You can pick your preference between PlayStation and Xbox. You can argue that Halo is better than KillZone or that Uncharted tops Gears of War
But it is becoming increasingly hard to argue that the Xbox 360âs online subscription service is superior to the PlayStation 3âs. This is what competition does, and, today, the long-running $60-a-year Xbox Live Gold just doesnât seem to offer as much value as the newer, upstart, the $50 PlayStation Plus
Letâs break this down.
Xbox Live Gold costs about $5 a month for individual plan. The paid plan gives Xbox 360 gamers an extra suite of features atop basic gamer-to-gamer text-messaging, cross-game-chat and access to an online marketplace, all of which are free as part of
Xbox Live Silver .
Gold members also get the following features:
Xbox Live Gold Features
Multiplayer Gaming
Early Access to Some Demos
Beta Access
Game Discounts (40-50% off, often)
Hulu Plus
Netflix
Amazon Instant Video
Party Chat
Video Kinect
Zune Music Streaming
Halo Waypoint
Avatar Kinect
Internet Explorer
Cloud Storage
Skype
YouTube
last.fm
MLB.tv
HBO Go
ESPN
Forthcoming: Free-to-Play Gaming
Those are the major perks and features available in the U.S. There are several more entertainment services available in other regions. (Wikipedia has a good chart for this; Microsoft offers their own less-detailed chart.) Some of the services here, including HBO Go and Netflix require their own paid memberships with those services. And some, such as YouTube and Twitter, are free on just about any device other than an Xbox 360.
Originally, Xbox Live Goldâs main advertised feature was access to multiplayer gaming. With the launch of the PlayStation 3, Sony countered that by refusing to charge for online gaming. Sonyâs PlayStation Network was, initially, free to anyone who bought the console. There was no paid service, no PSN Gold. The PS3 couldnât do cross-game chat. That was the biggest knock. But it also didnât charge gamers.
To this day, Xbox 360 owners pay for things on their console that PlayStation owners donât. Letâs strike through all of the services on Gold that PlayStation 3 owners get at no extra charge from Sony.
Xbox Live Gold minus Free PSN Features
Multiplayer Gaming
Early Access to Some Demos
Beta Access
Game Discounts (40-50% off, often)
Hulu Plus
Netflix
Amazon Instant Video
Party Chat
Video Kinect
Zune Music Store Access
Halo Waypoint
Avatar Kinect
Internet Explorer
Cloud Storage
Skype
YouTube
last.fm
MLB.tv
HBO Go
ESPN
Forthcoming: Free-to-Play Gaming
Thereâs one cheat there. Sony owners donât actually get Internet Explorer, but they can browse the web for free. It also does offer free-to-play games in its free PlayStation Home avatar hangout/whatever-it-is as well as with games such as Free Realms and DC Universe Online
Several of Goldâs features arenât available on PlayStation. Thereâs no Halo Waypoint access, no ESPN, no HBO Go. But Netflix is there, Hulu Plus is there, still requiring outside subscriptions but no added payment to Sony.
This is how itâs been for a while, but, last year in 2010, Sony introduced PlayStation Plus and started giving its customers the chance to pay for more services. Players got discounts in the PSN store, beta access, but nothing amazing. Then, this past June, Sony added one more key perk, the perk that makes a mockery out of Xbox Live Gold: free games.
Hereâs what PlayStation 3 owners get for Plus:
PlayStation Plus Features
Instant Game Collection (Free Games)
Game Discounts (40-50% off, often)
Early Access to Some Demos
Beta Access
Cloud Storage
Automatic Patching/Firmware-Updates
1-Hour Free Access to Full Games
Note the length of that list. Itâs short. Microsoftâs Gold list is longer. But Sonyâs has a bullet point that itâs hard for Xbox Live to top, the Instant Game Collection. Thatâs a bundle of games that a Plus subscriber can download and that remain accessible for as long as the subscriberâs account lasts. In the few months the service has been live, Sony has removed some games from the offer and added new ones. The removed games are still available to legacy subscribers; theyâre just not available for free to new ones. For this to be a good deal, the games better be good, right?
Hereâs what youâd have in your Instant Game Collection through early September, if you were a Plus subscriber since the free game offers started in June (games no longer offered to new subscribers have an asterisk):
Free Games Available Through PlayStation Plus
The Walking Dead Episodes 1 & 2
Bloodrayne Betrayal
Outland
Infamous 2
Little Big Planet 2
Ratchet & Clank All 4 One
Space Marine
Saints Row 2
Renegade Ops
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
Choplifter
Sideway
Just Cause 2*
Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light*
Gotham City Impostors*
Hard Corps Uprising*
Zombie Apocalypse*
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown*
(Borderlands will be added in September)
Pretty good list, no? Well, some people donât like it: specifically, U.S. Plus subscribers have started complaining that Europe gets an even better batch, which includes Dead Space 2 and will soon include Red Dead Redemption . The grass is indeed always greener somewhere else.
Xbox Live is much more widely-discussed than PlayStation Network. Microsoft has been noisier about their online service. Theyâve been more aggressive, standardizing online console multiplayer gaming, striking first with Netflix streaming and just boasting more about their pay service. The company reports that it has 40 million Xbox Live subscribers, though it wonât say how many are paying Gold members (one Microsoft estimate from two years ago put it at about half that count). Competition, however, causes the other party to do amazing things and that appears to be whatâs happening with PlayStation Plus, a service whichâsurpriseâSony doesnât share subscriber stats for either.
Itâs a safe bet that Sony has fewer Plus people than Microsoft has Golds. Itâs also a safe bet that Sony reacts awfully well to competition, as theyâve been showing throughout the summer
https://lastchance.cc/three-cheers-for-the-losers-in-the-video-game-wars-the-5934771%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Our colleagues at Gizmodo recently argued that Xbox Live Gold should be free. (Microsoft might counter that their services cost money to maintain; we might counter that thatâs why theyâre running ads on Xbox Live.) Letâs pile on a new argument: Gold should be as impressive as PlayStation Plus. For consumers, it sure looks like Sony is offering the better deal.
https://gizmodo.com/its-time-for-xbox-live-gold-to-be-free-5915635
CORRECTION: This story originally didnât list the discounts on games and DLC that Xbox Live Gold members are also offered. Iâve added them. That matches the discounts feature offered in PlayStation Plus.
