Why I'm Not Renewing Xbox Live

Gaming Hub contributor Koreginald dishes on why he has finally decided to not renew Xbox Live Gold

[jimineyscrickets]

I see this guy's point. Other services I use are "catching up," if you will, and making it harder and harder to justify the soon-to-be $60 price of live. Just like the author, the bulk of the features I use most on Live as a Gold subscriber are available on PSN or Steam for free.

Oh well...loving Halo Reach

[iHEARTboobs]

Reach might get me to pay for live again. But we'll see, if not Reach then maybe GEARS for Horde.

[darthv72]

i am actually second guessing my renewal in november. I like the service but was mostly using it for the netflix. I would play a few games online but nothing to the point of it being a needed thing.

I just got an LG bluray BD570 and it has netflix and youtube and pandora in it. I has the same interface as the ps3 and wii as far as netflix goes. I have both the wii and ps3 versions of netflix and could have used them instead but something about that slick 360 interface I really liked.

I may actually cancel my renewal this time around. 5 years of gold membership is a tough thing to walk away from.

[talltony]

so the games might make you renew again and not the features the service offers?
Cause Thats how I think. I renew to play a few exclusives online. I dnt even think about cross game chat and crap. Its all about the games but I hate paying to play online especially when I also have a ps3 with free online.

[chanto23]

I guess i'll pay for it again, NBA 2K11 is coming out plus Black-Ops... what else can i do

[iHEARTboobs]

I just need the basic features so LIVE is pretty useless to me if I don't have to play online. I also do most of my gaming on my PS3 and keep the 360 for the exclusives. I don't need any of the extra fluff. As long as I can chat with those i'm playing with i'm good. I rarely have my mic on anyhow.

[rroded]

my AV's twinky bill is gonna catch up if this keeps up.

[Lifendz]

I can definitely see someone's gripe in having to pay a mandatory fee just to enjoy the online portion of their games. I can also see the argument against Live fees to use things like Netflix which is free for PS3 and Wii owners to use.

Having been a 360 owner for about two weeks now, I gotta say some of the cooler features of Live are the whole party chat system and the ability to go into a private chat. I got my Live card for about 20 bucks after an Amazon.com videogame promo. Point being if you shop around you can probably do better than the 60 MS charges. Whether you should have to do that is something different altogether.

[Anon1974]

It's not like I couldn't afford to pay for XBL gold anymore, but I can also flush $50 down the toilet and not really get anything out of that either, which is why I don't do it.

I had XBL of my original Xbox, then for 2 years on my 360 right around the time Halo 3 came out. I was having hardware issues yet again with my 360 (which also played into my decision), but popping in Halo 3 for a online match, I quickly found myself having to mute 6 people at the start of every single match. I also had a PS3 at the time but didn't really go online with it, not because I didn't like it but I was paying for XBL, I might as well use it. I never bothered with the video store (which was severely gimped in Canada anyway) and I found cross game chat an annoyance. None of my friends gamed on the 360 so I didn't have a personal connection with anyone I played against online. I just asked myself the question while some 12 year old screamed racist obscenities at me, "Why am I paying for this again?"

I cancelled my XBL Gold and never looked back. Strangely, I play more online now and find it more enjoyable then I ever did when I was paying for it. That I can't really explain, but it's true.

[Trebius]

Get a PS3 ... both those games are free online ...

[mikeslemonade]

Screw it. I played reach for two days, and never played it again.

[Red_Orange_Juice]

I wish there was option JUST for online, no netflix, no fecebook, no twitter for ~$30. Then I might actually buy an Xbox, but since I play multiplat games on PS3, paying for Live the way it is now for a 2-3 games a year is a bit too much for me.

[Imperator]

Played Halo Reach, but once the next month is over, I won't be renewing live. There is literally ZERO reason to have XBL when I can get everything I get on XBL for free on PSN. In fact, I'd rather continue my PS+ Subscription. I've gotten around $80 worth of games in the last three months and only paid $17. Now THAT'S value right there.

[Persistantthug]

My little nephew wanted to show me his MW2 that I was shocked his parents let him have.

Liked the single player, and then I wanted to make a new account so I could play online, so I wouldn't interfere with his main. As I'm doing it, I discovered that Microsoft wanted to charge me for a brand new subscription.

I was like, WTF? I mean, even AOL used to allow you side accounts when they were ripping people off in the 90's. WTF?

