Jim Sterling says PS+ humiliates the game industry

[RUINER ACTUAL]

360 online play is superior to PS3. Live has party chat- if you only use party chat to talk to your friends, you basically have a $60 per year phone bill! They have built Xbox Live into a social platform, largely through party chat. Get online, talk to your friends, hang out virtually, play games, Netflix vid parties were great til that disappeared. I think its great from that standpoint, as I'm away from home for college, and in general have friends and family scattered across a few time zones. It's all about if you can justify the cost. I can, some can't. Don't use it. Remember Xbox Live was born in the time of 56k modems, when the infrastructure wasn't as good as it is now (still not as good as it could be), and online games clogged up the tubes. All they do is say "look at these numbers, they keep growing, well don't change anything." $60 a year is negligible for what we get.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Xbox live gold.....wow a whole £40 a year. Thats really breaking the bank, a whole £3 a month. Yep, MS are really ripping us off. Ok its not free, but still its not a rip off. Its very reasonable i think when you think they could charge a whole lot more if they wanted. End of the day its used for early demo usage and online gaming.....every thing else is a bonus.

End of the day if you use it loads then you get your moneys worth. I dont play games online so Live would be a waste, if you game with friends online everyday then its a bargain.

But, given all my talking, i would prefer all gaming online to be free just so you have the option down the line. Even if they had a free week every month for everyone to game online. Im sure next gen will be free.

 

[HardPrey]

I currently own more PS Vita games, than games for my 3DS, and I don't even own a PS Vita.

 

[J Tyran]

PS+ is great, I can download games and play them for free and the best thing is it crosses from my PS3 and my PS Vita with a single subscription. Getting discounts on brand new games in the PS store too.

Sony really have kicked Microsoft in the nuts with this.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

God Jim can be such a dick for no reason.

Get a job. It's $4 dollars a month for an online service that people actually use.

If people used PS+, it would cost more money. But no, Jim has to be all "M$ is stealing your money. They are an evil corporation but Sony is a god-send that would never do anything to hurt you."

Even worse, he's talking down to the 360 users like people who have a 360 are morons.

I'm not a moron Jim... I'm just not a cheap piece of shit.

 

[Snowblindblitz]

Its not the price of X-box live that's the problem:

The problem is me paying them for the privilege of using my internet connection...that I pay for.

 

[Sylveria]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

Since when has that been the case? I have owned both in the past, and they each had equal internet connections.

I have both currently, and the Xbox is simply the better console for online play.

Can you substantiate that claim? You say it's better, why, how? Do you have anything to back it up other than your personal, subjective experience?

 

[clippen05]

People have probably already said it, but the fact that Xbox advertises all over your dashboard even when you pay the subscription fee is ridiculous.

 

[clippen05]

Xbox live gold.....wow a whole £40 a year. Thats really breaking the bank, a whole £3 a month. Yep, MS are really ripping us off. Ok its not free, but still its not a rip off. Its very reasonable i think when you think they could charge a whole lot more if they wanted. End of the day its used for early demo usage and online gaming.....every thing else is a bonus.

Everyone's argument when justifying Xbox live subscription fees is that its only a couple of dollars, that its so cheap... I'd like to think that that's the argument the British used when they taxed the colonists...

Anyway, the fact that almost every service offered through subscription fees is offered for free on PC and console means they are ripping gamers off. PS3 has a wide variety of TV and music apps, maybe not 100% of the ones Xbox offers, but at least 80%. And they're all free on PC. Demos are free on PC and PS3, you don't have to pay for the right to download it early lol. What other things do they offer as a bonus? The only thing I can think of is Party Chat, and yes, that's a really good feature that's missed on PS3, but guess what, I can go on any number of services on PC and use them to voice chat for free with many more than 8 people. Microsoft isn't giving you a reasonable offer considering everyone else doesn't charge for these "Privileges"

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Ugh 4 $ a month isn't much , people spend more than that in coffee in a day . Plus i find XbL has a better internet connection than PS3, so if i'm paying 4$ a month to have a better connection with online games , i'll gladly pay.

Since when has that been the case? I have owned both in the past, and they each had equal internet connections.

I have both currently, and the Xbox is simply the better console for online play.

Can you substantiate that claim? You say it's better, why, how? Do you have anything to back it up other than your personal, subjective experience?

