Happy New Year to anyone that is reading this! I hope you have a pleasant new year.

I just purchased from Amazon, The Orange Box for the 360. I have played it and I would say that compared to the PC version (which I also possess) it does a wonderful job of getting console owners to now fully enjoy the Half Life 2 suite of games (excluding Day of Defeat Source and Counter Strike Source) on settings that a PC user gets to enjoy. I have to say for the reduced price of $20USD you can't really argue with that deal. And I encourage anyone who reads this who doesn't already own this to go out and pick it up.

Now I didn't make this blog just to praise a one year old game on the 360 (four on the PC). I came to talk about Team Fortress 2 on the 360 and the issues that have been raised about its multiplayer updates (or rather a lack of). According to Valve, XBL does not allow in their "business model" constant free updates. The goal is for the user to pay an ADDITIONAL fee via Microsoft Points that the user must purchase. That is where my gripe comes in...straight at Microsoft.

A user that pays for XBL service must question where is that $50 really going into? Personally, I have a hard time agreeing with the 360 fanboy theory, that its used to "maintain" the servers. This is Microsoft we are talking about. Not some little company somewhere in the middle of nowhere with a small antenna sticking out of their shanty that is attempting to provide a service. Sony and their PS3's Home and gaming service does the same exact thing for free (ie: avatars, demos, updates, and media services). In fact I beg to argue that while XBOX may still be the more popular currently of the two, they still do not possess a superior service for online gaming compared to the PS3.

My theory is if 360 allowed free updatable content for games or perhaps pushed software developers to give updates (at no cost) to the XBL subscriber, it would be hands down a victory for the 360. It would simply encourage everyone to jump onto the 360 as a way to get a more complete experience and would increase customer loyalty. Case in point there are over 2000 servers for TF2 daily on the PC and only a total of 4-12 daily for the 360 version! But since XBL puts up their argument to Valve, they are at a standstill until further business talks take place for its release (and inevitable price tag). Note that its not just Valve that succeeds at doing this on the PC, the Battlefield series also had a similar structure and a large following as well. Now I could go on with other games. I just hope whoever reads this sees where I am going with this.

What does (especially in this economy) Microsoft really have to justify their subscription fees? All we have to show for it are a few demos and tons of videos and user content that really doesn't "enhance the experience" at all. What I truly feel is that we are throwing a large percentage of that subscription fee at Microsoft so that in return they can literally just churn out more ads and entertainment media that just goes to their promotional departments. In most simplest terms, is the user just being left with a useless bill? Aren't we just filling the pockets of their ad and campaign agencies only for them to throw materials with high price tags back at us? You decide and I welcome any responses to this.