Anyways, I discovered that XBOX LIVE isn't for me, so there's probably little reason for me to get a 360 at this point.

Btw, I made free game playing accounts for my Nephew and niece on the PS3/PSN because they seem to really like FAT PRINCESS alot. :)

[Pedobear Rocks]

I have 3 kids and there is no way I was paying for 3 subs...plus mine. I realize now that MS has a 'family plan' but $100 a year is still steep in my books.

[FunAndGun]

Pedobear Fan has kids!....Zoiks!!

[Strikepackage Bravo]

but why do people keep saying PSN is free why pay for live. News flash for you slow minded people in the room, PSN SUCKS! its not even close to live.

Its dull dead and always late to the game, perhaps because its so slow. Not to mention it does NOT have as much content and no one has mics.

It sucks to play multiplayer on PSN, hardly anyone I know owns a PS3.
People forget, PS3 is still dead last in sales, especially where I live in the USA.

[CyberCam]

someone only wants to just play games (just like a few users above you), without all the other extras? Is it still worth it then?

You must either live in some small hic town or only know less than 50 people that game in your neighborhood. Because of my business dealings, I literally know thousands of gamers in my area and it's about a 60(PSN)/40(360) split. It's means nothing in the end because the world is bigger than both of our towns/cites.

[FantasyStar]

I still like PSN for the fact I can play online for free. Mics aren't an issue as I just find people with mics to play with. There's that nice feeling that there's no sub attached to PSN. Least, that's how I feel. Only reason I pay for XBL is for online play and party chat. Those 2 features are the only ones I ever use and I don't think $30-60 is worth the price of admission, even if it's just cents a day.

[Persistantthug]

When you shoot people in BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 on XBOX LIVE, I shoot people on on PSN.

When I score a touchdown in Madden on PSN, you too can score a touch down on LIVE.

You wanna carjack and kill people in GTA4 Online, I carjack as well.

I really fail to see what the fundamental difference is.

Yes, many of XBOX 360's intra communication features are better, but PS3 does have communication, but that's basically one feature.

Some of PS3's online features are better than XBOX 360's....free movies, free music, free themes, free extra accounts, etc....

If those features don't trump the communication, it darn well evens it out.

--my take.

[blahblah]

which i'm really grateful for. if those few that have them would stop using them my online experience would go way up.

i can chat with people in my real life, i play games for fun not to listen some child being insulting just because i killed him, nor do i consider muting chore as fun. i'd be enormously happy if PS firmware update would allow me to hide my presence from "Players met". I stopped playing all games using mics (was playing MGO and UC2 beta, then back to MGO) and went to demons souls which has no voice/text chat, beside being best damn online experience ever (but, since i mostly invade in demons souls my inbox is constantly full of insults)

My advice... get some real friends and get a life.

[BkaY]

for over 2 yrs i think.. and yesterday i got 3 months sub just to try online.... specially gears n splinter cell.. i dont give a flying rats ass for other features...

peace

[vhero]

MS picked the WRONG time to be increasing price. They should be at a point where they should find other avenues for cash and make it free instead they got cash signs in there eyes. Bad games (not saying it's got bad games just a point) nor RROD won't kill the 360 in the end MS will do it all by itself.

[Theparanerds]

already pay 60 dollars so it's nothing new for us. I wish i can say no more Xbox live, but you know how it is....

[romalias2]

$60 a month for live? hell I could get cable TV for a month or even pay my internet/phone bill with that...

[AKissFromDaddy]

Its $60 a year.

[maniacmayhem]

Yes you could...fortunatly you get live for 60 A YEAR..not month.

[cochise313]

well PSN is free, so that 60 bucks can buy a new game.

[Theoneneo81]

or you can stock up on 30-40 Live cards while you can and not have to worry for a few years I was up in august but i went and got one in july and I'll probally pick one up next month that way I'm good till atleast 2012

[MR LOOKINGBILL]

WHO CARES YOU WON'T BE MISSED. XBL IS BIGGER AND BETTER.

[All_4_One]

Eh, not really.

[theonlylolking]

LOL not a single agree...yet

[PS3-247]

Damn I made a mistake and click agree. NOOOOOOOOOO!

