Microsoft considering making Xbox Live free?

[n00b1n8R]

Look at these consolefags, paying to play online

[Donut]

if im not mistaken, steam is like an all in one game market / player thing that lets you play your games on your account from any computer. seems like a pretty cool thing, but i couldnt figure out how to uninstall it on my old computer. i dont have much of a use for it so i dont have it anymore
E: directed at recycle bin
also totally unrelated, that Dr pepper MLG guy i was talking about was just on g4. hes called TSquared

[Mr Buckshot]

LIVE is good because it cost money. Have you ever played on the PS3 network? You always lose connection. I have never had that prolem with LIVE. As for Steam. I'm sure Steam has a lot less user on it then LIVE.
And doesn't steam charge for downloading games?

Steam and XBL are two different things. Steam and Live both charge for downloading games, just FYI. It's just an alternative to buying a real disc from a retail store.

I have played on the PSN many times and yes I have encountered technical issues but they're not frequent enough to make me so frustrated that I curse and swear at Sony. It lets me play online for free and that's all that matters - I don't need the Live camera or the Achivements or Optimatch or any of that.

Besides, there's Xbox Connect which I have tried and it works well enough.

If this is true (free xbl), then I'm one happy man.

[=sw=warlord]

Xbox live has always been free on the xbox 360, thats what silver accounts are for.

[Sanctus]

Well the implication of this article was Xbox Live Gold was going to be free.
I would like to see gold for free, the ads wouldn't bother me that much, I don't think. What I do wonder is how Microsoft's servers would handle the inundation of new members going online if this happened.

[p0lar_bear]

Steam is a DRM service. You purchase games via Steam and the games use the service to make sure that you're allowed to play the game.

LIVE is a subscription service. You pay, and you get access to stuff, like downloadable content and online multiplayer with cheat detection and stuff.

Though now they offer similar things, this is how it started off.

[TeeKup]

I don't see live becoming free unless Microsoft planes on sacrificing server maintenance among other things. The only way it would become free is if it sacrificed a few things. I don't want that.

Besides it only 50$ a year...

[jcap]

I can sort of see them making it free, like the PSN. However, they would still have a pay service. They'd have to revamp the gold accounts to be more beneficial to paying subscribers. They'd also probably have to start tying all Gamertag bans to consoles instead of just banning accounts for small offenses. Then you can keep down the number of cheaters and duplicate accounts.

I really do think XBL will go free multiplayer someday, but it will be limited. For instance, you might not have ranked matchmaking in Halo 3, but you will have custom and social games. Pretty much everything ranked I would make pay because of the hardasses that would pay to play that. It would create more of an "elite VIP membership" status for people. They should also have "free" benefits for those paying such as free themes, free rentals, and free gamerpics/avatar accessories.

At least that's how I would do it.

[p0lar_bear]

I really do think XBL will go free multiplayer someday, but it will be limited. For instance, you might not have ranked matchmaking in Halo 3, but you will have custom and social games. Pretty much everything ranked I would make pay because of the hardasses that would pay to play that. It would create more of an "elite VIP membership" status for people. They should also have "free" benefits for those paying such as free themes, free rentals, and free gamerpics/avatar accessories.

Kinda like that 48-hour XBL trial you'd get with Halo 3. Social playlists only.

[TVTyrant]

I can sort of see them making it free, like the PSN. However, they would still have a pay service. They'd have to revamp the gold accounts to be more beneficial to paying subscribers. They'd also probably have to start tying all Gamertag bans to consoles instead of just banning accounts for small offenses. Then you can keep down the number of cheaters and duplicate accounts.

I really do think XBL will go free multiplayer someday, but it will be limited. For instance, you might not have ranked matchmaking in Halo 3, but you will have custom and social games. Pretty much everything ranked I would make pay because of the hardasses that would pay to play that. It would create more of an "elite VIP membership" status for people. They should also have "free" benefits for those paying such as free themes, free rentals, and free gamerpics/avatar accessories.

At least that's how I would do it.

This. They would have to rebalance it. BTW, I dont have Gold right now, but I get by. I just traded all my MP games for Fallout and Elder Scrolls so I would have plenty of game time.