Kloid said:
Here's the thing: I suspect the reason that the XBL experience is better than the PSN one has little - if anything - nowadays to do with your Gold subs. It's a better experience simply because MS are a software company, first and foremost.
I'd wager my left testicle that, even without the subs, XBL would still have an excellent online service very similar to the functionality of its current incarnation, simply as a selling point against Sony (who are far more of a hardware company).
With the original Xbox, when Live was in its infancy, I can certainly see the requirement (or at least huge wisdom) of a subscription model. The entire infrastructure needs creating and tweaking, the R&D, all of that foundational busines-ey stuff. With the XBox360 though, all the brute work for Xbox Live is done. However, the initial precedent has been set for a subscription service applying to online content.
This idea of subscribing to an online functionality feature made sense in the last gen, when it was part of the new and exciting world of online console gaming. In this gen however, things have changed. Online play should be a given, it should be out of the box. In theory, that is. But in practice, in business, why should it?
MS know what they're doing. They know what they've done. They've now successfully set a rock-solid precedent, upon which they make a shit-ton of pure profit and/or offset costs that aren't pumped back into XBL. As an example, I fully expect a percentage of the Gold sub goes directly towards funding the Console Repair program.
It's great business on MS's part. I don't like it, but it's impressive nonetheless. It can't really be argued against from that perspective anyway, that's for sure. The subscription model works, the majority of consumers are happy, the features are there to be listed in glorious shiny listwarz, MS makes a bunch of easy cash.
Basically, my principles angrily shake their fists at the Gold sub, but my business acumen doffs its cap to it.
Oh, and for what it's worth, personally I paid for Gold for the first two years after console launch; I haven't been inclined to renew it since. Nowadays any multiformat game with an online component automatically becomes a PS3 purchase.
Excellent post, I agree with you completely. It has been a great business decision
so far. The question this thread poses is when and if that will change.
For some of you intent on console warz, this thread is
NOT about the merits of Xbox Live as a platform, or whether
you find it's worth its price or not. Seriously, noone cares about you, yes
YOU.
To answer the OPs question, I will say again that I think it will start hurting Microsoft when the cycle is a little more advanced. Remember we are talking about when it starts to hurt Microsoft as a company, as a
whole, not whether or not Live continues to make money. Live itself should be profitable pretty much forever, since the fees are more than enough to offset its costs. That's not the question here at all. But when the money they make from Live becomes less than the sales in hardware and software they lose to the competition because it's a paid service.
You only have to look at this thread to realize they've already lost
some sales because of it. Today this is probably dwarfed in comparison to what they make on the service, thus they continue to charge.
I argue, that in the future, when consoles reach $129 or $99, $50 bucks a year, per person that wants to play online on the system is gonna be much more relevant to those new potential buyers. Buyers who also tend to be lighter users, have families (not some GAFFER living in his parents basement) so the per user charge becomes relevant as well, and a more price conscious consumer (otherwise they would have bought at $400).
I have seen nothing in this thread yet to counter such an argument, but instead a lot of opinions on whether or not the service is worth it for themselves. GAF is not an accurate reflection of the market as a whole, the percentage of hardcore is much higher, so your personal views and experiences aren't necessarily what average Joe is thinking as well.