[SeanRL]

Not trolling, but I don't understand how people can still justify NOT getting a ps3, even if you have an xbox. Unless you have money problems. The ps3 is just a better investment. More good games, free quality online, an internet browser. I just don't understand people. Especially the casuals who know nothing about gaming but act like they do just because they play cod with their friends.

[BYE]

I guess most get talked into it by friends, Gamestop employees and Superbowl ads, rather than taking the time to educate themselves about what is the better system.

[Trebius]

Are the fanboys that think they "Stand" for something.

[punkpop101]

Yes for fanbots it is.

[Motorola]

I think everyone who read your comment facepalmed. Even 1 guy facepalmed so much he mixed up the disagree with the agree button

[gameplayingfool]

I face palmed. Face palmed so hard I left a print on my head. Mr. Lookingbill can shut it.

[AKissFromDaddy]

I enjoyed this article and made the same decision when my account expired early September. If Live were free, I'd be in gaming heaven but for now, you'll find me on PSN and PC.

[Agent-86]

Yep, the same setup for me: PC and PS3. It really is a great gaming combo.

[punkpop101]

Yeah me too expect that my setup includes only a 360.Stop the hate ps3 fanboys.Why didn't anyone talk about World Of Warcraft being inferier to other free MMORPGS?Why 60 usd a year are to much and players playing WOW spending 140+ euro a year are not commented.Maybe because ps3 fanbots can't say anything credible and bust on Xbox live.Yeah come on give me dissagres I love em when they're coming from PS3 fanbots.

[vhero]

That's it you see MS could win this war by making Live free and finding cash elsewhere like Sony do but they are too stubborn and care too much about cash now more than the future of the console and it's a shame. But that's MS they have never built anything to last more than a few years look at windows a new one out every few years and they almost immediately drop support of old windows. Look at original Xbox..

[Elven6]

American users should take a look at what us Canadian users have to pay for first. $59.99 for what, online play and early access to downloads? There are few reasons to upgrade from a Silver account here unless you will die without multiplayer.

I don't game much on Live, when I do it's either through PC (where Live is free) or on free weekends/with 48 hour cards.

[MGRogue2017]

Cancelled mine ages ago.. I get my multi-player & fix on my PS3, I suggest you do the same. :)

'Mah 360 Elite is for all of the single-player games.. although there are times where I will prefer to get a certain SP game for my PS3 instead.

.. free online gaming.. come on, Can't go wrong. :P

[punkpop101]

Why didn't you all said that and to all the World Of Warcraft and similar MMO games?Maybe you're fanbots, maybe?

[lucifon]

Noone cares

[Theparanerds]

well technically you did, since you read the article and commented :P

[lucifon]

I never read the article, hence why I didn't care. I'm sick of seeing these articles on N4G.

[lucifon]

Cheer for the 10 PS3 fanboys which hit disagree in rage. Who gives a shit why 1 guy isn't renewing his subscription to Xbox Live. About as interesting as me writing on article on why i'm not renewing my subscription to LoveFilm.

I'll be playing on XBL, PSN, and Steam whilst this guy makes his 1-man stand in sticking it to the big guy. Way to go!

[Motorola]

The only reason u probably got agrees is because that comment is pointless

[AKissFromDaddy]

It takes one man's article to get this kind of response from you and I also believe he's doing his best to save as much money as humanly possible. I think that makes him intelligent.

[lucifon]

So your trying to tell me people genuinely care why one random dude isn't going to renew his Xbox Live? Should I go write an article about why I'm not going to renew my subscription to PSN+ and World of Warcraft just so I can get hits? No. Stop feeding utter crap on here which is clearly written in an attempt to get hits.

[Reefskye]

@lucifon
Sadly it isn't one person, This is a trend I have been seeing a lot over the last year or so, less of my friends on XBLA and more on PSN.

3 years ago only one of my friends had a PS3 now nearly all of them game on the PS3 instead

[Anderson8]

nah its about as interesting as you logging on to n4g clicking on an article telling us you don't care then trying explain why you don't care... dude... no1 cares

[gameplayingfool]

The writer clearly states he IS A MICROSOFT FAN and that this isn't some vendetta against 360. IF YOU READ THE PIECE, rather than just blabbing without reading, you would understand that this isn't some guy trying to "Stick it to the man." That wasn't his intent at all. It's meant to be a BROADLY interpreted examination of the value of the average joe's dollar.

