The huge success of Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 was largely due to Xbox Live. Many users prefer to play it on Xbox Live than on PlayStation Network, at least, according to Microsoft’s David Dennis.
“Having an install base around 8 million more than the PS3 certainly helps, but the main factor is Xbox Live,” said Dennis of the Xbox 360 SKU outselling the PS3 version by more than 2-to-1. “If you’re considering a multiplatform game like that and you’re going to want to play online, you’re going to want to go to where your friends are and, let’s face it, most people are playing on Xbox Live.”
Even though Xbox Live is subscription-based, costing games about $50 a year, Dennis believes more gamers prefer the network. The subscription fee allows Microsoft to create a better, more robust service with more features.
“Consumers have shown that if you can deliver value, they’re willing to pay for a subscription service, beyond just what multiplayer brings with an Xbox Live Gold subscription,” continued Dennis. “With things like Facebook, Netflix, Twitter and Last.fm, we continue to drive more value into what a Gold subscription brings to the table. For a lot of people, paying [USD 50] a year for multiplayer is fine, but for a lot of people they want more, so we’ll continue to add more to that. But for the cost of a latte, with the depth and richness of what Live brings, I think people absolutely see value in what Xbox Live delivers.”
So what do you think? Does Xbox Live really have the edge of PSN or not?
