The current state of the home console marketplace has gamers divided, causing any differences, major or minor, to be significant bullet point topics when choosing a system. One of the cries of the Playstation fanboy has always been ‘we don’t pay for online play.’ PSN is free, and seeing as PSN is not as well organized as Xbox live, the old adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ seems to hold up. But what If Microsoft’s latest 360 venture were a Trojan horse, a step toward making Xbox live free?
Before I go any further, let me state that this is based on pure conjecture alone. That being said, let’s examine what we know. Xbox Live costs about $45-50 a year. This essentially covers multiplayer, limited timed exclusivity to certain demos and content, Netflix, and access to primetime games. Now – It’s safe to assume that Microsoft is building margin into that cost as well and that the actual operating cost per person is lower than $45 per year.
Then in one corner, you’ve got 1 vs 100, Microsoft’s first free primetime game for gold members. Playable only during specific periods, each one a few hours long, people can login and play the free trivia game almost every day. Furthermore, play is divided into extended and live sessions.
Extended games occur frequently and consist of the normal branded trivia game albeit in a slightly less structured format. Success in this mode of play allows players to build up ‘tickets’ to be allocated to either the “1” or mob passions during a live game. During these games branding for the ‘virtual studio’ where the game takes place appears, as well as commercials that play during normal intervals.
Darke
said:
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The only reason I purchased a PlayStation 3was because of free PSN. If the 360 made there online free, I don't think there will be anything stopping them. |
DTJAAAAM
said:
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If live ever went free, I'd be quite happy about saving $50 a year that I could put towards more 360 games. I'm sure my cousin would also be pleased about being able to attempt more online gaming sessions. He's hesitated about paying for the service since his Internet connection is quite horrible. |
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