Paying $59.99 and not paying $0 is a huge difference
XBL is considered better due to the fluid-ness of it all, it just flows
Doesn't annoy and gets frustrating to use
Sony I bet didn't even want Online in the PS3 in it's first 2-3 years with what it was, but when it realized there is potential, it started working at it
XBL - Message comes, you hit the Home button, automatically gets you to the message and respond
SEN - Message comes, if you have notifications off (Good Luck), if on, a Prompt shows you, if you didn't look thinking someone else was just signing in, you missed it, you have to press home button, look at the top of the right screen, see an envelope icon, go to message list, read message, reply
Trophies take for fucking ever to show up, Cheevs Instantly (God Forbid you compare with me @104+ platinums and 6500+ trophies), takes 4-5 minutes to just load all that bullshit, and if you press O by mistake LOL, start it up again
Don't forget if you just wanna change your message on your gamercard while you are playing a game without synching the trophy list to the server and you cancel it, the software glitches, either reboot or wait 15+ minutes for it to go back to normal
XBL cost $60 and streamlines your flow/experience while gaming easily
SEN is free and you get what they offer, they try, but you can tell, they get some aspects right, but always fuck up something someway
I think PS4 might be more user friendly and more streamlined in tune with XBL
Sony is playing catch-up, and is literally LTTP
Also XBL money does get dispersed for moneyhats also, forces devs/pubs to have demos/releases due to keeping their base happy (it's just hidden away), always release content world wide instantly like clockwork
SEN is just whatever you feel like, dev/pubs discretion and we will release it when we think it's ready
Tell me what time do all the PSN store updates?, no one would have the right time, and all are released at separate times