PS3 owners can browse the web on their consoles. Wii owners can browse the web on their consoles. Even DS owners can browse the web on their consoles.
Yet Xbox 360 owners cannot. Instead, Xbox Live offers a hermetically sealed service, where customer options are strictly limited. It is also a place where history is rewritten — Microsoft has announced plans to remove poorly-selling and critically-panned games from Live Arcade.
It wasn’t that long ago, either, that reports emerged of Epic being forced to charge for Gears of War downloadable content. So the story goes, Mark Rein wanted to give it away — a reward for his loyal, paying customers. But Microsoft felt that the DLC should be instilled with some intrinsic cash value, against the wishes of those who created it.
These actions are part of a coherent policy. Microsoft wants to create a culture of paying for things over Xbox Live. Fair enough. They want to make money. But there’s just one snag — some of the things they’re charging for, people are used to getting for free.
Take themes, and wallpapers, and icons. PC owners don’t pay for those. I have thousands of desktop images at my fingertips. Once again, a similar culture is fostered on the PS3.
Ask any gamer how he feels about such decorative touches:
“If it’s not free, I’m not going near it.”
Without a doubt there is a giant chart somewhere at Xbox Worldwide HQ planning out Xbox Live revenue, a glorious curve reaching skyward. It’s fun to plan economies, but planned economies don’t work. Anyone remember the Soviet Union?
