Let me guess, the topic creator is aged 18-25, male and in full time employment? You're average 360 owner perhaps. For you it may not matter.

For me it does, I'm a uni student, that lives oon campus. I have very little disposable income, not even enough to buy all the games I want. I only have access to gaming speed internet 4 months a year, or I have to pay the exorbitant prices our uni charges for net usage. I would not pay $50 a year for online

Say this console gen is 6 years, then thats $300 for xbox live. That is tacked on the cost of a console I will think, say you brought xbox at the start of the gen for $400, then it is really $700.

Since everyone says xbox live is the thing you have to get when you have xbox then tack $50 on the price of the console right when you buy it. $200 for arcade? Really its $250, microsoft already has a huge online setup so making xbox live doesn't cut into their profit much.

its the number one reason i chose ps3 over 360. its not just $50, its $50/year. it adds up

With that logic the PS3 only costs around $1.20 a day.

Im not buying 100 dollars for a wireless adapter when My Ps3 offers free online service and has builtin wireless. I save $150 and am happy.

I don't understand people saying it's not a big deal... You could say: "it sucks but it's worth it". Saying it's ok is giving the wrong message to Microsoft.

Well it's basically charging a premium for something that is free elsewhere. It would be like being charged monthly payments to use Internet Explorer or Firefox, since I already paid for my PC/OS and internet service.

If it was optional and simply come with some extra features (free games, exclusive demos, premium download speed, etc), I wouldn't mind.

It's one of the few remaining reasons I haven't jumped onto 360 yet. And if I do, I'm staying with Silver membership.

PSN is free. I would not pay money for online gaming. Roughly the price of a game = Cost of XBox Live for a year.

lol ok how do you figure.  I'm talking about a service, not hardware.

i dont see the point in paying for something that you could get the same as free.