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"X-Box Live getting more expensive?"

Well its been announced that PSO will have an $8.95 charge a month in the US. So lets just say it costs £6 a month over here (Its likely to be more).

That means to play PSO for a year you will have to pay:
£42 - XBL (Assuming Microsoft dont charge even more after the first year)
£72 - PSO subscription

Thats £114 a year.

Plus, for the first year, theres the £38(ish) price to buy the game.
Thats £152 for the first year.

Thats even worse than PC online gaming.

I thought the whole point of paying the £42 was to have access to all games. Its not like Sega have to host the servers like they would on PC games as they are all ran by Microsoft.

Plus, on another bad note, PSO cannot be played with people in the US from outside the region.

Tóm wrote:
> But then, what exactly are we paying out £40 for?

For the head set and other hardware. The subscription is basically for your gamer tag and to connect to other people. You host the games with the expection of a few dedicated servers for Unreal that Microsoft own. Maybe more dedicated servers will come out for other games. But really the person who hosts the game has to send all the information out to the other players etc. Thats why you can only host certain size games before lag becomes an issue. But Microsoft still have to provide the means of actually routing the traffic, connecting players etc, its just that they dont provide the bandwidth for the game.

But then, what exactly are we paying out £40 for?

You will find that any type of game like PSO namely any MMORPGs on the PC has a fee. Bascially the game company runs the servers so that there is at least one server up running 24/7. FPS online games can typically be hosted by one person on there home connection for a few hours, or maybe some proper game server. But this would'nt be run by the game creater, companies like Gamespy would do this.

If you think XBox Live so far it has been connecting you to other people, Microsoft dont host the games YOU do. With Unreal you do get the X-servers which are Microsoft servers. So for PSO Microsoft will have to run dedicated servers for the game, as you cant really play a game like this on someones hosted game. Games that will require special dedicated servers will probably be a subscription game.

Just get a Dreamcast.

Phantasy Star Online has had it's day IMO. Now the Sega cash-cow is just milking it for all it's worth now. I would happily pay an extra fee if it were a true MMORPG, but I won't be paying a fee for a game that doesn't offer anything new other than new challenges.

I'd rather wait for the delightful True Fantasy Live Online instead, which looks like PSO, but with a more Japanese theme.

Fact is, with the size and scope of most MMORPGs, you'll tend to have to play subscription fees for games of that genre. Expect Star Wars: Galaxies and the like to follow suit.

The subscription idea is stupidity. Why should we pay to play a game like PSO online when we can play the likes of Mech Assault and Halo 2 for free ??

The only people that will really get their moneys worth are the types that will treat the game like some religion. Thing is, I'm sure all the X-Box Live users on here are just like me - one night you might think "I'm really in the mood for a Moto GP session online tonight". After this, it could be a week or 2 before I'll consider the game again - especially when I love playing on Mech Assault online.

So to pay a subscription for a game that you might only play in short bursts is pretty harsh. Think Sega have a nasty surprise coming their way when they expect the cash to come rolling in.

Your Honour wrote:
> Apparently, you'll have to have an Xbox Live subscription to be able
> to play PSO OFFLINE...

That would be incredibly silly. But then so is Windows ME.
I can't believe they'd do that......would they?

Apparently, you'll have to have an Xbox Live subscription to be able to play PSO OFFLINE...

There's a simple solution to this. Don't buy the game.

If Sega think they can get away with conning gamers in such away, I hope PSO on Xbox is the biggest flop in gaming history.