the value might be good

still it doesn't change the fact that Microsoft is simply ripping off their fanbase... Don't get me wrong XBox fans... Live is good, as i often said it is the primary reason that the 360 could be considered Next Gen among others... and XBox users would gladly pay for it (i'm not saying you guys are stupid for paying for it) cause you recognize the value. but still it doesn't change the fact that Microsoft is just being the extortionist that it is by billing something that could be provided for free... Sony just made them look bad by making the public realize this.

This does not explain why it cost money...

I pay 25$/month for my tv, not 100$, with 325 channels (enough, for me at least, lol, my favorites are in the list :D). And 50$ a year is not BIG, it's just useless, it's like paying for everything bill gate is buying... I mean, we are what, 10 millions on xbox live? so 1m*50/year=50,000,000$/year for M$... I mean, I know that bandwith cost some money but... that much? lol, yeah right. Anyway, The ps3 and the wii have it for free, so M$ is simply ripping off their customers...

ps3 rules all

ps3 rules

.

Both the PSN and Wii online are ***** in comparision, if you haven't noticed. $50 is nothing for an actual unified system, unlike the PSN's 3rd-party system.

i'm with you

it can be free sony is proof and nintendo has the online going thats also going to be free...its the same with the ps2 and the xbox...ps2 online play was free and live was still $50 for the same game on both platforms....come on now microsoft you cant feed us bull....we know

Lol, what a terrible comparison

It's kinda stupid to compare 360 XBL to the PS3 PSN since the PS online still sucks and XBL destroys it in every way, but comparing Xbox to PS2? The difference between Live and PS online was even greater then, it is not the same thing. With PS2 online, you got what you payed for, and you didn't pay anything. The PS2 online was free because it was absolute sh*t, please never compare it to XBL. Even the XBL Beta was better than PS2's online. Now, PS3 online is free because Sony needs something to fight with. And XBL is still easily better. We'll see if that changes with HOME

this guy ain't me...

but the ps3 does rule though this isn't the venue for this statement man.

hey ...

you're are worse than that Wolf guy... everybody knows that the value of Live is well worth the $50 and NOBODY IS ARGUING THAT!!! what everyone is saying is why charge for something that can be provided for FREE in the first place... and no $100-a-month-cable-tv-fee-analogy is going to answer the question of why pay for something that, as is being proven, can be provided for free to your fanbase.

Very true as if M$ doesnt have enough money

M$ has soo much money compared to Sony. And even so Sony continues to give us free online and they both offer basically the SAME THING(tv shows/movies dont count because you gota pay for those). Only game I play on the xbox 360 is UMK3 and it LAGS like its FREE and the controller DPAD BLOWSSSS. The ps3 controller is light, has a long battery, no rumble, six axis, and the best dpad I have ever used (100x better then ps2's dpad). And what is really gay about xbox live is if you use your credit card and buy the 1 year subscription they automatically charged that credit card you used before again on teh second year without permission which makes this shi_t so much worse. Xbox live has a silver (free) but you cant do sh_it with it mainly not being to play online.....-_- And get downloads like 3 months late. PSN is going to make xbl look like the real piece of garbage it is.

This tells jack crap

That tells me nothing. Why Xbox has adds and we pay for online? MSN messenger is free and it has adds, text, video, chat, and games. WTF M$ u know damn well what you are doing is wrong. This will never change till Sony has their online service for free WITH unified capability and the same as the 360.

