xbox live - do i really have to pay to play!?

Hi All,

Although I've beena gamer for quite sometime, in recent years my gaming activity has decreased due to getting married and work, despite owning all the consoles inc. handhelds currently on the market - can't beat a gadget!

I have never really gotten into online gaming, and whilst the ps3 does allow me to play gt5 online, the wii allows me play mario kart etc. for free, do I really have to pay £40 to play against someone on COD4 & 5, Street Fighter, Halo3 etc?

I probably don't play 360 enough to justify the money, but just want to know if those games or any at all are free to play against others online.

Cheers!

Yes because the live is where you start being cheap, just pay for 12 months + 1 free month, then pay again

13 months is a very long time, so just get it...dont be cheap

You have to pay, and to add injury to insult (sic) to my knowledge they don't have back-up servers to deal with lag.

It's not that expensive and it sure beats playing by yourself.

$50 a year is pretty cheap.

it sucks big time! i know it does work out cheap over the period of a year, but if I don't use it, it's really going to annoy me and feel like I've wasted the money!!! I will probably sign up soon, and just not buy a game for a couple of months to make up for it! cheers for the help peeps!

ive found 12 monthxbox live cardson the internet for under $40.

It's not being cheap, its called "I already paid for the game, system, and the internet connection(possibly even the ethernet cable or WiFi port)! Should I also have to pay to play with what I've already paid for!?!?!"kboone13

Yes you do have to pay. If you don't want to then just play on the PS3.

if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on k2theswiss

Hi All,

Although I've beena gamer for quite sometime, in recent years my gaming activity has decreased due to getting married and work, despite owning all the consoles inc. handhelds currently on the market - can't beat a gadget!

I have never really gotten into online gaming, and whilst the ps3 does allow me to play gt5 online, the wii allows me play mario kart etc. for free, do I really have to pay £40 to play against someone on COD4 & 5, Street Fighter, Halo3 etc?

I probably don't play 360 enough to justify the money, but just want to know if those games or any at all are free to play against others online.

Cheers!

spongey_m

its only $50 for 13 months man. you can get a free trial if you dont like like it...come on

[QUOTE="spongey_m"]

Hi All,

Although I've beena gamer for quite sometime, in recent years my gaming activity has decreased due to getting married and work, despite owning all the consoles inc. handhelds currently on the market - can't beat a gadget!

I have never really gotten into online gaming, and whilst the ps3 does allow me to play gt5 online, the wii allows me play mario kart etc. for free, do I really have to pay £40 to play against someone on COD4 & 5, Street Fighter, Halo3 etc?

I probably don't play 360 enough to justify the money, but just want to know if those games or any at all are free to play against others online.

Cheers!

its only $50 for 13 months man. you can get a free trial if you dont like like it...come on

You can just wait until it is on sale. I got two 13 months of xbox live for $60(US).

[QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on sourcerah

Look it's really very simple - you don't want to pay the fee then don't play online. If you do want to play online, pay the fee and quit moaning about it.

Xbox Live offers abetter service than either PSN or Wii online, and MS decided to charge for it. No amount of moaning or putting "Make Xbox Live free" in your motto will make any difference. Anyway if you live in the US be grateful that you already pay less for Live than any other country.

For the original poster - you don't have to buy a full year of Live. If you only want to play online occasionally you can buy it 1 month at a time, or 3 month cards from stores. They cost a bit more per month than buying a 12 month card, but if you aren't going to use it much, it could work out better for you. If you look on ebay you can find people that email the codes and you can get your year for under 30 quid.

[QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on sourcerah

[QUOTE="kboone13"]It's not being cheap, its called "I already paid for the game, system, and the internet connection(possibly even the ethernet cable or WiFi port)! Should I also have to pay to play with what I've already paid for!?!?!"sourcerah

I pay bills, CC, Car Insurance, health insurance, house payments, internet, ect list goes on yet 39.99 a year doesnt break me... sounds like someone needs to micro manage their funds better if 40 bucks breaks you for a year.. An I live on my own so "mommy and daddy" dont help, its called being smart on my finances.. hell save 5 bucks a check if your that strapped, an guess what 39.99 comes very fast sigh

Hey you could play on sony's servers an pay nothin yet get FEW updates and patches.... Lets weigh the options shall we?

1. pay for servers that get maintenced and updated at a decent pace... OR

2. pay nonething and play on servers that drop players from sheer fact that the connection line gets bogged up...

You see? Actually paying for something to be kept up to par or better because they can pay their techs to do what they are supposed to do..

