MS Restricting Access of Free Xbox Live Content

I don't see why they don't make DLC cheaper for XBLG users... I'm a Silver member because I DON'T play online games... I'm for the stand-alones', but this new small print about NXE users being REQUIRED to be gold members is absolutely ridiculous... (no, serious, it's in there) for the "1,000,000" M$ points contest (which is really half of that) or anything like this... SHADY.
I used to be Sony loyal until their practices became more... Microsoft. Now, after MS seemed to change their practice to be more gamer friendly that we find the haven't changed a thing (sub par service for more than it's worth).
All of you upset should be. it was said earlier, and most appropriately, you are already paying for the game that has features built in... that they charge additional to use (with YOUR bandwidth) that is just plain wrong.
With this recent 'Fable 2' and 'Fallout 3 DLC' debacle... MS should be VERY careful how they treat their clientele, because as eff'd up as it is... PS3 is looking rather tempting...

I really like XBOX Live. I've been a subscriber off and on since its inception. Online gaming is never laggy, I love that voice chat is a standard and the fact that you can download new content for games, movies, video game related movies and the countless more things available on the Marketplace. You get what you pay for and the PSN has nothing on LIVE in my opinion. I have also been very satisfied with my decision to buy a 360 ELITE with HD DVD add on a few months ago when I purchased a 42in 1080P LCD. The system and hd dvd add on has given me many hours of enjoyment watching high def content and playing games in 720p/1080p.

The new dashboard update is amazing, everything is much more fluid and the dashboard responds instantly compared to the slower dashboard of the past. I also appreciate the new codec support and being able to stream content to the 360 using WMP11 on my XP PC.

On the other hand, there is a few things I believe could be improved with XBOX Live and make it an even better service. For Xbox marketplace, all movies should come with 5.1 audio and have a high def version. I know there is some movies that are already in high def and a few with 5.1 audio but I would like them all to be that way! They could have ala carte like they sort of have now where you can pick SD or pay some extra for the HD version. But it could be expanded further to give the consumer more options. Such as, an SD video, SD with 5.1 digital audio, HD video and HD with 5.1 as to let people pay less if they do not need true surround sound and let us video or audiophiles have our HD in 5.1 as well for a slightly higher cost. Ideally they should all cost the same but realistically HD content has a much higher bandwidth cost associated with it and I understand that. Thats why I suggest letting the consumer pay for what they want. Choice is good and choice will make XBOX live even better in terms of buying content on Marketplace.

Gold subscribers aren't getting anything earlier; Silver members are simply getting things later. That's the part I take issue with, and I'm glad most people seem to realize the distinction and why this is somewhat lame.

M$ has just made me not want to play demos or new content on their system. Demos and new content are all about what's new on any given week. A week after it's released, it's old news and my desire to play it will have dropped tenfold. I'll already be thinking about what's new for *that* week and I'll probably already have played the week old "new" content on my PS3. I'm now less likely to use Xbox Live as a content service and also less likely to pay for a gold subscription. If M$ were smart, they'd want me using their service *more* than I am currently, to make me want the added "benefits" of gold. Instead, I'll be using and thinking about Live a lot less. As a silver user, they've effectively made themselves less competitive than Sony's online service to me.

Reason # 435 of why I will NEVER OWN A FUCKING CONSOLE

I honestly really like X-BOX Live!.

i don't even *use* it that much, but I am gladly paying for it. It is very NICE, and $50/13 months is a steal.

FUCK YOU Microsoft.
I don't use 360 to play online, I've got PC for that, so I don't use Gold. I do download demos however.. this is just retarded :(

"This is not done to annoy our Silver members," stated Hryb. "Limited time exclusive access to content is just one of the many benefits of having a Gold Xbox Live account."

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It wasn't done to annoy, but it did annoy!

i'm a silver member and i dont like this.

soon all the demo's and most movies will be gold only. just watch and see.

I'm fine with this. Keeps all the freeloaders from using the bandwidth that we paid for, less network traffic on a big item release day is fine with me.

I can see why this would be annoying, but then again everyone with Gold is paying for the privilege.

It's "nerf" tactics, the lazy option of removing instead of adding to correct a balance. Gold Subscribers don't feel satisfied with paying so much for so little, but rather than giving them more, Microsoft have chosen to give less to Silver users, providing a 'relative' improvement to appease the Gold crew.

Not good business practise. Even when you're the only provider in a closed network like Xbox Live, it helps to have people like you, doesn't it?

Oh god no, so the non-paying subscribers have to wait a full 7 extra days until they can download that hot new demo or game video? Oh god, MS you heartless fucking bastards, whats next? Are you going to show up at our doors and shoot our pets?

Haven't they been doing this for a long time?

I can see a backlash if it was gold only permanently, but a week? Gamers bitch so much they're like incoherent old men.

I can get holding back demos and trailers from Silver members, albeit a very shoddy practice.

A patch which is meant to fix a retail product I paid full price for should be available to all users, regardless of subscription level. Mind you, I don't own a 360, but I do own BioShock and it would drive me nuts if I had it on the 360 and couldn't patch it because I wasn't helping line MS's pockets. :/

BOooooooo!

Sorry but those free demos and crap is what keeps me playing the 360. Granted we still get it, but a week later? Kind of lame, but I guess they need to give people more worth out of those gold subscriptions.

I just hope Sony gets their online together so it gives me an excuse to say "Sony is giving it away for free"

I don't think I've ever grabbed a big, popular demo same day as it drops on Live, but isn't bandwidth on Live affected by the number of people downloading just like Steam and other services? It's hard to tell because there's no, "downloading at ___kb per second" indicator. If so, people need to realize that even Microsoft has limited bandwidth, bandwidth they still have to pay money for. Isn't that part of the reason why they charge for the service in the first place? To offset costs? I look forward to the day when gamers realize that money affects their experience. Gamers have a right to be angery, but this "I shouldn't have to worry about how much money a company has/is making" mentality needs to stop.

As a side note I love the continued calling use of "Irrational Games" on this site. I'm sick of developers identities being changed and swallowed up by larger corporations. Irrational will always be Irrational to me. Activision and Blizzard will always be seperate too, screw "Activision Blizzard".

I thought this was the case from day one?

I thought it was pretty much like this already

This never went down well when Gamespy began doing it, so it aint going to be popular now.

I know they have done it in the past, but its only ever been 1-2 days delay, which really is fair enough when its a large release and everyone is trying to grab it. Let the paying people grab it at speeds that arent as slow as molasses.

So instead of offering something new to gold users, they just strip away from silver users. Demos aren't supposed to be a special bonus. Their sole purpose is to sell games and if you want to put up a barrier, that's fine. But the chances are I'll probably forget about your demo and not buy your game.

I have little to no interest in playing games over Live. The few games I do play multiplayer on consoles I tend to play splitscreen (since the friends I play with don't have 360s, for example). So for me there is no reason to have Gold.

Shit like this is only annoying since new downloads tends to only be talked about for a week and when I can finally access it I have probably forgotten about it since nobody is talking about it anymore (could Shack start adding "now available for Silver" in the Weekly Downloads Rundown?) and it provides me with no incentive to buy Gold.

Such an arbitrary and pointless restriction, but I guess it works on the ADHD generation that barely knows the definition of "waiting" and perhaps they hope the crappy bandwidth won't be quite as noticeable by trying to spread the hits over a bit longer time.

Meh!

It's a shame that there was no real reason to have a Gold membership other than to play games online, and they don't even host the servers for you. I guess this is just Microsoft's way of justifying the cost of Gold. As if the shit they offer as downloadable content isn't a ripoff already.

Tighten those screws. Typical.