360

An XBOX360 + 12month Live sub is still cheaper than a PS3 where I come from :)

Lol yeah 50 bucks a year is nothing

That made alot of sense buddy. You only get charged for MMORPG. Games like Killzone, Resistance, Mortal KOmbat 2, Rampage, The Darkness + more...............FREE ONLINE. 50 bucks for what? A laggy ass match that people drop out of because the lag is so baddd. M$ doesnt care how bad it lags as long as they get there moeny from you suckers they dont give a fuc_k. LOL they brought there way in gaming......why? For money and money only. The games are good but the service and system is garbage.

to

what? have you ever played ps online? its the same damn thing, call of duty 3 is the same on both systems only ps online is free. and if you are just talking about the xbox live menu, don't even get me started on home. i'm in the beta and it blows xbox lives menu screens out of the water

i agree

also RE online, mgs online and monster hunter were way more fun than halo 2 online

kay

i reckon the hardware features of both the 360 and the ps3 where you come from is the same with others around the world??? unless your premium (probalities favor that u own a premium) allows for Blu Ray plaback, wifi, hdmi, psp compatibility, etc... your statement doesn't really mean anything... cause the difference in price of the 360 and ps3 is comprised of more aspects than you're making it out.

I own both systems

When it was ps2 online vs xbox online 50 bucks a year was a rip off specially when you have socom on the ps3 (halo is overrated and too many cheaters at the time) and everyone was always on it was so much fun. Now with 360 and ps3 you can almost say its equally balanced. The 360 just had everything planned out and playing online was awesome well worth 50 bucks. Ps3 was ok but lack of ingame XMB and cross invites didn't make it as good and no one was online but since it was free you really cant complain With HOME things should start to pickup and games like KIllzone come out it could come close but the 360 has a bigger online community, its so easy to stay connected with everyone (access your friends list from the comp and send them messages or read some), and bigger game selection. If ps3 gets more features that the 360 has (ingame xmb/invites) and gets a bigger library of games with online and still manages to keep it free then i would stop using xbl.

.

I think everyone has forgotten the xbox division is actually losing money.

xbl+ripoff Xbox 360+cheap hardware

I paid 50 bucks for the trash and I cant use it because I got the 3 red lights and ppl are telling me to wrap it with a towel???? Are u F_u_c_k_i_n_g joking? The xbox 360 is a cheap piece of garbage.

xbox 360 suckss

xbox 360 suckss

360

But what does blu ray, hdmi (not an issue with Elite) and PSP compat have to with online gaming? It works out to approx 25cents AUD per day for XBL... is it really such an issue? Can you not spare 25c a day?

ps3

edot: I'm a dirty jew ps3 fanboy : O

..

I know ps3 rules and all other systems are garbage..

...

Respect your elders. Xbox Live took online gaming where it is today. The service is well worth the money. I think it's great what Sony have done by not charging for their service. In a way they had to if they want to complete with the 360 online offering. Whether or not they can continue to offer the service for free when the install base grows is a different matter. They need to recoup that lost revenue from somewhere. It's going to cost tens of millions of dollars to build, run and support the serves required to have a community of millions on their service. Enjoy it while you can. Most 360 users don't mind paying for the service because it's obviously more refined, more feature rich then the PS3 and Wii online services.

thats why

coming from both major online worlds, I can tell you that xbox live is better because of all the minute problems and glitches that are taken care of. being free, sony doesn't do a great job taking care of cheaters and creating lag-free servers. they have improved for ps3, but still doesn't live up to the quality that live produces.

!

PS3 SUX!

!

XBOX Live will always be better. o - ok, Sony doesn't charge for their online service > but they pass that fee onto the developers - Sony charge developers to put content on the PSN whereas XBL is free - thats why there will always be much much more 3rd party content on the XBLM. plus XBOX Live is a unified service - i can voice chat, invite, text message, or even IM someone while me/they are in another game/dashboard. therefore > i would gladly pay 0.09pGBP a day for this service :D

Not true

Ps3 online can have 20 v 20 lag free games, where as xbox 360 struggles to hold 8 people.. Yes ps3 rules and all other systems suck.

GOPAL892005 your such a noob

You don't pay to do any of those things like send messages or voice chat or IM someone while there in a game thats all free. You probaly don't even know what your paying for d/u/m/b/a/s/s.

