Quick thought time again; Xbox Live silver has specific weekends, which seem to be chosen by the developer/publisher, when Silver members can play online on a game. This is obviously to give a taste of online gaming to lure more people to becoming Gold members.

This gave me a thought, what about games that are online only? Single player only games are able to be played all the time, online games still require a subscription to Xbox Live before you can even play the game. Is this really fair considering you are paying the same amount for the game at retail? A $100 single player vs. $100 + an Xbox Live Gold membership for a multi player game.

Take the recently released Section 8, claimed by some to be a Halo clone and by others as a revolution and  improvement of the already popular Halo 3 multiplayer. Imaging a relative or parent buying this game for their child they don't buy Xbox Live for. That poor child won't be able to play the game for longer than the (maybe included) 48 hour trial.

While this is highly unlikely scenario it is still possible to believe that it happened over the Christmas period at least a few times. I think it is telling to look at how many high profile online only games (specifically shooters) have come or are still due to come out on the Xbox 360 compared to the Playstation 3, even with Xbox Live being largely recognised as the better service. It may be the reason World of Warcraft and other MMO's haven't come to consoles yet.

I really think that this has cost these games sales, but what to do about it? I would like to see online only games become free to play online if only for the first 3-6 months for anyone that buys the game. Or take the option that has been popular lately and reward the person buys the game new with a code for free online for that game. Even World of Warcraft gives you a month when you first buy the game.

Don't get me wrong, I can see why they charge for the online play but really. If you pay $100 for a game you can't play it until you pay for a subscription to another service something seems unfair about that.