Dont get me wrong i have PS3 too but the major flaw is they dont have regular maintence on their service an 90% of games that utilize mics, are supported well for whatever reason.. X360 has the advantage here, mics are used and they have minimal probs

[QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on sourcerah

lol i never struggle in life lol thats funny. Live in small house, only time i ever get a dime from my mom is my b-day and xmas and thats 100 bucks and if i'm lucky 150. if i want anything else i must work for it.... Payed for driving school, pretty much every kid i know at school their stupid parents paid for, my 1300 dollar 1996 car, my xbox, my laptop, pay half of the internet bill every month, and soon have to start paying for school next year... gov paying 3/4's of the bill but 1600 a semaster.... From all that i still think xbox live is pretty cheap for a year so ya i must not struggle huh?

The only thing you can do when yoursubscription runs out is talk to people... so if you just go on to be social you don't have to pay, but otherwise you have to pay to play... :(

[QUOTE="sourcerah"][QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on k2theswiss

lol i never struggle in life lol thats funny. Live in small house, only time i ever get a dime from my mom is my b-day and xmas and thats 100 bucks and if i'm lucky 150. if i want anything else i must work for it.... Payed for driving school, pretty much every kid i know at school their stupid parents paid for, my 1300 dollar 1996 car, my xbox, my laptop, pay half of the internet bill every month, and soon have to start paying for school next year... gov paying 3/4's of the bill but 1600 a semaster.... From all that i still think xbox live is pretty cheap for a year so ya i must not struggle huh?

Oddly same here, only cents I see from my parents is on Xmas an my Bday as well, everything I have I worked for, yet I find time to pay for a online service too :D

You can just wait until it is on sale. I got two 13 months of xbox live for $60(US).

craigalan23

Sorry, youu gotta pay M$ for the right to play.

It's worth it in my opinion.

[QUOTE="sourcerah"][QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on jameeler91

There are people that make it possible for console gamers to unite and play games online. I have no problem paying for this quality service then what Nintendo provides for online gaming

[QUOTE="sourcerah"][QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on k2theswiss

lol i never struggle in life lol thats funny. Live in small house, only time i ever get a dime from my mom is my b-day and xmas and thats 100 bucks and if i'm lucky 150. if i want anything else i must work for it.... Payed for driving school, pretty much every kid i know at school their stupid parents paid for, my 1300 dollar 1996 car, my xbox, my laptop, pay half of the internet bill every month, and soon have to start paying for school next year... gov paying 3/4's of the bill but 1600 a semaster.... From all that i still think xbox live is pretty cheap for a year so ya i must not struggle huh?

If you have a game lying around with a 48-hour xbl gold trial then use that to see if you like live or not; if you like then go a head and spend your money

I believe there are a few options w/ using a computer, and some programs that'll make your 360 think it's playing a lan match, but last time I checked it out it was really crappy.

Also I believe that a lot of people have the same arguement for XBL that I do against WOW, and that is there's no price point for casual players. WOW is $15 a month which is a fair price if you play 20+ hours a week, but I'd probably only play WOW 3 hours a month, and I might take a few months off. XBL is the same way, if you play 30 hours a month, $3 isn't a bad price, but if you only play a few hours a month (or not at all) $3 is kinda expensive.

That's where XBL needs a pricing plan for more casual gamers. I think something like .25 cents an hour would be reasonable.

[QUOTE="sourcerah"][QUOTE="k2theswiss"]if you work is 50 bucks that much? for a whole year? like come on person on min wadge can make 50 bucks easy in a day of work. 2 50 bucks for a year is not much if u can afford all the 3 systems like come on Avenger1324

Look it's really very simple - you don't want to pay the fee then don't play online. If you do want to play online, pay the fee and quit moaning about it.

Xbox Live offers abetter service than either PSN or Wii online, and MS decided to charge for it. No amount of moaning or putting "Make Xbox Live free" in your motto will make any difference. Anyway if you live in the US be grateful that you already pay less for Live than any other country.

For the original poster - you don't have to buy a full year of Live. If you only want to play online occasionally you can buy it 1 month at a time, or 3 month cards from stores. They cost a bit more per month than buying a 12 month card, but if you aren't going to use it much, it could work out better for you. If you look on ebay you can find people that email the codes and you can get your year for under 30 quid.