RE: DEVISE

xbox 360 sucks

re: bob

"I can tell you that xbox live is better because of all the minute problems and glitches that are taken care of." Oh yeah Motorstorm just got an update. So is PSN better now? "sony doesn't do a great job taking care of cheaters" Motorstorm was recently patched to stop ppl from cheating. "creating lag-free servers" Calling all cars never lags(PSN GAME). No lag in Motorstorm either and its free. I never heard of lag until I played xbox live. DOA4, Gears of War, UMK3, Call of duty 2, and more all lag pretty bad to the point where I think my Xbox is broken AGAIN. It lags SO BAD as if it was free IMO. "doesn't live up to the quality that live produces." Only thing Xbox has the ps3 doesn't is more ppl online and more online games. Please don't ever do that again.

xbox live suxx

in microsoft land you have to pay for everything, even for gamerpictures, skins, changing your gametag. there are 10 millions of people bought an xbox 360.. and 50$ for live you have to pay per year ok ? 10 million x 50 $ is *****ing 500 million dollar per year for microsoft..... give me just a 1 million dollar and i can give you a way way better service than xbox live.. no problem with the games for 360 there are cool.. but, the problem is microsoft they are ripping off their customers.... thus the whole ''paying for a good service'' story is bull*****.. .. I was an xbox 360 owner until i saw the thruth.. oo and what about the 20 GB hdd which you have to pay 100$ for.. i cracked the case of the hdd open and i saw that it was just a samsung sata notebook hdd which costs ~20 $. the original 120gb hdd is cheaper than microsoft's 20 GB... and you can't replace it with another hdd because there is a lock in xbox 360. Microsoft aims at profit and nothing else ..

No...

It's worth it just for the sheer number of demos we get...and not just for 360 games, there have been cross platform games that we got a demo for and ps3 didn't...hmm I wonder why... Not to mention a very healthy dose of trailers, and most importantly some sort of online functionality in all games, with those games being online supporting voice chat, always among other things... If you don't see that PSN is lacking because it's free, you are blind...sure you get basic multiplayer...but all other options are up in the air and up to the developer...

..

Please learn to spell before making a valid point.

...

Yes I know it sucks because it has all the best games and services. Totally sucks having the best system.

No...

Once PSN has demos being released when 360 releases demos (for cross platform games), has weekly arcade updates (new content, not just old PS1/2 games) and guarentees functions like voice chat, game invites and leadboards in ALL online games and arcade games...as well as HD game and movie trailers......then maybe MS will be ripping us off...till then, PSN isn't up to snuff...

re

OMFG, only $50 in USA. In europa xbox live costs €60, that's $80. But I have a ps3 with free online service, and it works well. And what's the price of the ps3 in USA? If it's $600, in europa we pay $200 more (€600 = $807).

M$

So M$ argues that we get lots of content, messaging and cross platform stuff, thats why we need to pay for a subscription. WHY can't we play online games for free, and then PAY for the fancy stuff - like cross platform, messaging etc. I don't use that stuff - I just want to go online and play games. Rip off merchants.

kay

all i'm saying is if you're using price comparison you shouldn't devalue one item... the ps3 is indeed more expensive and everybody knows that... and everybody knows too why that is the case... ur statement is misleading to people and inaccurate... there are reasons why the ps3 is more expensive... and not all of it has something to do with online gaming but still should be equated. as for 25cAUD you are right... i would spare that if i was a 360 owner.

JUST WANT TO SAY NOW

THERE'S AN UNREGISTERED QUIXAND QUESTION IN THIS DISCUSSION... HE IS NOT ME. thanks

Ah...

Good point. The rest of you are dumb.

yeaaa

agree ms is a bunch of pirates trying to steall your *****.... i still lvoe their games and online service but it shouldnt be worth 50 a year, i would ratehr pay 5-10 a year that would be a great price.

.

I like how fantards like quixand complain about paying 25 cents a day for live then buy 3 PS3s and so many blu gay movies you don't even open them all. Yeah I guess that's just too much money for you to afford.

just doing my part Common Sense

don't hate the player hate the game

Stop Bogus Accounts!

