Mass Effect 3 Demo Provides Temp XBL Gold Access

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Are you serious. Like.....what the hell is wrong with you that you think this way?

@patrickklepek I think you mean Hulu Plus

I doubt that EA paid MS anything at all, sounds more likely MS are tripping over themselves to tag onto the the back of one of probably the biggest game this year.

After the huge expansion in gold services in the last fe months they'll be writing it off as trial advertising.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Thats a little ridiculous though. The people like myself who use Gold and re-up annually regardless won't be affected. If you play a lot of online games or just use the service you were going to get it anyway. It's not hurting anyone that they're giving silvers members 2 weeks of free gold out of the entire year. IF anything I thought this was unusually generous of Microsoft and knowing them someone dished out a lot of money for it.

@CosmicQueso said:

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

you must be new to the internet. welcome and be cautious.

@CosmicQueso said:

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

Agreed. People complain when Microsoft's tight-fisted and restrictive, and people complain when Microsoft loosens up and throws users a bone. I'm pretty sure we gold members can live with paying a few bucks for something some people are temporarily getting for free.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

email them your home address and bill gates will personally send you a turd in a box

Wow.

Was it ever confirmed how much of the demo needed to be played to unlock the armor/daggers in Reckoning?

There was no more elegant solution to a multiplayer demo than giving everyone Xbox Live Gold? Unless they were pushing Gold and hoping people will buy it when their trial expires, it's a little odd. All the people playing Call of Duty have Xbox Live Gold, surely that's enough people who can play the demo.

I think ME3 will probably do fine, I still don't understand the inclusion of multi-player though. Is that what people want? I'm still looking forward to the game, it's one of those games that I know I will buy and enjoy so I don't usually follow its coverage, a la Skyrim.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Highly doubt we'll get any benefit. I'm sure EA (or whomever) paid for this specifically based on the number of silver members they would be supporting.

@HatKing said:

A little rubbed the wrong way that I'll be paying for a service Silver Members get for free. Maybe they'll extend existing Gold Members accounts a few weeks.

Oh for f's sakes... isn't the entitlement thing going just a tad bit far here?

@HatKing: or they could just send you the two dollars in the mail.

I wonder how much EA paid Microsoft for this. Still, I can't get excited about anything Mass Effect these days. Pity.

I guess expecting to import my custom femShep into the demo, oh well, now I'm wondering if I should even try the SP part of the demo. Mostly wanna play to see how my PC handles it

Sounds cool.

I love hulu plux!

A multiplayer demo of a Mass Effect game, it's exactly what I wanted! I'm a bit weirded out by it being focused on MP. Did they release a demo of 2? Did that demo work alright without MP?

Edit: aw hell naw no save importing? Well, I guess that makes sense.

Ordinarily, if a multiplayer-focused demo went up on Xbox Live, you’d need to have a Gold subscription in order to shoot at your friends, but that won’t be the case with Mass Effect 3.

When the Mass Effect 3 demo goes live on February 14, Silver members will temporarily graduate to Gold, and get all the benefits that come with that, including access to Hulu Plux, Netflix, etc.

According to Microsoft, the temporary lift will last “for the time leading to launch.” Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for March 6, so that’s a few weeks of playing around with Microsoft’s enhanced service.

Of course, there are no such requirements on PlayStation 3 or PC, so when the demo launches on both of those platforms on the same day, it’s business as usual. There is a single player component to the demo, as well, and you will not be able to import your save or custom Commander Shepard.