Xbox One Games With Gold kicks off in June, resembles PlayStation Plus

Microsoft charged people a small fee because server farms around the world cost a lot of money and have to be maintained. New additions to the service have to be developed. That's the reason XBL was always a better, faster, more secure and more stable service than PSN.

PS+ only started giving away good games when Microsoft started their GWG program. I had PS+ back then and they would offer the same games 6 months straight sometimes. Sony cannot keep giving away money. They realize that to offer the same level of quality as Microsoft that they need to charge for it.

In the 12yrs that I've had XBL Gold, I've never paid more than $40/yr for it. That's nothing! And nobody should be buying anything less than a year at a time. In the 5yrs I've had PS+, I've had to pay $50/yr every time except once when I bought it off ebay.

<< LINK REMOVED >> While you are correct that the value wasn't quite there at the start, the idea of starting with a rewards program was better than immediately stripping away everything gamers had been used to having for free and throwing it behind what, at the time, was an arbitrary paywall.

Sony rewarded customers for their investment in the Playstation Network. Microsoft forced customers to pay up front and trust that the investment would pay off. But looking at the the last 9 years of Xbox Live, it's hard to find where the payoff for gamers is.

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>I love how everyone manages to forget about the eyetoy on the ps2....

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Are you kidding me? What innovation did the Wii and the Wii-U bring? Well lets think about it - the motion controller first of all - opened the doors for PS Move and Kinect, and took the standard of gaming into the virtual reality world. The Wii-U is clearly revolutionary in many ways, but possibly slightly less on the pure power side. But graphic updates and motherboard speeds can all be enhanced easily - so the "innovation" xbox and ps4 make are really just an upgrade in their hardware - the Wii-U is trying to change how we game. And they do that with the GamePad

So in this way the GamePad is the most important new addition, clearly combining the console experience with the now-very-popular tablets. All of the games are designed whit the GamePad as an integral part, and if that proves to be even nearly as popular as the Wii Remote, then Nintendo might actually define next gen.

The Wii U offers opportunities that other consoles can’t, simply because of the uniqueness of the platform, in particular the GamePad. The way that the GamePad works, where you can take the game that you’re playing on the TV and instantly transition it onto the GamePad, I think that in itself is going to become a household standard, because if you are sharing a television, this constant fight for the TV is no longer an issue.

You should really do your hw before sounding ignorant.

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> As a long time subscriber of PS+, I would not feel shafted if a new member got all my freebies without paying what I paid. But I would feel shafted that I had to pay what I paid instead of only paying what the new subscriber paid. Get it?

If they kept the games free forever, it would actually encourage people to hold off, because the longer you wait, the more money you save. As a business you don't want to be doing that do you? You want to get people in earlier, and keep them subscribed. The PS+ system is designed to do that. You remain subscribed because you continue getting more games. And you begin subscribing early so you don't 'miss out' on any freebies because they are only offered for free temporarily.

You are right that the PS+ has a large number of games available free at any one time, but that is because you get freebies for 3 or 4 systems (sometimes PSP games are offered free). They still are on a rotation basis. If something is currently free that you want and you aren't subscribed, you will miss your opportunity once it's gone. If they kept it free forever, then you wouldn't feel any pressing need to get it now, you'll just wait for more games before you finally decide to pay.

Sony and MS are a business, and this model wouldn't make business sense to them.

<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >>PS+ freebies are on rotation just the same.

Let's say you waited 3 years before subscribing, but intend to continue subscribing. You get all the games released during those 3 years in addition to what you will continue getting. That doesn't give a huge incentive for people to start paying early. The whole point of this is to get you subscribing sooner, and for longer. Otherwise people will decide they can save years worth of money by jumping in late, provided they don't feel an urgent need to play these freebies now.