question about the 360 servers

[masterraven12]

Hey I was thinking about joining the 360 servers but before I do I was wondering about something.
Do many people still play on the 360 servers or are they going down like the ps2/pc servers??
Oh and if they aren't going down do you think they will be anytime soon??

[Ishia]

Nah, Microsoft puts up games with dying online communities on their Games on Demand for the hell of it.

[XbikXBd]

Nah, Microsoft puts up games with dying online communities on their Games on Demand for the hell of it.

Air high five lol

[yankees11]

Nah. That's just what they want you to think.

[Sinue_v2]

Do many people still play on the 360 servers or are they going down like the ps2/pc servers??

There was a decent enough crowd logged on the last time I played, which was about two weeks ago. 2 1/2 full universes at off-peak hours, but those numbers could have gone down if people got tired of the supplemental stuff so far, or if their free trials from buying the game On Demand start expiring. *Shrug*

Either way, the userbase before all that was sufficient to find other players if you're wanting to come back. That won't be a problem.

As for how long the game will be up before they shut the servers down... hmm... I'd say at least a year at the earliest, but you're probably looking more at about 1 1/2 to 2 years of service if they can keep the population from completely evaporating. A lot will depend on if a new PS online game is in the works, since they're not going to have their own brands compete against each other for the same niche. I'd say 3 before release to between 3 and 6 months after release if that's the case.

But there's no guarantee that Sonic Team won't abandon the servers in terms of service and support, opting instead to just let the whole thing, beyond the basics of keeping it running, decay from atrophy until it collapses on itself. I doubt that will happen, but it's not like it's without precedent either. There's also a possibility that an opportunity might present itself in which the shutdown of the servers would be necessitated in order to capitalize upon an investment wherein the potential for profit in the long haul justifiably outweighs the risks of losing their remaining subscribers.


You're going to have plenty of time to cap your level and run enough to more than justify the purchase price... but you're still looking at a game which is in the final stretch of it's life cycle.

[Sinue_v2]

Nah, Microsoft puts up games with dying online communities on their Games on Demand for the hell of it.

It's not like some herculean task for MS to put games on demand, requiring a guaranteed return for their expenditure. Even if the servers were to cash out, MS still has a viable single-player game to sell potential customers. PSU is also a bit of a unique case considering it's run on separate servers which can be accessed even if you only have a Silver Account, whereas almost every other game (besides FFXI, and I think a few EA games) require Live Gold.

Sega petitioned MS to do it so that they could incentivize new players by giving them AoTI for free without having to pay manufacturing and shipping on new product runs or losing money by having players pick it up second hand from GameStop. Sega now gets a cut from the On Demand purchase.

Both parties had everything to gain, and nothing to lose, from the move. It's not an indication of confidence in the quality of the product or indicative of it's remaining lifespan.

[A2K]

There was a decent enough crowd logged on the last time I played, which was about two weeks ago. 2 1/2 full universes at off-peak hours, but those numbers could have gone down if people got tired of the supplemental stuff so far, or if their free trials from buying the game On Demand start expiring. *Shrug*

There's no free trial I'm aware of for getting any version, Games on Demand or otherwise.

[Karazykid]

Nah, Microsoft puts up games with dying online communities on their Games on Demand for the hell of it.

They did just put up Shadowrun.

[Sinue_v2]

There's no free trial I'm aware of for getting any version, Games on Demand or otherwise.

There should be a two week trial period available for new accounts. I know there was one for the PS2/PC servers at least, which is what many people (myself included) used to get around the Error 065 issues during the first MAG event. Whether or not this has changed, or is inapplicable to the 360 version, I don't know. I created my 360 account during FireBreak, but quit mid-event to return to the PC version because of horrible frame-rate issues the 360 has... and the free trial period wouldn't have been applicable when I renewed my account post PC shutdown even were it available for that platform.

[A2K]

There should be a two week trial period available for new accounts. I know there was one for the PS2/PC servers at least, which is what many people (myself included) used to get around the Error 065 issues during the first MAG event. Whether or not this has changed, or is inapplicable to the 360 version, I don't know. I created my 360 account during FireBreak, but quit mid-event to return to the PC version because of horrible frame-rate issues the 360 has... and the free trial period wouldn't have been applicable when I renewed my account post PC shutdown even were it available for that platform.

There has never been a free trial or period or extra bundled days or anything of the sort with Xbox 360 Guardians Licenses. It might have been an Xbox Live billing limitation, either way, the presumed trade-off was having a multiplayer demo available.