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Microsoft didn't invent the subscription model though lol
If they weren't the first to add it to games, other companies would have done it anyway
It says "popularized"
And I'm saying it was already popular
You started your comment with "Microsoft didn't invent the subscription model though lol" which sounds a lot like you're trying to disprove something that nobody said. I don't know how you meant it, but that's how it sounds.
In 2002? What other major online network was popular at the time? I remember failed attempts in the PC space (TEN comes to mind), PS2 was free to play online, as was Battle.net. Sega and Nintendo didn't have any major presence here, either.
It's entirely fair and accurate to say Microsoft popularized online gaming subscription services. It just wasn't a big thing before XBox Live came along.
I remember the Xbox 360 being the only gaming platform in that generation that charged an online subscription fee. Who else was doing it?
If by popular you mean others had attempted it and failed, sure.
Ever heard of World of Warcraft?
You mean the popular MMO that launched 2 years after Xbox live? But yes, subscription based games did exist but there were no successful general online services yet, live was literally the first one.
Damn, you're right. I could have sworn wow came out earlier than that and xbox live was late 00s, but it was on the first one.
Also having a pain finding the date of the original wow stress test (I was sure I participated in that in fall 2002, but that doesn't seem realistic given the release date a year and a half later, though now that I think if it, that does line up with some other memories). All I get when searching are references to the more recent wow classic stress test dates.
Starting before March 2004, Blizzard started signing up Closed Beta Test testers from an unknown pool of people using an undisclosed method of selection. The Closed Beta Trial ran for about 7 months ending in more widely available stress test and then an open beta before final release around the end of November 2004.
Thank you for that info, my memory is being filled in now! Those memories lining up I mentioned in the last comment are actually from the stress test because I realized they were on a character I didn't have in release.