The Future of XBL - A discussion on legitimizing XBL fees for next gen

Good day gentlemen... I offer you today a question steeped in possibility and ask for your receptiveness in return... TL;DR edition on bottom of post.

Xbox Live Fees and the future of the SERVICE.

So I think as any sensible gamer would agree (fanboys and haters can stop reading here and return to your cave), Xbox live carries a wealth of pro's and con's, like any service, and this coming generation will be a study in how Microsoft, a software company, plans to keep what they do best on top of the heap, given pressure from the competition. The burning question on everyone's mind is, how will microsoft continue their highly lucritive service's growth and expansion with what is becoming an even playing field in the online world,? Just a couple of the Pro's and Con's

Pro-

• Feature rich (even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more features.)
• Highly populated and almost guaranteed to be the spot with the highest community of players
• Some really great deals at certain times of the calander year (I saved my XBL Gold fee alone between xmas and new years this year in discounts)
• A closed and secure network by comparison.

Con-

• Fee (usually ranging between 30 and 60 dollars for a year subscription, I personally have never payed more than $45)
• Because of the fee, it logically brings into question whether a pay service is nessecery when the other services are free and nearly comperable.

So how will Microsoft advance XBL and at the same time retain the yearly fee in a compelling way? Especially with a public that will see services as nearly equal over the next generation (yes of course baring new services etc.)

The way I see it, it's in either one of two (maybe both) ways...

Microsoft will either blow up social connectivity in some new and streamlined way that is a few steps ahead of the competition. Something so fluid and easy that it actually changes our interaction with multiplayer/co-op gaming... ( I think if this were the case we'd have at least a glimmer of what it is)

or

Microsoft will begin an initiative to actually have anywhere access to ALL of your games on any windows based device... Imagine, included in your Gold fee, the ability to anywhere stream your games to your pc, tablet, phone etc all under the Microsoft umbrella and at no extra cost. You'd still be on XBOX live on these devices, of course, but you'd essentially have your library anywhere...

:P Ramifications to our prescious metagame :P

Simply, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo don't care about our metagame. They want people invested moniterily to their service and consistently feeding their machine. We will of course fight over how to catagorize an exclusive and multiplat, but eventually we will settle on what falls under certain services as dictating what is exclusive and not... many will resist this, causing civil war. The words "jelly" and "butthurt" will be used as bullets in the war, making us look even more stupid than we already do...

The TL:DR edition...

In order for microsoft to continue charging upwards of $60 a year for XBL, they will tie in an anywhere streaming service into xbox live that gives gold members access to their entire library on any windows capable device... it will be a slow transition, but by 2-3 years into the next generation, people will be all over it. This will in effect legitimize the $60 fee and give microsoft an opportunity to lead another generation in console onine services...

And to the neigh-sayers... I see sony doing the exact same thing if MS does. Sony will use Gaikai and YES, they will charge a fee for using the "ANYWHERE" service... Nintendo? They are the wild card... I never know what they are thinking.

I believe that this will be a terifying but nessecery step for microsoft that they will be leaning on PC saturation for an ability to sell this service and their windows phones and surface to show what they will be capable of (very similar to sony pushing bluray at the beginning of last gen). It will be slow at first but the benefits will win out in the end and ultimately become a success... My personal belief. Gaming will be with you everywhere... Dedicated gaming machine will wander off into the woods like an old cat going to die...

What say you System Wars...

Hopefully the fees increase to $99 per year :D

plz do it Microsoft

Should be free, or a fraction of the price. XBL fees = license to print moneySaltyMeatballs

Hopefully the fees increase to $99 per year :D

plz do it Microsoft

finalstar2007

Make online free, keep extra swag behind a paywall.

Problem solved.

Slashkice

MS should do something like current PSN / PSN+ service...

For me if MS lets gamers play online for free while offering extra sevices for X amount of $ is fine...

Offer a 3 tiered program: Silver for free for people that want to game only with chat, Gold for around the same adding a few features like early access, reduced DLC and games (like PS +) and Platinum which features all of the streaming and multimedia features minus the fees (e.g. have Netflix optimized but no monthly Netflix fees).