HE PLAINLY ADMITS there are great aspects of Xbox Live but that he is no longer PERSONALLY willing pay for them.

Separatley, you care enough now to comment 3 times. It's ironic that in complaining about N4G YOU have done one of the things that makes the site worse; namely, commenting on something without reading and JUDGING PREMATURELY. Do you think prejudging this piece and starting a ridiculous argument has made N4g better? ha.

Go ahead and hate me, but I still wish you well. Game on.

[maniacmayhem]

I sure will miss that guy now that he won't renew his Live subscription...*sigh...

OH WELL!
*turns on 360, plays games*

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I respect his decision to cancel, good for him for doing what he feels is right...

But honestly, I could give a rats ass if he is on Xbox Live or not. He is a nobody among the massess that play games on line. Why should I care again?

**Sigh, gonna go back to playing Halo Reach now**

[DaTruth]

Only reason you should care is if this were some kind of a trend and many people felt this way. You would have fewer people to game with online.

But then I guess you can save caring for the: "Gamers leaving XBOX Live in droves" article.

[maniacmayhem]

Wow, 22 disagrees. I LOVE IT!

[Raptura]

Waaaa waaaa

[Godmars290]

What happens if subscriber numbers do drop, and MS lowers Gold back to current or even lower levels. How are they going to justify that?

[OC_MurphysLaw]

But sadly...its just that...what if. Dont know until it happens and I highly doubt its gonna happen.

It's like saying What if Sony started charging for playing online games and not just PSN+... What would all the Sony loyalists do? Its a great "what if" question but hardly worth discussing because reality is it probably will never happen.

[Godmars290]

Not talking "what if" brand name loyalist would do, but the actual company. There are more than enough examples of a company making a literal bend over comment and some moron defending it - hell, I still think a $600 PS3 was once justified though its now 1/2 price - but how long did it take Sony to respond?

Pretty sure someone will say Netflix or Facebook on XBL justifies paying.

[DaTruth]

That's like saying, what if 10 million fewer people pick up the next COD game, what will Activision do?

I'm sure the millions will continue to shell out for Mediocre Warfare's next clone: now with more cheat and added fail!

[blahblah]

would go to PC. i can respect PSN+ being subscription based... online gaming... not so much.

same as i kinda expect i'll see trough my new cars windshield without needing to pay extra. i pay internet to my provider, bought console and games from sony. i did my part. as soon as sony would try to charge internet access for games (mp wise), i'd only buy single player games and play online on PC. if sony thinks 100 games on 3xps3 is not enough tax being payed from me, they don't deserve anything.

[RELAX]

no problem 4 me.

[Blackpool]

y comment then *sigh* *smh*

[ForROME]

Here is what the real kicker is, not only is it higher

When Activision and these companies get on this "Subscription" style paying, that will be on TOP of what you pay for live, so this pay to play well come from all directions, no longer will it be a set service you pick and go

Our Wallets are Under Attack

[big_silky]

Don't play online. Problem solved. If people weren't so obsessed with t3h online gamez, this wouldn't be happening.

[blahblah]

to learn how to fly you only need to learn how to miss the ground after jumping off a cliff;)

online is fun as it doesn't suffer from bad AI like most games (although some players really amaze me how stupid can they be)

[Half-Mafia]

N4G really has turned into a forum.

People post useless articles that should just be a forum post.

i only end up reading about 5 good articles a day on this site, which when i started coming to this site it really did used to be News 4 Gamers, now its just 'OPINION FROM GAMERS'.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Man you nailed that one on the head! Bubbles!!!

[theBedBurner]

Defiantly people here are way too opinionated, it's just become a forum for whining teenagers.

[Pedobear Rocks]

6 Reasons to quit Half-Mafia...

[big_silky]

I think they should eliminate comments and just be a news clearinghouse. Nothing of value would be lost.

[Karum]

That's actually a very well written and well presented article and I think the important thing to remember is that this is this guy's own personal reasons for not renewing, not like some other articles that seem to imply everyone should not pay for the reasons stated in those particular articles.

Yeah, definitely one of the better pieces to pop up on this site.

I might renew LIVE with this £24.99 deal that's being advertised on the dashboard but we'll see. By the time my own expires I'll have played my fill of Halo: Reach...I might subscribe again for a couple of months when Gears 3 comes out. My own reason for not renewing is I simply don't use my 360 enough to justify any payment, but won't mind a short term subscription when something I want to play comes out, like Gears 3.

