Why is Xbox Live STILL $50?

Let's break down some of those Xbox Live benefits: 
 

• Deal of the Week (or, day? I forget)
• Private Chat (even though this can be used on a silver account)
• Demos (something that doesn't cost a penny on PSN)
• Party Chat (is this free on silver?)
• Netflix (never use)
• Social Networking (never use)
• Playing games online (this has always been ridiculous to me, especially when Uncharted 2, Rock Band 2,  Metal Gear Online, Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5 and LittleBigPlanet are free of charge to play on my PS3)

Let's break down some of those Xbox Live benefits: 
 

• Deal of the Week (or, day? I forget)
• Private Chat (even though this can be used on a silver account)
• Demos (something that doesn't cost a penny on PSN)
• Party Chat (is this free on silver?)
• Netflix (never use)
• Social Networking (never use)
• Playing games online (this has always been ridiculous to me, especially when Uncharted 2, Rock Band 2,  Metal Gear Online, Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5 and LittleBigPlanet are free of charge to play on my PS3)

To make a long story short, its because we keep paying it. Until PS3's online presence becomes as huge as Xbox Live, I doubt Microsoft will feel any need or push to bring down the price other than complainers ( me included ) bringing up the price as we continue to pay it regardless. Yes, I'm a part of the problem but seeing as I don't own a PS3 and have limited funds and thus usually have at least one multiplayer game to entertain me to compensate for my lack of games in general, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I see. So xbox live comes with features you don't use, so you feel you should pay less money.
Makes sense.
 
 
(no it doesn't)

xbox live's online play is no different from PSN's online play for me. I have both systems and they both perform fine online. the only problem is that I have much, much more online problems on Live than on PSN, and my PSN connection is worse.  
 
 I don't mind paying for xbox live, since 50$ a year isn't that much, but I still prefer my PSN 

I haven't paid that whole 50 bucks for a long time. Major Nelson on twitter will always highlight a sale if he finds it. Amazon is your best friend here. For about 3 weeks I saw a 12 month card for 29.99. So if it is really the pricepoint that bothers you, sales are becoming more common recently.

Just dont buy it then.

 
I think my favorite part about it to play 1v100 you have to be a gold member. When you play 1v100, you get an advertisement every 3 minutes or so. 
Basically, they keep charging because they know people will pay. MS loves to force fuck you for every dime you got, then act like they did you a favor. Ohhh we gave you demos earlier then PSN. WHOPDEFUCKINGDOO! its a demo.

I've found myself getting most of my Live subscription fee back through the Deals of the Week. I've bought a ton of special offers - off the top of my head N+, Castle Crashers, Peggle, Pinball FX and that Magic: The Gathering game.
 
Also, you can get demos on XBL with a silver account, but they show up earlier for Gold subscriptions. And while you never use the social networking and Netflix stuff, tons of people do, so you can't fault Live for that. And lots of people are happy paying for the best online experience around. It sounds like to me that this is simply you not feeling like you're getting the value out of XBL, in which case don't blame the price. Just accept that a Gold account isn't for you, go Silver, and just play multiplayer games on the PS3. Simple as.
 
Microsoft has done a solid job offering additional content to incentivise Gold memberships. I just bought a fresh 12-month subscription and not for a second considered going Silver. If you have an Xbox 360, you should have a Gold account. Simple as.
 
If you're going to be incensed by anything, be incensed by the fact that the wireless network adapter is still like $60. That is still pretty ludicrous, but at least you only have to pay that once, rather than every year.

"

"

Because people STILL pay for it.

