Sony's Answer to Xbox Live Revealed

For the money I pay, XBox Live is little more than a Gamespy/Fileplanet video and game demo download service + matching service. The service has so much potential not being used. Why no iTunes equivalent? Why can't I buy movies/tv shows for download? No web browser!? Why can't I get email and RSS feeds so I can view them while I wait for a match to start?

The hype of XBlive seems far above what the service actually does right now. I pay for multiplayer access to non-MMORPG games that would be free on the PC. It costs money to download levels, backgrounds, et al, whereas on the PC, I pay nothing for this service most of the time and there are large homebrew communities around many games.

If Sony would merely enable homebrew level/content development support for most games, it would be best thing for endusers.
 
mrboo said:
I dont care about a unified service, heck PC is'nt unfied and PC online gaming kicks XBL in the ball's. 60 man Counter strike Source :)
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Actually thats WHY XBL is > * Nothing on the PC is even as unified and structured as XBL.. well that is until Live Anywhere is unleashed. PC gamers don't know the power of Live yet, but soon... soon.
 
DemoCoder said:
For the money I pay, XBox Live is little more than a Gamespy/Fileplanet video and game demo download service + matching service. The service has so much potential not being used. Why no iTunes equivalent? Why can't I buy movies/tv shows for download? No web browser!? Why can't I get email and RSS feeds so I can view them while I wait for a match to start?

The hype of XBlive seems far above what the service actually does right now. I pay for multiplayer access to non-MMORPG games that would be free on the PC. It costs money to download levels, backgrounds, et al, whereas on the PC, I pay nothing for this service most of the time and there are large homebrew communities around many games.

If Sony would merely enable homebrew level/content development support for most games, it would be best thing for endusers.
Click to expand...

Well... I'm sure MS and Sony will both get there eventually (sooner than we think, I believe). They have the same online vision, just different business model. Give MS a break. They need to charge a subscription fee to make some dough back, especially during the Xbox days.

The early adoptors (existing XBL owners) funded the development until today, that's all. You didn't pay for a USD 500/600 console right ? ;)
 
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Shifty Geezer said:
How do you know that? No mention was made at all of the interface, and the pic is just a mockup. We've no idea on features or presentation across the whole platform, short of a few XMB scenes and a list of what development partners are creating in other solutions.
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services like gamespy are designed to provide match making among other features. They don't really provide the game networking. At least this is how I remember it when dealing with gamespy on PS2.

If sony is writting thier own Xbox live and they are letting a middle ware provider use thier own interface with that connected to the sony online code, the approach will likely never end up as unified as Xbox live. If these are just companies providing the networking soloution for games then again, imo it's no big deal and this has always occured.
 
superNoid said:
Actually thats WHY XBL is > * Nothing on the PC is even as unified and structured as XBL.. well that is until Live Anywhere is unleashed. PC gamers don't know the power of Live yet, but soon... soon.
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No, console gamers do not know the power of freedom.

Call me when you can do even 1/25 of what a PC gamer has the options to do.
 
We've done some work integrating Xfire into our game, though I've not looked at it personally (too busy with other code at the moment). It seems like a good tool from an end-user perspective, though. If Sony can leverage it for the PS3, it should work out quite well. It would be especially interesting if 3rd parties developing cross-platform games can support true cross-platform console/PC multiplayer gaming -- even down to voice chat. It could also simplify porting, though only marginally to be honest, given the architectural differences (both in hardware and software) between the two platforms.
 
Bad Boy's post bares paying attention to though... it's not really clear whether XFire is providing the framework for SCE's entire solution, just some in-game functionality as part of Dark Kingdom, or something in between.

Oh well whatever, answers in two weeks.
 
xbdestroya said:
Bad Boy's post bares paying attention to though...
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from his link

On behalf of Sony Online Entertainment, Kramer attempts to clarify the earnings report's statement: "SOE has been in talks with Xfire about potentially including some of their technology in Untold Legends Dark Kingdom, our PlayStation 3 launch title. This proposed deal is completely separate and independent from the PlayStation Network Platform, and is something that SOE was examining specifically for Dark Kingdom. More information on Xfire and Dark Kingdom will be coming soon."
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UPDATE II: Sony Computer Entertainment America responded to the below report with the following statement: "We can confirm that Sonly Online Entertainment is in talks with Viacom and Xfire for a single, specific PS3 game. However, there are no announcements at this time regarding any discussions between SCEA, Viacom and Xfire."
It is odd that there are no announcements regarding discussions between the three companies, especially since Viacom essentially announced that Xfire was creating a version of its software for use in the PS3 in its Q2 financial report.
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Sigh, that is major MAJOR suckage.

Consoles need a single and good way to contect and interact with each other, and a place to find and download media. Without one it'll just be pure chaos.
 
Based on what SenatorMonkey said...

SenatorMonkey said:
Unless something drastic has changed in the last little while, this news is being vastly misinterpreted. Is XFire working as a middleware partner with Sony? Yes. Is Gamespy still a middleware partner with Sony? Yup. Quazal (that's me!) and Demonware? Indeed. They're all providing solutions for the platform, and piggybacking on the solution Sony themselves are providing with Network Platform.
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... there should be a foundation for these middleware to rest on.

With such a platform, Sony should be able to provide an official start page, catalog and search engine to link the entire Playstation Network together. But I also like the option to download other unofficial stuff directly to my PS3 via the web browser.

It is not clear whether the user experience will suck yet :)

I'm still happy that X-Fire is available on PS3.
 
This is what Luke, the original reporter of the news at 1up, said about this:
In this situation, there's the there's the company line and there's the truth. I updated our story with on the record comment from Xfire and SOE.

I still absolutely believe that Xfire is a part of PlayStation 3's online. I believe that PNP is a term that may not mean what we think it means -- and so they can say Xfire isn't a part of PNP, because it might not be -- but it is part of the PS3 online component to a degree far greater than Untold Legends.

Be logical. Viacom wouldn't have reported the Xfire bit in its earnings report if it was just for Untold Legends -- that game is going to sell what, 35k this year? That's not Q2 earnings report viable.

Wait for TGS.
Click to expand...
 
I don't think reverse-engineering Viacom's statement is the way to go though; frankly it just sounds impressive to investors to name-drop big names.

I say we wait until TGS. I could see XFire technolgy forming the core of the messaging/community suite, but at the same time it seems that the Network itself will be something a good bit greater - or at least different - than that.

We've got pieces to the puzzle, but not enough of them yet.

EDIT: What Tap In said. ;)
 
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