NFS Online was the original intention of what Carbon was supposed to be. They ended up cutting it out, tying up lose ends.and Carbon was the result. Reason being the 360 did not have a large enough community at the time to make an mmo "work". For those that play MMOs will know, its almost completely dependent on its community, the more there are, the better the experience can be (simply because its different all the time)
if you didnt know.....know now. The game industry in the US is TRYING to inject the micro transaction business model from Korea into the US Market. Its already begun (content download for SF4, having to PAY for an extra mode in RE5, New ingame levels in Force Unleashed, GTA Lost and Damned content addon and even extra quests in RPG's like Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect) and now...you are going to have to PAY for "car upgrades" in NFS MMO....just a heads up so you know
THeir argument to do this is justified, the gamer has switched from what WE USED to know as hardcore to casual. Whet their appetite with a title and then rope them in to pay for more stuff. Its huge with Chinese and Korean MMOS (see all those FREE mmo's you post up on the PC forums). You can play the game for free, but extra items or abilities can only be unlocked if you pay 1 dollar US, or 5 dollars a month....or something small.
I know there is alot of QQ on forums about EA and whomever releasing unfinished games. This may be true, however the demand for a "good" title has exceeded the resources the industry has to make them, not to mention the state of the current economy that is NOT HELPING. Its actually more economical and profitable to make "half a game" and release the "rest" later. Personally it is a good idea, but they NEED to cut the cost of the game. RE5 should have been 50 US with the 5 dollars going towards the content.
Some titles are doing it free.....BUrnout Paradise, the hopeful tourney mode in SF4. However you can see it is all changing.
Personally....once its WORTH the money ill pay for it.