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Why Xbox Live isn't free
>> From gamesradar.com:
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Until recently, Microsoft could brag about how Live was by far the most feature-complete online service on any platform, with a unified Friends list, the best online shop, voice and video chat as standard and a consistent and stable online experience. But in recent months there's been a shift in the market, and even bigger changes are coming. Microsoft is the only player to charge for online play, and their policy has landed some of the best online games on the 360... but as PC and PlayStation developers offer comparable features at no extra cost, the Gold subscription starts to lose its shine. The launch of the PC's Steam Community late last year and promises made by Sony at January's Consumer Electronics Show have placed Microsoft on the back foot, and has all of us asking: what does your annual subscription pay for?
Live's best asset is that it allows even small developers to support online play - the value of which can't possibly be denied. Without it, we'd never see online play in small-budget XBLA titles or even marginalised full-price games. The question to ask is whether or not that's worth the precious money from your pocket, on rotation, every 12 months.
From the player's end experience, Live is the leader, but it's hardly a full fifty bucks/forty-quid ahead of its competition. The market has changed since 2002 and so long as the PlayStation Network and Steam Community threaten to match Live feature-for-feature, Live needs to be obviously better in some other way, especially in the UK where it costs a full fifteen quid more for a yearly subscription than the $50 (£25) cost over in the U.S.
At some point in the coming months, PSN will rob Live's Friends List, completing its mimicry of Microsoft's system. It's at that point where questions must start to be asked of Live. It's certainly easier for developers, but as gamers, perhaps we should rightly expect just a little more from our Gold subscription.
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Full Story: gamesradar.com (3 pages)
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