The big three gaming titans, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, are currently under scrutiny of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) branch, with an investigation having been opened in regards to the policies of their online services. According to the official press release, the CMA believes that the three aforementioned companies must be investigated to ensure that UK consumers are protected, and that the subscription services are legal within the country. Though there is no proof at this time that any laws have been broken, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are required to respond to the UK government with information on their respective contracts, so that the CMA can research that the terms are fair. What they appear to be looking for are incidents where customers have had trouble cancelling the services, dealt with numerous price hikes, or were forced into having to turn on auto-renew. Once the investigation concludes, a decision will be made, and either nothing will occur, or the offending party will have action taken against them.

The CMA has written to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox requesting information about their online gaming contracts to help better understand their practices. It is also calling on customers who use these services to get in touch with the CMA and share their experiences in order to assist the investigation, which will examine several issues, including:

• are the contract terms unfair? - do the companies’ terms give them wide discretion to change the quality of the deal, for example, by reducing the number of games included or increasing the price?
  
  
• how easy it is to cancel or obtain a refund? - are there any factors that make it difficult for people to cancel their contract or get their money back?
  
  
• how fair is the auto-renewal process? - are customers clearly told that their membership will be rolled over, are they regularly reminded that they are on a roll-over contract before further payments are taken, and is auto-renewal set as the default option?
  

Source

 

[Wombleton]

they are insane.. there is no way they cannot.. i guess the new owner notified u .

no i had factory reset the console, i found out by pure chance, i dont use my credit card alot so usually tends to have max available credit, but i remember seeing a statement that was £50 short(or however much PSN+ costs) and thought i better check something weird wasn't going on. I'm genuinely glad i had stuck it on my credit card originally otherwise i would of lost that money as most UK banks dont tend to charge back online subscriptions without proof it was someone else.

that was the first and last Sony playstation i will ever own, i genuinely dont even remember reading about it being an automatic renewal, and it definitely didn't mention when i set the account up! very Devious!!!!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I remember trying to cancel XBox Live once and I couldn't find a way to do it from their website (live.xbox.com)
Seemed like I had to contact them by phone. Even though signing up for XBox Live through their website was made extremely easy.
That's no longer the case, though. I later cancelled my membership no problem, but I probably paid them for an extra year that I wouldn't otherwise have.

 

[Kadji]

For the people that are saying that online gaming should never use a subscription and that "pc gamers don't need to pay, why do we console gamers":

You are comparing apples with oranges. Here are some facts you may not have thought about:
- PC Games don't have a online subscription because the user base is fractured all over the place, with different shops (steam, epic, gog) and different companys all offering their own services. Also, in some special case you might still be required to pay on a per games basis (MMORPGs like WoW for example).
So, if in theory an online subscription for PC online gaming is required, who should be the company that is collecting the money?

Trust me, if there was a way to nickel and dime the PC online players the industry would have gone that way a looooong time ago, but they can't. The only company beeing able to charge for PC online Gaming would be Microsoft with Xblox Live / Xbox Anywhere Game Sharing, but even then it would be limited to the games you bought from the Microsoft Store - and who even uses that thing?

Now look at Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft: All 3 have a closed eco system on their individual plattform. This makes collecting a monthly subscription much easier since you are only dealing with a single company with no way to choose a different "service provider".

Some people where also talking about Server Costs, there is much more to it than "just installing a server":
- You have multiple Servers (Content Delivery System) in multiple Countrys
- All Servers connected to the CDN need enough raw HDD space to (at least) save every possible Game ever released in that region with their DLC and Patches
- Gamespecific server (might be more relevant for MS / Sony)
- Enabling Crossplay / dealing with a 3rd Party Network
- Payment for people maintaining everything

And yes, most of the above points are most likely also true for Steam. And thats why i guess that we are seeing an increase in Season Passes - because PC Gamers don't have to pay for an online subscription while the server costs are still there and only rising (in this time and age nearly every game has at least some sort of online interaction).

You can *still* play for free but all publishers are trying realy hard to push you into regular payments, disguised as "Season Passes".

 

[Rune]

I personally had a problem where I had autorenew on my account without realising and I had stopped playing my console for months. My credit card had expired in that time and had a new one reissued since. But of course Microsoft tries to charge my old card, fails, then bans my account without telling me there was an issue (I only learn after the ban had already took place). I could've probably unbanned the gamertag but it would require me to give them the details of my new credit card and pay for the 12 months of XBL they'd been trying to charge me for. Except I didn't actually want XBL cuz I had stopped using the console a while ago.
So basically they were trying to charge me £40 to regain access to my account and a service I didn't have any use for anymore.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Nintendo shouldn't have gone to subscription services, IMO. Nintendo WiFi Connection was free, and playing online on the Wii U is still free. Nintendo Switch Online isn't. It was a bad move.