" @MAN_FLANNEL said:

"

"

Oh look. It's another guy that posts a picture as a post again. "

I don't pay $50 for Xbox Live. You see gold cards on sale from $30-$40 every once in awhile.

although i know what you are saying is true, the fact is, xbox live is a better online experience than the PSN. I do think that they should cut the prices at least a bit to try and match the PSN's freeness (if you will)   but the XBL network offers so much more in the ways of accessibility and entertainment than the playstation counterpart that it should cost some money to use. though they could probably do with some small price cut

I'll make these points again,

1. I'm not a cheap bastard, So $5 a month is not the outrageous price your making it out to be
2. Your argument is along the same lines as someone saying  " Well I paid $200 for my phone, Why the fuck should I have to keep paying every month to use it????   I bought it already the service should be free!!!!! "
   

Because people pay it

" @vgmkyle said:

" @MAN_FLANNEL said:

"

"

Oh look. It's another guy that posts a picture as a post again. "

That showed 'em, huh? MAN_FLANNEL is probably crying over that reply! You sure owned him!  No he isn't.  On topic: XBL costs money because people buy it. If millions of people were shelling money out to you, why would you make that service free? "

I hate paying for it when I think I could have the same experiences on the PS3, but for free.  I only need XBL Gold to play online.
 
And I don't have disposable income, so it's not as simple as saying "it's rather cheap" in my case.

If Xbox Live was free, it wouldn't be an online service it would be a Nursery.

When playing online means you can buy one less game a year, then yeah I would be annoyed by that. 
 
Especially when they're competitors are all handing out online play for free.  
 
This is one of the reasons I play all my online games on PC. Where btw, we refused to pay for GfWL, and it went free. If people stopped using it, they would be forced to drop the price. 
But I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

Less than $5 a month isn't exactly bankrupting me, and I'm a lazy college student with no job. Skip that large coffee one day out of the month and it's paid for.
 
Plus, I find it to be a much better, more consistent experience than PSN, and all my friends are on Live so I don't really have a choice if I want to play with them.

people like to pay for it. there are some people out there that find sales for them for like $30. i do agree, i don't use netflix, private chat. i tried netflix for one month from my brother the quality of it bothered me a lot. i need a faster internet but i still won't use netflix. people can use two person private chat. demos come out early for gold members and silver have to wait like a week for the demo to come out.

"

"

" @MAN_FLANNEL said:

"

"

"

" I've found myself getting most of my Live subscription fee back through the Deals of the Week. I've bought a ton of special offers - off the top of my head N+, Castle Crashers, Peggle, Pinball FX and that Magic: The Gathering game.  Also, you can get demos on XBL with a silver account, but they show up earlier for Gold subscriptions. And while you never use the social networking and Netflix stuff, tons of people do, so you can't fault Live for that. And lots of people are happy paying for the best online experience around. It sounds like to me that this is simply you not feeling like you're getting the value out of XBL, in which case don't blame the price. Just accept that a Gold account isn't for you, go Silver, and just play multiplayer games on the PS3. Simple as. Microsoft has done a solid job offering additional content to incentivise Gold memberships. I just bought a fresh 12-month subscription and not for a second considered going Silver. If you have an Xbox 360, you should have a Gold account. Simple as. If you're going to be incensed by anything, be incensed by the fact that the wireless network adapter is still like $60. That is still pretty ludicrous, but at least you only have to pay that once, rather than every year. "

For the same reason their shitty OS is still $200-$500 and people buy it.
 
I would hate to pay $50 per console and I'm glad I don't have to - but I don't mind $50 for Live, really. Sure - the games are all hosted on the players' machines and all they really offer is a match-making service and nothing more (and only 100 fucking friends in your list), but it's still pretty decent. And if you put in a couple minutes of effort, you dont' pay $50/yr. In fact, Amazon has twelve month gold cards for $35, right now.

because it is worth it.  Of course like everything else I wish it were free. 

Hey, it costs $100 in my region and I am not buying (plus $150 for a wi-fi device - no thanks).  It would be a waste of money for me, so I made my choice.  I wouldn't even pay $50 if that was the price, but as people point out, supply and demand determines everything.  I am however likely to use PSN when I get a PS3 simply because it is free.

Because idiots pay it.

PS3 is getting monthly/yearly costs soon as well for "premium" stuff. Plus it's quite a bit better then the PSN, and the reason for that is we pay for it.

Just because you don't use Netflix and Social Networking doesn't mean nobody else does.

