Free basic service on "PlayStation Network Platform"

Quote from Jaemz
"Sony putting the pressure on MS is just what is needed to drive innovation."

Now this, is something we can all agree on.

If MS puts out a price drop to $300 for the premium, Halo 3, and another "Tsunami" update for Live, we could really have ourselves some competition here.

:^)

"Free at first" , ofc its free, there going to beta the service with the launch . sony's just playing games with todays press , its just more fuel for the hype train.
again they touch on subjects but never give full details, they have always been good at that .

As far as an online service goes, don't forget that the reason you are online (internet) right now most likely involves Microsoft in someway or another. They do make the most popular server OS. They've got more than just the 4 years of XBL experience. They have experience since the days of WinNT. Ironically, Sony is likely using Windows servers for some of their online service to come.

"One thing xbox owners can't argue their ways out of is bluray."

The coming of Bluray/HD-DVD is a double-edged sword. More space is always a plus. But requiring Bluray for the PS3 is not so nice. That means if a developer makes a game around 4.5GB (DVD-SL common usage), they still have to use a BD-DL 50GB disc (which means it costs us and them more). If Bluray fails, then the costs associated with those discs will end up further coming from gamer pockets. Not to mention that Bluray/HD-DVD isn't as friendly as one might hope. If you don't have the right connection (HDMI), the picture quality can look WORSE than SD for Bluray/HD-DVD movies, effectively making the HD functions of your TV worthless. This also causes DVR systems not to work properly. The Video card in your computer may not even support it even if it does have the right connection (lack of proper HDCP support). Does that sound like something that is exciting? Not really. It's more like WTF.

Just because someone owns an Xbox 360, doesn't mean they won't also own a PS3. Be careful with general statements. There was some good and bad news today from Sony; MS & Sony fanboys will both have to deal with that.

So this thing is powered by Gamespy? Jesus cripes it's going to blow.

Just a question...

What is up with all the "[Flame]" comments? Is joystiq really editing posts or are commenters getting so lazy they can't even come up with creative and immature insults anymore? If the joystiq staff is actually editing these coments, kudos to them...

"What is up with all the '[Flame]' comments? Is joystiq really editing posts or are commenters getting so lazy they can't even come up with creative and immature insults anymore? If the joystiq staff is actually editing these coments, kudos to them..."

You've hit it right on the button, Spartacus (er, with the editing, that is). Censoring obvious flamebait with the square braces is my way of showing I care. =) Hope you like it!

Wow, when did gaming become so political? What makes somebody swear such allegiance to a brand? It's like crips vs bloods on here with all the flaming. You'd think they gave birth to these companies, the way some people get so offended about their precious console choice. What is that all about?
There are good and bad things about ALL the systems. And surely the competition can only be a good thing for all consumers. Hopefully it'll drive down the increasingly exorbitant prices these days. Sadly, I doubt it. Anybody reckon Revolution's games will cost as much as 360 games?

Yeah. . . Because we all know how great Sony handles online gaming from their work with Star Wars Galaxies, and Everquest.

I played betas for those games, and I can confirm that Sony doesn't listen to players in beta tests. We told them that SWG was rough and needed certain fixes, and the ignored us and shipped it as-is, in a rough almost beta form, and made people pay for a half-arsed experience. Same goes for Everquest, on both the PC and PS2. They wouldn't listen to suggestions, didn't fix glaring errors and bad gameplay elements, and now both are eating WoW's dust.

I may grab a PS3, but I'm also seriously considering buying only used games for it. I'm not fond of feeding the monster that doesn't give a damn about their customer base.

I agree with Servo (48). The competition between these companies will (hopefully) breed better stuff for the consumer. I own a 360 (and will own a Revolution), but I look forward to seeing what Sony will bring to the table. It should be an exciting holiday season for gamers.

The only thing I really dislike about the PS3 announcement is that ALL games must be on Blu-ray. That sucks for us. How much does it cost to manufacture these discs? It was announced that new release Blu-ray movies will start at $39.99. So how much will PS3 games cost? I'm sure Sony will try to keep them around $59.99, but then how much less of a profit will the developers be making vs. games on DVDs? Will these considerations make any developers apprehensive towards the PS3? For me, a lot of questions surround this issue.

SuicideNinja #50 -

"They do make the most popular server OS."

The vast majority of websites are served on linux serveres running apache... look it up.

"That means if a developer makes a game around 4.5GB (DVD-SL common usage), they still have to use a BD-DL 50GB disc "

Bluray drives can still read standard dvd9.

