Microsoft Probably Made $1 Billion from Xbox Live

$1 billion well earned, Xbox live is by far the best online experience of the three consoles (unless PSN plus changes that, Hulu Plus, I'm looking at you).

i'd have to agree. shame to the thumbs down. call us stupid, but you don't know the experience of xbox live until you try it. more people that play = better online experience.

but anyways, i'll support microsoft as long as they keep apple from taking over the world.

Been playing PC games online for well over $10 years and the only thing I had to pay for was my internet connection.

bah I mean 10 years not $10 years =)

Well you get what you pay for. I have to admit begrudgingly, Microsoft did a good job with Xbox live. PSN can't hold a candle to it right now.

Paying extra for online gaming sucks but someone has to in order to keep the network and servers running.

Its been said that you will NOT require PSN Plus to use Hulu Plus.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Hulu-H [...] -7363.html

PSN Plus is only required to use Hulu Plus during the "preview period"

Game microtransactions have to be a huge moneymaker too...

I'm amazed the amount of MS fanboys that willingly give out cash to MS. RROD, no problem fork out cash, no WiFi, I'll give another 100. No Blue Ray, no problem I will buy a separate player. Pay to pley online, I love MS, how much do you want.

Feel better now that ya got that all out of your system?

I have an Xbox360 and Xbox Live subscription. To be honest, I haven't found much value in it. As an avid PC gamer, I still don't really understand the concept of paying a subscription fee just to be able to play multi-player games. I don't have to do that with the Steam games (L4D, L4D2, etc) that I play on my PC.

It's debatable whether or not I'll renew my subscription at the end of the year.

I'm amazed that people still talk about the Red Ring of Death. I have never had it, still have my launch Xbox 360. The newer versions rectified this issue and the Xbox 360 S is a unified die for the CPU and the GPU at 45nm which is half the size of the original, less current used, less power needed, all equating to less overall power for the system. Just look at the power specs. Release system used 240w, then the 1st revision used 180, then the latest revision now uses 150W or so. That's a reduction of almost 100W of power, meaning that less power to have to dissipate in excess heat. I love my PS3, but when it comes to online gaming, the Xbox 360 just has more people playing the games I play. Period.

Not surprised. Even though I'd put PC online gaming higher, XBL is the next best alternative. Microsoft's done a good job with this.

Considering how people pay the "extra console tax" for the console games i'm not surprised at all that MS made that money instead of people placing it in their rigs.

Buy a cheap console and pay alot for the games or buy a more powerfull PC and pay less for the games.. who gets the most out of their games for the same amonth of money in the end?

It costs money to run xbox live, and all the different servers for the games, and the developement. So making xbox live cost money, means that xbox live will always be improved, and the servers will be fast.

The problem with a free service, is that it is creappy, as the only money made is on games and not the console. So where does the money come from to keep the service fast?


Xbox love is kick ass. If you worried about the costs, then buy one of the bundles or get a xbox live special promotion when it comes on. But beware, if you pay for an subscription on your xbox, auto renew gets turned on by default. And the only way to cancel auto renww is buy calling xbox live support (option not available on the xbox or xbox website). Mostly I buy the game bundles that come with free xbox live.

I'm not surprised, good for them. I bought a 1 year subscription back when newegg had them for 30 bucks. After that i been paying for the 3 month ones for quite some time now. I feel that 50 bucks is a lot for a service i hardly use unless I'm playing multi-player everyday which doesn't happen often. But none the less the service is great and works better then PS3's thats for darn sure.

I think stupid is an understatement. Especially with all of the stupid statements you just made in just four "sentences." Sad you don't even know you're being ripped off. And no quantity does not = quality. I've tried Xbox Live and it was horrible. It would be bad even for a free service. The fact that you have to pay for it is salt in the wounds. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Xbox Live users are chumps who don't know any better. It offers absolutely nothing of value. It's basically Steam for the Xbox. Would you pay $50 a year for Steam? I hope not.