It should be free.

It should be free.

GamerwillzPS

At this point, from a consumer's persepctive, I think XBL fees should be killed. Paying for XBL has been worth it by the time when PSN, competitior's network, was a mess, lacking consistency and many features. By now, Sony managed to shape PSN into something much better, still not quite as good as XBL, but fine enough to count the "It's free" as a noticeable advantage...

If things stay the same next gen, and Sony starts offering a decent and competitive service for free right from the start, MS really can't legitimize the fees anymore. That said, we need to be open to the possibility of Sony deciding to introduce the fees of their own, seeing how XBL brought lots and lots of revenue to MS...

Lastly, if they ask the consumers to pay premium for on-line access, they should at least keep the services ad-free. Usually, when you have a paid subscription to some Internet site, one of the advantages is no ads, as they're generally used as an attempt to slightly piss off the free users, and make them upgrade. Ads about the new system features and sale offers are fine, ads about McDonalds aren't...

Sony do it the best way. Free online but it you want extra content and some free games you can join a subscription.

That's fair. Chargeing people just to play games online that they bought is complete bollocks. But like i said all this gen, if idiots are going to pay for it why would M$ care?

I have both PSN and Live. I didn't pay for live I got a free 30 day trial with my Xbox. I live is extreemly overrated. I get kicked from games and more lag on live then I have on PSN.

[QUOTE="Slashkice"]

Make online free, keep extra swag behind a paywall.

Problem solved.

TheEroica

Sure they can charge whatever the hell they want with it, but keep it separate, extra stuff = pay; basic stuff = free. Let those who just want to game online to have a choice. You don't go to a restaurant & order a steak just to know that the steak can only be served with foie gras.

PSN+ sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold so hard it's a total joke.

Normal PSN sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold, but even if we compare paid service for paid service PSN+ is lightyears ahead of XBL.

It should be free.

GamerwillzPS

Sony do it the best way. Free online but it you want extra content and some free games you can join a subscription.

That's fair. Chargeing people just to play games online that they bought is complete bollocks. But like i said all this gen, if idiots are going to pay for it why would M$ care?

PCgameruk

[QUOTE="TheEroica"][QUOTE="Slashkice"]

Make online free, keep extra swag behind a paywall.

Problem solved.

rjdofu

Sure they can charge whatever the hell they want with it, but keep it separate, extra stuff = pay; basic stuff = free. Let those who just want to game online to have a choice. You don't go to a restaurant & order a steak just to know that the steak can only be served with foie gras.

PSN+ sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold so hard it's a total joke.

Normal PSN sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold, but even if we compare paid service for paid service PSN+ is lightyears ahead of XBL.

Eddie-Vedder

I don't care how many services Microsoft put into Xboxlive,as long as they keep charging people to play the multiplayer content on their games I will not be owning one of the consoles,its ridiculous.

PSN+ sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold so hard it's a total joke.

Normal PSN sh1ts on Xbox Live Gold, but even if we compare paid service for paid service PSN+ is lightyears ahead of XBL.

Eddie-Vedder

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! we're discussing, not hating eachother on the sabbath...

even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featuresTheEroica

Make online free, keep extra swag behind a paywall.

Problem solved.

Slashkice

[QUOTE="TheEroica"]even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featureskuraimen

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="TheEroica"]even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featuresBruce_Benzing

[QUOTE="rjdofu"]

[QUOTE="TheEroica"] This is the logical solution for us as gamers, but for MS as a business, they dont want to subtract customers while giving more functionality, their goal is to get you to see that a $60 yearly fee is worth your money... thus ADDING new services to the existing ones.TheEroica

Sure they can charge whatever the hell they want with it, but keep it separate, extra stuff = pay; basic stuff = free. Let those who just want to game online to have a choice. You don't go to a restaurant & order a steak just to know that the steak can only be served with foie gras.

