My opinion is that Xbox 360 gamers are in a difficult situation, I mean you can buy a game like COD/whatever and if you dont pay for Xbox live you cannot use half the content on the disc.

If they consider this to be OK more power to them even more when the ps3 allows you access to that content for free.

My opinion is that microsoft and is corporate tactics are detrimental for the gaming consumer.

The guy is 100% right to say what were all thinking. Its disgusting that they get away with it, and i did not not know about the Braid price increase (no wonder its considered the second coming of christ for that price), and people pay it bcoz they're gullible. Maybe thats the one saving grace of mainstream (eh casual...) consumers, theyre not that interested in paying so much money for game entertainment.

I feel sorry for sony bcoz after reading that i would prefer them rather than MS as competition next gen. Regardless it looks like third partys have caught on to MS ploys (eg. Ubi and Capcom) and will be applying the same rules on the primarily core component of the maket BCOZ WE WILL PAY FOR IT.

drug dealers? Yes sir, MS and Sony are the Tuco's of this world.

Nintendo is , dying of terminal cancer and fighting to survive.

I think it's right that XBox Live costs a subscription fee to play online. Not only do they provide a great service with matchmaking and other stuff on the marketplace, friends lists etc, but I always thought how can online gaming companies make money off of tpeople who keep playing online year after year (or rather, how come they accept to provide that service for free?). Like COunter Stirke, Age of Empires and STarcraft, you buy it for like $30 and can play for free for many years.

It's only logical that online gaming costs some money.

ALso, it's not like we're just filling the poclets of some greedy rich people in this case because Xbox division doesn't even make much profit.

You are right in a way but I think a one time fee rolled into the game would be a better way for this to happen.  Servers are running but don't exists for One game and One game only (I may be wrong on this so I'll admit it now :p).  If they tack on an additional $5 to the game price with the advertisement saying that online is a feature to be included with this game, then there is a way to recover the costs of the service.  So many copies of a game being released and multiplied by $5 or less is quite a bit of money to run the cost of the online service.  We pay for our connections to the service providers.  They sell games based on what it offers.  Nintendo offers games on it's online.  We buy those games and that justifies the costs.  We buy Mario Kart and play online.  The number of copies out there justify the servers to host the gaming online.  There shouldn't be a fee to connect online each time.  If there was, then who would buy the game to play online?  It wouldn't be cost effective to an average consumer.  Maybe $50 annually for online isn't much and I can agree that it isn't but when it's all taken into consideration it's just nickel and diming it's customers.  It's like going to the game store and paying 2 cents for your receipt.  Want plastic to carry that out?  That's 5 cents.  If you want the bag with handles then it's 7 cents.  Don't forget to pay the $50 annual fee that covers the cost of us having floors in the store.  They are there for you to walk on when you come in to buy your products.  If you could float then you don't need to pay that cost.  But store air is 50 cents for 30 minutes.  Enjoy your day.  

Seems similar to online fees to me.  I may have gone overboard with that comparison though.

So 5$ extra per game would be ok for online but 40$/year is not? Let me think... with that 5$ extra, I would be paying something like 75$/year for online.

Ok, but how about this:

It's normal that you pay for everything. No product or service is free, right? And when it comes to games, they have a unified pricing (all are $60 ifon HD consoles, and maybe $50 on Wii) which doesnt account for the extra value the consumer gets from online play compared to single player. Plus players are different - some people totally love the online part and can manage to just buy a couple of games and play them online for ages. Why should these players ride on others?

I mean, simply isn't it logical that all services and products cost money? And online where the publisher/developer makes sure theres longetivity by availability ofservers, updated patches, balancing, tracking and communicating with the gaming community, kicking out cheaters from servers and so on. This should cost at least some money and it also offers an additional value for the consumer.

By your reasoning, why shouldn't the console makers give other stuff away for free while we're at it? For example, why don't you blame Nintendo for charging money from periferals, Nunchuks, and other hand controllers and stuff?

Let me ask you a couple of things

1. Do you have a job?

2. Are you pro corporation and anti-consumer?

3. Do you know that Xbox live games ( EA  uses is Own servers) are P2P so no server maintance cost should be charged to you?

Also you should know that the reason why MS Xbox division doesnt make much profit has nothing to do with the online service cost and everything to do why core problems within the division, that microsoft as a corporation is considered by some as the most greddy  and the must anti-consumer corporation in existance today, and that they make billions of dollars every fiscal quarter and millions of dollars by the second.

I like the apple pie,..

1. Yes.

2. Yes (to both)

3. Yes.

Online gaming still has costs to the provider of the service (scanning and banning cheaters, maintaining the interface, lobbies, announcing news, providing patches etc) so it's only logical that everyone (the consumers) pay for it. I believe Nintendo and Sony will do this too in the future. $50 per year is less than one full priced game. Every gamer can afford that except the poorest children (but they can play co-op or split-screen Halo with their friends for a few years until they grow up and get money).