Simpsons Arcade on XBLA this Friday [Joystiq]

[kupomogli]

Not exactly a fair comparison. If you don't have PSN+ which is basically a paid game rental service where you don't necessarily choose what games you get to play free at any given time, it's $10 and you don't need a Xbox Live Gold (i.e. paid) membership to buy the game for $10 on Xbox Live. Also, if you cancel PSN+, you no longer have access to the game. So, it's nice if you are already a PSN+ member, but it's not like Microsoft is being any more unreasonable than Sony in this situation.

It's a paid rental service, yes, but it's a paid rental service that you get each and every item you've ever downloaded through. Even if your PSN+ ends and you later restore it, you can still redownload and play anything that you've previously had downloaded through PSN+.

Final Fantasy 5, Far Cry 2, Simpsons, and others are free this month. Spyro, Crash, and Syphon Filter series have all been free the last few months, as have Back to the Future episodes, Tomb Raider, Marvel Pinball, etc. I'm not a fan of digital download, but $50 for a year of free content, despite being rental only is a damn good deal.

What do you get with XBOX Live Gold? Deal of the week, cross game chat, the ability to play games online, and use Netflix(as long as you also have the subscription.) Microsoft is making bank on what you should already be getting for free.