart (next one, not deluxe)? Metroid prime 4 might also have online multiplayer along with other unknown titles. And of course the price is much lower for Nintendo´s online.



Mr Puggsly on 23 March 2018
Flilix said:
Mr Puggsly said:

Heh, I'm sure it cost millions to build/maintain their servers and online services. Perhaps many millions. I mean they have a staff and the services are used by many millions of people whether it be online play or any other service that uses their servers.

But their goal isn't to lose money or break even, these subscription services are part of what makes these platforms profitable and relatively speaking its cheap. I mean PS+ and XBLG COMBINED is about same price as a year of Netflix.

Aren't the online services free on PC? Why would developers waste millions on their PC servers?

Well the way MS does it, they're running many servers across 360 and X1. This is why a lot of old content still has online play compared to other platforms which more frequently have their servers shut down.

The average PC game has servers being operated by the publisher, private, etc. It seems like the big 3rd party online play providers have gone under as well. Gamespy was the notable one I'm aware of.

Frankly, I don't mind paying something for a online infrastructure like Xbox Live and the "free" games is a big incentive to subscribing. Just play on PC if you feel like a relatively cheap subscription is a bad deal.



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VAMatt on 24 March 2018
Mar1217 said:
0D0 said:

I guess this is going to be the behaviour for many gamers: owning 2 consoles and choosing one to pay for online subscription.

I'm thinking about picking up a switch down the road, but i'm not sure about paying nintendo online subscription. That'd be only for Splatoon. I may pay for one or two year tops.

You know that you can pay also for one month (4 $) or 3 month (8 $) at a time ?

In the USA, one month costs $9.99, and three months costs $24.99.  But, yeah, I could do that if I really want to play a multiplayer game on whichever system I don't have a subscription to.  



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0D0 on 27 March 2018
Mar1217 said:
0D0 said:

I guess this is going to be the behaviour for many gamers: owning 2 consoles and choosing one to pay for online subscription.

I'm thinking about picking up a switch down the road, but i'm not sure about paying nintendo online subscription. That'd be only for Splatoon. I may pay for one or two year tops.

You know that you can pay also for one month (4 $) or 3 month (8 $) at a time ?

I didn't know that.



God bless You.

My Total Sales prediction for PS4 by the end of 2021: 110m+

When PS4 will hit 100m consoles sold: Before Christmas 2019

There were three ravens sat on a tree / They were as blacke as they might be / The one of them said to his mate, Where shall we our breakfast take?


0D0 on 27 March 2018
PSintend0 said:
0D0 said:

I guess this is going to be the behaviour for many gamers: owning 2 consoles and choosing one to pay for online subscription.

I'm thinking about picking up a switch down the road, but i'm not sure about paying nintendo online subscription. That'd be only for Splatoon. I may pay for one or two year tops.

So you are not planning to buy smash 5, pokemon, animal crossing or mario kart (next one, not deluxe)? Metroid prime 4 might also have online multiplayer along with other unknown titles. And of course the price is much lower for Nintendo´s online.

They're all brilliant games, but not my cup of tea. Pokemon would be the only one I'd go for.



God bless You.

My Total Sales prediction for PS4 by the end of 2021: 110m+

When PS4 will hit 100m consoles sold: Before Christmas 2019

There were three ravens sat on a tree / They were as blacke as they might be / The one of them said to his mate, Where shall we our breakfast take?


Kwaidd on 27 March 2018

As long as the pricing is reasonable (what is reasonable?  I guess it depends on the quality of the service), I don't have a problem with paying to play a game online.  There are certainly costs associated with building and maintaining servers for each game, and for updating the online ecosystem.

Does spending even more money after paying for a console, a game and broadband get me all tingly in the pants?  No.  But is it fair?   ...probably.

Last edited by Kwaidd - on 27 March 2018

Seventizz on 27 March 2018

I have no problem paying to play online. I’ve played WoW for 14 years and I’ve been with Xbox Live for about 15. I’m well aware that servers, upkeep, and innovation aren’t free. I mostly play online so the upkeep and features are important to me.