Xbox Live

Xbox Live is a subscription based digital retailer and online service that allows users to download a variety of content and play with one another online. It is run and published by Microsoft for their Xbox 360 gaming system but also has been extended somewhat to the P.C and eventually the Windows Live 7 phones.

Each player has his own personnel account with a name, or “Gamertag” they choose. Along with this data the account holds links to friends and their accounts, a feedback system, digital receipt for all purchases and a record of games played and performance in them. Performance is denoted by “Gamerscore” within each retail game 1,000 points are available and are earned for performing specific tasks, as chosen by the games developers. Variations exist for online distributed “Arcade” games that are typically smaller or for add-ons after the games release. Since implementation the “Gamerscore” system has attracted a following of dedicated fans and multiple websites and forums have grown to support this. Games with fun or easy requirements typically do much better at retail than other, similar games and the system has been copied by all of Microsoft’s competitiors.

The service is run through a closed operating system pre-installed onto the Xbox that by terms and conditions cannot be tampered with. The benefit of this is primarily to discourage and impede piracy, but also allows Microsoft complete control and access to data, allowing them to target advertising to specific people. All content made available must be approved by Microsoft , and while independent developers are supported, the process is complex and generally expensive, requiring an additional £250 games maker license for games to be made even eligible for upload. This contrasts the P.Cs free market of home brew games and modifications for games which was a substantial market just a few years ago. However, the P.C games industry has since mostly collapsed, primarily because of the general benefits to the standardised consoles but also because the unpoliced attitude to the platform allowed piracy to eat substantial numbers of sales making developing for the P.C financially impossible. As such, the P.C market has since changed to a subscription basis model, such as the runaway success of World of Warcraft and it’s ilk.

However, Xbox has been criticised for being too strict with it’s rules and regulations. Popular developer Valve have not published some downloadable content for it’s titles due to disputes over mandatory pricing. Furthermore, Microsoft will not co-operate with some new features, so services like OnSteam that allows save games to be backed up on external servers that is available on it’s competitors system.

The pricing system is also fiercely argued over by the fanbase. Currently it is the only one amongst it’s market who charges for use, though the Playstation Network (PSN) is adding a premium service. While a free option is available it contains none of the services and essentially serves as an advert for the full price version. Currently Xbox Live is charging £40 per year. For this the gamer gets the ability to play online, hold multiple voice chats, download from an extended library, stream movies, music and television and access social networking sites. Unlike the PSN an online browser is not available. The cited reason for this is to stop ad revenue going to external sites instead of those paying Microsoft and prevent piracy, though it is argued if we are paying why can’t we go were we want.

The money payed is said to cover running costs, further developments and servers for playing online. However certain developers, such as industry giant Activision have expressed plans to make their games subscription based following the P.Cs current model. This is causing some dispute as to whether customers are being charged twice for the same thing.

(Not necessarily finished but I want to get something for everything and go back and polish these)