Now Amazon's thrown a $20 curveball at the issue by discounting their , making the new price just $29.97 -- a 40% markdown.

Temporary one-off vendor sale? Or harbinger of an official Microsoft price drop?

I've and personally . The company's response is predictably elusive and generalist. "We're going to continue to deliver even more value to Xbox Live gold subscribers," said Microsoft Senior Global Director of Games For Windows Kevin Ungangst when I spoke with him this summer. "Frankly, Xbox Live members are going to get more people to play with as a result of the GFW Live announcement, and I think that community will get exponentially larger as a result of what we're doing on Windows. They're different services designed for difference audiences that happens to be connected and share a Gamertag."

Cut through the PR flak and the only notable difference is online matchmaking and multiplayer (sorry Netflix, you're a for-money service regardless of Live's cost). The rest, as they say, is noise.

$50 a year is a pittance to some, a unjustified expense to others. The arguments for or against line up accordingly.