[gamer8179]

If you don't feel that live isn't worth the money, don't renew it. I use nearly every feature on live regularly. I have great friends, and enjoy playing Halo and Cod with. We also play a ton of co op games such as left 4 dead and Gears 2. I can understand why people are satisfy with the ps3. Its come along way, and its still free. But, I would miss my friends to much if I didn't renew. Plus, getting new dashboard is pretty awesome.

[CellularDivinization]

I never had XBL to begin with, because I do not like Xbox. I am simply making an article of me telling you not to not renew it. Why? Because I hate Xbox.

[gameplayingfool]

The guy specifically talks about 2 points you assumed incorrectly:
1) He mentions early on that he is sharing an opinion he DOESN'T claim is universally correct.

2) He closes by saying how open he is to Xbox as a platform and isn't even opposed to renewing at a future date under that right circumstances.

Read...THEN comment.

[newhumanbreed]

My Live ends in November. I don't plan on renewing it. Instead I'm planning on selling my 360 and investing that money into my PC. I'll keep my PS3 just in case any interesting exclusives come up such as God of War 4 or Uncharted 3.

[Agent-86]

The PC and PS3 makes a perfect gaming combo. I do most of my FPS's and RTS's on PC since I think they look and control better on PC. Plus, the PS3 is great for Sony's exclusives and games not available on the PC.

[JackBNimble]

How much money do you think you're going to get for a used 360?

@Agent: I agree.... PS3/PC = no need for 360

[Karum]

I enquired on the trade in price at GAME in the UK for my 120 gig Elite, was considering trading for the 259GB xbox but they were only offering like £65

Think I'll be keeping the one I have tbh, it's not worth trading it in or selling it.

[farhad2k8]

$60 a year? 4-6 years of Xbox 360 left, 6 multiplied by $60 = $360 (how ironic), $360 = A 250Gb 360S+Halo:Reach / TWO 4GB 360S'.

Micro$oft eyy. They're all about their money, literally.

EDIT: If you include the past 4 years of $50 LIVE purchased, that's another $200.
All together that's $560 spent JUST on XBOX LIVE.
The same amount of money needed to buy a WIFE.

[Pedobear Rocks]

You're overpaying for a wife.

[blahblah]

wifes ring won't turn red

[Kamikaze8]

Everyone keeps saying that $60 isnt justified. But they never say that its $60 over an entire year, you arnt paying $110 for Gears 3, your paying $60.16 on the first day.

[gcolley]

boo hoo

[jack who]

why we care

[niceguywii60]

More PS3 fans and supposed 360 owners upset about paying something they don't have to pay for lol

[kagon01]

It hurts you right? :(

[tiamat5]

360 owners don't really have much of a choice. They are already in Microsoft's trap and they don't even realise it. You have to pay for Live because most of Microsoft's games are based on multi player. If they gave you more games with a stronger single player, you could ignore Xbox Live if you feel that it is getting too expensive but you need Xbox Live to experience the whole game or your just stuck usually playing 3-5 hour single player. With a PS3 you could ignore online and play tons of single player and ignore multi player completely. I could play MS PF, UC2, GOW3, HR, RAC, Infamous etc without hooking up to the PSN. But as long as you have a 360 they could raise the price whenever they feel like it even for no reason like they just did. Only alternative, buy a different system which unless you have the money is pointless. Microsoft is so devious.

[PS3-247]

MS screwed up big time. More and more people will be leaving XBL for PSN. You got to be an idiot to be paying for XBL when you get the same on PSN for free.

[divideby0]

I have been a charter day one paying member of Live...a lot longer than many around here I bet.. not renewing after this sub. runs out.... by that time I will had my fill of Reach and the only other game I would buy a short time card is for Gears, other than that for ME, no need to pay MS anymo.
The price increase + addition of features FREE on other consoles or PC makes live gaming unimportant to me

[maniacmayhem]

I'm starting to think that these 360 articles are a trap to lure 360 fans in and for sony fans to take all their bubbles and super disagree with them.

