It sucks.

 

it's for free on Wii and PS3.

Just bought a wireless network adaptor (why???) and 3 months subscription. Got the message "gamertag occupied" when connecting to Live. Got to change the name of the gamertag, which I did. But a completely new gamertag was created and tied to the Live-account (with 0 achievements).

Impossible to change and not possible to get the money back.

 

The price is pretty fair but the lack of built in wireless is annoying.

Nintendo renouned for being reluctant to embrace online features has wireless built in but Microsoft doesn't!

A lot of people also still don't realise the old original Xbox live cards are also valid with Xbox live on Xbox 360, although they now seem to be very difficult to find.

I've bought dozens of 'old' xbox starter packs with the demo disk and headset for between £1-£5 and then sold just the Xbox live years subscription within 24 hours on Ebay for £30.

I even got one from Oxfam for £2.50.

Just wish there were more around :0P

mjo011, you need to contact Microsoft. I can get my gamertag on any 360 in the world. People come to my house and use their profiles all the time. Don't know what you did wrong.

d21lewis: I did contact Microsoft, they told me there was nothing I could do. I am connected to Live, but with another gamertag than I have always used.

I'm not interested in collecting achievements with a new gamertag, so I've only used it to download Braid, SotN and a few demos.

And I paid ~40 $ for 3 months (I live in Norway). Hardly worth the price.

Sorry to hear about that, dude.

XBox Live has more features than PSN no doubt but nothing I can justify paying $59 for. The gameplay elements and other core elements are identical plus PSN has WiFi included. Live you need to buy a $120 antenna or wire up your house. $59 + $120 and you've easily closed the price gap between PS3 and 360 Pro except the PS3 throws it BD, 8 years of futureproofing, and an extra 60GB over the Pro.

I want to know who the hell spends $60 in the US for Live. The last three years I spent $40 (or less) a year on Live through deals through amazon and newegg, no tax and free shipping. This year I did however pay $60 but I got the vizion cam with 400 points and TWO free XBL games. IMHO paying $40 or so a year to have a reliable online service with no cheating is worth it to me.

Sony/Nintendo fans can defend this all they want, but it's only a matter of time before they do start charging. Then what? Well then they'll just point out the lack of blu-ray and the $100 wireless adaptor.

Not turning this into any kind of flame battle I hope, but I got my PS3 in August. I downloaded a pile of games, and I have a pretty decent Friends list, but I haven't played or had the urge to play online ONCE. Crazy, I know. My 360 on the other hand......

sega4life said: I don't mind it at all for me...  $0.14 cents a day isn't bad... Now we get to my family, everyone wants to play online, and I don't want everyone using my Account. Still do not understand why MS can't make the XBLGold for the unit itself (family Gold Plan if you will) and not individual people. This is were XBLgold fails. Note: Just got my card today from Newegg.com $38.95 free shipping, last year I got it for $34.99 free shipping. $0.11 a day Should point out that you can get 12+1 XBL through VGcharts Store for $38 as well, I didn't know it before I bought mine.

I love your idea, and even though I am the only one in my household that uses xbox live.  I have always thought the same thing.

@piggychan

This is just to laugh at a guy.  I have one lame ass friend in real life that has GTA4 that came with the free month, but will not activate it cause he says "its just the principal of paying for somthing that should be free".  I think he even lost the card before I could snag it from him.  I gave him all the valid reasons why it is not a free service, and even sent him a text message when it droped to less than $40 at amazon and now walmart.com free site to store.

He said some kinda shit about "no I will never pay" I told him find then we dont want you on XBL.  You must admit putting a price tag on it keeps out a ton of the idots and jerks.  Make it free and the clients/user bass will go downhill.  So in a way I like paying for it.  Just kidding the econemy is too bad to enjoy paying for anything.  Let alone about the same as a full tank of gas in my jetta.

That's $50 for every year that you own the console. For just one generation, that's $250, and it keeps adding up if you buy MS's next console.

With that $250, you could buy:

4-5 extra games
Several extra controllers and a charge station.
Another console

Sony doesn't charge to play online for the PSP and PS3, Nintendo doesn't charge play online for the DS and Wii, and with the exception of MMO's, it's also free on the PC.

I already pay $50/month for broadband, so I'm not paying even more to go online with a console. I've used both Xbox Live and the PSN, and as far as online gaming goes, the latter is just as good as the former in my book. That considered, XBL doesn't offer anything more that warrants the fee.