Because back in the days of original Xbox and 360, it was a better service than what you got for free elsewhere.
That, and it was slightly more justifiable when these companies were first setting up and operating networks for the services and matchmaking. Economies of scale should have nullified that by now, though.
The other big one I don’t see people mentioning, but that I remember clearly, was that if you wanted to use Netflix on 360, you had to pay for Live. I think that, above anything else in my friend group, was the move that normalized paying for online services on a console.
i miss when you could watch netflix with your avatar and invite friends to watch with you. only got to do it one time ever
Idk about with your avatar, but I still have movie nights with friends that I stream things to over Discord and Emby (like plex)
I literally just finished a “movie classic” night with a friend in New York where we watched ALIENS together and chatted about how awesome Sigourney Weaver’s performance is. 👏 🍿
It might be interesting to do it with little Wii characters, but we had fun regardless.
