Since Halo Infinite has been revealed to need Xbox Live Gold to play online, I am asking to see if Sea of Thieves can remove the requirement for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. The game has been out for 3 years at this point, and it is really fun. I cannot really afford a Series X|S or a Gaming PC, and I do find it unfair that PC users get to play Sea of Thieves without the need for a subscription, instead only the game or game pass. I believe that games that focus more online and have no single player mode should not need a multiplayer subscription. If the selling point of the game is the multiplayer, and the fact that it's a multiplayer exclusive title is a real turnoff for me. Not to mention, I mostly play the game by myself, but I can't play the game unless I have an active Xbox Live subscription. Please remove this requirement. Especially since there is a Series X|S version out.
Xbox Live Subscription
@arcticphantom01 said in Xbox Live Subscription:
Since Halo Infinite has been revealed to need Xbox Live Gold to play online, I am asking to see if Sea of Thieves can remove the requirement for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. The game has been out for 3 years at this point, and it is really fun. I cannot really afford a Series X|S or a Gaming PC, and I do find it unfair that PC users get to play Sea of Thieves without the need for a subscription, instead only the game or game pass. I believe that games that focus more online and have no single player mode should not need a multiplayer subscription. If the selling point of the game is the multiplayer, and the fact that it's a multiplayer exclusive title is a real turnoff for me. Not to mention, I mostly play the game by myself, but I can't play the game unless I have an active Xbox Live subscription. Please remove this requirement. Especially since there is a Series X|S version out.
PC's can cost anywhere between 1500 to 5000 or even 10k. Original launch Xbox One and A xbox series x retail is about $600 after tax.
The difference in price is about 1k. Xbox gold is about 10 per month.
100x10= 1000. That is 100 months worth Xbox gold subscription.
If you are trying to equate "well PC players don't have to spend money" then take that argument somewhere else. The amount of money spent on PC is way more than console. So that argument of yours is empty and flawed.
Next the subscription is so that the Microsoft can earn money to keep the online service alive. They have to earn revenue somewhere. If they remove the subscription then guess what takes its place. Microtransaction which usually end up leading to P2W in the hopes of forcing players into making purchases.
Tons of players to find online to play with, just go to LFG and find someone to play with.
use microsoft rewards
if you dedicate yourself to it and take advantage of the daily points the gamepass points and the random 10k gamerscore challenges as well as the xbox weekly stuff you can pay for pretty much everything to keep you going on xbox
it's effort but when the money is low effort is all you got.
it doesn't seem like a lot but it adds up from all the different sources. I just passed a million points recently which amounted to a lot of stuff I didn't have to pay for just because I made it a habit to chase points and like SOT I just stuck with the grind and it added up to a lot
I use it to keep my gamepass ultimate going and to buy stuff in the emporium through using points on the rewards which are microsoft gift cards and live/pass subs
Something to look into
@xultanis-dragon said in Xbox Live Subscription:
Next the subscription is so that the Microsoft can earn money to keep the online service alive. They have to earn revenue somewhere. If they remove the subscription then guess what takes its place. Microtransaction which usually end up leading to P2W in the hopes of forcing players into making purchases.
They already do that though.
Let's be real - XBox Live costs money because they can get away with it. PC players can play without having to pay for XBox Live because Microsoft can't charge due to competition from other platforms (Steam, Ubisoft, EA/Origin, Epic, etc...) on the same platform that do not charge for access to their services. No one else can offer online services on XBox, so they can charge for it just because.
I believe they tried the subscription model with Games for Windows Live and failed hard because everyone just continued to use Steam which was free.
@wolfmanbush said in Xbox Live Subscription:
use microsoft rewards
if you dedicate yourself to it and take advantage of the daily points the gamepass points and the random 10k gamerscore challenges as well as the xbox weekly stuff you can pay for pretty much everything to keep you going on xbox
it's effort but when the money is low effort is all you got.
it doesn't seem like a lot but it adds up from all the different sources. I just passed a million points recently which amounted to a lot of stuff I didn't have to pay for just because I made it a habit to chase points and like SOT I just stuck with the grind and it added up to a lot
I use it to keep my gamepass ultimate going and to buy stuff in the emporium through using points on the rewards which are microsoft gift cards and live/pass subs
Something to look into
Yep, pretty easy to do daily points and amass enough to convert into free XBox Live, Gamepass or store gift cards.
I bought Sea of Thieves outright with my points and use it for AC every so often :)
@xultanis-dragon You can get a decent PC with 600€. Just saying, you don't need to pay thousands, except if you want a tank of a PC.
