What is Microsoft's deal with Xbox Live Gold?

JestersHat: and if you had bother reading the post that I made you would see why MS doesn't offer the same games with games with gold as PSN+ does with their rental service. And Sony isn't selling the games.

 

I did read it, and this stuck more than anything.

"And the business around Games with Gold, for us, is just fundamentally different from some of the other programs that are out there, which does put a different financial picture on a - you're gonna go buy a game that's brand new, the cost of putting that
in, just to be kind of blunt about it."

They'd rather cheap out on old dirt games than actually add decent and relativity recent Games to GfG in an effort to actually compete with Sony. What exactly is wrong with wanting the richest company in the World to actually give some value for money regarding
the XBL service? It seems when people actually mention things like that around here - it is almost tantamount to high treason. That's not directed towards you btw.

And no ones under the illusion that Sony games are for sale, am not, and I pay for it. They are an incentive to have PSN+, and to keep paying for it, and it's without doubt the best value for money. And if my PSN+ runs out, I can still at least use many
functions because they are not hidden behind a greedy paywall.

I've zero qualms paying for the year knowing am going to get alot of games, some good some bad, but alot of variety. Where as with XBL, I just let mine lapse, as I consider it to be a complete waste of money.

 

Honestly, if you have the money for the initial cost, I think the best way to go would be PC. It's easier to find companies with big sales on games, you can hook them up to your tv and you can get controllers adapted to work on PCs and if you build it yourself
you can build it to your actual wants/needs and upgrade it when you want. So there's really not that big of a difference other than a varying start cost.

 

Games for Gold started off EXTREMELY weak, but I have to admit it's been looking better lately. A few like Sleeping Dogs, Dead Island, and Laura Croft GoL are solid games. There's also some hidden gems like Defense Grid, Sid Meier's Civilzation Revolution,
and Dungeon Defenders. I'd never heard of the last couple, but if you look them up they actually have really good reviews. I'm actually kind of surprised to see Defense Grid on there after the way MS *** over it's developers, but either way, it's good to see
them heading more in the right direction and I hope they keep it up until they can actually compete with things like PS+.

 

It's still not the same as console gaming. At the end of the day, I like to get away from a PC and relax on my couch and so far a PC just can't offer the same living room experience as a console. I built a pretty decent PC last year that could easily compete
with the X1 or PS4, but I ended up selling it a few months later since it just wasn't the same and I knew it would get very little use once the PS4 launched.

 

I'm mean sure, it could be free.... It could also be worse. Crappy secondhand servers, with terrible ping. Perhaps no support for when your console needs to be repaired, and no human on the other end of that phone trying to help you through your problem.
I'm sure that it can get worse than that too, but those are just some of the thoughts that came up.

Here's a personal story, though its with an alternate account of mine. I just returned to these forums after nearly a year of being away (Technical Issues with the site). Thought I could access them on another account, I wanted to use it on this one. After
talking with Xbox Support, they actually offered to give me a year subscription to LIVE at no cost*. Not because I asked, Not because I was belligerent, or angry, or irritated with them. They offered that out of kindness, because I was having difficulties
in an area of the service I enjoyed most, and they realized that. These sorts of things wouldn't happen, if the service was free. These kind gestures, caring people, and awesome teams behind this system wouldn't exist (and if they did, they wouldn't be nearly
as great) with the service being "free".

Free comes at an expense. It may not be at YOUR expense, but an expense nonetheless. Degraded services, Terrible Service, and overall just a very unappealing bad taste. No thanks, I would rather continue paying for my Xbox LIVE.

* And this isn't an invitation to badger Xbox Support for free products, you lunatics. If you have legitimate problems, then contact Support, but don't go into it expecting anything more than "results" or you'll face a rather upsetting outcome.

 

I just don't get this augment regards Games with Gold pro gramme. Why would you want to keep a game in the 1st place ? If you didn't like or was bored of it or completed it you would trade the game.

If you new to X Box then yeah i would say yes good deal, but to any one who been on the 360 a while then i don't see the point to be honest with you. The games are so old chances are you already played them.

Ok so you can keep them but why would you ? when that taking up hd space ? So PS + is like a yearly subscription service not rental as someone has said. As there no date by which you lose the game, just a yearly subscription which is light years ahead of
Gold whether you get to keep the games or not.

 

I had a ps3 and over 600gb's of content from plus (I was a member since the start) and I have to say I prefer xbox live, psn down for maintenance on Thursday near enough like clockwork, bad gaming servers if any, I loved the games but it got to the point
where it got to saturated with them and I stopped buying games, that is bad business practice and could contribute in the downfall of sony in the long run, with the cost of gold your getting secure servers, a dedicated team to make sure things run as smoothly
as possible, people might not like Netflix being behind a paywall but with the xbox one what is the actual point of having one without a gold subscription.