LIVE now free for Games for Windows

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

doctor drillxba — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:55:16 GMT

So everyones mad that pc players get an online service for free then say silver members should be allowed to play free too ? so us euro gold members will just pay the biggest whack and the rest pay less, yer that fair :P, live shouldnt be free, i dont want MORE kids playing gears or gta4 than there already are, its a reliable service ( most of the time ) and would be ruined if made free, i do think tho that ms needs to step up and reward its gold paying members. And BAN kids on 18 rated games online :)

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

Miley — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:03:02 GMT

Wow, are people that broke? $40 for the year! thats the price of a few beers.

I pay 60 euro (Ireland) a year for what i think is a great service and i hope its never free.

Like the man said "Keep off all the ten year old kids making ten accounts"

Ya can stick your ps3, Long live xbox live.

"Playstation live service is progressing at a good rate" But how advanced are xbox live gonna be by the time ps3 find out how to chat to gamers playing different games? Lightyears ahead is where!

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

Simon Balthier — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:33:44 GMT

They should allow the silver users to play online, but keep them seperated from the gold users... Gold vs. Silver should only play together if it is via invitation. So everyone would be happy! :D

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

Parassassin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:14:58 GMT

Tis a bit harsh that the games for windows (which are cheaper) get the online experience for free, maybe MS should provide free online gaming for silver membership holders and maybe offer all the other perks just for gold members. Once again the xbl community have been forgoten :(

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

John — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:02:04 GMT

Why are you people saying PSN is ***? Have you even used it? I just went on Halo 3 for the first time in a few months and experienced nothing but lag for 2 hours straight. Well, there was about 30 minutes in there that were ok. I kept thinking to myself, do they really expect me to pay for this? This is terrible. Ive owned a PS3 for a little over a year now, buying all my games on that since Halo 3, and in all honesty, besides UT3 which lags frequently on non dedicated servers, Ive experienced lag on that service maybe 3 times. PSN is a great service and offers greater stability than Lives Gold. I really dont know how you guys can justify the price. I can understand for though, for those of you who dont own a PS3, Wii, or PC and have no other choice. Again, PSN is awesome, gameplay wise, PSN is the same as Live, with the exception that PSN is free, and its a more stable environment. Make Live free and ill have a reason to buy 360 games again.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

EarthCetacean — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:28:59 GMT

so what If I had signed up to my live originally on my 360, and now have to moved to games for windows and sold my 360, which I have. do I get changed over to windows live free automatically, do I even get to keep my existing gamertag and score. or do I have create a new gamertag, which would nark me off ??

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

The Reb1rth — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:07:29 GMT

PC gaming has always been free, except for the ISP cost (or phone bill in the old days). I guess paying monthly for top notch servers didn't felt neccersary for PC gamers. Maybe now they will go back to playing Games for Windows Live games like Gears of War and Shadowrun.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

DarkBlades25 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:03:57 GMT

Thats...odd. It should be subscription based for everyone. :( But I guess its just another way to get more on the vista ban wagon, lol. This should shed light to new programs that allow live users who are not using the Xbox360, to send messages to ones who are even if their account has dropped to a silver. I dont know... odd news for me

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

AnotherSociety — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:26:50 GMT

This is excellent news now hopefully it will be the same for the 360 next year?

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

AlmostUber — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:18:44 GMT

The reason xbox live isnt free because its toooo good to be free look at psn it sucks..... wii online sucks....... psp online sucks..... this is why..

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

N0 NRG — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:28:43 GMT

I agree with tabicat's earlier comments: free Xbox Live would be a nightmare with people having multiple accounts (it is already getting to be a problem in Halo). This would go a long way to destroy the integrity of the system; no one would care about what they said (less so than now), reputation would be meaningless, and it would make getting a decent match making game more difficult.

In my opinion, Xbox Live provides an excellent service and is pushing the boundaries forward. I'm happy to pay and support it.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

LittleBlueAlien — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:15:57 GMT

I think the compromise is the way forward - I'm quite happy to keep paying for Live - but considering the offerings from competitors, why not discount the membership a bit. U.S. to $30, U.K. to £20, Europe to 25 Euros etc...

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

Anon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:17:45 GMT

XBL i probably great in the US. But in Australia its not the same thing. And if you are casual gamer that just owns 2-4 games and don't play that much it's not really worth it.

"Casual gamer" + "not in the US" = "XBL is a bad deal"

For the hardcore gamers in the US it's probably totally worth it.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

hj3 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:05:37 GMT

Xbox Live Free? What makes one think that Microsoft needs to make Xbox Live free? Their's lots of money for them to cash-in. Could make it free and then downgrade its service. And add a new version that cost more than $50, with has many new and old features, and services. Then start complaining again about Microsoft doing it again to gamers.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

hj3 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:42:42 GMT

Why can Microsoft charge $50 to Xbox Live? That's an easy question, because they can.

re: LIVE now free for Games for Windows

Ashley — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:20:13 GMT

I still think it should be built into Vista, so that friends can invite me into games when I'm just browsing the net etc, the fact it only works within games is a major fault with Games for Windows.