Free Xbox Live ~ It's (not so) Common Sense

First of all, I'd like to say I love the Xbox 360. It simply is the best. It just seems to me that they should offer free Xbox Live. I live in an area that doesn't offer high speed internet; so the only time that I can play online is when I go to a friend's house. When I owned my old ps2 this wasn't a problem. I'd plug it in and we'd be online. Now we can't do that. I'd have to pay for a membership when I'd only be spending about 1-2 nights a month on live. From Microsoft's standpoint, it doesnt make much sense either. Take a look at it this way. There are about 13-14 Million Xbox 360's sold as of now. M$ says that less than 75% of all Xbox 360 owners use Xbox live. So we'll say that M$ makes this much money per year off of Live: 13.5m(# of 360 owners) * 0.75 (the 75% of owners that use Live) * $5.00 ( monthly rate of Live) * 12 ( months in a year) = $607.5 Million/yr

While this may seem like a pretty decent profit, its hard to tell how many people it keeps from buying a 360. It is a fact that about 75% of gamers are casual gamers. Which means that they don't play religously. ( People that might only play live 5 times a month). These poeple aren't going to pay for online service, because they will feel like they're paying for something they don't use. This keeps casual gamers buying Sony consoles, which have free online. If M$ would change their live policy, not only would they make a lot more current owners happy they would sell a lot more 360's per quarter/year/etc. If you go back to M$'s approximate annual profit from live. $607.5 Mill / $399 (average 360 cost)= 1,518,750. This number represents how many extra units a year M$ would have to move to come even; instead of charging for Live. After coming even with that many units sold. That many more people will be paying a $60 price tag for a game after they buy a console.

In my opinion, and according to most statistics, I think that offering a free online service would sell MANY MORE units than 1.5M/yr. With less than a combined 35 million units sold in this gen; and looking at last gen units going beyond 210 million units. It is obvious that most/all of the hardcore gamers have bought their consoles, it is now up to casual gamers to decide where they will buy.

So basically if you didn't feel like reading my long and drawn out version... It would help previous consumers, future buyers, and M$ if they quit charging for Xbox Live. The only thing Sony has that the 360 doesn't completely blow away. Any questions, comments, critic on mistakes are welcome. Just please keep it on topic. Hopefully Microsoft pays attention.

i didnt readthe whole thing, sorry.

if live was free, it would be kind of a disaster, because it would be more chaotic than it is (if thats possibles). A*holes would run riots because if they get banned, they can just make new accounts and continue on, matchmaking would be broken because people would keep making new accounts and pick on n00bs.

my suggestions would be to, make it 50 bucks to buy an account, and after that its free. but yeah whatever, im fine with paying 5 bucks a month for a awesome service like live

The PSN is free and you get Lag free server's and It's free, has XBXLVE isnt Free and is Laggy in some places

PS360Fanboy

dont start that garbage comparison again, theres been many topics on it and its been proved how much superior live is compared to that trash service called PSN

The PSN is free and you get Lag free server's and It's free, has XBXLVE isnt Free and is Laggy in some places

PS360Fanboy

First of all, devs host their own servers on PSN, not Sony. Yes, they are lag-free, but there is no unified online structure with PSN so it's much more difficult & costlyfor devs to get their PS3 games online. Secondly, there is hardly any content on the PSN compared to Live which has an absolute ****load of content available.

Also, even with a blazing-fast connection, DL'ing things from the PSN is super slow. You also don't have the awesome friend options that you get over Live on the PS3, hardly anyone uses headsets online with PS3 because it's janky in the extreme, etc etc. Live is worth every penny, PSN is free, but you get what you're paying for.

It is free its called silver....nah jk.

Dosent cost that much get over it...

I think in the future, When they can run advertising alot more based off of the console for next gen, It will be free but with ads while loading and over every blade to make money from advertsiing for mircosoft.

Side note: I swear every time I hear Free xbox live. It reminds of a bunch of people out side a jail holding signs that say,"Free Xbox Live"

If you have a problem paying for live then stick to ps3 with their wonderful selection of games.bighopp5451238

I think DLC should have to be paid for. I just think that if you buy a game, you should be able to play it online. $60 for a game should allow me to take full advantage of everything on that disk. Aren't the paid cards at retell stores 12 month?Shot0fClarity

well i can understand why it has a price. since theres loads of content and the servers seem to be hosted by Microsoft (like battle.net //blizzard//)

However valves steam service on pc is totally free. and it allows you to do just about the same as you do on live. However download times are higher there (i usually download with 150-400kb/sek from steam while i get a stable 850lb/sek from live). But why not make ppl choose. get fast downloads and be able to make your own servers on live (battle.net style) if you pay.Or have slower downloads and no ability to make you own servers. Im pretty new to xbox, and dont the 360 games have dedicated servers like pc games ?. You know where you enter a browser and see "randomklan TF2 all cp_dustbowl only" or "randomgamesite TF All maps" and you are able to enter the server which seems to suit you best. You might even find a favourite server. i know i had the when i played CSS on pc there where some servers that i was a regular on, and other players where to. which is kinda fun, since you can will play with and against ppl you "know".