Yes because the live is where you start being cheap, just pay for 12 months + 1 free month, then pay again

13 months is a very long time, so just get it...dont be cheap

RimeSoldier

Yes because the live is where you start being cheap, just pay for 12 months + 1 free month, then pay again

13 months is a very long time, so just get it...dont be cheap

ive found 12 monthxbox live cardson the internet for under $40.

frob1965

13 months for 39$ is the best deal ive found. thats 3$ a month. my change jar will pay for it. and its much better than ps3's online because of the headsets and the party function. its much easier to get messages and join your friends games that it is on the ps3.

It's not that expensive and it sure beats playing by yourself.

GiveMeIce

beats playing WITH yourself :p sorry lil random

[QUOTE="Bumzur"][QUOTE="RimeSoldier"]

Yes because the live is where you start being cheap, just pay for 12 months + 1 free month, then pay again

13 months is a very long time, so just get it...dont be cheap

sourcerah

uhuh so what about microsofts huge financial loss over the past year? do u understand that? dont be so condescending when stating an 'opinion' which you make out as fact. and no the PS3 online is not free, nothing ever is, instead of you paying for it, the devs do*. it costs money to run the servers and once the devs dont feel like paying for it anymore, its gone, thus games will last forever on xbox live as long as people are willing to play.
it costs around $1 per week (just about, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) for xbox live, thats about 10 minutes of work on almost minimum pay.
and are you also one of the small percentage that also gets that MS loses money every time they sell a 360? sure its getting cheaper now, but they lost millions when it first came out, and thus loses are being funded through xbox live, accessories and game sales. so no, MS isnt cheap, you are.

*http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/03/23/sony-ps3-charging-developers-for-online-content-%E2%80%93-xbox-live-wins/ (for some reason i cant hyperlink this page)

The only game I know of that you can play with silver is Phantasy Star Universe. But then you need to pay Sega $10 a month to play it. So Nothing really.

[QUOTE="kboone13"]It's not being cheap, its called "I already paid for the game, system, and the internet connection(possibly even the ethernet cable or WiFi port)! Should I also have to pay to play with what I've already paid for!?!?!"sourcerah

I'm guessing that you're probably around 17 or so, still live with your parents,and have finally gotten a job so you think you're suddenly an adult now? Or am I just way over-analyzing? hint hint

Really though, I'm sure that most avid game players will find the money spent well worth it, regardless of your economic situation. Its about the equivalent of buying one fast-food meal a month,which is hardly the kind of expense that we cant justify every once in a while.

For those who have a stricter monthly budget, you can plop down $15 or $20(forget which) for 3 months of XboxLive Gold. It turns out to be a bit more over the year, but again, you're still only really paying $5 or $6 a month.

So really, unless you've got serious money issues, I dont see the big deal. And if money is THAT tight, you probably shouldn't be sitting around playing video games in the first place.

Hi All,

Although I've beena gamer for quite sometime, in recent years my gaming activity has decreased due to getting married and work, despite owning all the consoles inc. handhelds currently on the market - can't beat a gadget!

I have never really gotten into online gaming, and whilst the ps3 does allow me to play gt5 online, the wii allows me play mario kart etc. for free, do I really have to pay £40 to play against someone on COD4 & 5, Street Fighter, Halo3 etc?

I probably don't play 360 enough to justify the money, but just want to know if those games or any at all are free to play against others online.

Cheers!

Just got a Messenger Gold Kit for 54.00 at Wal-Mart.

Seems worth it to me.

well, just think of it as buying yourself a game. You probably don't debate on spending the money on a certain game, so buying xbox live can be looked at as being the same. I have ps3, wii and Xbox 360. If i had to choose one system to play online i would still choose xbox even though you have to pay. The set up is a lot easier to join games with friends and to start voice chats. It is really well developed.

Im my days of playing on Xbox Live sinse the Original xbox and paying for it I have yet to run into a Cheater because of the Security and server handling MS has done with live that has made playing online Fun and overall very enjoyable, Im online all the time.

I havn't played my PS3 online until Recently with Killzone 2 which is amazing online, but I avoid the PS3 online like a Plague just because of my experience with the PS2. No game was ever fun on PS2 online, Socom was overrun with gameshark cheaters weeks after each release which just made me stick to Xbox because its superior.

My Complaint about the PS3 online though is the Following from my last couple weeks on Killzone 2:

Voice is Optional!

This alone ruins it. EVERYONE TALKS ON XBOX

in 2 weeks with Killzone I have not heard 1 person trying to plot out strategy with the Team in order to succeed, infact almost no one has a mic. What the hell!? This alone is reason enough to to just play on XBL, The Sad thing though is that Killzone Online is actually FANTASTIC, If people talked it would be even better. And whenever I try to tell people to Squad up and Split objectives and do some strategy I get told to shut up by most of those who do have a mic.

