agree

 Maybe"steam" could be integrated in the next generation of consoles.

Except for the '10x better than Xbox Live part' I agree, but I'm sure that was sarcastic anyway. I don't see paying for Xbox Live making it a widely superior service, but instead what they've done that is good is they've unified and brought together all of these different features to make Xbox Live. I commend them for being able to bring all of this together for the console, but arguments for justifying Xbox Live are lost to me from years of playing online games on the PC.

Free "insert random thing that cost money" or not?

The question should really be - Free dumb ass topics like this or not?

lol I doubt it. Steam is Valve's distrubiton system and they don't make craploads of money from having other games being released on it (from a sort of recent interview about Steamworks I believe) which is probably because they're awesome game developers and will make tons of income from their games. Also, Valve is being very open with Steam while Xbox Live and PSN are more restricted and obviously the PSN is probably more open than Xbox Live (considering the mod thing with UT3 for example).

Perhaps a similar kind of structor though? Maybe, but the PS3 and 360 are Sony's and Microsoft's babies, I'm sure they're going to want control over everything.  

Another dumbass topic but this one is special it seems because if we do not praise it we will get shitty games? Huh? TC are you on crack?

EDIT:  ahhh you are a halo gamer....no wonder your brain has rotted through. 

i'm totally against a free XBL

first that way we have less annoying kids on the network

but most important any online network for free is doomed to fail if its successful... you need money to upgrade it to put new servers etc....

and I don't see why it should be free any MMO built on a large scale makes people pay to play on their official servers and that's just for one game.....

if you don't pay for XBL you will see specific fees in the future... right now you just pay once and you are good....

and come on people are you serious ???? 50 bucks a year... less than 5 bucks a month even a trump can pull that off of his pocket..... are people that cheap now a days ????

use less gas guys you'll be saving the planet and be able to pay your XBL membership...

i wouldn't be surprised if PSN won't be free forever if they become successful one day..

But that's the thing Endimion, it doesn't have to be Free, but the consumers don't have to pay. Sony's going to try incorporating in-game advertising for Home, they alot virtual advertisement space and that pays for extra content. We win, Sony wins, and advertisement agencies win. I personally find this to be a much better alternative than paying 30-60$ a year for a service you "think" is amazing.

Microsoft isn't doing you a favor, they want you to pay for service. Period. Steam isn't 10x better than Live, but it sure is better, in pretty much every way.

@Illegal Part of that was Microsofts genius idea to include a headset in every console :P I wouldn't say that was lives doing, but the fact that people interested in talking can do so for no extra charge. (-the fees for xbox live as your chatting before a match).

And a side note to it all. No one should pay for Peer to peer gaming -_-;

and don't give me steam as an answer... first I don't like steam second it's not even working on all my PCs and they are a clean.... I format all my computers about 3 or 4 times a year....

without saying that steam is not free they just don't make the customer pay directly but ask the publisher for the money.... you do pay to use steam guys you just don't pay it directly to valve... a real free network is one where you don't pay the games and still can play online i.e. free MMO and look at how that works usually....

Haven't microsoft always adpoted the subscriptio approach ?

I dought they'll loose the income for the sake of giving the 360 another advantage.