Top 5 Reasons Why Xbox Live Should Be Free

It was a night like any other. My buddy and I had arranged to meet up on Xbox Live and duke it out on Halo 3. Then it happened. “There is a payment problem with your account, please adjust your settings.” Dammit. Okay, I’ll just need to add some cash to my account and then hop in. Wrong. What I got stuck in was essentially a loop of nonsensical errors that did nothing to help me fix “payment problem,” and in the end I was forced to create a completely new Xbox Live account. I called my friend up explaining why I hadn’t joined the game, and he told me of the same exact problem and the fact he had to create a new account as well. Which got me to thinking two things: 1) This is obviously not an isolated issue, and 2) Microsoft, because of this issue as well as others, cannot truly justify charging what it does for it’s Xbox Live service. For the 12 month Premium Gold Pack, I pay $60 and naturally expect to get fairly exceptional service for what I pay. When I ran into my “payment problem” the other night though, I really altered my view of Xbox Live and compiled this list of the Top 5 Reasons we should not be paying for Xbox Live service:

1) The Competition is Comparable and Free: PlayStation Network and Nintendo Wi-Fi are FREE! Microsoft charges for services that are only slightly, if at all, superior to what Sony and Nintendo provide for users. Is Microsoft using it’s stature in the technological world to pull a fast one on us and charge for services that are free on other comparable systems?

2) Aren’t Games Expensive Enough?: Newly released games for consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3 market for about $60. At that price, you’d expect the full package, any downloadable content updates for free (Burnout: Paradise is keen to this idea, as is clear with their upcoming massive content updates) and, what is almost most important these days, free online service. Say you buy Halo 3 for your 360, at around the cheapest you can find it for around $37. Okay, now take the fact that 1 million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first 24 hours of the game’s release. Most of the gamers were admittedly hardcore, given by the fact they bought the game the day it was released and immediately hopped online. And that was merely a fraction of Halo 3’s sales, no doubt. So, let’s take a look at the math: At release, the game was $60, multiply that by 1 million gamers, and then multiply that by $60 for the Xbox Live year long service (we can assume most of those 1 million users had the yearlong subscription since they probably planned on playing their eagerly awaited new game into the indefinite future). So, that’s 60x1,000,000x60 = ....well, you get the idea. Microsoft is doing just fine, I’m sure. 

3) Outages, Glitches & Refunds: Xbox Live is by no means a perfect product. This past holiday season several ticked-off Texan gamers sued Microsoft for $5 million, claiming that the influx of new holiday games put much stress on Xbox Live servers and caused prolonged issues for users. The gamers “claim[ed] Microsoft’s outages represent[ed] a breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation for which the software maker is liable.” (Hat tip: Gamespot) Aren’t we gamers due what we pay for? It’d be the same as if the HBO we sign up for on our television cut out every other time we watched it, simply because a lot of other people were viewing the same channel. We have cause to be angry about it, because we’re paying good money for a service that other, equally profitable, companies have deemed expendable in the name of good business. 

Glitches: My introductory story is a case in point. These things are bound to happen, yes, but we should pay significantly less, or nothing, for a service in which such glitches are present. If a user owns a year long membership on Xbox Live, comes back from a gaming hiatus to find his Xbox Live account in need of updating and money, that’s fine. However, when that same user faces glitches that get in the way of a smooth gaming experience that they paid well for, there’s a major problem that needs to be compensated for. Which brings me to my next point…

Refunds: According to Microsoft’s Xbox Live FAQ, “If you have an annual Xbox Live Gold Membership that was purchased with a credit card and you cancel it within 60 days of creating it (based on settlement date when funds were assessed to your credit card), you will receive a full refund. This refund policy applies to Xbox Live Gold Memberships only.” This sounds reasonable for the Gold 3-month membership, with 2/3 of the time available for cancellation with a full refund. However, when it comes to the much more common and cost-beneficial 12-month plan, users must cancel their service due to dissatisfaction 2 months into a year-long commitment! So, if you run across intolerable glitches or whatnot 5 months into your yearlong plan, you’re screwed!

4) PSN & Nintendo Provide Free Wireless Hardware, Xbox Live Doesn’t: While the Wii and PS3 have built-in wireless internet receivers, you must buy a specific adapter for your Xbox 360. Typically, these run for $100 and is but a continuing trend with Microsoft: provide a console with the bare essentials, then immediately provide “add-ons” that should have been in the initial setup for ridiculous prices. Take the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player add-on, priced for $50 nowadays; by anyone’s call, it was a component that should have been bundled with the system, just like the PS3’s built in Blu-ray player. I mean, come on, Microsoft.

5) Free Service = More, and Happier Users, Which Result in Higher Profits for Microsoft in the End: This is the crux of my point. Just because Microsoft is a technological and software Goliath does not mean that it can side-step the goodwill of it’s loyal base. Retail game prices aren’t gonna change for the next-gen console titles any time soon, but Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft should have the common sense to offset the unavoidable costs by providing free services where possible. As far as I can tell, Sony and Nintendo have been reasonable. The Xbox Live issue, though, exposes the cleavages of Microsoft’s greed and lack of old school business-client relationship building. Make Xbox Live FREE, the status quo is changing. Online gaming services, sponsored dedicated servers, and free downloadable and substantive content are the New Order. If Microsoft doesn’t shape up its sense of what good business is, then I feel Xbox users should mutiny and move on to a company that pays them mind.

Posted by Daniel on 08/17 at 09:52 PM
(5) Comments