 

[Rune]

Nintendo shouldn't have gone to subscription services, IMO. Nintendo WiFi Connection was free, and playing online on the Wii U is still free. Nintendo Switch Online isn't. It was a bad move.

I think its a good idea, especially since its half the price of PSN and XBL. But my issue is the lack of features we currently have, such as chat support, parties, DMs, etc, maybe a better menu system with folders for your games, better management of saves, etc. I think the growing number of free NES games, Tetris 99, possibly SNES games in the future, etc will help justify the price more. Personally I think its decent right now.

 

[HarveyHouston]

I think its a good idea, especially since its half the price of PSN and XBL. But my issue is the lack of features we currently have, such as chat support, parties, DMs, etc, maybe a better menu system with folders for your games, better management of saves, etc. I think the growing number of free NES games, Tetris 99, possibly SNES games in the future, etc will help justify the price more. Personally I think its decent right now.

You don't own a Wii or Wii U, do you?

 

[Rune]

You don't own a Wii or Wii U, do you?

I own both. And I also own a PS3 which also had free online. Yeah, things were nice when they were free, but I've accepted they wont stay free forever. I'm just glad Switch Online only costs half as much as PSN and XBL.

 

[duwen]

Not all online games require servers - peer-2-peer games still exist.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Many other companies use autopay. Your cell phone, for example. Also, how about Netflix, Hulu, apple? Across all the largest companies or gangs, it’s easy to join, but you’ll loose teeth if you leave.

 

[KingVamp]

Online shouldn't be held hostage behind "free things" or anything else for that matter.

 

[lordelan]

LMFAO
Have you heard pc? gaming on pc is free tho, even they share same server.
The entire story to force people to pay for online is Bullshit

That's not the point though.
Companies like to keep things paid by itself, even if they have millions on their back shelf.
So if they have to pay monthly for servers, they like to have incomings monthly for servers.
Obviously they are greedy and most likely don't even need 0.001 % of those incomings to actually pay those server costs. But that's what they are: Companies.

 

[Bladexdsl]

What they appear to be looking for are incidents where customers have had trouble cancelling the services, dealt with numerous price hikes, or were forced into having to turn on auto-renew.

Microsoft is guilty of all three

 

[the_randomizer]

It should be illegal for online services to have sub par/lacking features

 

[D34DL1N3R]

i hate to say it but PSN is shit. i wish we can pick our games for free each month... also that censorship bull shit don't get my ranting on that.

What exactly is shit about it? You cant pick which games you get with XBL either. And the censorship? What? Did they require more clothes be put on and raise the ages of the 13 yr old girls to 18? Did they say the grope mode needs to go? Gee, I feel so bad that people can't have their pedo fantasy games untouched. Pun intended.

Nintendo has plenty of censorship in the West also, as does the XB1. The Sony censorship hate bandwagon has been in full effect again since the DMC5 butt crack censor, which has since been uncensored.

 

[GhostLatte]

I remember when online gaming was free when I had a PS3. Now everything costs money.

 

[DANTENDO]

I remember when online gaming was free when I had a PS3. Now everything costs money.

• The cost is little everyone talks like it's 50 quid a month mayb people should stop buying expensive fizzy unhealthy drinks and drink free water thts good for you - not saying you drink fizzy drinks

 

[DJPlace]

i don't care about the perverted things in games it's just removing features from a game that is promised to be in there... also nintendo not get any thing censored is also a jerk move see now you guys are going get me bitching about this censorship bull shit...

also i bet some of your are suck ups to making people pay money for better features...

i could compare some censor ship stuff on here but i'm not going till unless someone makes PISSES me off and does.

forget one thing about nintendo they are censored things in the past but now there getting away with it...

 

[BiggieCheese]

Only way that paid online’s going away is if there is a tremendous shift in the average consumer’s view of such a thing (which won’t happen in such a homogenized industry). For MS/Sony/Ninty It’s the perfect cashcow right now.

 

[Kadji]

Not all online games require servers - peer-2-peer games still exist.

Most P2P Games still use a dedicated Matchmaking Server to pair up players though.