what extra content? i'm curious because i haven't heard of anything myself

Time to look into a PS3..... nah Im just kidding, Id never do that :whistling:
Its really not a big deal to me :shrug:

Hehehe. That's why I have a PS3 and pay for the servers via the games I buy.

And this is why I only play multiplayer games on PC.

$60 isn't all that much money in a year's time, but you're still paying for.. what, exactly? Things that are free everywhere else.

Money can be wasted regardless of the amount. $3,000 spent if you've had a Gold subscription since Live launched. I don't know about you, but I can find quite a few things to do with $3,000 (or even $60), that don't involve paying for mostly free things.

Whatever toots your flute though, if you think it's worth it then more power to ya.

Dashboard updates, game updates, game demos/trailers, last.fm, facebook, twitter, netflix, cross game chat (something the PS3 STILL lacks), cross game parties and many other features that they HAVE to make money on somehow.

I'd also like to point out that the PS3 and the Wii don't have these features, so if you're looking for a social gaming experience the 360 is STILL the best option. Never mind the fact that the PS3 has free online.

Also, the cost of everything has been going up lately. This should be no surprise.

I would like different levels of membership, but if you consider the amount of time *you* put specifically into different online multiplayer modes it is like owning another game. $50 to $60 is fine for me, that is once I actually re-activate my membership.

*you as in the plural gaming community, not specifically you wingus*

dashboard updates are on silver, game updates are on silver and are made by the game developer not microsoft, demos and trailers are free to download on silver IIRC, last.fm is a free service provided by someone else, facebook is someone else and i wouldn't want to use facebook on the xbox myself, netflix might be right but that service is from someone else mostly, cross game chat is pretty much nothing there are a lot of free instant messaging programs, and what exactly is the point of cross game parties?

and all of that goes through your internet service provider, and maybe a little bit of it does something on microsoft's servers

If they could demote silver to bronze and add a bare bones online play as silver then finally gold with the perks, that would be cool.

My particular sub method doesn't change so I'm fine with it.

$5 per month ($59.99 / 12 months). Watch out for that extra dollar. You might not be able to pay your college tuition if you pay for XBL.

I really don't see what the complaining is about, so what you have to pay $60 a year to play games online plus a few other things.If you really don't like it you can always cancel your subscription or switch to PS3 or PC.

Future plans to buy a X-box 360

Well---that's the end of that idea .

The only stupid ones are the consumers who buy into this.

What do you expect? Us humans are stupid. Before we got things for free, but pay for now. I don't know how Apple did it, but they got people to pay things which they got for free before.

Then again, what can you do with that $10 a month you going to save buy not getting Xbox Live Gold? All it means is not playing those online games you wanted to play. You pay over $10 to see a movie which maybe good or not and for what 1 1/2- 2 1/2 hours of enjoyment you get. At least $10 will last you for hours and hours and hours of enjoyment for a month, so looking at it that way, it's a good value. Still I havn't got Gold yet, there is no online game that I want play. So no need for it. Facebook or what ever on the 360? That is a joke. But hey there are svckers born every minute. We are just jealous that we are not making that money that they thought of.

This is the outrage of the century! How am I supposed to put food on the table with these ridiculous prices! Microsoft are evil! [/sensationalism]

Really, this isn't that big of a deal. The service has cost the same amount since it first started and has grown a crapload since then and added a large amount of features while remaining at the same price. The price also doesn't change if you do the smart thing and pay yearly which has always worked out cheaper anyway. I see a lot of people massively overreacting here.

People are over reacting because they just want to complain for the sake of complaining. Just look at all those people who said they quit now because of the increase. For $2 they are quitting? What does that speak about them? How ridiculous they look when they just throw that $2 away on something else that is stupid. So how much did they really save?

Yes complaining for the sake of complaining..

This.

Doesn't bother me. I will still get my money's worth out of it.

If you play games on a regular basis 1-2 hours a day, you get hundreds of hours of enjoyment out of xbox live. 60 bucks isn't that much to pay, and it is barley an increase from 50 dollars. And on top of it, the 12 and 3 month cards go on sale all the time, and if you buy a 12 month card you almost always get another month free.

That doesn't bother me at all. I pay yearly, the last yearly subscription I paid for was in February and it was $39 (Live Deals).

I play a lot online so I still getting my money's worth.

I've tried PSN and to me Lives' servers are so much better. I do like the web browser add-on for PSN though and the PSOne Classics.... wish some of those would come my way.

I also agree with MorrowindFan about the MMO comment.

Which is why I'm a Guild Wars fan. Better game. No subscription. Win.

Well I rarely go on xbl anymore..
.....and for some reason last year or 2 years ago xbl died out. :dead:

I can't think of anything Apple convinced people to pay for that they got legally for free before....

If I can still find my one year cards for 40 bucks I'll be happy.

Not affected in the slightest... I stopped paying to play games online years ago.