[jdktech2010]

IT'S A TRAP!!! Poor Ole Miss Rebels....got swindled again (sports fans will know what I'm talking about)

Anyway, I will renew Live in July when it comes up for two reasons
1) Halo: Reach
2) Gears 3

That's it and that's all. I could care less about the rest

[Lastcall]

going up to 70 bucks a year here in Canada...Thanks but no thanks...PSN in my eyes with dedicated servers and close to equal features, forced me to get rid of my 360 stuff...Don't miss it at all..

[Nugundam0079]

dude you sound so depressed-I actually feel bad :(

[farhad2k8]

The only difference between PSN and XBL is cross game chat and faster speeds, but download speeds are equal, if not faster.
For me anyway.
Cross game chat is coming on PSN soon, XBL is soon to be dead. R.I.P

[Bzone24]

Are you stupid or something? Do you think people are buying the Xbox 360 instead of ps3 only because of cross game chat? psn getting xgame chat won't change anything except make some current ps3 owners happy. It's not going to kill XBL.

[farhad2k8]

Read carefully, its not what I directed it at.
I was mentioning the features that PSN needs to match the expensive XBL.
I didnt say that SINGLE feature will kill off LIVE.

Wow, no wonder people are paying so much for LIVE, they have people as dumb as you buying it.

[Bzone24]

lol.

"Cross game chat is coming on PSN soon, XBL is soon to be dead."

The above is all in one sentence. That would lead people to believe you are saying the first half of the sentence is going to cause the second half of the sentence.

Say I said something like 'I have a gun, you are all going to die'. Do you think the police would buy it if I said one half of the sentence had nothing to do with the other?

Either say what you mean or be a man and mean what you say.

[rbluetank]

i am going silver or nothing at all.. i have a ps3 and i am thinking about buying a new one for the front room this fall.... Reach is okay and not worth $60 to play online....

[Bzone24]

Stinks of sony fanboy in here.

[farhad2k8]

Coming from a Micro$oft fanboy?

[X-Alchemist]

the only reason I buy it, is so that I can play with my mates

[jashmister]

live already costs $90 in aus, but im not renewing mine anyway i got a 3 month somewhere and if i want to play reach longer ill use that.
The last games i want on 360 are Fable 3 and Dead Rising 2 which are both going PC anyway so PC for me now.

[Tikicobra]

I've never had a Gold subscription. My brother did, but I never wanted to pay for it. I just used the free 48 hour trials that came with some of my games to play online. I think it's asinine that Microsoft can get away with charging us for online play. The price of games and accessories is ridiculous already; the last thing we need is to pay for online play.

[bobrea]

I'm with you on Gold not warranting a $60, yet alone a $50 price tag. But at the same time, I want to play games online, and as much as I hate it, I have to pay M$ to do that. Which means that they're doing their job.

[Trroy]

This article reflects my thoughts exactly. Subscription fee to play online, when other services offer the same for free... no. I might pay for it if it was like $12 per year. $60? No way. If XBL Gold started offering a few good free XBLA games while you paid, discounts, themes, etc... then sure $60 is cool.

There's just not much sense in XBL Gold any longer, IMO. All my pals are on PSN now as well.

[Sez]

I already brought two new gold cards. So I'm Straight for the next two years.

[SpideyNut]

I just renewed mine in May (with a card I'd bought from Amazon a year earlier), and when I heard about the price hike, I immediately bought 2 more 12 mo. cards off Amazon, at $36.99 each. :D

[Sez]

I got my copy of halo reach.

[Shackdaddy836]

I moved to college and my parents still don't know they automatically renew xbl when it runs out XD

I'm such an @hole...

[SpideyNut]

...yet I've renewed my Gold sub every year since 2002, without thinking about it. It's the other community aspects that I like, and the perks as well....but I really just don't think about spending the ($39.00 with Amazon.com) yearly. It's no different from the 3-n-1 Cable package I pay $160/mo., or my Netflix, or any other non-necessity monthly bill I have. I may not take full advantage of all of the "features" I'm paying for, but I want the service there for when I DO. I'm a grown-up, and make good $$...I can afford it. People who try to reason through dropping something like LIVE...when they've enjoyed it for YEARS...by making stupid comparisons to the "free" PSN, just can't admit that they need a better job/education, so they can afford the things they REALLY want.

[ambientFLIER]

...so don't renew it. Is it really worth a whole article?

[Trroy]

That's like telling a gaming journalist "so you didn't like the game? Is that really worth a whole review article?"

Its his job to write stuff for his readers to ponder.