Developers could care less about the media. Since everyone has to use Blu-Ray, everything is fair.

The only issue I wonder about is that I read that the initial Blue-Ray drives won't be particularly zippy. I wonder if Sony is requiring the HD to offset potentially long load times. 360 load times seem exceedingly long. If PS3 load times are longer, there could be some backlash.

TK00:

It doesn't matter if the drive can read a standard DVD9, ALL PS3 games will be required to be on BD. So the point was that a dev that makes a game that COULD fit on a DVD HAS to be put on a larger, more expensive disc. This may upset some smaller companies unless Sony subsidizes the extra cost.

brit,

Gaming has always been fairly political as I recall. From what I can see, it mostly revolves around which system somebody has. In many cases this is determined by what system a parent *buys* for their child. This sets up a great deal of brand loyalty. I had fun with my Nintendo, so I asked my mom for a Super Nintendo. She ended up getting me a Genesis because it was cheaper. Then I became a SEGA fan--and remained one all the way up to the demise of the Dreamcast.

The truth is, I don't think any diehard Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo fanboy is so biased that they would turn down a free PS3/360/Revolution. If they would, they are mentally disturbed.

I don't particularly like Sony as a company, but I know I'll want exclusive games for it that won't be on my 360 (just not Virtua Fighter 5, please!).

If people have enough disposable income, they get 'em all. If not, they become Fanboys to protect their investment/birthday present.

So there you go.

"Basic service starts free of charge" My guess is that they will do exactly what MS is doing. The "basic service" will probably allow you to do everything but play online multiplayer just like live silver allows you access to marketplace, chat, and downloadable goodies but no online multiplayer.
Now im not saying that they Stole their online ideas from Microsoft but its very obvious that they borrowed heavily from Live. But if your going to be too lazy to be original, at least have the common courtesy to improve upon what you stole, sorry borrowed heavily from.

Suicide Ninja,

Just to clarify: A Sony official confirmed yesterday that the PS3 would NOT downscale games or BD movies for non-HDCP complient televisions. This means that anyone who has bought an HDTV need not worry. Getting around this may also be the "problem with the BluRay spec" that they claim has caused the delay. Anyway, Sony realizes that there are a lot of people who own non-HDCP TV's, and they're not about to turn their back on those people. Apparently that was an easy bit of information to miss, because no one seems to have picked up on it. I can't remember exactly who reported on it, but I believe it was 1up.

People and the blu-ray thing for gaming are just not getting ti. Blu-Ray doesn't matter in the least for gaming outside of pre-rendered movies. Regardless of how big the textures are that can be stored on the disk, and how big the maps are, and how big whatever else is that can be stored on the disk, the machine still only has 512M of RAM to store and access data. True of both the 360 and the PS3.

In my opinion, Blu-Ray is going to an albatross for the PS3. Too constly, not enough benefits to merit the upgrade, etc. Sony is pushing 1080p, 7.1 Audio, and Blu-Ray as the key marketing points for the PS3. MS is getting bashed for pushing HD when relatively few people have HD capable displays. Maybe in 3 years I'll care about the PS3 feature set, but most likely, I won't. If has some cool games in 3 years and costs around $200, though, I'll buy one.

TK00:
"The vast majority of websites are served on linux serveres running apache... look it up."

you seem to be confusing "servers" with "web servers". The server market is much more than web servers. MS has somewher just north of 50% of the server market.

Back to the console flame war...

There was absolutely no news and some confusion...we already new all of this, but what is now confusing is wheter or not they will charge for premium online services like Xbox Live...and whether or not every PS3 will come with a Hard Drive.

Also a November world wide release for Sony just spells of Disaster. They are probably just telling us this now so people won't fall off the bandwagon, just like they did at last years E3...it's almost a year away and they have yet to show hardware or gasp...even one single in game video!

It's really sad that you just can't trust a damn thing they are saying. I want to see final hardware and screenshots of online functionality.

This is what we got from MS at around this time last year. If they don't have playable games at E3...some serious bullcrap is going down here. And I don't mean Fight Night Round 3 or some other EA game that's already out...I'm talking a real PS3 exclusive game that is playable and promised for launch.

I know there will be a hell of allot of playable games at the 360 booth this year.

"Bluray drives can still read standard dvd9."
No they cant, unless its made to read both which is dearly costly.

"No they cant, unless its made to read both which is dearly costly."

