Is XBL extortion?

Oh hell yes, it's flat out extortion, no matter how good party chat and the XBL Marketplace are you are still forced to pay to play online. Also, the increase the price for all users for a service not everyone will use. And they said shit like how an internet browser wouldn't be as good on a PC and they shouldn't bother with nor should anyone care, yet they put Facebook apps and that other crap that are inferior on the 360 than an actual PC. I'd say the value of XBL for me is $30 because it varies depending on how many of the services you use.

However, with all said, I'd still rather overpay for a good service than get a free, but shitty service.

Microsoft earns a ton of revenue from the ads, no? So couldn't they charge a little less while keeping their service the same? Hell, they could remove Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, etc., I never use those.

Personally I think XBL and PS+ are both somewhat extortion, although PS+ is optional.

TRF wrote:

Microsoft earns a ton of revenue from the ads, no? So couldn't they charge a little less while keeping their service the same? Hell, they could remove Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, etc., I never use those.

Personally I think XBL and PS+ are both somewhat extortion, although PS+ is optional.

I don't have a problem with the adds because everything you actually use is on the left, you have to scroll to the right to see the adds, the only thing on the right are stuff that's in the My Xbox panal. I kinda like the adds though, I learn a lot of shit I wouldn't have known about considering that most of the adds are about video games, or new songs in the music section, or new videos in the video section. But yes they make enough from those, they should lower, not raise prices.

I think so, especially if they actually raise it to $60. Thats why I buy it when they have the deals.

TheJubJub5721 wrote:

I think so, especially if they actually raise it to $60. Thats why I buy it when they have the deals.

Same, I bought a year's worth of Gold a few days ago during the Halo Reach XBL promo for $30.

Ads?
I've never seen any ads on the Aussie version of XBL. Interesting.

ghost23 wrote:

Ads?
I've never seen any ads on the Aussie version of XBL. Interesting.

On the US version sometime there are more ads on the spotlight sections and stuff then actually gaming stuff.

BlackStigma wrote:

TheJubJub5721 wrote:

I think so, especially if they actually raise it to $60. Thats why I buy it when they have the deals.

Same, I bought a year's worth of Gold a few days ago during the Halo Reach XBL promo for $30.

Same. Its funny cause I just bought live 2 months before that

ghost23 wrote:

Ads?
I've never seen any ads on the Aussie version of XBL. Interesting.

You've never seen those free Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew or Dorito gamer pictures or anything? They're not a bother to the gamer, but you would think with those ads, Microsoft would lower the price rather than raise it.

Depends on how much money they make.

i still cant belive people are bitchin about paying for live do you also bitch about rent and taxes and tv liscences and and phone/mobile bills and travel expensives and broadband bills and water bills and gas and electric bills ect....... fact is for £6 a month for live, it is still the most cheapest thing on my monthly bills and guess what it the only thing on the list i like

raspymanic1 wrote:

i still cant belive people are bitchin about paying for live do you also bitch about rent and taxes and tv liscences and and phone/mobile bills and travel expensives and broadband bills and water bills and gas and electric bills ect....... fact is for £6 a month for live, it is still the most cheapest thing on my monthly bills and guess what it the only thing on the list i like

Please be joking. You seriously cannot compare rent, utility bills, taxes, and phone bills to Xbox LIVE . . . here's the difference: you bought the console. You bought a game. Now you need to pay extra to take advantage of the full game.

The other major difference being that you need shelter, electricity, water, etc., much more than online play.

TRF wrote:

raspymanic1 wrote:

i still cant belive people are bitchin about paying for live do you also bitch about rent and taxes and tv liscences and and phone/mobile bills and travel expensives and broadband bills and water bills and gas and electric bills ect....... fact is for £6 a month for live, it is still the most cheapest thing on my monthly bills and guess what it the only thing on the list i like

Please be joking. You seriously cannot compare rent, utility bills, taxes, and phone bills to Xbox LIVE . . . here's the difference: you bought the console. You bought a game. Now you need to pay extra to take advantage of the full game.

The other major difference being that you need shelter, electricity, water, etc., much more than online play.

no i think its a joke that you moan about £6 a month lol i piss £6 on nothing

also buy a phone and you have to pay credit for it buy an ipod and you have to buy songs for it buy a dvd player and you have to buy dvds for it buy a car and you have to buy gas for it ect

raspymanic1 wrote:

TRF wrote:

raspymanic1 wrote:

i still cant belive people are bitchin about paying for live do you also bitch about rent and taxes and tv liscences and and phone/mobile bills and travel expensives and broadband bills and water bills and gas and electric bills ect....... fact is for £6 a month for live, it is still the most cheapest thing on my monthly bills and guess what it the only thing on the list i like

Please be joking. You seriously cannot compare rent, utility bills, taxes, and phone bills to Xbox LIVE . . . here's the difference: you bought the console. You bought a game. Now you need to pay extra to take advantage of the full game.

The other major difference being that you need shelter, electricity, water, etc., much more than online play.

no i think its a joke that you moan about £6 a month lol i piss £6 on nothing

It's not about the price. It's the fact that Microsoft has no reason to make the price what it is, let alone raise it, when they have a ton of ad revenue coming in.

raspymanic1 wrote:

also buy a phone and you have to pay credit for it buy an ipod and you have to buy songs for it buy a dvd player and you have to buy dvds for it buy a car and you have to buy gas for it ect

Your argument equates to buying games for a console. Think of a better analogy next time.

microsoft is a buiness its goal is to make money if you dont want to give microsoft your money for one their services then dont own an xbox, simple

TRF wrote:

raspymanic1 wrote:

i still cant belive people are bitchin about paying for live do you also bitch about rent and taxes and tv liscences and and phone/mobile bills and travel expensives and broadband bills and water bills and gas and electric bills ect....... fact is for £6 a month for live, it is still the most cheapest thing on my monthly bills and guess what it the only thing on the list i like

Please be joking. You seriously cannot compare rent, utility bills, taxes, and phone bills to Xbox LIVE . . . here's the difference: you bought the console. You bought a game. Now you need to pay extra to take advantage of the full game.