Meanwhile in any game I play on Xbox, The Team talks and works together to win on probably 80-90% of matches I play in, so much more interactive and enjoyable.

So, You tell me. What sounds better?

I'm in the same boat as you. I have responsibilities that are more important than gaming, but when I do game online, I want it to be quality. I have no time and little tolerance for anything less than a seamless, consistent experience. Xbox Live gives me that. It comes with a fee, but is well worth it considering the convenience and features it brings to the table.

And seriously, if $50 USD/year is going to make or break you, maybe gaming isn't a hobby for you. However, you have all the consoles and handhelds, so there shouldn't be a problem.

[QUOTE="sourcerah"][QUOTE="kboone13"]It's not being cheap, its called "I already paid for the game, system, and the internet connection(possibly even the ethernet cable or WiFi port)! Should I also have to pay to play with what I've already paid for!?!?!"TheodenofRohan

I pay bills, CC, Car Insurance, health insurance, house payments, internet, ect list goes on yet 39.99 a year doesnt break me... sounds like someone needs to micro manage their funds better if 40 bucks breaks you for a year.. An I live on my own so "mommy and daddy" dont help, its called being smart on my finances.. hell save 5 bucks a check if your that strapped, an guess what 39.99 comes very fast sigh

Hey you could play on sony's servers an pay nothin yet get FEW updates and patches.... Lets weigh the options shall we?

1. pay for servers that get maintenced and updated at a decent pace... OR

2. pay nonething and play on servers that drop players from sheer fact that the connection line gets bogged up...

You see? Actually paying for something to be kept up to par or better because they can pay their techs to do what they are supposed to do..

Dont get me wrong i have PS3 too but the major flaw is they dont have regular maintence on their service an 90% of games that utilize mics, are supported well for whatever reason.. X360 has the advantage here, mics are used and they have minimal probs

[QUOTE="kboone13"]

It's not being cheap, its called "I already paid for the game, system, and the internet connection(possibly even the ethernet cable or WiFi port)! Should I also have to pay to play with what I've already paid for!?!?!"

sourcerah

Thank You kboone13!! I really don't see how people are saying it's being cheap. For those who are saying that, are you paying any bills? Mortgage, rent, car notes, water, lights, cell phone, anything?? If so, how can you say such a thing, especially in this economy. That $50 can go to other expenses. But i bet most of you all have mommy and daddy pay for it, so i guess it really isn't cheap, is it?

Now, if you object to paying for Xbox Live out of principle, that's fine, but to describe the price of the service as you are is a little silly. I'm a working professional, and I am paying bills. You say that that $50 can go to other expenses? What other expenses? What is $50 a year going to buy? I pay double that on magazine subscriptions. I spend an order of magnitude more than that on my ****ing cell phone. Fifty dollars, when measured over the course of the year, is completely insignificant to a person who has the spare income to afford a $400 console and $60 games.

[QUOTE="TheodenofRohan"]

[QUOTE="sourcerah"] Thank You kboone13!! I really don't see how people are saying it's being cheap. For those who are saying that, are you paying any bills? Mortgage, rent, car notes, water, lights, cell phone, anything?? If so, how can you say such a thing, especially in this economy. That $50 can go to other expenses. But i bet most of you all have mommy and daddy pay for it, so i guess it really isn't cheap, is it? sourcerah

I pay bills, CC, Car Insurance, health insurance, house payments, internet, ect list goes on yet 39.99 a year doesnt break me... sounds like someone needs to micro manage their funds better if 40 bucks breaks you for a year.. An I live on my own so "mommy and daddy" dont help, its called being smart on my finances.. hell save 5 bucks a check if your that strapped, an guess what 39.99 comes very fast sigh

Hey you could play on sony's servers an pay nothin yet get FEW updates and patches.... Lets weigh the options shall we?

1. pay for servers that get maintenced and updated at a decent pace... OR

2. pay nonething and play on servers that drop players from sheer fact that the connection line gets bogged up...

You see? Actually paying for something to be kept up to par or better because they can pay their techs to do what they are supposed to do..

Dont get me wrong i have PS3 too but the major flaw is they dont have regular maintence on their service an 90% of games that utilize mics, are supported well for whatever reason.. X360 has the advantage here, mics are used and they have minimal probs

as an XBOX LIVE player myself i can tell you that from time to tme the LIVE service is shut down for a few hours and maintenenced as described in the messages. yes there is lag from time to time but I can honesty say I have had way more perfectly run matches to make lag a big issue. You can try the service on a monthly bases and cancel it if your not happy.