I've asked 5 different people and gotten 5 different stories so far; how much does Xbox Live on the 360 cost? I've heard that Silver is free but Gold costs something, I've heard that they both cost something. Can someone set the records straight? 
Xbox Live on 360
- Thread starter Itisnotlogical
- Start date
I've asked 5 different people and gotten 5 different stories so far; how much does Xbox Live on the 360 cost? I've heard that Silver is free but Gold costs something, I've heard that they both cost something. Can someone set the records straight?
Silver is free, gold is $50 per year if paid in advance. Can't remember what month to month is, but my last renewal I only renewed for 3 month and it was $20. Clearly if you intend to make good use of it, the annual payment is the most economical choice.
What games don't function properly without gold, aside from the ones focused on online multiplayer like Halo 3 or Gears of War?
I haven't paid more than $30 annually for Xbox Live for the past 3 years. I just pick up the 12 month cards whenever they go on sale at Amazon and other vendors--they stack just fine (meaning if you have 2 months left, you can input the code right then and there and it will add 12 months after those 2 months are up).
So what's the real difference between silver and gold membership? I just bought an X-Box Arcade, so there's not a whole lot of memory storage space, but I bought it cuz it was cheap and because I am doing demos at Best Buy for the next month for the Tony Hawk:Ride game and I wanted to be able to practice and such and just get more familiar with the console, considering returning it, since for about $25-50 more I can get the Pro version
online multiplayer is restricted on a silver membership, so are the various contests and whatnot, you can still DL content on silver, videos, movies (not sure about netflix), theres a realy good series (for free even) go to video marketplace/independant videos and look for the guild
Demos are also timed exclusive for Gold members, as are some download deals.
Now it looks like the reason is that all DLC requires certification or some stupid silliness. It doesn't explain why they have a floor for map packs though - other than they don't want to make those Activision map packs look like bad deals.
DLC is checked for bugs just like regular content... not really that silly. that being the case, it does make me wonder how MMOs will work on the system if every patch needs to be certified (not a fast process). i dont know how often FF11 patches, but i know champions (PC version) is patching all the time.
Well Microsoft is the same company that told Valve they're not allowed to release Left 4 Dead downloadable content for free on Xbox Live Marketplace.
More specifically, Microsoft told Valve that it was more than welcome to release free DLC packs for Left 4 Dead ... but Valve would then be responsible for picking up the tab, based on downloads, of what Microsoft's cut of the revenues would be.
Not to derail the thread, but I believe FFXI on 360 benefited from having a lot of exceptions made in order to get it on there quick. That said, how MMO's will work on either console is anyone's guess. The exec producer for Star Trek Online said just last week that the game is running internally on PS3 and 360, and that the only thing stopping a release is that Sony and Microsoft just don't get MMOs.
Still, FFXIV is coming to PS3 (and likely 360), Age of Conan is supposedly coming to 360 (love AoC), and The Agency and DC Universe Online are coming to PS3, so they're both going to have to get MMOs working at some point.
Well, the implication around the journo-sphere (hah!) was that Valve used one of their free "patches" to throw out the first DLC thing out for free.
I can see why Blizzard would tell console makers to screw off though. Even if you forgive the impossibility of playing an MMO without a keyboard, being forced to pay for every patch you release (not to mention the overall delays of certification) is probably untenable... and hey, WoW is just big enough that they don't need to chase the console market.
Whether other MMOs will get a break is another thing I suppose. The PS3 has the advantage of letting people use mouse and keyboard in their games and given that Square is probably getting a lot from Sony in terms of support for some type of exclusivity on FF14 and their other two MMOs are first party published, they probably have no problem supporting them internally indefinitely... probably something that other companies wouldn't be afforded.
I can see why Blizzard would tell console makers to screw off though. Even if you forgive the impossibility of playing an MMO without a keyboard, being forced to pay for every patch you release (not to mention the overall delays of certification) is probably untenable... and hey, WoW is just big enough that they don't need to chase the console market.
Whether other MMOs will get a break is another thing I suppose. The PS3 has the advantage of letting people use mouse and keyboard in their games and given that Square is probably getting a lot from Sony in terms of support for some type of exclusivity on FF14 and their other two MMOs are first party published, they probably have no problem supporting them internally indefinitely... probably something that other companies wouldn't be afforded.
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