Having a cost limits the number of bogus accounts being created. Your account is more valuable and encourages you to take responsibility of the service. There's nothing stopping someone creating an account to solely be a nuisance / hack / break other codes of conduct without a thought of the consequences. They are safe in the knowledge that they have an infinite number of opportunities to make a fresh one. I am very happy to pay for what continues to be an incredibly reliable, high-value service.

Jeez

Some of you guys are right cheap arse bastards, if your complaining about 9p a day.

RE: Quixand

"Ps3 online can have 20 v 20 lag free games" wow in 1 game, 1 and 1 only. Seems that just because 1 developer hosts some servers for free for you guys you think that means every developer is gonna do it. Sorry to burst the bubble but that just aint gonna happen, get used to paying to play for some games as developers wont want to keep spending because Sony leave it all upto them.

Wtf

Microsoft has time to comment on xbl but not on da red light problem and there cheap hardware i mean i bought a xbox 2 months ago just to play gow (now i realize da only exclusive game worth playing ) yeah here we go play a couple of hours switch off da console next week i cum back to a red light console i said hmm gt myself warrenty went back to da shop gt myself another 1 gt home yeah check out forza (if u havent played it dont believe da hype) and wat do i get dejavu lyk denzel fu-k dat cheap piece of hardware my brothers ps3 works 4 him its surviving already 4 eight months no problems if u dont have a next gen console get a ps3 and build high end pc,look 90percent of da games on 360 are going to be on da ps3 and da rest will be on pc except halo 2.2 so if you buy 4-8 360s you couldve bought a ps3 and build a crysis pc and one more thing microsoft from you x-supporter you make us pay for cheap hardware just get out of da gaming industry

Wtf

Microsoft has time to comment on xbl but not on da red light problem and there cheap hardware i mean i bought a xbox 2 months ago just to play gow (now i realize da only exclusive game worth playing ) yeah here we go play a couple of hours switch off da console next week i cum back to a red light console i said hmm gt myself warrenty went back to da shop gt myself another 1 gt home yeah check out forza (if u havent played it dont believe da hype) and wat do i get dejavu lyk denzel fu-k dat cheap piece of hardware my brothers ps3 works 4 him its surviving already 4 eight months no problems if u dont have a next gen console get a ps3 and build high end pc,look 90percent of da games on 360 are going to be on da ps3 and da rest will be on pc except halo 2.2 so if you buy 4-8 360s you couldve bought a ps3 and build a crysis pc and one more thing microsoft from you x-supporter you make us pay for cheap hardware just get out of da gaming industry

wow

See most of these people arguing why we have to pay are 5 year old kids who have to whine to mommy and daddy for sum doe. Guess what kiddies, get a job and pay for it yourself.

wow

Struggles to hold 8? WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. And Halo 3 beta (BETA) could hold 16 players with no problem. The only reason there is lag is from cheaters. That is NOT the Xbox Live servers themselves. That is interferance from the players. And the ps3 has its times too. Oh and by the way if the ps3 is the best system, then why has it only sold 3.5 Mil compared to the Wii which has sold nearly 8.5 Mil in the same time????!!!!!! And why the 360 is still on top. Keep telling urself that, i mean look at all the great games the ps3 ha........... Never mind.

^^^

Maybe for the first year. But $50 every year after that and it adds up to more than the PS3 where I come from.

to the fake Quixand

Get a life f@got

@ Quixand

One of the things we pay Microsoft for Live for is support (software not hardware). If there is a problem with PSN (doesnt matter big or small - just example), and they have to develop a patch, where does the money to do so come from? You are telling me that Sony will continue to fund the costs of supporting Home throughout its life, all the while developing it at a competitive rate with Xbox Live? How?

GRRRR

THIS IS BULCHIT I PAY LIKE 20 BUCKS FOR MY PC INTERNET AND GOT THE SAME FEATURES AND THEY NOT CHARGE ME FOR PLAYING ONLINE THIS IS *****ING IDIOT GRRR I WANT MY MONEY

Xbox Live is tha best

i played Call of Duty 3 since crhristmas on Xbox live. i experience Nno lag at all since christmas. And all online games have lag you idiot, PSN and Xbox Live. You pay for XBL because the money goes to running costs and making it better. There is Xbox 360 faliures because of a poor build quality, the cooling fans are not good enough and the CPU fries. But other than that the 360 is a better system.

