Susuto

Well you should care. The amount of work Microsoft put into ensuring GTA IV worked just fine with Xbox Live when launch day rolled around paid off, as opposed to how there were numerous documented issues with using the Playstation Network. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#T …

I’m pretty sure the size of the files forced on discs is something less than 64MB, and and it’s just dashboard (firmware) updates. But that’s really irrelevant to the online service… Yes, it is common knowledge that Xbox Live was having capacity issues, but Microsoft made up for it by giving a free arcade game that exceeded the market value of the total time Xbox Live was not 100% functional (and offered additional games if that was already purchased).

“Sony COULD do the same” really isn’t a valid argument. You’re not paying for your service because of what Microsoft COULD do, you pay for the service because of the existing features, and the ones they’ve announced are coming.

Those Xbox Live games you speak of that are free to play online via the PC are playable online with a silver account on an Xbox 360 console if you didn’t get the memo, and having keyboard and mouse support has nothing to do with paying for an Xbox Live subscription.

You could download the Guitar Hero 3 demo off of Bit Torrent, and burn it to a CD to play it as well; and nobody got banned for it. The only reason people have their console banned from Xbox Live is if they modify their console’s hardware, which is Microsoft’s priority in order to protect the interests of content holders who distribute their content on Xbox Live.

I’m hoping you meant to copy the part about the XNA Community Arcade in that quote (i.e. being able to create games, and distribute (and sell if desired) them on Xbox Live). The magnitude of having hundreds or potentially thousands of quality games distributed on Xbox Live seems, at least in my (biased) mind, greater than a single game that can utilize mods. As I said the XCDP is a value add service, it expands upon the existing feature set of Xbox Live by allowing third parties to access the service.

I was really trying to avoid one of these arguments about each-and-every feature back-and-fourth, but I guess that’s what it always comes down to. It looks like an objective comparison chart would be the only way to actually demonstrate the value obtained out of paying for Xbox Live gold, as opposed to free services like Xbox Live silver, Playstation network, and Nintendo’s online services.