Why Does MS Charge For XBL

The poll got glitched yesterday so I made a new one. Is XBL $50 (soon to be $60) material or just a way for MS to cash in.

Because they can.

It has nothing to do with an army of fanboys. They started charging for XBL back on original Xbox when gamecube and PS2 didn't have a proper online service going. When you manage to get millions of people to pay annually for XBL for the original, why would you bother making it free with the transition into the next generation. CRUSHER88

[QUOTE="CRUSHER88"]It has nothing to do with an army of fanboys. They started charging for XBL back on original Xbox when gamecube and PS2 didn't have a proper online service going. When you manage to get millions of people to pay annually for XBL for the original, why would you bother making it free with the transition into the next generation. EdenProxy

Upkeep/because they can/because they want to/because people will pay for it.

Who voted option 2.

Steam is a perfect example of why XBL is a ripoff. It's a better platform than XBL and it's free.RotaryRX7

The difference here is that you don't need Steam to play online on PC were on Xbox there's only one way to play games online. If Steam would be the only way to play online on PC, would Valve charge for it then? Probably. This is the difference between closed and open platforms, and MS has total control, monopoly, of 360. They can do whatever they want with it and why wouldn't they charge for it if people are willing to pay? It's just smart business.

It's just smart business.

Icarian

It's just smart business.

To make money...doy!

[QUOTE="The_RedLion"] He didn't say anything about integrity. =S Live makes a mountain of profit for MS, it's very smart.skrat_01

Smart business are those that legally make money. There's no other definition for that.

because they are a evil corporate conglomerate that operates out of a death star, and tie fighters are expensive.

[QUOTE="The_RedLion"] He didn't say anything about integrity. =S Live makes a mountain of profit for MS, it's very smart.skrat_01

How dare you attack DLC at a time like this! The world isnt ready to accept the truth yet.

[QUOTE="Icarian"]

It's just smart business.

skrat_01

Only thing every company cares about is profit. Profit is what keeps them alive, a company can survive year or two without profit, but in the end if they can't make their business profitable they'll die. Valve can't do any of that because they have competition. If Valve would start to charge from customers for Steam, people would find other services. MS can do with 360 what they want as long as they keep it reasonable, especially now that they have a strong user base. It would take really lot of money from Xbox only owners to jump ship to other consoles or PC. Not only you need new hardware, but if you want to stop paying for Live you'll have to buy your favorite online games for new systems. Again, smart for MS.

Edit: How many years of Live fees it would take to buy lets say PS3 and couple favorite games, like MW2 and BC2? Next gen will probably start sooner than you would get your money back.

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

http://www.gameservers.com/images/voice/bar_image.php?c=EUR&s=10&p=2.73

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

xhawk27

10 slots, 2.73 (yearly plan. that'd be the cost by month).

2.73x12= 32.76/10 (slots) = 3,276€ = 4,16$

That'd be the yearly price of paying your crosschat slot while also giving them profit.

GG.

http://www.gameservers.com/images/voice/bar_image.php?c=EUR&s=10&p=2.73

[QUOTE="xhawk27"]

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

blitzcloud

10 slots, 2.73 (yearly plan. that'd be the cost by month).

2.73x12= 32.76/10 (slots) = 3,276€ = 4,16$

That'd be the yearly price of paying your crosschat slot while also giving them profit.

GG.

I don't think so. Voice quality on XBL is very high and that takes a lot of bandwidth.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"][QUOTE="The_RedLion"] He didn't say anything about integrity. =S Live makes a mountain of profit for MS, it's very smart.The_RedLion

Smart business are those that legally make money. There's no other definition for that.

Yup. I see smart business in the likes of google. Free for the end-user. Lots of profit anyways.

[QUOTE="blitzcloud"]

http://www.gameservers.com/images/voice/bar_image.php?c=EUR&s=10&p=2.73

[QUOTE="xhawk27"]

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

xhawk27

10 slots, 2.73 (yearly plan. that'd be the cost by month).

2.73x12= 32.76/10 (slots) = 3,276€ = 4,16$

That'd be the yearly price of paying your crosschat slot while also giving them profit.

GG.

I don't think so. Voice quality on XBL is very high and that takes a lot of bandwidth.