When will you fanboys realize?

Microsoft=greedy, morons... Why haven't you realized this yet? Look at their windows genuine advantage...Look at how they rip people off with vista, and how it is an unstable OS, and it will probably take 5 years, for it to actually be stable like it took for m$ with XP.

14 cents a day ohhhh no

Let me get this straight you paid 0 for a ps3 but for some reason is to much to shell out it seems like you should get a job and do the math cause 14 cents a day to play games online if you can't afford that then maybe your ps3 should be on eBay instead of in your room.

Changing name

I like the fact that they charge for changing your gamertag. This stops little kids from going into a game a TK'ing or talking trash then changing their name so we dont know it was them. Kids are not going to have the $$$ to keep changing their names.

erm

Messenger is supported by advertisements.

Well...

When it comes to the ability to play games...the reason 99.9% of us bought a console...then yes, their features are the same and PS3 is overpriced... I've said it before and i'll say it a million times more, PS3 is only worth the cash as a blu-ray player....if you want to play games and don't give a sh*t about gimmicks, then 360 is cheaper and better... So his point is valid 360+XBL IS cheaper then a PS3....that's a fact...don't tell me about the extra crap sony forced on you that you want to beleive you need but really dont..... 2% of people with 360's bought the HD-DVD attachment, that says how much people care about watching movies on it....

live

Its worth it if it means deveopers wont just drop support after a year or so like they did on ps2 games.

good

well i think that both are heading at a good direction. i would rather pay 50 a year than 100 month for cable. like they said, i play more than i watch tv now.

nothing

He does say msn messenger is supported by ads. " MSN messenger is free and it has adds, text, video, chat, and games."

F** xbox live

CANT YOU SEE THEY ARE RPPING U OFF?! BUY A PS3 INSTEAD! THE ONLINE IS FREE AND IT WILL NEVER BREAK!

sony makes crap systems too

You mean it will never break just like the slim PS2? The playstation 2 got worse in quality as it got cheaper. Just look at all the broken PS2s for sale on ebay. Sony just does a better job of keeping hardware failure secret. They do not have forums for discussing hardware failure like XBOX does. They also do not have any repair services, you just have to buy a new one.

people

people are complaining about having the worlds best online service for 12 months of the year for 50 bucks or 4 dollars and 16 cents a month unbelievable

people

people are complaining about having the worlds best online gaming service for 12 months of the year for 50 bucks or 4 dollars and 16 cents a month, unbelievable

to kapow

You idiot. XBOX LIVE has advertisements on it too. I own both consoles and I don't pay for online. Any multi platform game that comes out that has multi player aspects to it I buy for my PS3 and I don't have to pay for jack. M$ charges you 400 for a console with no wi-fi no HDMI port and a tiny Hard Drive and then charges you an extra 50 dollars a year to be able to play online. DO the math geniuses. They claimed that they were gonna take over the living room back at E3 2005 but their multimedia functionality sucks when compared to the PS3's. You get a lot more bang for you buck with the PS3 and once their AAA titles hit the market it will be all the more obvious.

look.

i dont care about paying for xbl.. the fact that we have to pay for extra content for our games.. now thats crazy.. i have to pay for new maps in gears and other games?! wtf!? isnt + enough!?

xbox live

xbox live has also improved in the lag so what are you talking about quixand

oopsie

i meant isnt 60 dollars + enough money for games. we have to pay for extra crap 2

rriigghht

1 million dollars eh are you forgetting that xbox live is a worldwide network a 1 million dollars online service would a run maybe a state or two but not worldwide

Terrible

What a terrible reason. We have to pay for an internet provider, the games, the console, and the online. No thanks. PSN is free because Sony isn't M$

m$ online

come on compare the price of xbox 360 and ps3. sony charge twice as much for the console so surely xbox online is worth it and for extra cotrollers and all that $h!t u pay nothin compaired to all that sony cr@p but i do also say that m$ do own windows so they could give the xbox 360's away and still get proffet

well...

