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Xbox Live Goes Online
abhikhurana writes "
Internetnews is reporting that Microsoft has launched Xbox Live
broadband gaming service. To access Microsoft's service, Xbox gamers
have to buy a $49.99 starter kit, which includes 12 month's worth of
access to the Xbox Live service and a headset kit for voice
communications. Microsoft said that about 16 games with online play
capabilities will be available by the end of the year.
So has anyone already tried it? If so, what do you think about it?"
The real issue with this service is that they haven't set the yearly rate yet. Next year this service could be 20 dollars a month if MS so desired...we don't know. The other sad point is that they aren't stopping 3rd parties from charging over and above the normal Live fee for their games. Example: Sega has announced they will charge for PSO on Live...so this could get really pricy!
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I think so. The Xboxer's I know have really been jumping up and down at this and from my own experience with a friends machine I can tell you it's very addictive: much more so than playing alone.
One thing that I have considered is how good an internet telephony app this is - i've already heard of friends who would normally make long distance calls using the lobby of one of the games to chat in.
I wonder whether Microsoft will develop a specific telephony app using the Live system as a backend... AFAICT the demand is there and this would be a really killer app.
I would pay to play online for this. I know it is hard to put away the anti-microsoft bias for just a few minutes, but really - think about what your getting here. Games free of cheating and any sufficent lag - if it works as well in effect as it does on paper. .
1) an Action Sports game would not lag awfully bad. Everyone on this network must have a broadband connection. No 56kers lagging down the server
2) Too low of a resolution? Have you ever heard of HDTV? I know that is a bit of an investiment, but for those who have it, i cant imagine it would be too grainy to play an RTS.
3) Have you tryed Halo? How about Time Splitters 2? I was skeptical weather or not I could stand to play a FPS on a console, but the controller works. For me, it just seemed natural, even after playing on a key/mouse combination for quite some time.
500 Dollars? Thats a little more then you would spend on a Xbox. 200 for the box, 50 for the service and 50 for a game. Whats that..300? Might make a more reasonable Xmas present for a high school student then a Computer.
Maybe the Xbox is a kids system, though I dont see where you get that impression from. Just because it is a console? And it is hardly a system for the computer illiterate - I have my computers for when i want to play on them, but I have my Xbox for gaming. When i want to go out, buy a game, and pop it in the Xbox and play online I can. No need to worry about drivers, compatibilty, or anything else of the sort.
I never liked consoles much, and I know that computers have there advantages, but im beggining to like my Xbox more and more as I play it.
Here in NYC I went to 4 different stores to see if they had xbox live. Each store I went to said they were sold it. Looks like MS is doing something correct with xbox live.