Microsoft is no longer charging for Gold membership on the PC and with the PS3 adding trophies and a whole bunch of other features that are included in Live for free, is it just a matter of time until they stop charging for it on the 360 and if so when?

Only if their competition's online service gets as good as theirs or better.
Otherwise I don't see it happening.

It's only $50, I am really tired of people thinking that PSN is better just because of it (not saying you think that). What Soulless said though, if someone even comes close to the greatness that is Xbox Live, they'll probably rethink the price.

Right now the $50 a year is not a bad deal at all.  You are paying for a working online service that makes playing games with your friends pretty simple.  Sony's Playstation Network could possibly compete with Xbox Live in the future, but there is a lot of work ahead of them if they wanna do that.

When and if the PSN gains more ground 1 or 2 things will happen

1. Micro$oft will drop there 50$ price point
2. Sony will start charging 50$
   

just look for deals on the live gold cards. I picked up two a few months back during a target sale / coupon abuse. 

Of course it will never go away, they are making wayyy to much money charging for Xbox Live Gold memberships.

I don't think it will, but I don't think it's that big of a deal, either. All of those online games on the PC are way more expensive. Hell, if your a member at Runescape it costs more than Xbox Live, so yeah.

it should since they never put up dedi servers for games to make the lag a little less! while PSN does have Dedi servers.

13 Million X $50 = $650,000,000 a year, so multiply that by 5 years, and you get 3,250,000,000 so far from Xbox Live fees, not including all the crap people by off of the Marketplace.

"When and if the PSN gains more ground 1 or 2 things will happen

1. Micro$oft will drop there 50$ price point
2. Sony will start charging 50$
   

"

Yeah, sucks... MS will never drop it though, and Sony will never charge 50 bucks for PSN... well not in the foreseeable future anyways, and not anytime soon.

For XBL your basically paying for the servers, amongst other things. I think its stupid as hell that you pay 50 bucks, and you still have to see ads in your face...

There's a chance, since Games for Windows Live just became free...

For XBL your basically paying for the servers, amongst other things. I think its stupid as hell that you pay 50 bucks, and you still have to see ads in your face...
"

If they start losing lots of customers because of the price, they'll at least lower it.  Microsoft won't get rid of it unless it's a serious issue.

no, its worth and people are use to it now

"Sentry said:

For XBL your basically paying for the servers, amongst other things. I think its stupid as hell that you pay 50 bucks, and you still have to see ads in your face...
"

We are paying for a much superior service and those ads are not that intrusive.  :P
"

"

I just feel after 5 years they could at least innovate more over time, rather then play it safe, you know? If you are so good at something, improve upon it, don't play the hare in the race.
"

"MsCortana said:

"Sentry said:

For XBL your basically paying for the servers, amongst other things. I think its stupid as hell that you pay 50 bucks, and you still have to see ads in your face...
"

We are paying for a much superior service and those ads are not that intrusive.  :P
"

I know its worth the price, but its starting to not be honestly. And I think its stupid that you are paying 50 bucks, and then MS wants to make even more money off of ads, it just makes me look at them in a way that they don't care, and its about money.

And when you look at a free service like PSN, it has a lot of great stuff you can do, its definitely not lacking the main stuff, and is only going to get better and better as you have seen. Addition of in-game friends list, trophies, Video Store & PS Store revision are just a few enhancements that are making XBL not worth the price as much.

I just feel after 5 years they could at least innovate more over time, rather then play it safe, you know? If you are so good at something, improve upon it, don't play the hare in the race.
"

Unfortunately, no it probably won't go away.

MS have billion apon BILLIONS APON BILLIONS OF DALLORS

They can afford to make XBL free.  Its Bullshit that we have to pay, and don't make it sound like your getting a great deal becuase your not, becuase MS can easily make it free.

Probably not. They make WAY to much money from it.

"Only if their competition's online service gets as good as theirs or better.
Otherwise I don't see it happening.
"

I wish. Maybe in a year or so. It is not too inconvenient. You definitely get your money's worth. Or at least I do.

It might, depends how good PSN becomes and how successful DLC is.

I wish we got it for that price..Over here in the UK it is about £40...$80.....

