Every PC copy [of Shadowrun] has a free month of Live Gold included, so everyone pretty much is still playing normal Live matches for their achievements with plenty of people to shoot as all the Xbox 360 players are in the pool. Once these freebies run out, and the carrot for blowing up people (achievements) is taken away, many will pay to be able to chase for that gamerscore, ensuring that only a small fraction of the total player base will ever show up on the dedicated servers - and we all know how much fun it is to play a non-popular game or mod, idling on an empty server hoping to find someone to play with - no Gold, no automatic matchmaking.

The whole "dedicated server" thing is good for only one thing - private training with your friends. Beyond that FASA and Microsoft are just trying to fool players to bite by saying that you don't have to subscribe if you don't want to - except that once you are hooked, you notice that there isn't much choice.



Link: You Gamers