BBC Upset With Microsoft Over Xbox Live Payments

[Bladexdsl]

Hopefully they wont sink as low as Microsoft

if they do they will be dropping back to 3rd place

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

Xbox Live is a very solid service from a technical standpoint, but things are beginning to go overboard.

You're charged for the console, then the games, followed by a subscription fee for Live in order to get the most of the console/games, and then you have to pay for individual content on top of that. Much of which should be free (such as avatar clothing), and as is the case with this iPlayer situation, in many situations the developers behind said content wish to give it away free of charge, but are forced by Microsoft into making the user pay.

To make matters worse, we now have full, unblockable ads for both Gold and Silver users. In subscription-based systems, one is generally able to rid themselves of ads by becoming a paid subscriber. Not so in the case of Xbox Live. There's no benefit to the subscriber beyond the ability to use the service itself.

Profiting is fine, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. When you pay for a subscription to a TV service, all of your TV programming is included in that. You don't have to pay a monthly fee and then buy each show individually too. Alternatively, a service like iTunes, you pay for the individual downloads, but not the service itself. The rule of thumb is one or the other, not both.
Exactly why I got a PS3. Enjoying every bit of it, naturally.

QUOTE(Ace Gunman @ Dec 1 2009, 05:13 AM) And while I'm at it, on a semi-related note, paying for download keys to unlock content that is already on the disc is a despicable practice and should be outlawed by the world governments. "Here, you can have this box full of wonderful things for $50!" "Great! Now how do I open it?" "That will be another $20."

I agree. Paid-DLC is bullshit, even on the PS3. Profiteering bastards

 

[luke_c]

Wasn't there something awhile back that said Sony was going to move forward with a paid PSN?
I can't remember. Anyways, I am too tired too go looking for it. When I wake up I will search for it.

It was just rumors going around PSN with the new multi-message feature added in 3.0 you wouldn't believe the amount of chain-messages going around.

 

[WhoRuJudge]

Wasn't there something awhile back that said Sony was going to move forward with a paid PSN?
I can't remember. Anyways, I am too tired too go looking for it. When I wake up I will search for it.

It was just rumors going around PSN with the new multi-message feature added in 3.0 you wouldn't believe the amount of chain-messages going around.

That's good to hear. Now I can put a PS3 on my wishlist again

 

[Chris_Skylock]

WAit, let me get this straight:

Microsoft is charging you their products offline and charge you for being online and still charge you for their service - which some of it are free on other source? And still have some ads in it?

Wow! I wonder if there are anyone in the Philippine who actually paid for these things?

I wonder who's evil here - Sony for overpriced products or Microsoft for greedy services?

But to think that Microsoft went head first in the competition.

I think that this "we charge more" can be traced back to their PC OSs with piracy, not sure. All I see here are LICENSE and LICENSE. Microsoft thinks that everyting they do are being charged and nothing is free and I think that they though that it's the same on their OSs.

I will still analyze this one even more to get some answers

 

[Bladexdsl]

I wonder who's evil here - Sony for overpriced products or Microsoft for greedy services?

m$ wins hands down

 

[Maz7006]

Also facebook, last.fm and twitter is for gold users only. lol ?

^^ Something i can do at a PC regardless.

I think im the last person that should complain, i don't really do anything online, no intention of any fanboyism, but seriously the PS3 is just looking and getting better both console and online wise.

To make matters worse, we now have full, unblockable ads for both Gold and Silver users. In subscription-based systems, one is generally able to rid themselves of ads by becoming a paid subscriber. Not so in the case of Xbox Live. There's no benefit to the subscriber beyond the ability to use the service itself.

^^ this gets extremely annoying, but they are much less for Gold users, Silver users have a bunch that advertise to upgrade to gold for JUST 40$, and some others. Meh f it, gave up on Live since the bannings started anyway, was "fun" when it lasted