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Should one of the console manafactures go free online?

J

jelly

Member
Isn't there an opportunity here for someone to get more users on board or is the subscription money just too good and free doesn't necessarily mean more users?

I'm just thinking if games as a service is becoming more of a thing, wouldn't you want the least barriers to content that makes you more money. Change the subscription to something else without online play.
 
Infrastructure and staff cost quite a bit of money

Google could since they know everything about you and sell your soul
 
P2P online has no business being paid. The current situation is just plain greed, and we, like suckers, just ate it up. It's over, Jim.
 
It's billions of dollars left on the table for Sony and Microsoft, iirc, to go free just to capture the other marketshare.
 
Do you think the free online will worth more than $50?
$249 ps4 pay online vs $299 no pay
What normal-people would buy?

PC is open,you can look the pc-manafactures stock price recent years.
 
None of the console manufacturers will ever do free online again, I think.
Now that Nintendo's in, there's no way out.

Hopefully PC will always be a free online platform.
 
Not going to happen at this point it's bad business because it's been proven time and time ago consumers will pay. Users are not going to go up that much to offset the money made from subs that's not even counting if those new users will be proactive with the store ecosystem and buy digital stuff.

Edit -

As you said smart thing would be to have less barriers with more services games but that wonga is too good I mean Ms still have F2P behind XBL gold.
 
Bjoern the Smexy said:
None of the console manufacturers will ever do free online again, I think.
Now that Nintendo's in, there's no way out.

Hopefully PC will always be a free online platform.
Click to expand...

I bet Gabe, this very minute, is trying to figure out how he can start charging for Steam.
 
Any gains it gets them by 1-uping the other 2, would be dwarfed by the money it loses them by not having a sub, so they never will. Nintendo doing it too is just the final nail in the free MP on consoles coffin. Just hoping it forces them to be competitive with the fee, but so far they only seem to go up, not down.
 
nubbe said:
Infrastructure and staff cost quite a bit of money
Click to expand...

That's a lame excuse really. It's nothing more than another way to lock down the system and milk more money out of the customers.

Dedicated servers is the only fair way to deal with costs if company wants to avoid them.
 
PSFan said:
I bet Gabe, this very minute, is trying to figure out how he can start charging for Steam.
Click to expand...

Considering Valve's stance on open-platforms and their desire to move away from being gatekeepers, despite their very influential position, I doubt that.
 
PSFan said:
I bet Gabe, this very minute, is trying to figure out how he can start charging for Steam.
Click to expand...

Eh I doubt it. Valve isn't a public company so they can do things like not charge their customers for online or let devs make as many free Steam keys as they want which cost the company money they could make if they wanted to extract as much revenue from their customers and developer partners as possible.

Besides, both Valve customers and devs/publishers pay for Steam online, the money to run Steam infrastructure comes out of the 30% cut that Valve makes on everything sold on the store.
 
Of course they should.

All should.

At least don't lock the online multiplayer behind a paywall and just give the paid subscriptions to things like discounts, saved file backups, free games, etc.
 
Nah, we console gamers deserve to be milked. And like the good sheep we are, we've actually started to believe that it's beneficial to us. I mean look at all the value, that value.

... fucking bollocks.
 
All of them should.

But they won't.

Because the broader consumers don't reward those that kept it free with tens of millions more console sales over those who charge. Last gen with PS3. This gen with WiiU.

We're part of the problem.

Granted, PS3 and WiiU had plenty of reasons to not be worth paying more that is more than just free online. I'm just being semantic.
 
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
 
The whole point of having your own closed platform is so you can make your customers pay for things like this. That's actually why things like consoles still exist and are an attractive business proposition for these companies.

Buy the ticket and take the ride.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...

I can't believe we haven't seen game journalists ask Microsoft about Xbox Live being free on PC but still charging console owners. I would love to see the answers they give.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...
In practice one would think so but they are still "separate" systems so probably wouldn't. I can't see them leaving all the sub money on the table now especially with games being more services based so it's more guaranteed income.
 
Why should they? Console gamers had the choice to not accept it. They paid and loved all those "free" games. That won't change unless XBL/PSN will lose subscribers because people refuse to pay.

PC gamers refuse to pay. They showed that with GfWL. Microsoft had to give up on the idea.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...

