Paying for XBox online...

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by Lynxfx

There are alot of things companies will give you for free just to get you to use their product. Online gaming is definately one of them and has been for years. For MS to change that now would be a huge failure and ultimately a money loser for them.

Lynxfx...excellent point here...I mean, look at all the Wireless phone companies...they are giving out free cellular phones just to attract people to go with their service.

Besides, if Microsoft charges anything different than a one time fee, or just make it free...and if they charges as much as $10-15 a month, it wouldn't be worth it even to get it. Why? Not many people will be playing on-line...and for an on-line service to be successful, they need the users (gamers). So, for this to be successful, like any on-line network, it is not complete without players to act as opponents. Otherwise they can just boast about all the technology and not have a way to use it if they are not attracting people.

I, for one, will not pay $10-15 per month and I know that many others won't either. I doubt I would play on-line enough to justify this monthy expense. The entire project could become a flop and Microsoft, then, would design a different way to make it successful, either by making it free or providing a one time yearly fee, which is reasonable.

Even if they made a YEARLY fee to be as much as $40 or $50, I can hang with that. It's much better than $120-180 a year, that's for sure!!!

[Bundy]

I agree with maximus. This thing has to be free or near free or it is not going to work.

[wizkid918]

exactly, they advertised the box of having online gaming, they never said additional costs, i think it is part of the whole i bought an xbox package (or in my case won) but still, it should be a free service

[aronx]

I'm sure MS will do something similar to what Sega did. Which is offer internet services to folks who want it at a price. Then you have to think MS will find a way to advertise to us while we're playing.

[LynxFX]

Why would MS do it the way Sega did when that failed? Many people may call MS money hungry, monopoly running, a-holes but they aren't stupid.

[aronx]

Originally posted by Lynxfx
Why would MS do it the way Sega did when that failed? Many people may call MS money hungry, monopoly running, a-holes but they aren't stupid.

Sega did not fail in that respect. The Dreamcast failed to sell so they decided to drop it. The online stuff was rolling, it probably still is (a little bit anyway).

I was speculating that maybe MS will offer internet service like Sega did when they launched their online thing.

BTW - The Dreamcast fukin rocked!

[LynxFX]

Yes I agree, the Dreamcast did rock. I didn't own one but I did play it alot and thought it was a great system.

Yes Sega did fail with their online system because it failed to entice more people to buy the dreamcast and in turn buy more games. Was it a complete failure? No, because people did use it, but not enough, and in the end it did fail. I know I wouldn't buy a dreamcast for the online gaming ability because they charged you something that I was doing for free with much better games. (FPS like counter strike, UT and Tribes2).

I bought an xbox because right now, graphically it can do better than my pc and it is getting alot of the games that I want to play, especially online. If MS creates a monthly fee that is unreasonable or some weird payment system then I won't buy those games and I won't use the xbox online and go back to gaming on my pc. That is lost sales, and lost $$ for MS. I really hope that isn't what MS is after.

[Raida7]

You can already play Xbox online with www.gamespyarcade.com but in school someone told me that MS is gonna FREE service!!!

[robnyack]

as far as the broadband comment, not everbody has the chance to get broadband. they are still waiting and some can't afford it. it is not really affecting you so deal with it.

actually, the fact that about only 10% of us have broadband IS effecting current broadband users in that many potentials of broadband are not being realized yet because business is waiting for a broader market before jumping in. That is the basis for my comment.

Actually no it isn't. Basically every pc game that comes out has a free network to play on. This has become a given for any multiplayer game released with the exception of Everquest. They make their money by getting you to buy the game so you can join everyone else that is playing on their servers. For MS to come out and charge a huge ass fee to cover costs of the network or even make a profit is a kick in the nads to anyone that is used to pc gaming

This is blatently false. Everquest, Ashron's Call, World War II, Anarchy Online just to name a few are all games that you must play online and you must pay $10-15 bucks/month to play online. This is currently where many game developers are heading.

There are a whole slew of online games being developed (Online Baseball is what I can't wait for) for interent community play and all of them will charge you to 1) buy the game, and 2) pay a monthly fee to play it.

