I believe the Xbox Live criticism is unfair. The reason the service gained popularity is because it added value. Because XBL centralized the online gaming experience, a lot of benefits were realized including centralizing your multiplayer experience (community and content), and not having to maintain multiple subscriptions for different game services. That is and was worth the premium, atleast for me personally.
For Nintendo, I think your criticism is valid, but only first party games. In the case of Sony, they are blocking (what seems to be) Epic's intention of allowing cross platform. And this is different since it's a policy choice, rather than having to invest development hours or something.
> Because XBL centralized the online gaming experience
Gamespy and Steam's multiplayer system already did that for free.
> a lot of benefits were realized including centralizing your multiplayer experience (community and content)
Again, same thing.
> not having to maintain multiple subscriptions for different game services
I never needed to ever, except for MMOs, which I was still required to pay for on XBL at the time.
> That is and was worth the premium
No it wasn't, the fact you had to play multiplayer hosted on your own console, hosted on your own internet connection, by software you already bought is ridiculous. They offered "free updates", community features and other services completely free. But, multiplayer, the only thing most of us wanted and none of this "value add", you had to pay.
