What does my live sub pay for?

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

Soldato
Joined
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Hi guys, I got myself a 360 about a month ago and have been playing it regularly now (even if half of it was halo 2), xbox live I'm happy to pay the ~£4 a month for because its a small amount p/m and not worth getting annoyed over.

But looking at the actual service, what do I get for the ~£4/m...

From what I can see...
* A bunch of videos and trailers I can get anywhere else online for free? (I dont know if you get access to this in silver)
* Access to play with other people online (MS dont host any servers, we do) note that people have created tunneling programs that basically do this for free because its all p2p
* Game demos, pay for demos... cmon..

Is there something i'm missing out on? Premium content i'm not aware of?

If I could just play against others online and get rid of anything else like videos etc I would be happy, and the most that costs ms is a few root servers to act as a hub for the xboxes to find other games from, which costs MS virtually nothing.

Taking £1 from every xbox sale would pay for the live subs, i understand less than 1/4 (as low as 1/6?) of people who own a 360 have a live sub.

EDIT: I forgot the demos :P (again i dont know if these come with silver)
 
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I do not mind paying that amount for a subscription to live. It was a bit of a shock to have to pay to play online. Before i got my 360 i was used to ps2 online and pc games. But Live is a very good service for me and it runs excellent. Very good download speeds, and the overal general use is great.
 
I imagine you pay for the maintenance of all the integration and live in general. Yes demos and trailers can be had for free, but gold members also get exclusive access to Hih definition content, like that south park think. You also get your gamercard, chat abilities, friends invites, no you dont pay for game servers as such but think of all the messages sent each day (2 million text iirc) and of course the friends list.
In my opinion it is worth it, everything is well integrated, easy to access and user friendly. I would recommend live to anyone buying/who owns a 360.
 
messaging and video messaging, cross game invites.

I think a lot of people may start to ask similar questions, especially now the PS3 is out and although the online doesn't have as many bells and whistles, it does work and it is free. Even more so now that all the cheap live subs have pretty much dried up.

I have been saying for a while, if MS thought all the wee other things where worth 40 quid a year, they would give you the multiplayer for free, then charge for all the extra nonsense, that probably 80% of the people don't use.

I know the only thing i use live for is multiplayer gaming, i would be happy with that and a friends list, i think many folk would be too.
 
Your paying for a brilliant online service, worth every penny :)

JUMPURS said:
I know the only thing i use live for is multiplayer gaming, i would be happy with that and a friends list, i think many folk would be too.
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You don't download demo's? send messages to friends? chat to friends? download arcade games?
 
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wannabedamned said:
He's asking for substance not a sales pitch :p
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Well the question should really be, what does my live sub not pay for? :p

Seriously I have been paying for Live since its birth, even when I stopped playing on xbox I kept my gamertag going, its a great service IMO, I would however like to see MS use some money to produce dedicated servers for some games, but other than that I have no complaints about what I am paying for.
 
Mr Men said:
You don't download demo's? send messages to friends? chat to friends? download arcade games?
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I pay for arcade games, don't download demos, and send the very occasional message.
 
Mr Men said:
Sounds like your in the minority then :)
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I don't know many people who, given Multiplayer for free, would actually pay £40 for the ability to send messages though ;)
 
JUMPURS said:
I don't know many people who, given Multiplayer for free, would actually pay £40 for the ability to send messages though ;)
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Who pays £40 to send messages? Mind you I pay about £10 a month on messages from my phone, so even if I was paying £40 a year to send just messages its still cheap :)

I agree though they should make silver free as it already is but let them play online, but give them no messaging, no downloadable content in marketplace or in game updates, no video chat etc, then that should suit you :)
 
Who is bickering?

I am agreeing with you, for people like you who only want online gaming and none of the extra features then it should be free :rolleyes:
 
Mr Men said:
Your paying for a brilliant online service, worth every penny :)



You don't download demo's? send messages to friends? chat to friends? download arcade games?
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Thats the point, all these services are accepted as free elsewhere, when is the last time you paid to download a demo from filefront etc... MSN messenger is free... And again arcade games are demos unless you pay for them.
 
Mr Men said:
Who is bickering?

I am agreeing with you, for people like you who only want online gaming and none of the extra features then it should be free :rolleyes:
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I thought the no game updates was you being a bit bitter in a way, my apologies for misreading it then :)
 
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