MS Restricting Access of Free Xbox Live Content
The recently released downloadable content for Irrational Games' 2K Boston and 2K Australia's BioShock (PC, X360) is the latest example of the policy, which was first introduced with the 2006 debut of a promotional advertisement for Epic's Gears of War (PC, X360) that was available only to Gold subscribers for a limited time.
"This is going to happen more and more (Gold getting things before Silver)," Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb wrote at the time, "so you may want to think about upgrading if you want all the latest and greatest trailers, demos etc."
Yesterday's Xbox 360 system update contained new functionality to point out what Silver members can and can not download. Restricted content is marked by a red circle with a slash through it, and an attempted download brings up an error message advising Silver account holders to "check again in a few days or upgrade to an Xbox Live Gold Membership."
Though Silver members can create an online friends list and have access to the Xbox Live Marketplace, which offers up a number of free and premium-priced downloads, they are not able to play online with other Xbox Live members. That privilege is restricted for Gold-level access, which runs $7.99 a month, $19.99 for 3 months, or $49.99 for 13 months.
"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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Murdoc.
replyBOooooooo!
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"-
Don't be surprised if and when Sony starts to charge for their service as well. If you haven't noticed yet, Sony has ALWAYS been a follower with things like this. They start off bragging about how they offer something their competitors don't, and then a short time later they end up offering the exact same thing and make lame ass excuses like "This is what our customers wanted, so we provided it for them." Sony is in this for the money too, and don't think for a second that they haven't been eying the money that MS is making on Live. In my opinion, I think that the only reason Sony isn't charging for a premium service yet is because they haven't achieved a large enough install base and they want ensure that they can entice customers with the promise of a free on-line service that is comparable to Live (where is still has a long way to go) and when the install base get large enough, I expect them to make that BS announcement and claim it's what their customers want. Time will tell.
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Nothing is free. It has to be paid for somewhere in the chain.
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