KI on PC and XBL subscription

I can see where you are coming from but you might be looking at it the wrong way; it’s not us console gamers and them PC gamers, we are all part of MS’s target audience as gamers in general. You are just as free to use PC as a platform for gaming as anyone else at no extra cost.

That being said, I do not understand why using XBL on a console requires a paid subscription, since you are using the same services but I regard it as a bonus that it is free on PC, for how long it lasts. I think it may have to do with the production cost for an X1. MS may not make as much money off of a raw console sale as the amount that went in for production and with XBL, they are compensating for these costs and the requirement for a paid subscription gives them a steady income per user.

Also, they do give you a lot of free content that is not available for PC users that kind of evens out the difference.

Can we just clarify here? XBL is not “free” on PC. XBL is a suite of services and features on Xbox - including but not just the ability to play online. You can’t get XBL on PC. You can, however, play MS published games online.

Fair enough. I do have my Xbox Live account linked to my user account in windows 10 and it gives me access to the Xbox store and seemingly to xbox live but it’s just an XBL app. It does nothing more than a silver account on an xbox. There is a Windows 10 tab as well but it just seems to link to the Windows store. So indeed, PC does not seem to make use of XBL the same way the X1 does.

Thanks for the clearing that up.

To be honest, it’s not quite “no extra cost”. Modern graphical card alone costs more than entire console with set of peripheral devices, for one. That means people who own consoles often don’t have their PC (if they have one, usually they do) upgraded to the point they can run current releases well, and it’s just cheaper for them to pay XBL/PSN sub for quite a while than to upgrade PC. That’s yet another reason why scheme involving subs works in practice.

But you can join an XBL party on Windows 10 for free, directly with the console.

Yes, it’s no extra cost, granted that you have the hardware required. But most people I know that are even remotely interested in gaming, do have somewhat decent hardware as well. If you go out and buy a new PC these days, you will get one with a videocard that is capable of playing modern games, generally. They are now sold with Windows 10 and DirectX 10 compatible videocards that by themselves hardly set you back 200 dollars, maybe even less.

Take SF5 for example, it runs fine on an i3 with a geforce GTX 750 , which is available under 150 dollars(the videocard by itself). Not highest settings, of course, but playable. Those are really low requirements and SF5 isn’t that rough graphically. though. Probably won’t run KI fluidly.

If that’s true, then. It just leaves the monthly free software and discounts as the “paying portion” of the service. It’s still worth it, in my opinion, just like PS plus on the PS3 is worth it even though it’s not required for playing online.

In any case, you are not getting XboxLive on PC. I just want people to be precise in what they are talking about because it distracts from the substance of the conversation.