Now LIVE on the PC is free..

[popisdead uk]

.KICK, I rarely struggle with any lag problems on PSN, nor have I had any major problems with the PSN.

I think you're right though, XBL will never be free.

[HawkMan]

If Live is free on the PC, then it should be on the 360.

The info has come from Microsoft, it's available to see/read if you look for it.

As for the content on the marketplace, that isn't P2P obviously, but I don't get what your getting at by bringing that up?

So exactly how is the multiplayer P2P then ? is the server role being distributed evenly among the players or someting ? :p

yeah sure it's P2P in the sense that anything networked is essentially P2P at some level, but ONE player is still the host. and if it bothers you so much to be the host it's fairly easy to avoid, as a network admin (I think that'd be a more correct term at best) you should know that at least. in fact most default home network setups will by default disqualify their 360 from actin as a server.

[Ayepecks]

There's a big difference with Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. People came to expect free online on the PC and were shocked when Microsoft did otherwise. People aren't going to support what they've come to expect for free, for the most part. The "features" were just all available in other PC games, so there was no point.

I think GfW: Live being free was the only way for it to survive. Thought so for the whole time. It's a good platform, but it never would have went anywhere without being free.

[LOC Veteran]

Yeah, GFWL going free is the only viable way of keeping it alive on PC. Period. As a PC gamer born and bred, I couldn't believe MS wanted to charge for what we've had for free for what, 16+ years now? Now as a 360 user, I already have XBL so it wasn't an issue. But many of my friends haven't touched GFWL games because of the fact you had to pay for a sub. Now that it's going free, hopefully more people will play online (though will games already out see this 'free' anytime soon is anyones guess?) for GoW and Halo 2 etc. In fact, the only game I know of that would have a "big" online community for cross platform play right now is Lost Planet Colonies Edition :)

As for XBL going free on 360? Never happen. MS will never make it free, period. They have to much invested in it, and put to much on it (both media wise and tech wise) to make it free. Plus, if you think XBL is full of retarded 10 year olds now, imagine if it was free? Yeah, nuff said.

[maplecookie Veteran]

Thread Cleaned

[Mambo Boy]

Fair enough, I think if people want the added benefit of downloading demos/addons via the MS servers then it should be paid for.

But frankly, I think it's shocking that MS make a paying person HOST the god damn game themselves...the cheek of it! Most of the time it's someone from the other side of the ocean, so on GTA IV for example, the car will seem to be magically transporting around the road. Or i'll be shooting one guy for 6 seconds point blank with my M4, only for him to whip out his pistol and kill me!

I don't know, we pay ?40 for these games, so to have to pay more to experience it online is just cheeky. And for those kids who get it paid for by the parents that say "Hey it's only ?39.99 for the year!!!" - some of us don't play online that much - I'll play it maybe once every two weeks....so for me to pay the full fee is just unjustifiable...

[Ayepecks]

GO: Let's turn to the million dollar question: Will Xbox Live eventually go completely free, too?

KU: The GFW Live announcement has no bearing at all on what we're doing with Xbox Live, and I think if you look at the Xbox-related announcements we just made at E3, we're going to continue to deliver even more value to Xbox Live gold subscribers. Frankly, Xbox Live members are going to get more people to play with as a result of the GFW Live announcement, and I think that community will get exponentially larger as a result of what we're doing on Windows. They're different services designed for difference audiences that happens to be connected and share a Gamertag.

In some ways you can think of it like Zune, where Zune uses the same Gamertag, same friends list, and you can use the points that you may spend on Xbox Live or Games For Windows Live Marketplace to buy songs right on Zune. I think you start to see that we're going to take that underpinning of the Live service, then on the console we'll deliver a new experience, add more things like the Netflix announcement, things like the party chat and the one-versus-one-hundred, etc. Likewise for the GFW Live service.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/007336.html

[Brandon]

What they could / should do is make basic online play free.

If these "silver" users want to download content, charge an additional say 50-100 points.

[Another Canuck]

What they could / should do is make basic online play free.

If these "silver" users want to download content, charge an additional say 50-100 points.

That's exactly how it was before this.

[magik]

Dont see it happening.

