Playstation Live ...No Try Playstation Life
- Thread starter Kb-Smoker
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Hmm... I don't see it that way. Phil seems to be talking about DLNA. DLNA's 2006 planned profile includes VPN as well as the usual/old media server browsing capability, so one can indeed browse a media server from outside the home network (e.g., using PSP).
While XBLive is certainly something Sony wants to do, iTunes Music Store also poses as much a problem for them. I also wonder how much the new Apple + Pixar + Disney relationship changed/accelerate Sony's plan.
We shall see. So far most are not impressed with Sony's CONNECT service. I still think they need to partner with a few parties to offer a superior service.
While XBLive is certainly something Sony wants to do, iTunes Music Store also poses as much a problem for them. I also wonder how much the new Apple + Pixar + Disney relationship changed/accelerate Sony's plan.
We shall see. So far most are not impressed with Sony's CONNECT service. I still think they need to partner with a few parties to offer a superior service.
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Good catch - I should've had my PR filter on when Phil was talking about still leaving it up to the publishers. It sounds like PS3's online story may incorporate some really simple features, like unified identity (e.g. GamerTag), but I'd doubt they'd be able to do anything more than that without charging for it. But even that would require explicit developer support, so you'd think some info about it would've been leaked by now if it was out there.
A "Live" style online system shouldn't be that hard to make for PS3, I mean it is just a lobby with rankkings, matchmaking and marketplace. Especially if they leave it to game developers to set up the lobbies for their games, which I don't think would be that bad.
While it would not be as easy to use as a centralized lobby if every game had it's own interface, on the other hand, it would allow for unique styles, or themes, that would match the style and art of the game, making the online functions more "immersive" when inside the game, instead of putting you out of the game and into some general dashboard common for every game.
What I think is requiring most work is the marketplace, and getting enough content providers (music, movies...) to jump ship, that would be difficult if not impossible to do without making it centralized, controlled by Sony.
The Location Free function is to me the most interesting, something that positively differentiates it from MS Live, and it could be the "killer app" of future Playstation online.
While it would not be as easy to use as a centralized lobby if every game had it's own interface, on the other hand, it would allow for unique styles, or themes, that would match the style and art of the game, making the online functions more "immersive" when inside the game, instead of putting you out of the game and into some general dashboard common for every game.
What I think is requiring most work is the marketplace, and getting enough content providers (music, movies...) to jump ship, that would be difficult if not impossible to do without making it centralized, controlled by Sony.
The Location Free function is to me the most interesting, something that positively differentiates it from MS Live, and it could be the "killer app" of future Playstation online.
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While I agree that it's not rocket science to create Xbox Live, I am still unsure whether Sony can pull it off alone. This is based on my experiences with CONNECT.
Sony's Online Plan probably consists of:
* Playstation Life -- consolidation of everything playstation from Sony alone. This ranges from Connect, to playstation.com, to SOE, and PSP portal. Initially this may be just a consistent UI refresh. Connect will expand to include new categories beside audio and video (e.g. XBL Marketplace and Arcade). Within PS Life, users will have 1 id and 1 domain name.
* Personal media network -- DLNA + Location Free
* Game community toolkits -- but game developers can roll their own
* Client-side single sign-on. Each publisher will have their own login and payment systems to keep the business relationship opened. But a PS3 login module can remember password and login for users. This is also because Microsoft owns the patent to server-side unified id systems (since it purchased FireFly, the predecessor of MS Passport, in the 90s).
Bonus:
* Partnership with third party Internet providers (e.g., to be able to talk to people on AIM, Yahoo IM).
Sony's Online Plan probably consists of:
* Playstation Life -- consolidation of everything playstation from Sony alone. This ranges from Connect, to playstation.com, to SOE, and PSP portal. Initially this may be just a consistent UI refresh. Connect will expand to include new categories beside audio and video (e.g. XBL Marketplace and Arcade). Within PS Life, users will have 1 id and 1 domain name.
* Personal media network -- DLNA + Location Free
* Game community toolkits -- but game developers can roll their own
* Client-side single sign-on. Each publisher will have their own login and payment systems to keep the business relationship opened. But a PS3 login module can remember password and login for users. This is also because Microsoft owns the patent to server-side unified id systems (since it purchased FireFly, the predecessor of MS Passport, in the 90s).
Bonus:
* Partnership with third party Internet providers (e.g., to be able to talk to people on AIM, Yahoo IM).
Is IBM involved in making the "Playstation Life" ?
Elaborate download store isn't worth the effort. Unless they can price it two or three times the price of iTunes while still getting the same or higher volume.
iTunes is about moving hardware.
Playstation hardware has no problems selling. Maybe a beefed-up Connect service tied to the PS3 and PSP will help Sony gain marketshare against the iPod?
Anyways, just keep the gaming free.
Oh and as for Location Free, it's a nice idea and it may yet get me to pick up a PSP.
