Xbox Live's Major Nelson - All Comments

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

F1GHTCLUB — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:26:05 GMT

All Regions? Or are we going to get screwed again!

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

Atomicow — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:05:48 GMT

@JethroXP - The difference here is that all of those other things involve a middle-man.

A movie theatre doesn't own the movies they show - they have to pay a substantial amount of money to borrow each copy. In most cases, the cost of a ticket is actually less than the amount necessary to break even - hence the 8 dollar popcorn and ads.

DirecTV doesn't own the shows they play- they are simply a provider. It costs them money to use satellites and other equipment to give you access to that programming, and you pay for that.

With magazines, there are a lot of factors. The 2 dollars you pay for it mostly goes to the actual making of the issue. People need to be paid for their writing, and it costs money for all that paper and ink and to actually ship it to you. The ads are in place to keep them from going bankrupt.

Xbox Live, however, is Microsofts property. A silver user can't play online, so there is no server cost involved other than friends lists and other trivial things - and that cost is made up for with ads. On the flip side, Gold users get to play online (but there is no additional server cost involved since it's Peer-toPeer) yet we pay for it.

A silver user without ads would cost them money, a gold user would not - they already made a profit.

To put it another way, let's say magazine makers could afford to give away their magazine for free if it had ads. Would you pay for that magazine if it had an additional page of content but still had all the ads?

If DirecTV could afford to give away its television service for free with ads. Would you pay for it to get an additional channel and still have all the ads?

You have it all backwards. The appropriate comparison is that if a movie theatre provided free movies with ads, but then offered to let you pay for them to skip that ads - that would be acceptible.

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

DUSTIN KRIEGER — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:04:53 GMT

sweat sounds like a good game.

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

AirborneDav1d — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:43:24 GMT

I very rarely play multiplayer games online anymore, for the past 4-5 months of my gold membership, I have played single player games. So my opinion is we as customers should buy a gold membership, 12 months etc.

And from the 12 months, every hour or minute that we are logged in on a multiplayer game should be deducted from the 12 months, that way my membership would feel worthwhile. If I spend more time playing single player games, I am wasting my multiplayer experience. But multiplayer games that I like such as Gears of War 2 is a joke, plus COD4 which made me get live was brilliant but now I am tired of it, I have to wait another six months for the next COD which I will play constantly, most probably, by then my GOLD that I need would have almost lost six months.

I am fed up of wasting £40.00 on Gold when the whiners from the United States get it for almost half price and are moaning about ads, who carse? (not me). But please consider my idea, or feedback.

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

P00K — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:33:29 GMT

@SeniorSuerte: So basically, toss our investment in the platform. Literally thousands of dollars, flushed because the Major needs a Porsche?

(j/k about the porsche, Major)

Many of us chose the Xbox 360 because of Xbox Live's clear advantage in the multiplayer / online spaces. That's part of what makes this "debate" so frustrating, is that Microsoft knows they more or less have a captive audience. I have an Xbox 360, 4 controllers + battery packs + chargers, the VGA cables, the chatpad, the vision camera, plus around 30 retail games and about the same number of arcade games. Add all that up, plus my Xbox Live sub fees for the last several years and it's a LOT OF COIN.

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

SeniorSuerte — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:20:07 GMT

If you are really upset by what Xbox Live is doing then don't renew your subscription or "click on the ads". I personally don't find them bothersome. Thanks Major for giving us a heads up. BTW love the podcast!

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

ushman360 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:32:18 GMT

Well it looks like my xbox is going to turn into my sister's myspace page.....awesome can't wait!

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

DESM0 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:56:33 GMT

Ohhhhhhh mannnnnn!! Cannot wait for this!

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

Trunks SSJ — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:35:31 GMT

I would love a 3D replica of Shibuya as my Xbox Live Dashboard :p

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

Blue Thunder28 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:24:17 GMT

I'm surprised so many people hate the ads, they help me out a lot and show deals and new marketplace content I most likely would not have found other wise... they are quite helpful.

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

Doh Ray Egon — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:59:02 GMT

Ads shouldn't even be on the dashboard in the first place if I am paying for a gold account. (Sony, Nintendo, Steam, PC are all free). It's already bad enough that we have to pay for themes and gamerpics which most of them are already promotional material for games. (Sony only charges for a fraction of their themes where most are free.)

I know you want to say that it will be "organic"...but I've learned not to trust corporate speak...especially from the gaming industry. You know...the same guys who say a game will be released on a certain date, and then the release changes to a later date. Or the guys who say a game is an exclusive...only for it to become available on other systems months later. Or saying a game is going to cost one price...and then all of the sudden the price changes (Halo 3 ODST is a good example of that.)

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

Red Bull Racer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:58:58 GMT

I agree, there shouldn't be any ads! It's madness, the Dash/Marketplace needs speeding up cos it's so slow it's annoying, I can't see how adding ads is going to speed it up!

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

MADEIRA STEVE88 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:58:52 GMT

I hear MVC2 is coming out on the 15th July (Rumour). Heres some artwork for MVC2 they should add this to the game :)

www.capcom-unity.com/.../exclusive_marvel_vs_capcom_2_art_

re: Silverlight ads on Xbox 360

xZepher — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:29:42 GMT

Make XBL free if there is gonna be adds. No one want to pay for that crap.

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

Exu — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:26:11 GMT

Cool.

Anything else?

re: Next week on Arcade: Battlefield 1943

xZepher — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:25:20 GMT

Cant wait.