- GreenArch0n
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- Noble Member
It's most likely to reduce server costs a little bit, as the old Xbox Live probably had different authentication/matchmaking master servers. But then, I'm pretty sure that's not too much money, since the game servers themselves are P2P.
Or maybe I'm exaggerating, and it's not due to greedy corporatism but really to make XBL better by, for example, allowing us to have more than 100 friends... oh wait, we still can't.
Ironically, if my memory is correct, one of the reason that was given in the beginning of XBL to explain why you had to pay for it was that it was helping server fees: that way, even if not many people were playing an old game anymore the servers would stay up. It's still true to an extent: EA/Activision often shut down PS3/PC master servers of old games, but can't on XBL, because of how it works. Sadly, it seems like not everyone has the same definition of "old".