Well Steam does all of those policies and it's faring well, why shouldn't Microsoft do the same?
True. Steam isn't perfect. It still has a form of DRM on it. You still need internet access to play most games, but there are still a good handful where you can play offline. Obviously you cannot sell off your games on the PC, you never could as far as I can remember since you link the CD key to your account, whether its Steam, Origin, or Windows Live. Plus, games on the PC are usually always cheaper, and Steam ALWAYS has sales going on, especially during the Summer and Winter. You can also buy a whole collection of games just under $100, even newly released triple A titles. As far as I know, Sony nor Microsoft do these crazy deals. They might, but I don't see them doing it anytime soon.
Also, Steam has been the first major corporation to widely accept Indie developers and support their cause, while Microsoft was a dirtbag about it. Sony did support Indie developers to some extent as far as I recall, but not on the level of Steam. Just for this, they have received a TON of respect from both developers and the consumers. Now Microsoft has added a policy to support Indie developers, but in my books it's a little to late. They shouldn't have left the underdogs hanging for so long to begin with.
In the end, Steam has been in the game for a really long time. It's among the first major gaming distributors on the Internet, so naturally they have gained a lot of support. They've generally done more good than bad, and support their loyal consumers. There's still some pros and cons that I haven't mentioned, but the pros outweigh the cons, and most of the people I've talked to over the web and in person have generally agreed to this.
(Admittedly I am a bit biased since I used Steam for MANY years, but honestly it has treated me more nicely than Microsoft has when I had an Xbox 360. Never personally owned a Playstation, but many of my friends have it. It's alright in my books.)
Correction: PS4 requires a subscription fee to play games online (if this was changed, I do not know.)
Anyway, Microsoft needs the subscription fee because they're playing the corporate game! Gotta make more money than they spend after all. And Bill Gates of course wants to hit #1 richest and stay there.
Oh, I'm sorry! I honestly didn't know that. I even watched E3 and I didn't catch that, how embarrassing :embarrassed:. Yeah, they do have a $50 dollar annual subscription fee. I think that's 10 dollars cheaper than Xbox Live? Not sure, but most gamers are still generally little kids/young teenagers without jobs. Their parents would generally go for what's cheaper in the long run.
