7th January 2003, 11:38 PM
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/new...24,00.html
Apparently, Live is being subscribed to at a very high rate. My one theoretical possibility as to why this might not work is that the $50 kit allows a free year of subsription, but that can only be done once, after which that particular Box MUST use the standard subscription. In one year, how many subscriptions will still be active? If in fact people intend to remain subsribed, MS just prooved that gaming online can pay for itself. They also have already prooven just by these subsriptions that having online capabilities indirectly gets them money, since that seems to have pushed sales of the XBox ahead of the Cube. Nintendo REALLY need to focus on a decent online plan, even if it's just Sony's plan, which is at least something at the level of encouragement to other developers to make online games.
Here's one flaw I don't like about Live though. Once someone registers for Live, that account is permanent on that Box. That means that that Box will always use that account. Here's the reason I hate this. If someone wants to get rid of their XBox, like say giving it to a friend, they now have someone else's account on their system, and they can't sign up their own account. The only way around this is to send it in to MS so they can erase the old account data and make new data. Sure, at least there IS a way out, but man that's annoying. Oh well, I can see the security reasons, plus it's only bad in that rare instance.
In any case, my main point is that Nintendo really needs to reconsider their stance on Online Gaming. It's great for the consumers (and if Nintendo wants to keep their whole "we do it for the gamers" vibe, this isn't the way to go about it), and more importantly for them, it makes them money based on cube and game sales due to this feature.
Apparently, Live is being subscribed to at a very high rate. My one theoretical possibility as to why this might not work is that the $50 kit allows a free year of subsription, but that can only be done once, after which that particular Box MUST use the standard subscription. In one year, how many subscriptions will still be active? If in fact people intend to remain subsribed, MS just prooved that gaming online can pay for itself. They also have already prooven just by these subsriptions that having online capabilities indirectly gets them money, since that seems to have pushed sales of the XBox ahead of the Cube. Nintendo REALLY need to focus on a decent online plan, even if it's just Sony's plan, which is at least something at the level of encouragement to other developers to make online games.
Here's one flaw I don't like about Live though. Once someone registers for Live, that account is permanent on that Box. That means that that Box will always use that account. Here's the reason I hate this. If someone wants to get rid of their XBox, like say giving it to a friend, they now have someone else's account on their system, and they can't sign up their own account. The only way around this is to send it in to MS so they can erase the old account data and make new data. Sure, at least there IS a way out, but man that's annoying. Oh well, I can see the security reasons, plus it's only bad in that rare instance.
In any case, my main point is that Nintendo really needs to reconsider their stance on Online Gaming. It's great for the consumers (and if Nintendo wants to keep their whole "we do it for the gamers" vibe, this isn't the way to go about it), and more importantly for them, it makes them money based on cube and game sales due to this feature.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)