[QUOTE="CRUSHER88"]It has nothing to do with an army of fanboys. They started charging for XBL back on original Xbox when gamecube and PS2 didn't have a proper online service going. When you manage to get millions of people to pay annually for XBL for the original, why would you bother making it free with the transition into the next generation. EdenProxy

Only thing every company cares about is profit. Profit is what keeps them alive, a company can survive year or two without profit, but in the end if they can't make their business profitable they'll die. Valve can't do any of that because they have competition. If Valve would start to charge from customers for Steam, people would find other services. MS can do with 360 what they want as long as they keep it reasonable, especially now that they have a strong user base. It would take really lot of money from Xbox only owners to jump ship to other consoles or PC. Not only you need new hardware, but if you want to stop paying for Live you'll have to buy your favorite online games for new systems. Again, smart for MS.

Edit: How many years of Live fees it would take to buy lets say PS3 and couple favorite games, like MW2 and BC2? Next gen will probably start sooner than you would get your money back.

Icarian

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

He did say Valve would charge if they owned a closed network. I said they had integrity and aren't going to cut users short of content they have already paid for, as they do the exact opposite. It's not smart. It's profitable. Smart would be gaining such profits without such a blatantly dividing business tactic. Same with this generations era of DLC like 'horse armour', 'wow mounts' and capcom's unlockable multiplayer. Not smart business, even if it's profitable (as you would damn well hope it would be).skrat_01

Smart business are those that legally make money. There's no other definition for that.

[QUOTE="xhawk27"]

You do know servers cost money right? All those voice servers for cross game chat cost money.

MoonMarvel

I still don't know how people can back up the outdated business model MS is offering. There's a lot of ways of making profit, based on advertisement and microtransactions, plus the percentage they get out of every DLC and XBLA game. But you tell me NO, on top of that it's perfectly sensible they also charge us.

We still have to pay DLCS, avatars, themes, see advertisements everywhere but that's okay. Hell, we even have to buy games new because of EA pass for the online component despite the fact that the xbox LIVE gold fee was supposed to take the expenses of the online service itself. So at the end, the service itself proves to be just a microsoft measure that doesn't give any kind of advantage whatsoever.

Some people are closedminded though. Here in Spain some people still refuse to move to other ISPs and stay with Telefonica, which was the first telephone company for a while until the EU forced them to open up the market. Some people are still afraid of cheaper alternate solutions as they believe that more expensive meansa better service, while the speed tests and latency tests show otherwise. LIVE is that, living off consumers based on the "but it's better and has better this and better that because it costs money".

Because people where dumb enough to pay for it last gen and still were dumb enough to pay for it this gen (while it's free everywhere else). So why would anyone blame MS for taking advantage of those people.

your polls is completely biased and will not tell the whole story.

They do it because its called buisness, because these companies are out their to make money, Do you actually think Valve if they could wouldn't charge money for steam? if the Pc populace was perfectly fine with paying a fee to use the service then Valve would charge it, Since they cannot they keep it free no matter what, because 1. they can't charge for it. 2. It gives them a place in the hearts of PC users hey they offer that for free.

Deals on Steam do you think they absolutely want to undercut often a game 50% of what it was worth a few months earlier? no they do it to get sales when you have a sale like that or other sales you induce people into a buying attitude they more often then not will buy other things its the same super market mentality that wal-mart, kmart, and meijer uses. Get someone into the store with a sale and more often then not they will buy other things. I certainly know when I missed a sale and see my friends playing games I'll take the plunge to get the game to play with said friends even outside of the sale, I certainly know that I've purchased other things on steam and then saw a game I wanted and purchased it full price.

ITS CALLED buisness, When will people get this? there is not some elusive hand in these things? some sort of greed or malfeasance guiding these decisions its simply buisness. One company uses a different method to make their profits compared to another. do you actually believe Sony wouldn't start charging and get in on the what? billions Microsoft has made from Xbox live if they could? they have made the service free for so long its hard to go from free to charge, they will likely have to wait till next generation. But as it is now they keep it free to put that extra bit of umph into the buisness practice, Hey we are free.

Its buisness people, no matter how hard you wish it, no matter how much bias you have it will not change the fact there is nothing wrong with it, It might suck but you don't dictate how buisness itself works, If you dont want to pay for it then don't, but if you want to change things in the execution not the form of buisness VOTE with your dollars its as simple as that. So many people have problems with DLC, DLC prices, and online service Fee's but obviously there aren't alot of you or the ones that have the problems don't follow their own advice, DLC still keeps happening, It keeps selling, and Xbox live still keeps getting purchased.