Goes to show how successfull X-Box and X-Box live is, well done Microsoft!

Personally I game PC and Wii with family!

Either you're lying about trying XBL or you just have no conception of quality when it stares you in the face. Your comparison to Steam is also stupid. I have used steam longer than XBL (Which I've been using since 2008) and it doesn't take a genius to see that they are completely different.

MS may well have made $1 billion, but come on do they really thing its a good value service that gamers have to buy the games first then pay another fee to play on line ?

The whole gaming industry at the moment has gone mad for money grabbing "extras"

MS = xbox live.... more money
Activision / IW = COD dlc more money...

and the only people that seem to loose out is the public who line the pcokets of the above mentioned companines.

STEAM = pants... pisses me off having new PC games that use STEAM that wants to run in the background all the time.

I like XBL, but both me and my brother use the Xbox, and I refuse to pay per head. I'll pay $50 a year to get the machine online, but not $50 for me, and $50 for him. Also, as for paying all this money for these games and services, Combat Arms, 'nuff said.

Xbox Live is by FAR the best online experience. Steam could probably compete but it just doesn't have the user base. $5 a month isn't that much and the fee can be reduced to $2-3 if you buy the card when it's on-sale.

MMO developers should be perking up their heads. YOU DON'T HAVE TO CHARGE $15 A MONTH to make money.

I pay $15 a month for WOW and that's it. Make a good MMO, charge

MMO developers dont care to take notice. Blizzard makes nearly 2 billion a year from WoW subscription fees and thats without the dlc. thats assuming 15.99 per person per month for 9 million people. dunno what they charge or how many people play but i think thats fairly close. Guild wars is free to play online and really i enjoyed playing it more than WoW. Less people to play with but still fun.

And i beta tested XBL way the hell back in the day. it was great then and it was great while i had an xbox. havent bought a 360 yet but when i do i will have no problem paying for XBL. and BTW, buy a ps3 with a bluray player, still have to buy a bluray player because the ps3 cant pass bitstreamed multichannel audio. doesnt make a difference with your weak HTIB but with my system it does.

50 dollars a year is less than the price of a new first rate game.
And Xbox Live is first rate. Now if you're not interested or have a
Playstation then it's not worth it. But then who cares? Microsoft has a sound product, it runs well, that makes money. That's called business. And that makes the world go round.

The ps3 slim will pass bitstreamed audio.

Only idiots pay for multi-player gaming. Of course 98% of our population could be classified as idiots, so it's no wonder they people by the 360 in the first place, and completely expected that they'd also pay the Live fees.

They are also the ones that pay $30+ for internet on their phones....

Stupid people always make things more expensive for the rest of us....sigh

with that much money being made from xbox live they should have been giving away larger hard drives for free. Larger hard drive = more DLC.

if you dont think xbox live is not worth 50bucks then dont get it....i used to only play offline, the pc was for multiplayer...but xbox live change everything for me and now i can't get enough....why is everyone comparing with the pc?? you think you sound smart but its the complete opposite...its two different experiences...if you have friends over, would you put the pc on and play turn by turn or sit on the couch and play together?...and steam is constantly updating its a pain...oh and wow you save 5 to 10 bucks a game...but spend 200-400 updating the pc...i have a pc its great, do manning things with it but gaming less and less......and dont forget anybody can pick up a console game and play....lets c grand ma install a pc game

Aethm, that's incorrect, steam has 20 million active users while Xbox Live has 17 million. Steam is free and offers tons of free demos, videos, software store, voice/type chat, auto-updates, game protection and the ability to add non-steam games, plus you can log into your account anywhere and play your games on any computer. Xbox Live doesn't even come close, and steam offers all of this for FREE.

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/200 [...] -annotate/

http://forums.steampowered.com/for [...] ?t=1272825

Xbox Live may be a good service, but you can't (logically) argue that something that cost $50 a year and offers less services with fewer users can possibly be better than something that's free, has more users and services.