Party chat plus unified online system for every game. That is why it is better

 

[kenu12345]

Oh god I I think I finally finished reading all that Lol but yeah PS plus does seem like an awesome deal. Too bad Im flat broke lately V.V . Honestly if xbox live just added a bit more it would probably be worth it but as of right now, I personally think it isnt.
On a side note, reading treblaine's comments made me laugh so hard. So much hypocrisy and elitism. Sorry Treblaine but it kinda was funny to read.

 

[romxxii]

PlayStation Plus is one of the most consumer-friendly, convenient, and worthwhile ideas to hit the PlayStation 3. More importantly, in an industry where publishers are trying to take more money than ever for less content, Sony's the guiding light in how to draw a steady payday from users in a way that makes everybody happy.

The company recently revealed Plus' discounts and giveaways amounted to a cumulative $2,472 in 2012. While it's unlikely a customer downloaded absolutely everything required to get these savings, it would be quite easy to at least make back the $50 entry fee in content.

Compare this to Microsoft, a company struggling more and more to justify its subscription service with a straight face. The Xbox 360 owner has systematically worked to hold its content to ransom in an increasingly futile bid to make Xbox Live Gold look worth its fee. The biggest feature is, of course, online play -- something available for free on PS3, Wii U, and PC. The company took something that was already a given, and held it back.

Read more at http://www.destructoid.com/plus-points-sony-s-ps-plus-humiliates-the-game-industry-243470.phtml#fAkkciFgBbDv0B82.99

So, discuss. I think he's correct.

Glad to know that somebody's at least trying the Steam business model that Valve originated.

 

[Suave Charlie]

I prefer my xbox because it's what I'm most invested in; All my friends, online or not, have xbox and we like party chat.
I've got a pretty bitchin' game library now on there,
I can't be bothered to get a new pc and then faffing with it to get games running,
I never pay £40 for live, each year I've averaged paying about £20 for it, I can distinctly afford this without even thinking.
But I think the most important factor is: I don't really care.

I like my xbox, it does what I need it to, and does it well.
Anyone that argues against that is just arguing for the sake of it.

 

[LuckyClover95]

As someone who owned both a PS3 and an Xbox I used both for internet play until around 2009.
Then I moved and didn't have enough room in my smaller room for both consoles and had to pick one to sell.
Picked the PS3 due to the fact I felt Xbox Live was better, if pressed today I am 89% sure I'd make the same choice.

Captcha:
Love you

- I love you too Captcha

What was your reason? Why choose xbox live over ps3?

 

[Darren Carrigan]

As someone who owned both a PS3 and an Xbox I used both for internet play until around 2009.
Then I moved and didn't have enough room in my smaller room for both consoles and had to pick one to sell.
Picked the PS3 due to the fact I felt Xbox Live was better, if pressed today I am 89% sure I'd make the same choice.

Captcha:
Love you

- I love you too Captcha

What was your reason? Why choose xbox live over ps3?

Personally I have found Xbox Live to be a better platform for online gaming in terms of server quality and community.

Now I don't say that everyone on XBL are my best friends that hold great conversation with great sensitivity for everyone.

But the % of assholes on PSN was much higher in my experience
And I got less connection trouble,server lag disconnects and such on XBL.
I'm glad that I never had a credit card on my account on either platforms due to the fact that it was such a tough call and I could have beenthe victim of the PSN hacking had I not went for XBL over PSN.

I'd have to think about it for a while to come up with longer or clearer answers - these are the first 2 that came to mind at 00:33am

 

[ninjaRiv]

Ps3 is pretty great. I think so, anyway

 

[Jumendez-sama]

The one edge I'd say XBL has over PSN is cross-game chat, since I appreciate being able to play shooters or fighters while my friend is playing a single-player game in some radioactive wasteland. Whether this is worth $5/month is up to you.

Also I've been wondering what incentive Sony has for giving a consumer hundreds of dollars worth of content for $50. Not that I don't appreciate the offer, I'm just wondering if Sony is just ending up losing money more than anything.

 

[maninahat]

I'm never going to praise to the play station marketplace, after discovering having used it for the first time last month. I hate its utterly foul wallet system with a passion, and I don't care what discounts the premium version offers because frankly, paying for set amounts of credit before I can buy a game undermines those discounts anyway. The same goes for Microsoft's point system. Fuck 'em both. I'm sticking with PC's Steam and hard copies.