As long as 360 owners keep paying for XBL, MS will keep charging :) its that simple....

People can find all the excuses possible to try and convince others its worth paying extra for XBL, truth is the ONLY essential feature XBL GOLD offers is letting you play your games ONLINE.. other systems offer such service for Free, on 360 it comes at am extra cost...

ITS CALLED buisnessWilliamRLBaker

I'm sorry but I can't call business something that does not allow a developer to launch content for free for their game because Microsoft denies it, but at the same time allows EA pass to be implement when XBL Gold is supposed to be the payment for the online component. EA pass doesn't make any sense there, as the online mode is a payment you do when purchasing XBL Gold membership.

I can only call it monopoly. A bad one, that is.

your polls is completely biased and will not tell the whole story.

They do it because its called buisness, because these companies are out their to make money, Do you actually think Valve if they could wouldn't charge money for steam? if the Pc populace was perfectly fine with paying a fee to use the service then Valve would charge it, Since they cannot they keep it free no matter what, because 1. they can't charge for it. 2. It gives them a place in the hearts of PC users hey they offer that for free.

Deals on Steam do you think they absolutely want to undercut often a game 50% of what it was worth a few months earlier? no they do it to get sales when you have a sale like that or other sales you induce people into a buying attitude they more often then not will buy other things its the same super market mentality that wal-mart, kmart, and meijer uses. Get someone into the store with a sale and more often then not they will buy other things. I certainly know when I missed a sale and see my friends playing games I'll take the plunge to get the game to play with said friends even outside of the sale, I certainly know that I've purchased other things on steam and then saw a game I wanted and purchased it full price.

ITS CALLED buisness, When will people get this? there is not some elusive hand in these things? some sort of greed or malfeasance guiding these decisions its simply buisness. One company uses a different method to make their profits compared to another. do you actually believe Sony wouldn't start charging and get in on the what? billions Microsoft has made from Xbox live if they could? they have made the service free for so long its hard to go from free to charge, they will likely have to wait till next generation. But as it is now they keep it free to put that extra bit of umph into the buisness practice, Hey we are free.

Its buisness people, no matter how hard you wish it, no matter how much bias you have it will not change the fact there is nothing wrong with it, It might suck but you don't dictate how buisness itself works, If you dont want to pay for it then don't, but if you want to change things in the execution not the form of buisness VOTE with your dollars its as simple as that. So many people have problems with DLC, DLC prices, and online service Fee's but obviously there aren't alot of you or the ones that have the problems don't follow their own advice, DLC still keeps happening, It keeps selling, and Xbox live still keeps getting purchased.

WilliamRLBaker

No one is confused on the matter that MS is a company and companies care about profit. Were saying forcing us to pay money to play online is a dirty way to make money. Can you at least agree to that?

If your answer is "No, because XBL contains features other than online access", then my response is "Its dirty to force people to pay for a free necessity and include unnecessary features at an overblown price. Can you at least agree to that?"

[QUOTE="The_RedLion"] Well, if it makes money, but it does not make as much as it could, I wouldn't say it's smart. But Live makes TONS of money. It's not only smart, is very smart. Very, very smart.skrat_01

It's easy to put in and is effective. Your own words. The're no other way to call something like it than smart.The_RedLion

[QUOTE="skrat_01"][QUOTE="The_RedLion"] Well, if it makes money, but it does not make as much as it could, I wouldn't say it's smart. But Live makes TONS of money. It's not only smart, is very smart. Very, very smart.The_RedLion

crap, skrat.... now they will say that by the same logic of XBLG being free GS fuse should be free aswell...

it's like asking why Opera Software charges for a web browser even when there's free alternatives.

it made money, and MS really revolutionized console online last generation. you find the success, and they won't change their ways so easily later.

other motivations for them to keep it paytoplay is the truckloads of money they lost last generation on OXBOX hardware. as for justifying their losses earlier this generation, I wouldn't be able to fully agree with such reasoning.

crap, skrat.... now they will say that by the same logic of XBLG being free GS fuse should be free aswell...

blitzcloud

[QUOTE="The_RedLion"][QUOTE="skrat_01"] I'd call smart business a model that actually has some sort of intelligent idea behind it, instead of something so dated and easy to put in. Live Gold is effective, I won't disagree with you there. It's not smart; there really isn't much intelligence behind the model - if it was a new media style of business model however, not something as easy as a subscription fee, then I would agree. Otherwise you could lump many subscription services in the same category. skrat_01