[sdplisken]

i thought cross game chat was worth $60 a year? XD
LOL @ the sheep who pay for online

[Justin_bristoe]

come on over to the darkside

[SpinalRemains138]

To reality. We already pay for our internet connection, the console and the game. Why should we pay again to play the game on the internet that we already pay for? Sony understands this.

Welcome back to reality. I hope others follow suit so that Microsoft realizes that they are wrong for doing this.

[Myst]

After playing around with gold there are some changes I would personally make, the first of which is allowing last.fm to be streamed while playing a game. I mean every other game allows for music to be played. If they could tweak it so last.fm can be streamed that would be awesome.

Though I do agree with the author only Reach got me to go gold and even then it's only to play with some friends. Soon I'll more than likely lose interest but may add onto it to try out Gears of War 3. I just find it astonishing that I had to pay to play online for Reach something that still kind of boggles my mind.

[REDHULKSMASH]

The one thing I wish psn had that Microsoft has is the appear offline feature. Annoying people, bosses, relatives think you're offline but your not.... Is it worth $60 a year..no, but it is bad ass. Now cross gamechat I don't need...I'm 31 not 15. When I play a campaign I don't want to answer invites, cellphones, housephones, email, or my wife. If I'm playing mplayer I talk trash with my teamates and opponents. When I'm gaming with friends I don't need xgamechat because we're playn the same game.

This was a good article..I am sooo geared out. I love gears 2 but the last 3-4 months it's hard to find a match and after 20 min of playin I'm bored now. It doesn't help if I keep getting stuck on hail or mansion. I'm starting to think gears is a better campaign game than multiplayer. I can't play halo...it's not my thing.

As far as cod I prefer sprinting with the left analog stick on ps3.
And yes free online is only right. I'm not renewing my live. Not for gears multiplayer....not with cod, mw2, and uncharted 2 out there.
Not yo mention all the Xbox xclusvs seem to be coming tops3 anyways.

[Paradise Lost]

My gold expires next year and im planning on not renewing any time after. Im sorry but i've had it with xbox and it's bs. I pay $60 a year i/we deserve to get dedicated servers running for exclusive games. If Sony is can do it for free, there is obviously a big problem with Microsoft.

Im sick and tired of lagging out because of someones 5mb connection.

[s45gr32]

well paying for xbox live gold is not worth it.

[Orionsangel]

Who cares about this $60 price dollar increase. You just have to find good deals. Amazon always has gold for like $20 dollars less, if not get it on ebay for less. There's always good deals out there, but this guy is convinced he must pay $60 dollars because MS said so. What a moron!

[Snack_Raccoon]

I had a Gold account for 3 years, in that time I went through 3 Xbox360's, two of which died on Christmas eve (The worst possible time for it to die, I must say), when the 3rd one died, that was it for me, I sold all my 360 games and bought a PS3 and never looked back.

The only thing I did on Live really was play with one friend, who still has his 360, he has a PS3 as well, but any multiplatform games that come out he gets on the 360 to justify the money he's paying for it and of course, when his gold account expires he's going to renew it because he has all these games for his 360. He's been lucky in still having the same 360 he bought on day one and has this impression that if you're 360 dies then you're obviously doing something wrong (I know one guy who is on his 9th 360 and keeps buying them ¬.¬). He now has a 360 slim as well, which is more of a reason for him not to switch over to PS3, plus he's a BIG TIME Gears of War and Halo fan.

So yeah, in short, I left Xbox Live because I had 3 Xbox's die on me. Would I go back? I was tempted to just so I could play online with this friend, but £40 a year to play with one guy? When I can play PS3 for free (or split screen with my flat mate).

My only hope is his 360 dies :P

(first comment on N4G, woooo! /s)

[evildeli]

I don't play online games anymore, I'm letting my Gold lapse when it comes due.

[JJFNIGHTS80]

It's because M$ fucks up their price tag and jacking up their XBOX LIVE. Why we PS3 owners enjoying our FREE PSN ONLINE GAMING.

[hiredhelp]

What fantastic exclusive online multiplayer games. theres been ok exclusive multiplayer games. but not fantastic.

So psn doesnt over excite themselvs in colorfull yet confusing slide show xmb.with sony ps3 it does what it sais on the tin. its just maped out easyer plainly. and more mature. and being free with the Option of paying for Plus. makes ps3 that much better console.