It works for them on the console, why change now?

PC was different, that was always free... to launch a service that charged a yearly fee on the PC was a dumb idea, even though it was compatable with the xbox.

Hopefully when the Wii online / PSN becomes more popular microsoft will feel pressured to offer the service for free.

I can see that transition happening at the launch of their next console... if they find it necessary.

The service / experience is great... dont mind paying a small yearly fee.

Beats dealing with friends codes or having to jump through hoops to get online.

That's interesting, I think the exact opposite will happen. Sony (and to a lesser extent Nintendo) will start charging for their online services because of the pressure (monetary pressure) and I can see that transition most likely at the launch of their next console.

[Guest]

That's interesting, I think the exact opposite will happen. Sony (and to a lesser extent Nintendo) will start charging for their online services because of the pressure (monetary pressure) and I can see that transition most likely at the launch of their next console.

Sony and Nintendo would severely p'ss off their userbase by charging for online play after proving that they could pull it off for free.

One of the reasons why Games for Windows Live didn't take off... People were used to free online gaming on that platform.

They will find other ways to make money though.... like Sony's Qore (Enticing customers with game beta entry)

[Ricardo Gil]

Sony and Nintendo would severely p'ss off their userbase by charging for online play after proving that they could pull it off for free.

Yeah, but at what quality? Last time I added a friend on my Wii it took more than an hour for the system to update.

Yesterday I turned my PS3 on, logged in to download the siren demo, and suddenly I got disconnected from PSN while browsing the store. And I couldn't login again for like half an hour.

So while they do it for free, when it comes to reliability they still have a long way to go.

[Mando]

<br />So sick of people complaining about the PS3. Works both ways.<br /><br />It's ?40, that isn't cheap, and costs more than 'barely nothing'. The service is far from faultless, and uses cheap (free everywhere else that uses it) P2P networking. XBL should be free.<br />

?40 a year = ?3.33333333333 a month! that IS cheap matey, compare it to WoW, LOTRO, AOC, etc which are approx ?10 a month AFTER buying the game (and only allows you to play 1 game), its all relative XBL gold subs are a bargain tbh and they havnt increased it since Xbox Live on the old Black shoebox quot

Multiplay away back in the dark ages was more than that and was nowhere near as slick or provided as good a service as XBL does there is no other online gaming service for any device that comes even close to the QoS that XBL provides. The only niggle I had/have is paying for extra content, I dont mind if its a major expansion pack but to pay ?5 for 3 maps or similar niggles me, but apart from that the XBL service has been top notch for me since it was released on my old xbox1. the one major concern would be if it went free for all on 360 would be the introduction of intrusive advertising sponsorship as most "free" game servers are beginning to deploy, Id rather pay ?40 a year NOT to have advertising

running a gaming network or server is a very expensive business mate, not only have you datacentre charges you also have bandwith charges, trust me I used to own a rack mounted box for 7x64man BF2 ranked servers, after negotiations it cost me ?100 a month.....?40 a year doesnt seem too mental then now does it

If you can afford to a) have a 360 and b) buy games for it then paying for a years worth of game server access equates to 1 less game purchase in the year, that is a pittance imho. Ive seen and tried the PSN and the Wiis online services and while free and commendable they are in all honesty a very poor service when compared to XBL. QoS is worth ?40 a year, id rather pay that than nothing and suffer constant network bottle necks on their end.

Edited July 25, 2008 by Mando

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Another scottish member ^^ :woot:

We are definitely taking over this place lol :rofl:

[Guest]

Another scottish member ^^ :woot:

lol, i could tell he was scottish while reading his post :p

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

That's interesting, I think the exact opposite will happen. Sony (and to a lesser extent Nintendo) will start charging for their online services because of the pressure (monetary pressure) and I can see that transition most likely at the launch of their next console.

Pressure to start charging? :blink:

Online gaming has been free on every platform except the Xbox/360 for basically forever.

I don't think anyone is under pressure to make you pay to play online at all.

[Mikee99]

Valve has proven that a massive online infrastructure can be reliable, have high quality, AND still be free.

Steam is very successful, and I have yet to have a single problem with it. The best part is, I pay absolutely nothing to use it.

