Xbox Cons: As a fully managed service, XBox Live requires a credit card subscription, although local subscription pricing is yet to be announced. As a rough guide, pricing in the American market, where XBox Live launched last November, currently sits at US$49.99(~AU$72.50) for twelve months or US$5.99(~AU$8.70) per month. The single username sits with users through every game, so it's not possible to customise your username to suit specific games. The 128kbps minimum is very slow, which could lead to unnaceptable lag in some games against some players. As a central service, if the XBox Live server goes down, no gaming would be possible at all.

PS2 Cons: While there's no subscription games as yet, there's nothing stopping individual game vendors from offering subscription games down the track. The Network Adaptor must be installed onto the PS2, although this isn't a terribly difficult procedure. At launch there are only two first-party titles that are online capable -- SOCOM: US Navy Seals and the bundled Hardware Arena, although some other third-party PS2 games, such as Tony Hawk and FIFA 2004, are also online capable. Changing games on the PS2 requires a full reboot and re-login.

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