there is no reason why they should make it higher. i think the publisher pushing Microsoft to make it 60. i do not think it is more expensive to maintained i think EA and the rest wanted more money out of it. because Microsoft keeps the servers for them that is why you pay for live they take care of the servers. so now they raised it just because they can and we will be more then happy to 60 for a year of live and if you go mouth to mouth you are screwing yourself 120 dollars wow.