You don't think the internet infrastructure needed to support potentially tens of thousands of online gamers (at once) is expensive? Just ask World War II and Anarchy Online how their service performed without spending the needed bucks to build the proper infrastructure. Ever play Everquest or Ashron's Call in the early days? Anyone recall trying to get on AOL (I know, who would want to!??!?!) in the early days? It's veryt costly to build the proper infrastructure to allows huge numbers of gamers to be on at once.

Hey, I would LOVE for it to be free. I dont like to hand over my greenbacks anymore than any of you do. But, you need to be realistic. Also, there seems to be alot of the "well, Bill Gates has more money than god, so why should he ask for more" mentality throughout all of this too. This is just plain silly.

I guarentee it will be a monthly fee of $10-15/month for say the "basic plan", and then there will be "premium plans" which will offer more games than the baisc plan which will be more than $10-15/month.

Maybe......MAYBE, there will be a FREE sort of teaser plan, where you join and get to play a couple games for free in the hopes that it will be so much fun for you that you will just have to have more. BUT, EA.com tried this plan and they failed miserable.

My hope is individual games will offer their own little online community like Madden 2001 and 2002, the pc versions.. This is where I am most interested.

[LynxFX]

Originally posted by robnyack

This is blatently false. Everquest, Ashron's Call, World War II, Anarchy Online just to name a few are all games that you must play online and you must pay $10-15 bucks/month to play online. This is currently where many game developers are heading.

That isn't blatently false in the least. Did you notice I put 'basically' infront of every game? I know there are some out there that charge. I don't play those games. I won't play those games. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? I have been playing online games since the Doom days and I haven't once paid to play online. Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, QuakeII, Monster Truck Madness I, II, Half LIfe, Opposing Forces, Unreal, UT, Q3, Tribes, Tribes II, Starcraft, Age of Empires II, Powerslide, Counter Strike, Black and White, Return to Castle Wolfenstien, MOH: AA, etc etc etc. Hell, even add Halo to the list.

Most of those games are FPS but you get the idea. The number of games that have free online playing capability way out number the amount of games that only charge to play online.

There are a whole slew of online games being developed (Online Baseball is what I can't wait for) for interent community play and all of them will charge you to 1) buy the game, and 2) pay a monthly fee to play it.

Yes, those are a whole new genre of games being made for online play that MS is working with developers on as well. Like you play a football or baseball game where every player on the team is actually a human counterpart. This is new territory and whether the monthly fee is successful is yet to be seen for a game like that.

If the developers want to charge for those games, then fine. Let them charge. I won't buy them. I can find other free online gaming experiences for free like I have for the past 7 years without any problems. This is what MS will have to compete against. They must up the ante and make it worth paying a monthly fee. Right now I don't see that happening.

But then again all of this is speculation until MS reveals the actually online plan. So I won't get all worked up until I know for a fact what they are doing and I'll respond not on a messageboard but rather with my wallet.

[robnyack]

This is what MS will have to compete against. They must up the ante and make it worth paying a monthly fee. Right now I don't see that happening.

I agree completely.

[BiohazardEHW]

The only game I ever had to pay for to play was Ultima Online. For a measley 100 bucks a year, I had fun every day and even forgot I had to pay for it at times. If Microsoft does make online gaming anywhere within 10-15 bucks, I know alot of people will simply not want to pay or just dont have the money. If they made it free, then they would still get money from you buying the game, and the feeling of playing an 8 vs. 8 game of Halo CTF in Blood Glutch and seeing 2 Scorpions and 4 Ghosts coming your way is well worth any price. I play Red Faction for the PC online just about every day and I have so much fun in CTF games with a large number of people. Microsoft would only have to set up several servers for each game...most likley...and that would sure not burn any kind of hole in Bill Gates' pocket. If it was free to play online, then people invite their friends over and play a few games of Halo with other people from all over the world, and then the experiance would surley persuade many people to go out and buy that game for that reason alone. I think that Microsoft should make online gaming free for the time being, and then if anything bad happens and they have no other choice but to ask for money from the people who selflessly bought the game...which I dont see coming any year soon...then so be it...but at least let us play for free to at least see how great of an experience it really is.

[LynxFX]

Right, if Microsoft is spending $500 million on advertising alone then I think they can easily spend a timid $1-2 million on an online network for people to use freely. They can easily make that back with advertising in the forums if they must.

[manboy]

I don't think they will charge. All they have to make is a matchmaking service.

