If developers really want to stop second-hand sales of games, maybe they should make better,longer games that people will want to play multiple times. My kid beat Halo 4 in under 4 hours. The last like 3 or 4 Mario games all took him only 1 night to beat. On the other hand, I've dumped around 150 hours into Skyrim, over 50 hours into Dragon's Dogma and many, many hours in the other games I buy. Sony doing this will only ensure that I buy less games. I will only be buying games I know for a fact will last me awhile and be worth my money. Especially since this also means I can't sell bad games. In the end, SOny won't go through with this though. They'll have already lost the next console war if they did. I'm thinking this tech is more intended for the road ahead when other companies integrate similar features.

@tendoboy1984 @PureSkillAndLuk I've always been against paying for Xbox Live. Many, many others have always felt the same way. What this article is saying, is that with this coming generation, Micro$oft should ditch this bogus pratice. They won't cuz they're a money-grubbing juggernaut, but in a perfect world, XBL would be a free service.

@deathblow3 @SavageEvil Yes you lose those games, but you didn't pay for them in the first place and you keep them as long as you're a plus member. You still also get discounts on PSN games and dlc and early access to some releases. Much more incentive to pay a yearly fee than just "we'll let you play ALL of your game you just purchased" and "we'll give you access to that service you're already paying for with the internet connection you already pay for".

Some folks have stated that Sony will likely start charging for online service this coming generation. I seriously doubt that. The free online service and the BluRay are essentially what set the PS3 apart this gen. Having half the RAM of the 360 has hurt the system quite a bit. Making it far more difficult to develope for (look at Bethesda's woes, among many others). Only the extra memory BluRay offers have kept them on par with the 360. I'm a PS3 fan through and through though. I'm just saying that it seems very unlikely Sony will forego the one of the biggest reasons for choosing their system for the next generation. And I find it highly unlikely Micro$oft is going to stop ripping us off by charging for what should be free. They make millions a year off subscription fees. As uncool as it is to keep charging, they're not going to stop charging and give us a better deal because Micro$oft doesn't care about their customers. They care about money.

@MajinSquall Yeah, anyone can use the games on the system with the licenses on it. If you download your account to another 360 though, you have to be signed on for anyone else to use those games. So, like in my house where my kid and I both have a 360, I'd have to repurchase those games for him to use them at the same time I am. Unless they've changed it in the last couple years, you can't be signed onto two systems at once. Honestly I haven't tried in a long time, but it didn't work back when I tried.

@deadrecon24 So far as I can tell, that "hell of a lot of features" are all chat related. I can't think of anything else XBL offers that PSN doesn't for free. True XBL hasn't been hacked. For some that alone might be worth the extortion fees. Party chat and security features that I guaranty SOny now has aren't enough for me. I don't like paying to unlock features that are already there.

@Dareitus Not sure how I'm wrong about that one. If I have to be signed in for people to play my games, then that's pretty much what I was saying. Once they're downloaded on a PS3, anyone can play them at anytime. Regardless whether I'm signed on or not. As long as my account is on the system.

@Chaos_Dante_456 Abosulutely! When I turn on my Xbox I immediately see a screen filled with commercials for movies, music, and other peoples' products. Products I can't access because I'm no longer a Gold member. Not games, dlc for games, or anything gaming related. Sony's dashboard is easier to navigate and advertisements are small texts floating unobtrusively in the corner. With more info based on games than anything else. Gotta love Sony.

@yearssomuch SOny doesn't really have you transfer real currency into digital credits. You pay for what you are buying. The exact amount. There is a $5 minimum purchase for this though. So yes, if you buy something under $5, you'll have the remainder as credit on your account. But this credit will apply to whatever else you buy. You don't have to buy 1000 more points and hope and pray you don't have points leftover. If you bought dlc for $2.87, you have a balcne of $2.13. If your next purchase is $10, you don't have to spend $10 to buy another 1000 points. You pay $7.87 and the $2.13 you have in credit goes toward that purchase. And this will never occur on purchases over $5.

I agree completely with this article. You should be rewarded for paying for your service. Not simply have your available services unlocked. People complain all the time about on-disc dlc in games, yet will support Micro$oft's decision to charge you for the same concept for XBL. The perfect new example is Internet Explorer. WOuld you pay to use your browser on your pc? Are you paying for that service right now? Why on Earth should you have to pay Micro$oft a monthly or yearly fee simply to unlock features that are already available on your 360? I stopped paying these extortionists the second I got my PS3. People are defending M$ in how online play is better and the dashboard is better and whatnot, but that has nothing to do with the monthly fee you pay. It's the architecture of the 360 and the fact that it's built closer to a pc than PS3. I can sum it up this way to all the people getting upset about this article. Do you pay a monthly fee to access nearly all of your pc's features? Would you? Then why do you have to for XBL?