Shane Kim 1up interview

[scooby_dooby]

Which particular features are you talking about ?

Many of these technologies and services exist today in the form of 3rd party solutions.

I'm not sure if the delay is caused by dependencies on third party (e.g., interoperability testing), missing Game OS functionality (e.g., preemptive multitasking due to Cell's newness ?), operational and business requirements, or something else (e.g., working on some areas to leapfrog).

EDIT: Note that they have just released PS3 3-4 months ago, there may be a lot of complexity and priority conflicts due to the way different things are layered together, and the fact that Sony is rolling them out together.

The basics:
- universal friends lists built into OS
- alerts when friend(s) come online
- standard method for invites from any game

 

[patsu]

The basics:
- universal friends lists built into OS
- alerts when friend(s) come online
- standard method for invites from any game

"Alerts when friend(s) come online" is available today. It's just that you can't message them in-game yet (until firmware 1.6 end of this month).

There is a friend list in XMB today, but it's not been sync'ed/integrated with 3rd party middleware (This is the part which separates XBox Live's and PSN's effort. XBL implements everything in-house).

In one of my earliest posts, I mentioned that I did something like this using a publish and subscribe infrastructure (for 5-10 million VoIP users with multiple [separated] "value-added" services). I believe if Sony group can do MMOGs, they will have the capability to address this challenge because the nature of the problems are rather similar. However both MS and Sony will have a harder time than me because they need to fit this in as little space as possible on the console side (but then again Sony already reserves a chunk of resources in games). I cannot offer more comments other than relating to my own experiences. Your mileage will vary.

Sony may have to test real (unreleased) games using different 3rd party middleware before releasing this feature too.

Standard method for invites... if they can get in-game messaging working in 1.6, this should not be a problem but it may mean that the the games need to hold and handle "out-of-band" invites until a player finished a game session and is ready to jump into a new one.

I was led to believe that many third party middleware have built-in clan support. So Sony may also have extra work there.

 

[Tap In]

that would be optimal patsu if they can implement that.

Live has not only the friends list though but it is a universal friends/chat/invite/feedback/mute/matchmake/games comparison/achievement list so it works with all games across all game sessions.

also Live allows you to have 5 simultaneous chat convos going at once (including the online game that you are already playing), not in the same chat but switching between to make plans for example.

One other thing that the Live system allows (pay only) would be that they police and can ban abusers who try to ruin the experience for others (as well as modders/cheaters). Some of that comes from the built in feedback system in the OS to choose anyone you have played with and leave detailed feedback and immediately send it to the appropriate authority for review. May not sound like a big deal with a small online community but the larger it gets the more frequent the problem. Perhaps PS has something to handle this as well but I'm not aware.

to get back on topic... Shane Kim did mention in his interview how PSN was not quite up to Live yet and that home appears very ambitious as well, considering that fact.

 

[patsu]

I can't speak for Sony coz it's their game plan.

that would be optimal patsu if they can implement that.

Live has not only the friends list though but it is a universal friends/chat/invite/feedback/mute/matchmake/games comparison/achievement list so it works with all games across all game sessions.

Kudos to MS ! But I don't think Sony will match feature by feature here. I remember the Sony execs disagree with some game comparison principles. I'll have to see what happens next...

also Live allows you to have 5 simultaneous chat convos going at once (including the online game that you are already playing), not in the same chat but switching between to make plans for example.

6 concurrent voice/video chat users in a chat room is possible in XMB today... but I'm not sure if these will be in-game. Phil demo'ed some in-game shopping and chatting here right ? I didn't follow because I prefer to see the real stuff.

to get back on topic... Shane Kim did mention in his interview how PSN was not quite up to Live yet and that home appears very ambitious as well, considering that fact.

Sure... it's his opinion... and like us, he doesn't know what's going on behind the curtain. Home is most likely a separate team and effort, with a larger business goal. Considering that PS3 is only 4 months old, I think Home is exciting (Beta next month). It may bomb, or it may not... but at least these moves make sense (to me).

EDIT:
We all have to remember that Playstation Network and Home are free. Certain features such as Remote Play and media sharing may be unique to PS3 too. As I keep highlighting, moving forward we may see the consoles diverge in their philosophies and approaches.

 

[Tap In]

Sure... it's his opinion... and like us, he doesn't know what's going on behind the curtain. Home is most likely a separate team and effort, with a larger business goal. Considering that PS3 is only 4 months old, I think Home is exciting (Beta next month). It may bomb, or it may not... but at least these moves make sense (to me).

I agree, it's the most absolute I've seen them point in one direction in a while and it was refreshing.

Believe me.... I came into this generation with open eyes, mind and wallet. I was going to go where the best graphics, features and services were. (HD DVD was not a factor).

I was disappointed when I heard MS was releasing first and Sony would have a more powerful machine (sic). I wanted a PS3! After E3 '05 I was stunned but.... one thing always stood out with MS... slow and steadily they outlined their vision... the online features services, software and games. It was like a mantra, they kept repeating. Even in the face of question after question (for months) of Sony having the biggest d!ck hardware-wise. they kept saying, believe us, our machine will do graphics just fine but the services, services, services.... yadda yadda yadda...

While sony had me all over the map unable to focus, trying (by my observation) to prove everything is in the box but the kitchen sink so it's WORTH more $$$ and trying to distract buyers from the 360.

I have not written them off and as you, I agree, this is the most coherent they have been in a while (I think reality is setting in) so hopefully they will find the path again.