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Not an XBox or XBoL user.
If they're running infrastructure that hosts game servers, while keeping all that standardized and cheat-free, that might be a bargain at $15/mo or whatever it costs. But if they're just providing match-making, listing game servers, all while hosting matches on consoles, they're just taking your money.
it might be a bargain... but actually they're locking down hardware and software that you already paid for... so it's a ripoff, not a bargain
i'd be fine with optional using their services.
btw, the game developers run the servers anyways.
They've always run the infrastructure to have voice chat parties, host your screenshots/video clips and run moderation for accounts and games within the infrastructure. Cheat-free is a high bar, but its going to be less likely on an Xbox Live only game than on a user hosted server inside a PC game.
That makes sense. I forgot about voice, and the global moderation/banning features are a decent feature for something that everyone else would have to solve (with varying efficacy).