The other major difference being that you need shelter, electricity, water, etc., much more than online play.

It cossts to use phones right?So when I go an spend money on the phone,I have to continue paying just to use it.Thats just liek with XBL.Except you dont need to play online to game

also your saying you dont mind paying for thing you have to like rent and taxes but you do mind paying for something you love like xbl i really dont get your logic

It's arguable..

I personally am not too bothered with the price. But yeah, I guess you could say it is rather expensive....but just compare it to Sky.
Sky you pay like £15 a month or something isn't it? Maybe more?
And you get access to a lot of tv channels.
Well xbl is cheaper and it allows you to play any of your multiplayer-games online on stable servers.
The games I play online are:

Timeshift
Halo 3
Midnight Club LA
Gears Of War
Gears Of War 2
Crackdown
Shadowrun
Frontlines
Red Dead Redemption
The Darkness

That's okay imo. 10 games to play online, then loads of demos and access to other downloads, cool features and flexible chat.
But yeah, I don't think it's extortion but I do think we could get a bit more for what we pay.

DemonWolf wrote:

It's arguable..

I personally am not too bothered with the price. But yeah, I guess you could say it is rather expensive....but just compare it to Sky.
Sky you pay like £15 a month or something isn't it? Maybe more?
And you get access to a lot of tv channels.

well i get sky+ hd with broadband and phone line which is £65 a month with intrest ect this is what i mean when i say xbox live is the least of my worries 20p a day 2 mins of work, i take toilet breaks longer than that, hence the term ''i piss £6''

raspymanic1 wrote:

DemonWolf wrote:

It's arguable..

I personally am not too bothered with the price. But yeah, I guess you could say it is rather expensive....but just compare it to Sky.
Sky you pay like £15 a month or something isn't it? Maybe more?
And you get access to a lot of tv channels.

well i get sky+ hd with broadband and phone line which is £65 a month with intrest ect this is what i mean when i say xbox live is the least of my worries 20p a day 2 mins of work, i take toilet breaks longer than that, hence the term ''i piss £6''

omg XD that's pretty damn awesome. (not the fact that you pay £65 a month, but that you can afford all of that and barely even worry about XBL)
But yeah anyway, I still wish I could literally piss £6 that would be so helpful whenever I need money. lol

DemonWolf wrote:

It's arguable..

I personally am not too bothered with the price. But yeah, I guess you could say it is rather expensive....but just compare it to Sky.
Sky you pay like £15 a month or something isn't it? Maybe more?
And you get access to a lot of tv channels.
Well xbl is cheaper and it allows you to play any of your multiplayer-games online on stable servers.
The games I play online are:

Timeshift
Halo 3
Midnight Club LA
Gears Of War
Gears Of War 2
Crackdown
Shadowrun
Frontlines
Red Dead Redemption
The Darkness

That's okay imo. 10 games to play online, then loads of demos and access to other downloads, cool features and flexible chat.
But yeah, I don't think it's extortion but I do think we could get a bit more for what we pay.

XBL doesn't use servers, it's all P2P

Arbiteris wrote:

It cossts to use phones right?So when I go an spend money on the phone,I have to continue paying just to use it.Thats just liek with XBL.Except you dont need to play online to game

Every cell provider charges for phone service just like every Internet provider charges for Internet. The equivalent of the 360 would be a phone that you are already paying for through Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc., but the phone won't get service unless you pay extra money to Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.

raspymanic1 wrote:

also your saying you dont mind paying for thing you have to like rent and taxes but you do mind paying for something you love like xbl i really dont get your logic

I don't mind paying for things like rent and taxes because it's mandatory and EVERYBODY does it. I can get a fairly good online service on another console for free. If EVERY console manufacturer charged for online, then I wouldn't mind paying for XBL, but as it stands, Microsoft is the only manufacturer charging for online play.

TRF wrote:

Arbiteris wrote:

It cossts to use phones right?So when I go an spend money on the phone,I have to continue paying just to use it.Thats just liek with XBL.Except you dont need to play online to game

Every cell provider charges for phone service just like every Internet provider charges for Internet. The equivalent of the 360 would be a phone that you are already paying for through Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc., but the phone won't get service unless you pay extra money to Samsung, LG, HTC, etc.

raspymanic1 wrote:

also your saying you dont mind paying for thing you have to like rent and taxes but you do mind paying for something you love like xbl i really dont get your logic

I don't mind paying for things like rent and taxes because it's mandatory and EVERYBODY does it. I can get a fairly good online service on another console for free. If EVERY console manufacturer charged for online, then I wouldn't mind paying for XBL, but as it stands, Microsoft is the only manufacturer charging for online play.

Well then sell your 360 and buy a PS3.If EVERY console manufacturer had crappy online,I wouldnt mind PSN and wouldnt pay for XBL,but as it stands, XBL has the best online

Arbiteris wrote:

Well then sell your 360 and buy a PS3.If EVERY console manufacturer had crappy online,I wouldnt mind PSN and would pay for XBL,but as it stands, XBL has the best online

Yes, the 360 does have the best online, but PSN is far from a crappy service, and I mean FAR.