Is everyone holding people to their standerds now? I work more than 40 hrs a week and can barely afford rent, food, and a car payment. So paying $60 dollars for a game, $50 dollars to play it online, and then even more for the downloadable content? Plus since im also a full time college student i wouldnt have much time to enjoy a $50 subscription, not on top of my internet bill and other bills... Makes a lot of you sound like kids with too much time on your hand when you say its only .25 a day. but i kinda envy people that think that $50 dollars isnt much, it might fill up your tank of gas or even put food in someones mouth lol. anyway im not bashing xbox i'm just saying MS is rich anyways... with or without xbox they still have the rights to windows.... and that has a much wider install base.

shouldnt mention market place

they shouldnt mention market place cuz you still ahve to buy the videos etc. they should make the silver version of live jsut online play and friends.

Fanboy STFU

I am tired of these motherfuc*ing fanboys. Fact is no one is arguing rather or not Live is worth fifty bucks a year, because certainty it is. The fact is Live is absolutely great. I mean Video chat, IM, Voice Chat, XBLA, XBLM, Game With Fame, Movies, Tv Shows, and more-likely-than-not music, all in one convenient stop, is worth fifty dollars, easy. I think many people missed the analogy. People are willing to pay for cable/satellite per month starting at twenty bucks a month and working it's way to one-hundred seventy-five dollars (that's what I pay). Cable is XBL, why pay for cable when you can have regular TV (PSN)? That is a rhetorical question! I personally can not live without cable let alone a service I spend twenty hours a week on. The simple fact is that no one on this board can say that Microsoft or Sony can provide a unified network without making their customers pay. Because Sony doesn't have a unified network and is free, and Microsoft does and is cheap. P.S. I am not a fanboy, Xbot, or a Gaystationer. I own both a PS3 and 360: PSN Name: DG23, Gamertag: Andrew K18 so burn is hell....Birtches!

i kno

ok we should pay 4 it but.....make the videos,themes and arcade games free

xbl and psn

xbl has lag and bad mic quality psn no lag and good (like phone) mic quality i like gears on my 360 but not when its laging like the shotgun bullets come like a second i push the trigger and its not my internet i have cable internet on my ps3 i can be at some persons house and have like 15% connection on wireless and i stilll have no laggy game i like both consoles and i own both consoles and i like the 360 for private chat and game invites and custom soundtracks but ps3s going to get that later in like 2.0 update and its still going to be free and plus home

Impossiable

Even the PSN doesn't give away their dwnl. games! Plus developers would stop making themes, pics, etc... if they're not going to get some sort of profit. Would you build a fence for free? No, well, neither will a game developer or game studio create a theme or game for free. If we take that argument to it's logical conclusion, than why not sixty-dollar games be free also? Furthermore, If by video's you mean game videos those are free, but if you mean movies and shows, that is stupid! Does blockbuster or Netflixs rent movies for free? No! And neither should XBL

Sorry, misspelled Impossible

I don't want some bastar* to tell me to learn to use spell-check.

Good Point

You're right some games on 360 have lag and some don't. My COD3 never skips a frame, but GOW will lag it's @ss off. My friend and I chat all the time and never have bad mic quality. Given we both use the wireless mic. Which PS3 also uses a wireless mic and also will have great quality. There's not lagin the sound only junkie mics. I like my 360 and PS3, although I much rather play on the 360 because of the X-factor... gamercard! I love the gamercard. I'm not sure if home will be as integrated as gamercard, but I'm sure home will be great fun.

...oh well...

I just think that if someone from Sony asked you to work for them for 8 hours a day maintaining their servers without getting paid for it, you'd tell them where they could stick their Sixaxis. Let's be real. It takes money to do anything. You couldn't own a car without paying for something, nor a house and certainly not a girlfriend. Believe me I know. My wife is a gamer and I have to pay for all of her stuff too.