" Because idiots pay it. "

" @Fallen189 said:

" Because idiots pay it. "

Good job calling half+ of giantbomb idiots dick. "

" @Atlas said:

" I've found myself getting most of my Live subscription fee back through the Deals of the Week. I've bought a ton of special offers - off the top of my head N+, Castle Crashers, Peggle, Pinball FX and that Magic: The Gathering game.  Also, you can get demos on XBL with a silver account, but they show up earlier for Gold subscriptions. And while you never use the social networking and Netflix stuff, tons of people do, so you can't fault Live for that. And lots of people are happy paying for the best online experience around. It sounds like to me that this is simply you not feeling like you're getting the value out of XBL, in which case don't blame the price. Just accept that a Gold account isn't for you, go Silver, and just play multiplayer games on the PS3. Simple as. Microsoft has done a solid job offering additional content to incentivise Gold memberships. I just bought a fresh 12-month subscription and not for a second considered going Silver. If you have an Xbox 360, you should have a Gold account. Simple as. If you're going to be incensed by anything, be incensed by the fact that the wireless network adapter is still like $60. That is still pretty ludicrous, but at least you only have to pay that once, rather than every year. "

I have to disagree with alot of this. First, Facebook, Twitter, and to an extent Peggle, pinball, and whatever other low budget games you've listed are all available for free on the Internet. 
Why do you only get access to these in a gold membership? 
Second, demos are marketing material thats trying to sway your mind to buy the finished product. So when you think your getting somethign special because you got a demo a week early then everybody else, you have in a roundabout-way, paid to be marketed too. 
Third, I'm not 100% sure on how Netflix works, but I have a good idea. I can also tell you that it isnt a service that available in all countries, mine being included. Does that mean my subscription price should come at a slight discount because I don't get all the features a user gets in, lets say, the US?  The thing is, they've included so many things into the XBL subscription that you can easily access for free elsewhere, and so many 360 users blindly believe there getting a good deal.   I also love the fact that people say its such a better experience... what the sweet fuck does that mean. I own both 360 and PS3. Both have very very similar problems online. I still get disconnected, I still get lag, ect ect. But theres one big difference, I didn't pay on the PS3 too play. The core bit of XBL and PSN are identical. If you honestly thing playing your games online from a 360 is making it better, I am sorry, your fucked in the head. "

Not worth it. I don't bother with it. A gold subscription doesn't offer anything I couldn't get elsewhere for free. I already pay for internet (and I pay a lot out here), I'm not paying extra to be allowed to use my internet connection for application X.

I don't pay for it because I have so few games at any one time for my 360 (I currently only have 3, and two of those were free XBLA games, one of which doesn't have online play) that it's not worth it.

" Because idiots pay it. "

" @Burns098356GX said:

" @Atlas said:

" I've found myself getting most of my Live subscription fee back through the Deals of the Week. I've bought a ton of special offers - off the top of my head N+, Castle Crashers, Peggle, Pinball FX and that Magic: The Gathering game.  Also, you can get demos on XBL with a silver account, but they show up earlier for Gold subscriptions. And while you never use the social networking and Netflix stuff, tons of people do, so you can't fault Live for that. And lots of people are happy paying for the best online experience around. It sounds like to me that this is simply you not feeling like you're getting the value out of XBL, in which case don't blame the price. Just accept that a Gold account isn't for you, go Silver, and just play multiplayer games on the PS3. Simple as. Microsoft has done a solid job offering additional content to incentivise Gold memberships. I just bought a fresh 12-month subscription and not for a second considered going Silver. If you have an Xbox 360, you should have a Gold account. Simple as. If you're going to be incensed by anything, be incensed by the fact that the wireless network adapter is still like $60. That is still pretty ludicrous, but at least you only have to pay that once, rather than every year. "