Yes it can. Why you do think it's backwards compatible with the PS2? :/

Anyway... Sony isn't stupid (Maybe a little cocky, but not stupid) enough to take on the 360 full on. They -WILL- offer a free alternative to play games, chat with friends, matchmaking etc. If they don't, I'm so on the Revolution.

Will it be free? Who maintains the networks? Where does that revenue come from to ensure server stability and better performance?

I thought models like this push costs to developers for some games, like in the case of the original Phantasy Star Online's subscription fee.

Also, I wanna point out I think xbox live (the original or newer 360 flavor) is a great implementation of online service for a CONSOLE system.

I think it's funny that these console [flame] are bickering about online service, hello?!? On the PC online has been available since the nineteen-freaking-eighties.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_and_video_games#Bulletin_Board_Systems_and_early_online_gaming)

Get with the times, also PC online gaming is completely free and may I add, completely user customizable. So yeah, "stealing" the idea of online gaming is ludicrous, since MS didn't invent it.

Also, with MS, you pay for a p2p service, meaning that you're paying MS to do absolutely nothing, all the games are hosted on the other peoples' boxes, with notable dropout problems, might I add.

Which also gives other players the opp. to cheat. Consoles are a total waste of time, just go out and buy a $600 PC with a $150 gfx card (prolly Radeon 9800 or somewhere around that level) and you're set.

Of course, that would require not having to be [flame], which might be a bit of a challenge for [flame], now isn't it? Also, I love how you guys pay $400 for a console, and you still don't even own the full rights to it.

[flame]...

"Yes it can. Why you do think it's backwards compatible with the PS2? :/"

Read it again, I ment blu-ray drives as a whole, they cant read DVD, CD format as they use different laser to read off discs and need another laser to work both which is more expensive. I didnt specifically mention ps3, and what it will have or wont have.

"Basic service starts free of charge"... so I guess it's one of those 'First 3 moths for free' type deals... but then how much?

Another example of copying Xbox LIVE... they're even copying those annoying 2-3 free LIVE accounts!

@Special Hobo Spices, Why bring it up Blu-Ray players can't read DVD's when this is about PS3's blu-ray, (which reads CDs/DVDs/BRs)

from my understanding, it looks like the service will be free, it will basicaly be console version of gamespy (remember when X-Box1 came out and you used gamespy to play online?)

but each game will have its own choice on how it wants to implement it, so games like Phantasy Star online can charge monthly if they choose to, they can have their own dedicated servers if they want, or they can make the end-user provide the servers.

the only thing sony will do is a friends network to see whos playing what where, and a lobby for the games. I think I prefer this, as I don't do enough console gaming to justify the costs of Xbox Live (which has kept me from playin X-Box, whether or not its better then PS2) I play only like 10-20 hours a month on my PS2 (only a couple hours online), and I don't feel like paying the 15CDN for it.

so to summerize what I said.

Lobbies -good
friends list -good
free gameplay (depending on game) -good

can you imagine having to pay the online costs (15$) and the MMORPG costs as well (15$) then add in your broadband connection (40$) when thats the only game you play? thats 70$ a month plus the purchase price to play 1 game.

Also if Sony sais the system will go Live in november its not because they want to steal MSFT's name "Live" its because when you launch a website or anything online the term is "Going Live"

I'll believe this when I see it.

Its amazing how hungry people are for information.. a few tidbits are released and people start preaching them from the rooftops as if they were gospel.

These stats will change before launch. That much I guarantee.

"@Special Hobo Spices, Why bring it up Blu-Ray players can't read DVD's when this is about PS3's blu-ray, (which reads CDs/DVDs/BRs)"

Because someone said, that blu-ray drives could read DVD's, CD's I just correct him or her. Is there something wrong with that? And is there something wrong referring to technology used in ps3 and other electronics and also addressing the cost of these parts?

Yeah so Sony is making a service like Live, so what. M$ copied Apple's OS. In fact if it wasnt for stealing ideas M$ would have never gotten anywhere. M$ is also coppying all the music download services like Apple's iTunes and Sony's Connect with their own called URGE (really stupid name). M$ also ripped the idea of two analogues from Sony who ripped the Analogue off of Nintendo. Both Sony and M$ rip off ideas, get real people. To say Sony sucks because they steal ideas but M$ doesnt is not only hypocritical but just plain stupid. [Flame].

Does Xbox Live Silver allow you to run your own game servers? It seems Microsoft is going the usual monopolistic route while Sony is trying to provide the same kind of Universal username and pay-optional services, without the same total lock-in as M$ being necessary.

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