@arcticphantom01 said in Xbox Live Subscription:
Since Halo Infinite has been revealed to need Xbox Live Gold to play online, I am asking to see if Sea of Thieves can remove the requirement for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions. The game has been out for 3 years at this point, and it is really fun. I cannot really afford a Series X|S or a Gaming PC, and I do find it unfair that PC users get to play Sea of Thieves without the need for a subscription, instead only the game or game pass. I believe that games that focus more online and have no single player mode should not need a multiplayer subscription. If the selling point of the game is the multiplayer, and the fact that it's a multiplayer exclusive title is a real turnoff for me. Not to mention, I mostly play the game by myself, but I can't play the game unless I have an active Xbox Live subscription. Please remove this requirement. Especially since there is a Series X|S version out.
There is a big difference - Halo Infinite multiplayer is going to be free to play for ALL Xbox and PC users - no need to purchase the game or have Game Pass. Campaign is a different story though. Since Microsoft changed their policy to now allow F2P games to actually be "free" (i.e. not requiring a Gold membership) then the Halo Infinite MP portion would now apply to that.
Sea of Thieves is not a free to play game so does require a Gold membership, as would playing online co-op in Halo Infinite campaign (as it also is not a free to play option). Being an online only title is completely irrelevant - Destiny (not 2, the original) also is an online only game, has been out much longer, and still requires a Gold membership to play. Same for Rainbow Six Siege and many other games.
FYI - the Series S or X ALSO require a Gold membership to play the game, just like it does on the One. So why does there being a version for those systems even factor into your rant?
@wolfmanbush said in Xbox Live Subscription:
use microsoft rewards
if you dedicate yourself to it and take advantage of the daily points the gamepass points and the random 10k gamerscore challenges as well as the xbox weekly stuff you can pay for pretty much everything to keep you going on xbox
it's effort but when the money is low effort is all you got.
it doesn't seem like a lot but it adds up from all the different sources. I just passed a million points recently which amounted to a lot of stuff I didn't have to pay for just because I made it a habit to chase points and like SOT I just stuck with the grind and it added up to a lot
I use it to keep my gamepass ultimate going and to buy stuff in the emporium through using points on the rewards which are microsoft gift cards and live/pass subs
Something to look into
Hold up, how do you buy stuff in the emporium using Microsoft Reward points?
@arcticphantom01 ahoy matey,
Lots of arguments either way here I can see, but all I will say on the matter is this:
Microsoft have to keep the servers spinning for XBL - Sea of Thieves uses Microsoft resources I would hazard (being a 1st party dev for MS, they will likely use their servers).
We pay a monthly fee, and always have for the pleasure of a service that has very little outage, decent support and security.XBL hasn't suffered anywhere near the catastrophic issues that we saw with PSN on the PS3 for example.
If we want good service, sadly we have to pay for it. I'm often strapped for cash, but at £11 per month I can warrant my GamePass Ultimate sub as it's less than a round of drinks in the pub!
I don't subscribe to the notions others have put forth about the price of PCs, as that doesn't actually have a bearing seeing as Microsoft has very little to do with the cost of hardware in that regard. It's more to do with the price of consoles and how much that costs Microsoft, and them trying to make that money back (and profit).
Microsoft makes very little money back on selling consoles (especially at the start of a generation when their margins are super thin), so Xbox Live Gold really exists to offset that and make it a profitable business. In return, you get a relatively stable service, Xbox only servers (if you opt out of crossplay), and "free" Games with Gold titles every month to claim.
As PC is more open, and Microsoft doesn't really take as much of a hit with hardware [usually, Surface being one exception], there was no need for that recoup - plus they can make money via other means as people use Windows for so much besides gaming (such as selling your information on to advertisers, if you haven't opted out in your privacy settings). They also make money on Microsoft Office services and, more and more, they are making money from their cloud-based services as well, which rely on Windows. All of which they license to businesses. Gaming is really a tack on benefit for Windows users, not a main focus (not even when it's built into the OS), so they don't see it as worthwhile to stir the pot and charge for that privilege.
@realstyli I'm pretty sure most of their recoup on XBox is through licensing software. They get around $7 from every $60 game sale, and for first party titles they get a decent amount as a publishing fee ($20-$25 if I recall correctly).
@d3adst1ck said in Xbox Live Subscription:
@realstyli I'm pretty sure most of their recoup on XBox is through licensing software. They get around $7 from every $60 game sale, and for first party titles they get a decent amount as a publishing fee ($20-$25 if I recall correctly).
Correct, but the Xbox Live Gold subscription also contributes to offset their costs.
@jumli7 said in Xbox Live Subscription:
@xultanis-dragon You can get a decent PC with 600€. Just saying, you don't need to pay thousands, except if you want a tank of a PC.
600 euro doesn't go very far right now. The chip shortage has all but gutted the low end gpu market. I'd say at this point just for a decent tower your spending 1000 euro assuming you can get a gpu at or close to msrp.
Sure paying a few thousand for a pc may not be neccessary, but I think expecting to pay 600 euro for a decent pc is also misleading.