Believe it or not, the $50 a year cost is a barrier for many Xbox 360 users to play online. I also think it's ridiculous that they charge that amount when the games are hosted on the consoles themselves. If the servers were dedicated, I wouldn't think it's so bad. Not only that, but you don't have mods, or really any custom content. So, really, what exactly are you paying for? You get all the features of XBL, and more on PC for absolutely no cost.

Edited July 25, 2008 by Mikee99

[popisdead uk]

Yeah, but at what quality? Last time I added a friend on my Wii it took more than an hour for the system to update.

Yesterday I turned my PS3 on, logged in to download the siren demo, and suddenly I got disconnected from PSN while browsing the store. And I couldn't login again for like half an hour.

So while they do it for free, when it comes to reliability they still have a long way to go.

I had my PS3 on all day yesterday and it didn't once disconnect from the PSN, infact it rarely disconnects. I'm not saying you didn't get disconnected, what I'm saying is that it isn't necessarily Sonys fault. It could be a number of things.

[HawkMan]

Pressure to start charging? :blink:

Online gaming has been free on every platform except the Xbox/360 for basically forever.

I don't think anyone is under pressure to make you pay to play online at all.

Face it, Nintendo doesn't charge becaus eit's REALLY isn't worth it.

Sony, they're not charging because the service isn't inished, and if they did charge for it now, They'd lose people to MS, they'd get bad backlash form suddenly charging since it wasn't charged from the star. and it's still not done. But if you think it will be free for ever, you're smokign some good ****. Most likely they'll charge for MP over PSN with a PSN 2.0 version at the launch of the PS4, OR more unlikely after they get the groundwork done and finally have a complete PSN 1.0, They'll do an MS, do some redress, and relaunch the PS4 online experience as the PSN 2.0 and charge for it along with new rules for PS4 developers forcing them to properly support PSN/home/Trophies on PS4 titles. s

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Face it, Nintendo doesn't charge becaus eit's REALLY isn't worth it.

Sony, they're not charging because the service isn't inished, and if they did charge for it now, They'd lose people to MS, they'd get bad backlash form suddenly charging since it wasn't charged from the star. and it's still not done. But if you think it will be free for ever, you're smokign some good ****. Most likely they'll charge for MP over PSN with a PSN 2.0 version at the launch of the PS4, OR more unlikely after they get the groundwork done and finally have a complete PSN 1.0, They'll do an MS, do some redress, and relaunch the PS4 online experience as the PSN 2.0 and charge for it along with new rules for PS4 developers forcing them to properly support PSN/home/Trophies on PS4 titles. s

Because a service is good doesn't mean you need to charge a subscription. Some of you around here seem to follow the notion that because Live is a good online service, if anything else is good it will cost money at somepoint.

The investment is buying the console, unless you pay for the hardware you can't use PSN anyway.

So essentially PSN is not "free".

However it will remain void of subscriptions and nothing indicates that changing.

I genuinely hope the internet would support not charging for the future as well anyway. What's done with Live is done, but let's not go backwards with basics such as online play becoming an expense in the future with other platforms.

It's things like this that show how early/young the console market is compared to the PC market. It also shows how closed the console market is. MS and Sony both need to be chasing a more open future. Sony have done not bad at this, this generation with the PS3. I do want to see more though.

ps. If you're wondering what I mean with by "open", it's things like supporting mods/allow 3rd party devices to work on the console, offering free online play ect - Basically things that emulate good parts of the PC gaming world.

[Mando]

Another scottish member ^^ :woot:

We are definitely taking over this place lol :rofl:

lol AND my account is also monkey related ;)

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

lol AND my account is also monkey related ;)

You are full of win my friend (Y) lol

[Acceleration]

Live for Windows hath been liberated. Mission Accomplished? Probably more than that, there's always more.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

By the way, silver users can now play Shadowrun...

http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=21691968

[feisty xan]

Obviously free online play would be great. Hell, I would be happy if they cut the price. Matchmaking just isn't worth 50 $ a year in my book. But I can't picture even that happening. There's too many people already paying and why should Microsoft refuse to take that money? Maybe they'll do something if Sony becomes a threat in the online space.