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Xbox live (year to year subscription price) is raising to 60 (usd) a year starting in October. If any of you Xbox peoples have not quite heard.

Remember you can still purchase Xbox cards at your local retailer to subscribe next year for the same price as this year, so pick up those cards as they will be flying of store shelves here pretty soon

Also current members of Xbox live can get a year subscription for 20 (usd) is they subscribe now, so again you Xbox peopel might want to look into that if you have not already.

So are you upset by the price increase, or think the price of Xbox live is well worth it compared to the quality over the PS3 network?

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Also in some random gaming type news. Did you hear about this?

BestBuy is offering a 25 (usd) gift card to customers who buy 2 games or game related accessories off an approved list. Some decent titles and items, so check it out if you are going to be making purchases anyways.

Best Buy Card





Now here is the random picture thing of the day - My little Snake Pony

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In other words, Microsoft wants you to 'pony up the money' -- not so random now, is it?

It's funny how services can go up in price even though their profitmargin must have gone up quite a bit anyway, as servers have much better performance per watt now, and the userbase has increased lots

Anyone know how the UK prices will be affected? It's £40 at the moment, but I tend to buy my 12 month subscriptions off ebay for around £30.

EDIT - Nevermind, I googled it. UK prices for a 12 month will probably go up to around £50 if the monthly increase of £1 is anything to go by Linky
Also, in answer to the op, yes, I think XBL is worth the money and with all the extra stuff that has been added since it was introduced, it was bound to go up in price at some point. With me not owning a PS3, I can't comment on whether it is any better than the PS3 network

Considering PS3 Home, and the fact that on ps3 online gaming is free i have to say its kind of a rip off.
Although i guess whichever you have has its cons and pro's...

Just so I know, what stuff is available on PS3 network? Do you get stuff like Facebook and Last.FM?

The entire internet is available on ps3, it has a browser.

I'll be honest, that seems pretty pointless, bit like Last.FM, FB and Twitter on Xbox lol

Why is that pointless? Xbox is limited, when it comes to what you can or cant do on the internet, plus ps3 is free.

I agree with macjcd i had an Xbox and that pissed me off so bad that my friend could browse but i couldnt..

I just don't see the point in browsing on a games console. If I want to surf the net, I use my PC. If I want to play games, I use the Xbox. Not taking a dig at the PS3 for having a browser, I just don't see the point. Like I don't see the point in FB and stuff on Xbox. Or the Sky package for that matter, cos that costs far too much lol

Now I see your point Dav13s, to me it just seems like another great way for M$oft to charge money for free sh#t, next they will introduce a browser for Xbox, but will charge an additional, amount to have the browser feature. Only a matter of time.

It may be pointless and something that you dont really do on an xbox, or ps3 for that matter, considering I rarely browse the web on my ps3, it is just one of things that should be there (basic feature), your already connected to the web anyway.

I assume the PS3 is still a bit more expensive than an xBox360? How long before the difference is made up with the 360's online costs included?

Not long probably if the PS3 price drops a little bit. You don't have to get XBL for the full £40, or $60, or whatever it costs. You can get a 12 month a lot cheaper on ebay. My last 12 month cost me £26 I think. All depends on whether you trust ebay sellers lol

yea the ps3s are like 100$ more expensive but with built in wifi, (unlike xbox) free online game play ("), and a standard 120gb hard drive (20gb xbox standard?), it pretty much makes up for the price as soon as you take it out of the box.

Not to mention the built in Blu Ray player

I have been a Xbox guy since they first came out but I have had it with them. Between the three rings of death (I'm on my 4th 360) and how they charge you for EVERYTHING I for one will be switching to a playstation when the next generation of consoles come out. I don't know what I'll do with out Halo but I'm sure I'll figure it out. The fact that microsoft charges you for a wifi antenna and then charges you to use it when sony doesn't is sad. But I guess if people keep paying for it why would they stop charging for everything.

well i have limited experience with ps3 online but that experience did not approach the standard of a premium service constant lagging made game play on COD unbearable and lets face it thats the whole point of connecting a console to the web. i find the 360 network to be consistently reliable in that respect the other web stuff doesnt get used but my friend gets sky free on his by using my pass as i dont need it.

I've heard the service was laggy when the PS3 first came out but had been improved since then, but I don't have any online experience of PS3's so can't realy comment.

@Cracka, Halo is over after Reach anyway so it won't really matter too much when the next gen consoles are out I suppose. Sad times

Found a site where it cost you 39,- euro so thats about 50 usd. That is the cheapest I found. You can pay with creditcard or paypal, whatever and the code gets send to your mail so that you can go online in a instant. Did this myself and it saved me a lot of money.