Ural Williams III
Ms. Hand
English 4 Period 5
15 February 2018
Xbox Live is Unnecessary
My
name is Ural Williams, and I have been an avid console gamer for the past 8 years. I have owned 3 different versions of the Xbox, and one version of the PlayStation, so I am aware of how both consoles work. Personally, I am a fan of Xbox, and have been my
entire life. However, I do not agree with the concept of Xbox Live. Xbox Live is a subscription that consumers pay for a certain period of time, which allows them to play online with others. There are three different prices for Xbox Live, $10 for 1 month,
$25 for 3 months, and $60 for a year. Because of the initial cost of the Xbox One and everything most serious gamers pay along with it, as well as the fact that PlayStation users don’t have to expend their funds to play online, Xbox users should not have to
pay for this feature.
When the Xbox One first came out in 2013, Microsoft managed to sell
2 million copies in the first 18 days. The Xbox retailed at $499.99. Apropos to the costly initial price of the console, games average around $60.00. This means that an Xbox One user in 2013 would be paying more or less $600.00 before playing any video game.
If one is a variety gamer, then they may also pay for a hard drive for access space to save video game data, which will add even more money to the charges. Then, they would have to pay for an Xbox Live subscription in order to play with their friends. The
multitude of taxes stacked on top of each other can be costly for the average person, and Microsoft has been ridiculed a money hungry company on a variety of different occasions. The Xbox Live feature is only ruining Microsoft’s reputation even more.
Also,
PlayStation users do not have to pay in order to play online, and they have a larger following than Xbox. This only brings truth to the “Xbox money hungry” accusations even more, because PlayStation would make a larger profit if consumers had to pay to play
online, hence more people play PlayStation than Xbox. Removing Xbox Live can help increase Microsoft’s fan base, and have more people from PlayStation convert to Xbox,
I will always be an Xbox advocate. I have considered converting from
Xbox to PS4 many times, but I am a believer that Microsoft will improve their downsides and listen to their supporters. To increase the Xbox’s fan base and tone down the accusations of being a money hungry company, Microsoft needs to remove the Xbox Live feature.