That does not take near as much effort/resources as Everquest, AC, UO, WW2OL, etc...

If they do not charge, it is a giant incentive to buy an Xbox, and I think that is their plan. It would be my plan, anyway. Would be very stupid to charge. The target audience is not used to paying for a service like this for one. There is no precedent (unless Sega charged, did they?). Also, it would **** off a lot of people. I, for one, will be just a tad (very) peeved if I have to pay. I'm sure MS did research like this, and they see what I am seeing.

Paying monthly for a simple matchmaking service is definetely not viable if you want to make money. The multiplayer will already be subpar to PC multiplayer. Probably 16 players max, and only in some cases (Halo takes up an incredible amount of bandwidth, if the trend continues, it won't be pretty). Less options, just a subar experience (unless something revolutionary comes along). People just will not pay for it for the most part. They can always get it for free on the PC.

If they do charge, they will lose a lot of face with Xbox owners I think. An incentive to buy the Xbox will be gone, and well, like I said before: Paying for a simple matchmaking service is ridiculous.

[sinizuh]

Sega has already annouced that Phantasy Star Online v2 will be free to play online on all consoles... which is good

[Darax]

Not charging would look bad to investors-those pesky people that actually care about profits and stuff. I would pay 5-10 bucks a month for a matchmaking service so long as I didn't have to pay any other premiums for mainstream games. Massively Multiplayer Games I'd pay more for.

It's a free country, but nothing is free.

[LynxFX]

Selling few subscriptions to an online gaming service looks bad to investors. People losing interest in multiplayer gaming on a console in favor of multiplayer gaming on a PC looks bad to investors. Poor sales of online capable games looks bad to investors.

The goal here is to build up a fanbase and create a household name. That is what the xbox is to microsoft right now. ****ing off potential new customers as well as current customers is not something they plan on doing. Consoles and games being sold are what investors are looking at now. Not some online subscription service.

And yes, some things are free.

[Xaminor]

Originally posted by Bundy
i think 10 bucks is to much. That is just ridiciouls. Don't forget that in addition to the monthly cost, some games are probably going to charge extra on top of that for like tournaments and leagues and other various things.

I could deal with like 5 bucks a month but would really perfer if it is free.

Yes but if you play in these tournaments that cost an extra fee there will be prizes for the winner, so you are having fun and actually playing for a trophy. Say they organize a football team, with coaches and all and they give try outs for EACH position and back-ups will be tried out also. Then say during online play there are actually 22 different people playing this football game at one time in the position they tried out for and not to mention an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinater calling all of the plays and a head coach that makes all of the final decisions including benching players to allow some one else to play and all of this where each of us can actually hear each other as long as we are on the same team. Well say they do this through an entire season and the winner of the 2K2 or Fever Bowl would win prizes? Now this is quite possible and I would pay, but ofcourse you would have to make the team but I am sure there would be enough leagus to where everyone could find a team. You could even have the winners of these bowl games play each other. I would pay for this, not to mention my brother lives long distance and it would be free to talk to him.

Well this payment would be in addition to a flat rate of probably $10 (I say 10 because this is what Sega charges), but there are prizes at steak. There are also rumors of a cable box being made for the Xbox so you can get cable along with your service. Then there is always the options of banners so that MS wouldn't have to charge us much money but this is going to be worth it because there will always be employees standing by so there won't be any cheating tolerated and that alone would influence me to pay. Then I am sure there would be an extra fee (on top of the flat rate) to play MMORPG's but since we are alread paying a flat rate I would be willing to bet that extra fee (for MMORPG's) would only be around $5 and people pay $10 a month to play these games now but as long as there is a hard drive and people standing by (referees that don't work for free) there won't be any cheating. Plus you are not going to use broad band for gaming and your Xbox only.


So you will have tournaments, MMORPG's, cable, and a lot of other goodies with a flat rate and I am sure there will be packaged deals, like say you want cable, MMMORPG's, and want to be in a tourny? I would be willing to pay $25 a month for that as long as I got cable and you have to remember you can talk long distance for free and cable isn't cheap these days anyways!

[noodleboy]

I hope they bust out a bunch of OC-192 servers to run this bad boy! If you guys don't know what that is, it's compriable to a hundred or so T-1 lines

ummm, more like 1792 T1 lines