Xbox Live Pricing

[inefficient]

I think it's based off a quote taken out of context. However, Sony did charge for demos during the PS1 gen, at least on the PS Underground seasonal packs. I remember paying like $3-5 for one
about 7 years ago. It seemed like an inconsequential amount of money at the time, and there were a good number of playable demos. I'd never do it again though. PEACE.

We were paying money because they weren't downloadable.

Hell, if you are talking 7+ years ago, I remeber buying gaming magazines at news stands for about the same amount because they had CDROMs full of demos in them.

I think most people were doing this since downloading even a CDs worth of content over a 14.4modem was pretty lame.

 

[cthellis42]

I think it's based off a quote taken out of context. However, Sony did charge for demos during the PS1 gen, at least on the PS Underground seasonal packs. I remember paying like $3-5 for one
about 7 years ago. It seemed like an inconsequential amount of money at the time, and there were a good number of playable demos. I'd never do it again though. PEACE.

That's true, but they were physical media, and it was early on in the "demo" concept for consoles. (They did, if I remember correctly, rather jam-pack those disks, though.)

I certainly wouldn't expect them to treat it any differently than we do on PC, though.

 

[one]

And you could also argue it would to some degree act as a buffer, atrracting the sort of people who will be more interested in having a "proper" game.

What's proper or not is a relative and subjective issue, if you want to play Halo 3 online you have no other choice but to pay Xbox Live. OTOH, if multiplayer gaming in PS3 and Wii is reasonably good XBL loses its exclusive properness, especially for cross platform games.

 

[Powderkeg]

Silver you don't get flooded with online advertising.

Gold you get online play, but get exposed to online advertisting. That is a big cost. My personel time is valuable to me. To be exposed to a 30 second ad is sacrificing 30 seconds of my lifespan, one of my valuable assests.

You do know you can disable the ads, right?

It's in your Account Settings for Xbox Live.

 

[MobiusOne]

not until they see what Sony is really doing for online.

Exactly, MS doesn't need to do a darn thing at this point. Sony can have press conferences/releases and can make promises about their online services all they want but until the PS3 is released, nothing is really proven. At this point, MS doesn't need to be reactionary, hell, they've set the bar in terms of online console gaming. However, it is interesting that LIVE will be down on 10/17 due to some changes.

As for me, I just finished playing the Splinter Cell DA multiplayer demo which I downloaded from Live earlier tonight. Next week, SCDA single player demo. I love LIVE...

 

[Diamond.G]

You do know you can disable the ads, right?

It's in your Account Settings for Xbox Live.

Wait. What?? Where... I thought it had to do with the age you use for your hotmail/live log-in? There were tons of post in other xbox360 related forums that suggest this to be the case, and for it to be non-fixable.

 

[Powderkeg]

Wait. What?? Where... I thought it had to do with the age you use for your hotmail/live log-in? There were tons of post in other xbox360 related forums that suggest this to be the case, and for it to be non-fixable.

Sorry, I seem to have gotten the location of the setting wrong.

Click on your Gamertag. Go to Edit Profile. Select your Privacy Settings. Go to Xbox Marketing and select "Opt Out". That should disable the ads.


Now, in regards to what you just said, if you setup your profile as a minor the ads will be disabled by default, and there is no way to turn them back on. But if they are on you can turn them off.

 

[cthellis42]

Exactly, MS doesn't need to do a darn thing at this point. Sony can have press conferences/releases and can make promises about their online services all they want but until the PS3 is released, nothing is really proven.

That IS why the premise was "if the PS3 online service is successful," after all. (And why most everyone prefaced their statements the same way.) There's obviously no reason to change if the alternative is a mess.

That's why folks are focusing on just what the PS3 service would be if they live up to their promises, and after THAT discussing if Live would have to change its' price, or what they might have to change in service to still retain their distinction.

 

[AzBat]

The more I read on PS3's online features the more I'm wondering if Microsoft might offer a different and more robust service, but not entirely for their current SKUs but instead for the mysterious third SKU. Think about it for a sec. Providing a service like Sony's web browser for browsing of content(paid or otherwise) would definitely require a hard drive and a 20gb might not cut it. One would also think that downloading of advertisements would require a hard drive as well. A third SKU that has PC, DVR and web browsing features and a larger hard drive would be a great time to introduce a new version of the service. Users with hard drives could opt-in to the service and thereby get the browser, but for a fee to download. If PS3's network service is successful, their inclusion of the web browser could be seen as a good thing since it might force Microsoft to do the same. That's basically the only feature currently missing that I would like to have. Providing it in such a way that doesn't go against what Microsoft has already visioned for Xbox and Vista could be a difficult balancing act though. Personally I don't see Microsoft creating a third tier to the service. Makes it too complicated. Reorganized Silver and Gold accounts makes the most sense. Silver is free and Gold is not.

Tommy McClain

 

[bystander]

If PS3's network service is successful, their inclusion of the web browser could be seen as a good thing since it might force Microsoft to do the same. That's basically the only feature currently missing that I would like to have. Providing it in such a way that doesn't go against what Microsoft has already visioned for Xbox and Vista could be a difficult balancing act though.
Tommy McClain

I think Microsoft wants to avoid the Xbox 360 competing against the PC as you said, so they might want to avoid having web browsing as it could start threating PCs in some areas. With everything becoming more web-centric, there's less reliance on say having to have applications installed to perform certain tasks.

What do most average PC users use their PC for? Probably, web browsing, communicating with friends (via email, IM, forums, etc), playing the oocasional game, managing their photo albums and such. The majority of these functions can be performed through web applications somewhere, and this may diminish the value of a PC for some if you could do this stuff on your Xbox 360 which costs less than an equivalent Media Center PC.

Allowing the Xbox 360 to browse the web opens up so many more features, it probably would be a serious threat to how much you might use your PC. (Obviously there are still many things a console wouldn't be able to do, there's no way you could print photos out, video editing is impossible, etc). I would say web browsing is at the heart of what most people use their PCs for and I probably would use my PC less if I could browse the web from a console in my living room.

 

[Sankari]

Well it would be nice if it was free. The thing is, I have been playing online with my PC alot and have gotten to see the pretty, and ugly sides of things. Atleast it has been free to me (outside MMORPG's). There are way too many assholes in the magical world of internet, in gaming especially. I don't want to pay for something like this. Live is great package as it is already and its not much that you have to pay for it, but it would always be nice if it was free.

MS probably doesn't react to Sony's online in this gen but they might take different route for the next gen.