"MS have billion apon BILLIONS APON BILLIONS OF DALLORS

They can afford to make XBL free.  Its Bullshit that we have to pay, and don't make it sound like your getting a great deal becuase your not, becuase MS can easily make it free."

I never see this happening since MS is making a lot of money off of it.

The question is will Microsoft ever stop wanting money and the answer is no because they need to recoup the wasted cash they blew

It's been working for years, ever since xbox live first came about on the original xbox, people have been paying the fee.  Why would they suddenly decide to drop it?  $50 in an entire year, that's like 4 bucks a month, for a fantastic service.

I'd gladly pay $50 for an online service as good as Xbox Live, getting into a game with friends is easy as hell.

Like others have said, the only way it will be free is if the competitors can offer an equal service for free. We know Nintendo doesn't even have a shot, and PSN while nice is still a long ways off.

As long as there's a good amount of people paying for it and their not loosing too much money, Microsoft will keep charging.  Still...I would love to see Xbox Live Free :)

They'd be foolish to stop charging. They've got, what, 8 million subscribers? That's like $400 million a year. 

"MS have billion apon BILLIONS APON BILLIONS OF DALLORS

They can afford to make XBL free.  Its Bullshit that we have to pay, and don't make it sound like your getting a great deal becuase your not, becuase MS can easily make it free."

"MOLE said:

"MS have billion apon BILLIONS APON BILLIONS OF DALLORS

They can afford to make XBL free.  Its Bullshit that we have to pay, and don't make it sound like your getting a great deal becuase your not, becuase MS can easily make it free."

Actually they cant afford it.
Try putting yourself in the shoes of the head of xbox walking into the board room with the other MS executives and sitting down and saying
"ya , we just made XBL free , those tens of thousands of movies , and all that marketplace content that is available to multiple countries is now being hosted completely by our wallet , we are expected to take losses of hundreds of millions of dollars a year  just so retards on the internet can feel like they are getting fair treatment." 
"

You don't turn a multimillion dollar product free, that's just bad business but I would expect that since its a paid service Microsoft would do everything in their power to innovate.  Xbox Live seemed 5 years ahead of its time, look at it now.

I wouldn't mind the $50 if only my 360 didn't break down 3 times, and another just about read to RROD on me. 

But hey, its only $100 for repair (sarcasm)

Oh I almost forgot to mention that the Wireless Adapter cost $100, thats alot of freakin money. 

Look folks, I own a Xbox 360, and not a PS3, but MS really fucked up on this one.  They need to start over and get it right, and make sure its right.

I hope they drop a little, althought i dont really care since its really good

I don't think $0.14 per day is much to ask for the great service they give us.

not soon

I doubt they will ever drop it. 

I'm not seeing this happening because look how much people are on XBL and then realize they all had to pay $50. Yeah, that's a lot of money and Microsoft has no reason to lower it

I don't mind paying for a service that really kicks ass

Well my problem with that is with psn cranking up all the time , very soon or later psn might just  be a bit under par and for the fact that its free, be considered slightly better (hold ur horses, it ain't at the mo, before i get slaughtered here, lol). And when this happens will the £40 tag still go on and be favoured by the mass?

No, they have no need to. They doubled their numbers and live meberships are selling liek crazy. At the gamestop in my city they ran out of the membership card things.

I think the answer is no. There is no reason for them to make XBL free. They have silver memberships for people who don't want the high end features, and gold for people who do. Also, it's not like live will stay still and not change at all. It will develop and move on as the xbox evolves.

"Sentry said:

"For XBL your basically paying for the servers, amongst other things. I think its stupid as hell that you pay 50 bucks, and you still have to see ads in your face..."

We are paying for a much superior service and those ads are not that intrusive.  :P"

"You know, if XBL was free, it would attract alot of people to the Xbox 360.  They win no matter what, they either get money from XBL or they get money for more Xbox 360's sold"

"Well my problem with that is with psn cranking up all the time , very soon or later psn might just  be a bit under par and for the fact that its free, be considered slightly better (hold ur horses, it ain't at the mo, before i get slaughtered here, lol). And when this happens will the £40 tag still go on and be favoured by the mass?"