Microsoft needs to make Live free

[superguy]

I was messing around on Live tonight and it suddenly ht me how awesome Live and net enabled consoles in general are.

Here's some followup on that:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/events/e32006/articles/petermooreinterview.htm

Anyway though, here's how, advertising! It worked for Google, who makes tons. Just make it not too intrusive.

I think Sony may force MS to do this too, if indeed there service is free.

Being free would open it up SOOO much to so many people.

And $50 a year is barely $4, a pittance, so free would be easy to do.


You still would load your credit card or purchase MSpoints cards to buy pay content, of course.

 

[superguy]

Err I mean $50 a year is just $4 a month

 

[Guden Oden]

XBL is a strange beast. They charge for online play, but the games we play online (while paying) typically aren't hosted on MS hardware, but rather our own consoles and use our own bandwidth. MMOs, which will be hosted on separate hardware, will have EXTRA charges attached to them, on top of what XBL costs already.

They offer demos, videos and other downloads, but that is free, at no charge.

A particulary fanatic advocate of the pay-for-play ripoff scheme of XBL (name withheld to protect the guilty ) say we pay for friends list, match browser, tournaments, prizes etc. Yet MSN Messenger offers a friends list, for free. Virtually every online PC game offers a browser, for free. Even Quake 2's master server is still live and kicking nearly a friggin decade after release. And dunno what MS does in the states, but we don't get shit as far as tournaments and prizes are concerned in europe.

So what the frick are we paying for really? XBL is nothing but a license for MS to print free money, a way of offering a service which does nothing. Or at least does nothing that they themselves and others aren't already offering other people at no charge.

 

[Paul_G]

As far as i'm concerned, the cost is a sort of barrier to entry for the sorts of people i wouldn't like to play against. If it's free, it means anyone can play, and if anyone can play, you will inevitably get all sorts of idiots ruining it for the rest of us. We already get that to a certain extent, but it's funny how much more serious people take it when they are paying for the service.

I'm sure it doesn't cost MS an awful lot to keep going, though in addition to those costs Guden, you should surely include the cost of the servers that house all the voice messages you send, the cost of all of the staff who help maintain all those servers and the service in general, but still, i think there is a big incentive not to just mess around when it's your money you're spending being there.

 

[AlNom]

And no crazy ads!

(er...right :| )

 

[hey69]

or use some smart porn ads here and there... tons of money guaranteed

 

[[maven]]

MMOs, which will be hosted on separate hardware, will have EXTRA charges attached to them, on top of what XBL costs already.

FF11 can be played with an Xbox Live Silver account, leaving you to pay "just" for the "Squenix Online" account.

 

[Platon]

I think Sony may force MS to do this too, if indeed there service is free.

It depends what kind of services they will offer. Sure it sounds good, but lets wait and see how it works in real life first. If the can offer a service of the same standard as MS hen yes, MS might have to rethink its XBL strategy...

 

[pipo]

It depends what kind of services they will offer. Sure it sounds good, but lets wait and see how it works in real life first. If the can offer a service of the same standard as MS hen yes, MS might have to rethink its XBL strategy...

I'm sure MS expected Sony's service to be free, so they probably have some plans ready to go. For what it's worth, I don't expect Gold to be free any time soon, but I do expect MS to spice the service up a lot...

Options (for Gold members): exclusive / free content, no additional fee for MGS MMO's, free credits, etc.

 

[Titanio]

Slight side-note, but Microsoft has bought Massive, a leader in in-game advertising. So ads are coming..hopefully/perhaps in preparation to take the subscription out of Live, or make more of it free.

edit - sorry, they're said to be planning to buy Massive. Deal isn't done yet.

 

[expletive]

So what the frick are we paying for really? XBL is nothing but a license for MS to print free money, a way of offering a service which does nothing. Or at least does nothing that they themselves and others aren't already offering other people at no charge.

Calling it a license to print free money implies that it costs MS *nothing* to run XBL 24/7/365, which obviously isnt the case.

The equivalent in the PC space would be a service that would aggregate ALL games on the PC platform into a single browser and universal friends list. You'd be able to see any game your firends were playing on their PC and be able to invite firends to games you were playing on yours. It would match players based on skill ratings, support multiple "zones" for parents to help protect thier kids and keep track of achievements/points.

AFAIK nothing like this exists on the PC at this point for any amount of money, much less $4/month. (that is, until 'Vista Live' is announced at E3)

That said, i think MS will continually re-assess the value proposition of XBL gold, either changing the fee schedule or adding products and services (i think the latter is more likely unless advertising becomes more prevalent,the ad space is already 'reserved' in the current dashboard).

 

[Joe DeFuria]

So what the frick are we paying for really?

If you're not paying for anything of value, then stop paying for live.

Problem solved, right? What's the problem?

 

[scooby_dooby]

Yet MSN Messenger offers a friends list, for free. Virtually every online PC game offers a browser, for free.

Maybe you should open up MSN messenger and take a peek at the bottom 100x200 pixels on the bottom of the window...right now mine is displaying adds for Expedia.ca. Browsers are only free because it's the only possible way to compete with MS who bundles their browser.

I think what MS will do is make silver free w/ ads, gold will remain ad-free.

 

[m1nd_x]

i kinda don't like ads at all, so that's why i pay for XBL sure, making it free would get a lot more people to play, but i think if they offered a version without ads that you had to pay for, lots of people would still go that route.

 

[Guden Oden]

If you're not paying for anything of value, then stop paying for live.

Problem solved, right?

I've never paid for xbl, nor do I have any plans to do so either... You do the math.

What's the problem?

Sounds more like you got the problem. You don't like free speech?

 

[Sis]

So what the frick are we paying for really?

You are paying for the dev costs, the testing costs, the infrastructure costs, the marketing costs, support costs, etc, etc.

You hit on the interesting point though: Microsoft is making a certain subset of the gaming community--the online gamer subscribing to the Gold account--subsidize the Silver accounts. Basically, they are charging the people most likely willing to pay to play, while giving those most likely not, a free pass.

Makes sense in a twisted sort of way.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I've never paid for xbl, nor do I have any plans to do so either... You do the math.

Great, so what are you bitching about then? (And why did you say "what are WE paying for"...)

Sounds more like you got the problem. You don't like free speech?

No problem here...just curious as to would you'd complain about paying for something that you're not paying for.

 

[Guden Oden]

You are paying for the dev costs, the testing costs, the infrastructure costs, the marketing costs, support costs, etc, etc.

So remind me, what exactly was it I paid for when I forked over my ~$85 for the game itself then?

Like I said, companies already offer for free - as in, no extra charges over price of the game itself - what MS charges its XBL users for. I don't see how that can be anything but a horrific deal...

 

[scooby_dooby]

Like I said, companies already offer for free - as in, no extra charges over price of the game itself - what MS charges its XBL users for. I don't see how that can be anything but a horrific deal...

No Company offers what XBLive offers for free.

 

[Nicked]

Ad-supported LIVE is only a natural progression for the service. And I doubt significantly less profitable.
I've always a key benefit of XBL was peer-persuasion.
You see your friends-list full of people playing GRAW, you want to join in, you buy the game. You go to have an online game of GRAW, but everyones busy with the latest Halo 3. You get it to join in. You want to play Halo 3 with your usual teammates but they have a new vehicle mod and you can't connect. You pony up for that mod. Etc.

I think content could be pushed alot further with a free version of LIVE (ad-supported). And if the ads are just intrusive enough to be irksome, you could convert some to XBL-gold.