1 billion dollars in revenue (guesstimate) is worth being a contrarian schizophrenic for.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...

There's absolutely no way Sony would give in so soon, Nintendo maybe, as they don't have the subs yet, but Plus makes way too much money for Xbox killing it's our profits to change it.
 
Bl@de said:
Why should they? Console gamers had the choice to not accept it. They paid and loved all those "free" games. That won't change unless XBL/PSN will lose subscribers because people refuse to pay.

PC gamers refuse to pay. They showed that with GfWL. Microsoft had to give up on the idea.
Click to expand...

And we're done.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...

I don't think it will happen. Monthly revenue from Live is basically the only thing still making Xbox money. Sure, it's unfair that players on Windows have to play while players on Xbox don't. But there are far too few people playing with Windows Store UWP apps for anyone to give a shit. Only Microsoft gives a fuck about UWP
 
Bluth54 said:
I can't believe we haven't seen game journalists ask Microsoft about Xbox Live being free on PC but still charging console owners. I would love to see the answers they give.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they never do. I suppose the stock answer would be games with gold and discounts which is weak, give people the choice, either online is worthless or games with gold isn't.
 
If one between ps5 and scorpio/xb2/xb10 gets free online it will win many people, i dunno if it would be worth for sony/ms though.
 
Bluth54 said:
I can't believe we haven't seen game journalists ask Microsoft about Xbox Live being free on PC but still charging console owners. I would love to see the answers they give.
Click to expand...

I will love to see journalists asking Sony on why they follow Microsoft and charge for money too

True answer is that console players are already conditioned to paying for it, so everyone has accepted it as a norm
 
Bl@de said:
Why should they? Console gamers had the choice to not accept it. They paid and loved all those "free" games. That won't change unless XBL/PSN will lose subscribers because people refuse to pay.

PC gamers refuse to pay. They showed that with GfWL. Microsoft had to give up on the idea.
Click to expand...

This is about all that needs to be said. Console gamers allowed themselves to be suckered by Sony and Microsoft. PC gamers spoke with their wallet and were very vocal about things like GFWL.

It's far too gone now. People will claim they find value in the services and say it's not a big deal because it boils down to a few dollars a month. The usual excuses. Yeah. Nintendo should charge. MS and Sony have shown us all that people are more than willing to pay.
 
Wollan said:
I'm actually sort of expecting Xbox Live to become free for online gaming come E3. They have to with their UWP approach no? Would seem kind of schizophrenic not to. They are looking at reviving the trust of gamers following the Xbox One and closing of Lionhead studios, cancelling Scalebound etc and this would do that in a major way.
They will still offer a premium subscription of some kind but I think online gaming will become free.
And you will see Sony and Nintendo deservedly being put to shame for a year or two before giving in.
Click to expand...

This,I would love this move from MS. In fact so much I would sell all my PS stuff and join Xbox again. Common phil, do this with Scorpio
 
Bl@de said:
Why should they? Console gamers had the choice to not accept it. They paid and loved all those "free" games. That won't change unless XBL/PSN will lose subscribers because people refuse to pay.

PC gamers refuse to pay. They showed that with GfWL. Microsoft had to give up on the idea.
Click to expand...

Weird comparison.
 
Paying for added value is fine. But to me online multiplayer as a feature is not added value, the amount of players actively using such is. I don't understand how any company could in their right mind artificially limit the active user base through a entry fee and as such devaluing the feature. Encourage more people to actively play online at any given time, not put it behind a paywall.
 
ArtHands said:
I will love to see journalists asking Sony on why they follow Microsoft and charge for money too
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure their answer was "to improve the network" or something along those lines. The billions they were leaving on the table is the actual reason of course, but they aren't going to say that.
 
IcyRhythms said:
This is about all that needs to be said. Console gamers allowed themselves to be suckered by Sony and Microsoft. PC gamers spoke with their wallet and were very vocal about things like GFWL.

It's far too gone now. People will claim they find value in the services and say it's not a big deal because it boils down to a few dollars a month. The usual excuses. Yeah. Nintendo should charge. MS and Sony have shown us all that people are more than willing to pay.
Click to expand...

Yeah, PC gamers wouldn't allow that even physical PC games can't be sold anymore.
 
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