Xbox LIVE, what are we actually getting for 60 dollars?

I've been an Xbox360 owner sense the console was released and I've always had Xbox LIVE to play with friends but I just started thinking today.. what are we actually getting for our 60 dollars a year?

Is it just to play online? Xbox live has Hulu. Net Flix and DLC for games but it's all stuff we have to pay extra for.. I tried to google the answer but after about 5 pages I didn't see any dolid answer other then "you get to play online with friends"

btw this isn't a rant I'm honestly just curious.

Plain and simple, it was a business decision. Microsoft felt people would pay to play and they were right. About a year ago I saw a TechCruch article that said 12.5M people are gold members: that's an extra $750,000,000 annually in revenue. And I'm sure some of that money goes towards getting DLC before the other platforms and into development for new features, etc, but really it's just good business to do what you can to do to turn a profit.

That and cross game chat is pretty nice.

i know one thing for sure, i dont pay 60 bucks a year to cry about it on the internets

i dont pay for my xbox live usualy my friend gets me them for free cuz his brother or i usualy just do the half price deal :) when you call them by phone

i know one thing for sure, i dont pay 60 bucks a year to cry about it on the internets

kyletoker

Everyone's answer is going to be different, and I can only speak for myself.

I don't mind the fee because I use the party system all the time. That includes party chat as well as cross game invites. All of this available at the OS level, which speaks to how well integrate Live features are into the console itself. No need to fire up a separate appt party up. Any time, no matter what you're doing on the console.

I also like how accessible and responsive the policy enforcement team is. They're on twitter and make regular appearances at trade events, not to mention their online presence when something goes wrong... like the MW2 javelin glitch. Of course, it was IW's responsibility but MS took the extra step and suspended people that abused it.... this came straight from their director. Response from the competition was... nada.

It's just little things like that, that make the service worthwhile in my household.

[QUOTE="kyletoker"]

i know one thing for sure, i dont pay 60 bucks a year to cry about it on the internets

HilbillyRokstar

i'm 1 month withgout xbox live gold i only had gold i mean the trial one when i maede my account i don't pay for that **** 60 bucks thats totaly insane and too expencive btw xbox live gold 12 months costs 40 euros here its a code so...

Cross game chat, online play, some apps like last.fm, twitter, facebook, and early access to some demos I believe (like gold users can play it 1 week before silver or something)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

You can still 'cross' private chat via silver and buy stuff from the marketplace. It's a great service but I don't renew it that much because I don't play online much. and that's all I feel I'm getting from it

iam gonna say online play.

why not just read one of the other hundred threads with similar titles about the same thing for your answer?

60$???

thats weird. i pay a lot less then that being a beta tester and 9 year member ;) ;) ;)

and if its a paid service, that usually means it will function more smoothly and be maintained well (cough not psn cough)

Online play, party chats, some exclusive demos, excluvisve features on some stuff (Halo Waypoint for example) and so on.

M$ offered me a renewal at $39/yr , but i bought a prepaid card for $35. I might not renew this spring if they try to make me pay $60. XBL is def not worth $60/yr.

but other than the exact $, the $$ you spend on Xboxlive is for online multiplayer, early access to demos, access to netflix and espn3.com (both which you can access using your computer, but its more convenient to just use the xbox if u ask me). hopefully in the future they bring back games like 1 vs 100 again.

You're paying for online multiplayer. Be honest, practically no one would pay for Live if online multiplayer was free.

Funny how some on here complain about paying $60 a year, but then rationalize paying a monthly sub for an MMO game like World of warcraft and similar MMO's that cost $15 or so a month. $60 a yr, thats only $5 a month. You cant even buy a large starbucks frappuchino for less then $5.35 and that's only ONE drink! sheesh

I don't have too much of a problem with paying for XBL. We should just be grateful it's 60 bucks a year and not 60 bucks a month.

I don't have too much of a problem with paying for XBL. We should just be grateful it's 60 bucks a year and not 60 bucks a month.

MathMattS

Be grateful? Ha. I'm not grateful of Microsoft for anything.

[QUOTE="MathMattS"]

I don't have too much of a problem with paying for XBL. We should just be grateful it's 60 bucks a year and not 60 bucks a month.

Vari3ty

Be grateful? Ha. I'm not grateful of Microsoft for anything.

For real. Why should I be grateful.? They're are the ones that need to be grateful to it's customers if they want them around.

But I personally just like XBL. PSN isn't at all bad. It just doesn't have a few key features that I couldn't go without for online gaming. Not to mention that most people I know own an xbox.