Re:How is this a problem? (Score 1)

It's nice that it brings it all together but not really worth paying extra for. For years pc gamers have had all this functionality without having to pay subs on top of the games retail price. xfire covers your buddy lists and lets you know who is playing what game, and where they're playing. Teamspeak/Ventrillo cover comms without the 12 year olds screaming, some games have it built in but much like xbox live you have random kids shouting whatever. All the extras like maps/mods/soundpacks are free, and generate their own hype and communities. Punkbuster mbl (master ban list) takes care of a lot of the cheating. This seems like another attempt to lock down more of the pc gaming platform and squeeze a few extra bucks out of the gamers. If there's a valid reason why DX10 couldn't be released on WinXP then I might be less sceptical of their motives but I can't think of any. Starting to regret picking xbox over ps3, let's hope this dies quickly.