I have to disagree with alot of this. First, Facebook, Twitter, and to an extent Peggle, pinball, and whatever other low budget games you've listed are all available for free on the Internet. 
Why do you only get access to these in a gold membership? 
Second, demos are marketing material thats trying to sway your mind to buy the finished product. So when you think your getting somethign special because you got a demo a week early then everybody else, you have in a roundabout-way, paid to be marketed too. 
Third, I'm not 100% sure on how Netflix works, but I have a good idea. I can also tell you that it isnt a service that available in all countries, mine being included. Does that mean my subscription price should come at a slight discount because I don't get all the features a user gets in, lets say, the US?  The thing is, they've included so many things into the XBL subscription that you can easily access for free elsewhere, and so many 360 users blindly believe there getting a good deal.   I also love the fact that people say its such a better experience... what the sweet fuck does that mean. I own both 360 and PS3. Both have very very similar problems online. I still get disconnected, I still get lag, ect ect. But theres one big difference, I didn't pay on the PS3 too play. The core bit of XBL and PSN are identical. If you honestly thing playing your games online from a 360 is making it better, I am sorry, your fucked in the head. "

Sounds like someone needs a hug.
 
As regards the relative quality of the service on PSN vs. XBL, allow me to present the following:
 

"

Because they can, and people are willing to pay. Sure PSN is free but really if Sony wasnt sony late out of the box with there online stuff they woulda charged for it too, but seeing how they were so late to jump in the online game after Xbox Live had become sucha big thing, that to entice people into buying the PS3 and to try and take away from Microsofts biggest feature was oh hey we'll let you play online for free! Isn't part of the fee on Live also due to the fact that Microsoft are the ones running all the games servers which cost money while the games servers on the PS3 independently run on the game makers servers and not actually run by Sony so they can get away with charging nothing since there not paying to maintain the servers?

It's only $50 a year.  Most gamers spend more than that ($60) on games they discover later they don't even like.  If PSN offered a better online experience than Microsoft for free, then I'd agree with you.  But they don't.  PSN is getting better, but when it starts to add the features that xbox live has it's going to start charging money too. 
 
$50 a year is not a "crazy price."  Gaming is an expensive hobby.  So stop complaining and stop being so damn cheap.

Back when Xbox Live was first concived, the $5 a month was widely worth it compared to the online available on the Playstation 3. That "worthy" line has been blured due to Sony really playing catch-up with Playstation Network. I don't mind paying $5 a month for Xbox Live as it is a great service that is really well integrated with the Xbox, but what I DO have a problem with is paying $3 for a theme, or $3 for Avatar Clothing or something stupid like that, which should be free (both Sony and Microsoft are madly guilty of this).

More people use it price shoots up, less people use it then it decreases.  So if EVERYONE stops there membership for 2 or 3 months Microsoft will break down and decrease price.  
 
To tell you the truth it is your fault it is $50.
 
 @CL60 said:

" PS3 is getting monthly/yearly costs soon as well for "premium" stuff. Plus it's quite a bit better then the PSN, and the reason for that is we pay for it. "

I'm pretty sure even the most hardcore xbox fanboys agree that XBL being a paid service is bullshit. That being said, this bullshit isn't going to go away as long as people keep paying for it (which everyone does including me).
 
P2P networking should be free. I can't boycott every little thing I disagree with.

Yeah I don't have "Xbox Live Gold" out of principle... one of the reason's I got a PS3 in the first place. $80+ a year is too expensive in my opinion... Microsoft need to consider this in future as they... HAD the opportunity to win this Generation, hands down, but they've allowed Sony back in! Like some of the others were saying above, when they "need" to, they'll do it...

It's pretty easily to find 12 month cards for well under the $50 price.
 

@CL60

" PS3 is getting monthly/yearly costs soon as well for "premium" stuff. Plus it's quite a bit better then the PSN, and the reason for that is we pay for it. "

Because microsoft still wants to make the same amount of money from Live as they have the whole time and don't want to reduce it?

I have used both PSN and XBOX live extensively, I personally cannot see why people claim the XBOX experience is so much better. As for the usage of the PSN store and marketplace, I vastly prefer the PSN format of having actual money as opposed to the points system, but hey to each their own.