Xbox Live soon to be free?

Xboxic: "Or is it not to be? These are the questions currently facing Microsoft as they develop their strategy towards the “Games for Windows” platform and the online experience within. In a recent interview with 1UP, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Shane Kim addressed a couple of questions with regards to the online service on offer for PC gamers.

If you have any experience with online gaming for the PC, you know the one big benefit is that it is free. There are also services such as Gamespy that offer decent alternatives to what Microsoft plan to offer with Live. So decent that Microsoft may have difficulty breaking into the PC World. Especially if MS offer an alternative provider that charges; why would anyone swap over to Live and pay, when they can game for free elsewhere? It isn’t economically viable for MS to this.

Added pressure of course comes from console competitors. Whilst Nintendo have been almighty slow in getting their online plans put into place (i.e.: they haven’t), Sony have been striding forward with their service which is free for every user, and they have their own servers for first party games. For all the criticism levelled at Sony, they are offering something Microsoft isn’t: free online gaming."