Discounted Xbox Live subscription cards available from Amazon, Newegg and others

@Ahmedz

You can only add THREE YEARS of xbox live gold at any one time!

@Ahmedz
what about that family plan service that is suppose to start in November if there gonna raise the price shouldn't they give us some more info about that?

Then maybe the community could rally behind that with people they know that could save some money for people if it pans out right.

@Ahmedz sweet deal http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Live-Month-Messenger-Gold/dp/B001EKTF60/ref=pd_ybh_1?pf_rd_p=280800601&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1501&pf_rd_i=ybh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0F62Y90AFG6J9YG1HYCG

@Ahmedz

. . . . or you can just buy a PS3 and play online free for the rest of your life?

why are people so surprised, also, the year price is not going up in Canada, only the monthly

@That Burning Sensation

Yup. You're right. I'll just go buy Halo: Reach on PS3 instead and let my Live subscription run out.

@Yeah TB

Actually, I hear you can play Halo Reach without XBL

(: 0)

@Ahmedz

lol And I remember when Joystiq put XBL discount on their Microsoft prediction BINGO sheet last E3!

@tedknaz
uh the video on there, isn't that the song sony used for LBP commercials??

@spid

Yeah. I hope it doesn't come to bite me in the ass if they either sell out or the prices go up, but I'm going to wait until one of these retailers has them for under $39.99. Hopefully...

@spid

I highly doubt this price hike is going to change anything. The $60 hike is only going to effect the people that renew straight through the dashboard. People that shop Ebay, Amazon or look out for deals at places like Target or Best Buy won't be effected.

@PlatinumSkeet

Why wouldn't they be affected? If Amazon usually offers a $10 discount and the occasional $20 discount, those sales prices will now be $10 higher after the hike, because the List Price is going up.

@phinn

They sure did give shove them up where, what??

@phinn

Quit trolling you post on all PS3 articles and half the time your comments are about bashing Xbox 360. I doubt you even own one....

@phinn You have a 360?
I see you bashing the 360 all the time.
Get a life troll

@phinn of course i do, but its broken. and im bitter about it still.

@Walkdiesel If you can't read basic English with no spelling or grammatical errors than your probably dumb enough to pay $60/year for an online service than PS3 and PC gamers get for free... Oh, yep, you are.

@phinn

Buddy, you've got at least 3 grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors in just your last response! I don't even want to try diagramming that first comment.

@HuluVoodoo

Epic

@phinn It hurts don't it :-P

@phinn
Right... No grammatical errors at all.

You know, I see a lot of people touting the PS3 for its free online capability, but what a lot of them fail to mention, is the new PS+ service, which is

DRUMROLL

$50 USD.

Granted you can play the online multiplayer for free, but if you want all the extras and exclusives, you gotta pay. Xbox has a great online system setup, and I believe in Microsoft's online infrastucture and its capabilities, whereas when I download a 100+mb file, not only do I have to download it, but I have to install it as well. Time consuming, am I wrong?

PS3/360/Wii owner.

@CHEF BOYaR G Yea Sony's $50/year is a rip off too I don't even know what you get with it, automatic game/system updates in the background, and some discounteded games? lol big deal.

But that's the difference PS+... It'ss completely optional for people that want a few extras they aren't ramming it down the throats of every person that drops $300 on a console saying "if you wanna play online with your friends you gotta pay $60/year". No thats free on PSN and PC. It's just some extra features only a few hardcore gamers would want. I'm just as loud about bashing that service too.

But it's not a mandatory service to play games online and use Netflix and Blu-rays. That's all free on PSN.

@phinn (Please excuse my tardiness, I just woke up.)

Okay, fine, you want counter points?

The majority of PC-based services rely on dedicated servers. This means that anytime I want to join a game I have to hope someone is hosting a gametype I like on a map I like and it isn't filled up. Then after joining I have to play through a half-finished game before I can get dropped into a fresh one. People on my team can constantly join and leave with no fear of punishment (which means I could end up playing a 2v5 match half the match).

Now obviously some PC games use a matchmaking system, and some use other means to host online matches, but my point still stands.

As for the PS3 the biggest fault I can give it is that it's not a wholly unified system. It took Sony awhile to give it all these cool features, and even then most of them are only supported by newer games. Things I now consider standard (cross-game invites, party chat that works no matter what section of the dashboard/game I'm at, etc.) are still not fully supported by every PS3 game.

XBL may have it's problems (price being #1 in my book), but I still vastly prefer the ease of use it presents me. When I want to play Halo 3 online I just press a button and a few seconds later I'm in a match voting with other people on what I want to play. Sure I could end up with a shitty map, but at least I know I won't have to constantly quit a server hoping someone else is hosting an un-modded version of a map I like. I could also end up with a team full of whiny 12 year olds, but I could also get stuck on a service where not many people have mics, and I'm left shouting enemy positions to myself.

(That said I still love my PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 dearly.)

@McDuckScrooged or three for the price of two ?

@sevendead
I cant speak about the new cards/codes, but the other week I redeemed an old Xbox Live Gold card (circa 2002-2004ish, still had Crimson Skies in the box!) for my Wife. Worked just fine.

So I would hope/assume that the new codes dont expire.

ESPN.

@einhanderkiller
That's it?

Increased bandwidth cost from upgrading audio quality, ESPN and whatever other crap they decide we "want" that only the US will get but everyone pays for this fall.... or maybe they just felt like it : /

@McWilly
I just noticed the Video Kinect; which I assume is video conferencing with other Kinect users. Maybe MSN/Live users as well?

@ytilanigiroon

So they can give us more ads plastered all over our dashboard, yay!

@Hooch
I understand the ads for silver members, but if you're already subsidizing a service by paying for it, why should you be "paying" for the service again by the paid ads on the dashboard?

@ytilanigiroon The price hike is justified because they'll make more money off of the increased subscription fees than they'll lose from people canceling due to the higher price.

Or in other words, "because they can".

@ytilanigiroon

I was being sarcastic don't worry, ads for goldies disgusts me as they are already paying such a large fee and yet can still be used to make more money. It is inevitable that microsoft will increase them at some point in the future also.

Note that the ESPN that we'll get is content from ESPN3 and ESPN:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect/entertainment.htm

I get ESPN3 for free OTA. I also have free access to Hulu Plus, so why I need to pay for this crap just to play online multiplayer?

XBL, the new AOL.

@Zertoss
It'd be 990 years worth of cards, sir.

@Zertoss Damn, just bought 91 cards...

@Zertoss that's actually 990 years of cards...

@Zertoss

"We didn't" i think you just got the tenses mi...........O I C WUT U DID THAR

@ytilanigiroon
Did not push 9 enough times. I know how to add and subtract, I swear!

@GiantGamer

Yeah cause not playing games at all is so much better then if you just couldn't play online...