However, hotels with broadband often offer speeds barely passable for only the weakest video streams.
iTunes is about moving hardware.
Playstation hardware has no problems selling. Maybe a beefed-up Connect service tied to the PS3 and PSP will help Sony gain marketshare against the iPod?
Anyways, just keep the gaming free.
Oh and as for Location Free, it's a nice idea and it may yet get me to pick up a PSP.
However, hotels with broadband often offer speeds barely passable for only the weakest video streams.
patsu said:
It sure ain't rocket science, but you can't implement it right when it's an afterthought. Or: Live 360 works because it's fully integrated into the system.
If Sony didn't prepare for a dashboard/guide-like app to run on PS3 in the first place, they're going to have a lot of fun implementing that sort of functionality later on (now?) in the project.
And I'm not even talking about playing music or downloading demo's, just the friends, achievements, gamercard, VOIP (when in different games), uniform way to handle messages, etc.
Same story goes for Nintendo of course. They'll have to do a lot better than their DS online 'service' with the Revolution.
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Do not underestimate the amount of effort it takes to build an online service. Just because you can imagine how it could be built, doesn't make the actual building of it easy. The amount of backend work required, let alone the whole operations centers you have to spin up to support millions of users, is not trivial at all - and then there's SDK and libraries you have to provide to game developers to hook in to. It's actually a pretty staggering amount of work, even without providing servers to host games. The reason no one seems to appreciate how much work it entails is that MS is the only one who has ever really done it (successfully) up until now. Also remember that Sony's core competency is hardware, not software, so it'll be that much more difficult for them to build it.
No, I would doubt very much we're going to see a very full featured online service from Sony. I can see a simple one with just basic authentication and unified identity, but more than that and I'd be suprised. More power to them if they can.
No, I would doubt very much we're going to see a very full featured online service from Sony. I can see a simple one with just basic authentication and unified identity, but more than that and I'd be suprised. More power to them if they can.
I doubt they'd let you upload ripped dvd's and music cd's to some central servers. Maybe home movies, photos and other non copyrighted material. Self made game maps and game saves could also be uploaded if you don't want to keep them on your HD/Memory card.weaksauce said:PSM said ut2k7 would be a launch title.
If I remember correct, didn't sony talk about some "network storage", where you could store movies and such, on their servers?
If you've downloaded the movie from the Sony's "Connect" service, then instead of uploading the movie back to their servers, if you wanted to free space in your HD, you'd store just a "playlist" of downloaded movies and the next time you wanted to view that bought movie you'd stream or download it again from their servers, but this time you would not pay for it again.
cvg is reporting on this. Maybe a little more info for people who haven't seen the article.
http://www.computerandvideogames.co...dvideogames.com/news/news_story.php?id=133431
http://www.computerandvideogames.co...dvideogames.com/news/news_story.php?id=133431
For those of you who don't believe what PSM are writing in their magazine, you should find this job ad interesting:
http://www.technology.scee.net/recruitment
http://www.datascope.co.uk/scee/
Why would Sony hire people to work with " lobby functionality (e.g. Matchmaking, content download)" for PSP/PS3/PS2 unless they really are working on a big "xbox live-like" network for all online capable playstations?
http://www.technology.scee.net/recruitment
http://www.datascope.co.uk/scee/
Why would Sony hire people to work with " lobby functionality (e.g. Matchmaking, content download)" for PSP/PS3/PS2 unless they really are working on a big "xbox live-like" network for all online capable playstations?
pipo said:
How so?
In this particular ad they're looking to hire someone to assist the game teams implement online elements in their products, and support the strategic online goals of the company. In fact, that's exactly what you can read in the first sentence and it doesn't suggest they've just started with the project.
Furthermore, you can read in the ad that they're talking about "supporting the use of key SDKs produced by the group in the U.S. creating the bulk of the networking middleware for use by the teams" - that's something which DO indicate that there's already something created beforehand prior to this job ad.
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They'd better have some low level networking stuff ready. But starting to write libs for *essential* online functionality at this point in time is a bit late don't you agree?
Edit - maybe they've figured it all out, we can't say what has been done, but that's not the feeling I get when I read that ad.
Edit - maybe they've figured it all out, we can't say what has been done, but that's not the feeling I get when I read that ad.
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pipo said:
What would be the problem if the service isn't ready now? They have to wait till PS3 comes out anyway, so they might as well hold it, make it as perfect as they can, recruiting people now and set up a good service.
pipo said:
Your nitpicking is really tiresome. Do you honestly believe Sony just figured out they should have their own online gaming network? If you do, then you are ignoring what the people at Sony been saying atleast since E3 2005.
This job ad I linked to suggests there's truth to what PSM are reporting in their latest issue on this "Playstation Life" online service and that was the purpose of posting it. You may go through it and nitpick all you want as how far they've come or not. It's pointless.
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