What if LIVE was totally free?

Lord Flashheart

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Lord Flashheart on 05 August 2009

@Munkeh
The comparisons are stupid but why wait til now to challenge it?

This stupid comparison has been used for years now and mostly without question.
So what's good for the Goose...

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Scruff7 on 05 August 2009

gergroy said:
microsoft would have to figure out another way to get almost a billion dollars in yearly revenue.

Dashboard advertising?

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Munkeh111 on 05 August 2009

@ flashheart, I am just making a point, it is a stupid comparison, I have never supported them

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S.T.A.G.E. on 05 August 2009

If Xbox Live Gold Package was free it would be an inferior product. Without money coming in we wouldn't have all of the great features we have today. The sales of games would also go down because people would take the product for granted (IE: Arcade and Avatar sales would be at an all-time low). Any update would come slower than usual and we wouldn't have several updates in a year. It's a proven fact that Xbox Live sells more, because they have more motivated buyers in their installed base than PSN. It has sold over a billion dollars in products.

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ameratsu on 05 August 2009

NightDragon83 said:
Yeah, because that extra $50 for a YEAR (which you can usually get online at Amazon or other sites cheaper) is a real deal breaker, but paying an extra $100-$200 for a system with "free" online is fine right?

If you take the difference between the 360 Arcade and the recently reduced PS3 160 GB bundle, that's enough to cover 5 years of XBL at full price of membership.

And even if you don't wish to pay for Gold... you still have access to all of the movies, arcade games, and other DLC that's available on XBL, you just can't play online multiplayer.

Deal breaker for me. If online multiplayer was free I'd probably be an x360 owner right now.

I haven't ever payed for online multiplayer, I'm not sure why I should start now. Microsoft charging me to use my own internet connection is absurd.

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S.T.A.G.E. on 05 August 2009

ameratsu said:

NightDragon83 said:
Yeah, because that extra $50 for a YEAR (which you can usually get online at Amazon or other sites cheaper) is a real deal breaker, but paying an extra $100-$200 for a system with "free" online is fine right?

If you take the difference between the 360 Arcade and the recently reduced PS3 160 GB bundle, that's enough to cover 5 years of XBL at full price of membership.

And even if you don't wish to pay for Gold... you still have access to all of the movies, arcade games, and other DLC that's available on XBL, you just can't play online multiplayer.

Deal breaker for me. If online multiplayer was free I'd probably be an x360 owner right now.

I haven't ever payed for online multiplayer, I'm not sure why I should start now. Microsoft charging me to use my own internet connection is absurd.

Microsoft doesn't charge you for your internet service. This is why they also don't charge you for Xbox Live Silver. Xbox Live Gold is a subscription, including short weekly Microsoft shows, online playability, Avatar games and much, much, more.

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Lord Flashheart on 05 August 2009

@Munkeh
I know it just seems a shame that it finally gets criticised when it doesn't benefit Sony in the argument.

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Snake612 on 05 August 2009

If LIVE was free, the amount of users on the online service would more than double!

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S.T.A.G.E. on 05 August 2009

Snake612 said:
If LIVE was free, the amount of users on the online service would more than double!

....I wish this was true for PSN, but it hasn't happened at all. PSN's installed base (and their lack of activity) is exactly why Microsoft is in no rush to make Xbox Live free.