Hmm I like your idea of accessibility across all windows 8 devices but wonder if this would be enough to legitimise the fee across a wide enough spectrum of their user base...I think they shoulld implement free access to online to every new buyer and offer a gold membership that would allow access to all of your windows 8 devices plus offer a card somewhat like Costco that would give you a flat rate discount at retail [ 10% ?] for all MS gaming products ie: controllers, games, AR glasses including all digital downloads etc, etc...by entering the product code number in your Live account it would keep a running total of your savings throughout the year...MS could fairly easily get their partners at retail or digital providers to accept a lower return in exchange for greater volume..Thereby maintaining their profit ratio on top of having a group of evangelisers who could easily demonstrate their level of savings due to their Gold membership.............Or something like that.....lol

[QUOTE="TheEroica"]even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featureskuraimen

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="TheEroica"]even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featuresTheEroica

[QUOTE="TheEroica"][QUOTE="rjdofu"] We are customers, who gives a fvck about them and their greedy freaking business tactics. Of course we know that MS want their money, but we don't have to legitimize it by any mean. Steam & PSN has proven that you don't need to charge fee to give a functional online service. There's no legitimate reason why Microsoft can charge for the basic online function like multiplayer & other paid services.

Sure they can charge whatever the hell they want with it, but keep it separate, extra stuff = pay; basic stuff = free. Let those who just want to game online to have a choice. You don't go to a restaurant & order a steak just to know that the steak can only be served with foie gras.

rjdofu

Hmm I like your idea of accessibility across all windows 8 devices but wonder if this would be enough to legitimise the fee across a wide enough spectrum of their user base...I think they shoulld implement free access to online to every new buyer and offer a gold membership that would allow access to all of your windows 8 devices plus offer a card somewhat like Costco that would give you a flat rate discount at retail [ 10% ?] for all MS gaming products ie: controllers, games, AR glasses including all digital downloads etc, etc...by entering the product code number in your Live account it would keep a running total of your savings throughout the year...MS could fairly easily get their partners at retail or digital providers to accept a lower return in exchange for greater volume..Thereby maintaining their profit ratio on top of having a group of evangelisers who could easily demonstrate their level of savings due to their Gold membership.............Or something like that.....lol

spiderluck

Pro-

• Feature rich (even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more features.)
• Highly populated and almost guaranteed to be the spot with the highest community of players
• Some really great deals at certain times of the calander year (I saved my XBL Gold fee alone between xmas and new years this year in discounts)
• A closed and secure network by comparison.

TheEroica

These pros are ridiculous:

The first one what about it is feature rich? Browser is better on WiiU, netflix is better on PS3, you get TVii on WiiU, the only thing really separating it is cross game chat and invites, they are pretty much a guarantee on PS4 next gen so the point will be moot.

Highly populated has nothing to do with the fee, the 360 came out with a solid online infrastructure first (on consoles) so it took off well, no guarantee the 720 will have the same amount again. Also so many console games die quickly unless it is Halo, Gears, Fifa, Madden or COD. PC is much better in that regard, with games developing smaller but more dedicated communities that can last a decade.

Deals compared to Steam are terrible, and PS+ has some great deals probably better than 360 really. Sonys network really isn't all that bad after they messed up that one time, they have fixed it up for the most part now, and I doubt it will happen again. I haven't heard of any problems with Nintendos network, and PC is PC, usually depends on the user/dedicated servers.

The fees really aren't justifiable any more, what worked in the past no longer works as there is no reason other than that they can get away with it.

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="TheEroica"]even if only slightly more than the competition, still has more featuresTheEroica

Now the thread is broken just like TC's arguments.

Holy fvck ...that is one big horse you are sitting on there Kuraimen

[QUOTE="TheEroica"][QUOTE="kuraimen"] Lies! Live has features PSN doesn't have and PSN has features Live doesn't have. Live doesn't have "more". ITT: Another lem trying to justify getting ripped off.kuraimen

Evolve Kuri... Evolve.

I think if they want to get away with the fee next gen and not have all of their rational customers jump ship they will have to increase their online gaming quality control. This means they need to have a lock down on netcode and simultaneously not allow people with crap connections to play over Xbox Live.

It's baffling how much lag there is over Live in CoD. What's also baffling is how people are okay with that considering they pay for the online play. Sure, this is game to game, and other games don't have the same problem, but they need to make the lag minimal across the board.