FACTS

XBL: Great features, nice marketplace, constant updates all for the small price of $50 a year...downside...Most games online lag a lot PSN: Games rarely lag, free services, future features look promising....downside....Store updates every thursday with mostly BS we already have access to via IGN and almost every other video game site out there. Media issues...why mention you play MP4 files when almost every popular version of MP4 is non-compatible with your system? System should have been released with all if not more features than the 360. Free service, you get what you pay for...really people...you do... I'm no fanboy, I own both systems and each one has their good and bad but really people, if you think the PS3 is equal to the 360 right now you're too far up Sony's ass. The PS3 no doubt will be a powerhouse once Sony gets the ball rolling but they should have had all this out by now and everything figured out by the time the system launched this way their wouldn't be these discussions. *Grabs shield and sword to prepare for battle*

What the hell...

To LIQUidSnaKe So you're trying to tell me PS2 online was better than XBL? You've got to be joking. The two were miles apart, with XBL in front, not behind. PS2 online was a joke. A different account for every game? Garbage

Post 1

I had a PS3 and an Xbox 360, I took my PS3 back and traded it in, i made a huge loss, that piece of junk was never worth the money, and whats sadder is the fact anyone who has both, knows the 360 is better. XBL puts shame on anything the PS3 can come up with, it doesnt matter, the price? Is well, so small, I could eaisly spend what i pay yearly monthly for my service, I wont, but for what i get in return its worth it, Ps3 has no games, nothing better, If i want HMDI i will glady get an elite along with a new TV. why follow blindy justbecause your too stupid to admit yoi ppl *****ed up by buying a PS3.

suggestion

i agree with the 2 people above me...however i do think that even tho it is cheap and keeps people from ruining the experience..why not make the price cheaper?

Retards

If you are lagging when playing online then look at getting a better connection. (You will lag online if you have a bad connection and/or the people you are playing against have a bad connection....don't blame lag on Live because you look foolish) If you can't afford an extra $50 (not even the price of a retail game) then you should look at another hobby. PSN is not nearly as mature/full featured as Xbox live - so don't try and act like they are on par. Even execs from Sony are hinting at charging in the future.

M$

Whether or not you think Live is worth £40, the point is this... You cannot play a game online without paying for Live - whether you want "cross platform", messaging, music, videos, or not. As I understand it, and I'm sure someone will 'politely' (!)correct me if I'm wrong, Xbox games are not hosted on a dedicated M$ server, but are hosted on the players Xboxs. So why should this service be included in the Gold Membership? it's not like we're using any of M$'s bandwidth - we're paying for it from our ISPs! Silver Membership should really include access to play games online, and buy downloadbale content. Gold should let you get access to messaging, video, music, cross platform, arcade and whatever other e-gizmo they dream up that week.

ah hem

i own all three sytems out, and im not 4 any of that fanboy *****ake. the 360 is definately worth the 50 dollars to go online. the ps3 is boring when i go online with it, and you can't really find anybody on it.even if you do want to find somebody, you have to leave the game you're playing and scroll through a list of blank tags to find the name. on 360, i can meet somebody in a game, and add them right at the same time.plus i can chat with them in a CLEAR video chat with no lag.and i can private chat with them without having to leave a game. SO the 360 is worth 50 dollars for a great social network, instead of a free network that hard to talk with people, and has no way of adding people in game. now if only the wii could get voice :p

dont forget

that its not really $50 a year. its more like $50 for 11 months, cuz you gotta subtract the 1 month your 360s are in for repair.

I'm glad it's not free

Cuts down on bull*****. Creates a NEED for quality, unlike my PS3's ***** online. I believe Sony will charge at some point in the future for certain services. Halo 2 / CS still rape.

ads

Lol, the adverts on live are for content you can download from the service. On msn they are usually for films, dating services and other crap no one wants. And I think by "adds" he meant adding contacts. Idiot.

360

What about an XBOX360 + 12month Live sub + bigger hardrive + cost of repairs + wifi ????? DOUBT THTS MORE THAN A PS3..