Just out of curiosity, why does everyone always say $60 for a live gold membership?  It's 44.95 at Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-Live-Month-Gold-Card/dp/B000B9RI00/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1210450972&sr=8-1

And it can be had occasionally cheaper when someone runs a sale.  I've seen them a couple of times for $39.95 and even $25 by stores running a promotion.  Amazon's price a couple of weeks ago was $39.95 also...

Except all you are paying Microsoft for is for them to keep track of gamerscores (which I don't care about), and to setup multiplayer matches.  They don't host multiplayer games.  It's all peer-to-peer and the few games which do use dedicated servers are provided by the developers of the game.  There's absolutely no reason why Microsoft should be charging for online multiplayer, especially since everyone else (outside of MMOs) is doing it for free.  Steam, XFire, PSN, Wii's online component, all are free.   I would much rather buy a new game for that $49.99 than pay Microsoft for the ability to play a game online that I have already paid for.

There are 2 things that would make me buy an XBox360 this instant.  Included wifi (biggest ripoff ever), and free online multiplayer (take away my gamerscore/ranking system, I don't care). 

Perhaps I have too much disposable income.  I spend over $50 per *week* just eating out.  Considering that's $50 spread out over 13 months, and it seems almost trivial to me.

I would be interested to know how much your cable bill is.  People seem to have no trouble justifying $40+ per month on cable.  If you cancelled cable you would almost be able to buy a new game every single month with the money saved.

The problem isn't whether or not I can afford $50 a year.  Of course I can.  The problem is whether or not I feel like those $50 are a justified cost.  And to me, it isn't.  It's like paying Apple $50 a year so that your iPod touch can connect to the itunes store.  No one would pay for that shit (well, ok, there are probably a lot of people who would because they love giving Apple their money).

It does sound implausible that people would pay for such things.  Then again, why would some people pay over $1200 per year for cable and broadband when they could watch over-the-air TV and use a dial-up modem?  How many games would THAT buy??

I guess it all depends on perceived value.  I can't die on every hill, and I believe I get some amount of value from my $50 every 13 months, so I'm not going to sweat it.

@DMJ

By your reasoning the 360 can't use

- Controllers (since its a ripoff of every other console)
- VGA cables (since its a ripoff of company Y)
- DVD's (since its a ripoff of company X)
- 1st party games (since its a ripoff of company Z)
- memory card (since its a ripoff of company Q)
- reset button (Since its a ripoff of company U)
- etc, etc, etc

What would you like MS to do then? Are you expecting them to COMPLETELY ignore features that are important just that they can be original??

Maybe you should get off your high horse, sell your 360 and stop complaining about MS

To all the people claiming that 2009 is too late for a slim Xbox 360, consider this. This is historically the peak year for a console's sales. Microsoft's box is experiencing significant year-over-year sales increases, has a mass of exclusives coming (including more JRPG's than the PS3), has an even better looking line-up than it had last year and is likely going to receive a price cut this year.

NEXT YEAR is when Microsoft's sales could/should start to slow. However, releasing a slimmer, reliable and above all cheaper console next year would ensure a substantial number of people continue picking the console up. Microsoft needs to show support for the console next year, in order to support games like Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 2, not to mention Halo Chronicles and Alan Wake (which will likely be delayed).

It is likely the next installments of those games will be on Xbox 3, and Microsoft needs to ensure masses of people play those titles so that they are willing to upgrade to the Xbox 3 for the next installments. Microsoft will sell tonnes of consoles this year, its next year they need to worry about.

not really, they'll sell the least out of all current gen consoles (including handhelds).

I would say Xbox360 will win q3-q4