[Null]

last i read, valve was pretty dead set on the updates being free.

and even so (while i do disagree with you on some of that, we'll leave it be) the fact is valve will still want to wait till they're all done before doing anything of an update on consoles. and to be honest, if the console users do get the updates, they would probably be better off getting them at the end.

a lot of this is more like a testing phase on pc. these updates cause balance issues, and render opposing classes much less effective until they get the update of thier own. then things are getting tweeked and changed with little updates after.
plus when they come out you get EVERYONE picking that class, which ruins the matches. fortunately on PC you can set servers to limit classes. so say a spy update comes out, instead of having 30 spies running around, you can limit them so only 4 on each team are allowed. (or less or more) As far as i know, you cant do that on consoles can you?

but if consoles do get the updates and valve works out a payment plan, i dont see it happening till after they've finalized these