Microsoft execs tag-team PS3's online service

Oh you shouldn't have.

woah... now which company is arrogant and cocky?

Oh man that hurt! I have both system and I can PS3 Online is a joke.

Too rude for a company "that has nothing to worry about...", just scared by what the PS3 can be in the "near" future

corporate ego's at their finest.

If they followed MSs online model, each firmware update would come with a bricking feature. Update at your own risk... its kinda like winning the lottery, but, losing.

#3, near future? you mean near future as in March, when the ps3 will get it's 2nd decent game since the November launch?

WELL WHATS FREE ABOUT 400 DOLLARS?

Peter Moore needs to focus on the Wii, not the PS3...

Im glad to see hear it, but i still think that other than the odd stab at a mistake they should avoid ridiculing the whole system. Im a 360 fanboy through and through but i'd rather see MS not saying anything that could come back to bite them

Actually, I see it differently. Since the 360 has been release, Sony has been talking trash about MS and their console. It's about time MS started to throw it back, and unlike Sony's trash talk, this is substantiated...

Damn! DEM IS FIGHTIN' WORDS! I wonder what Sony's going to do now. Cause they just got burned.

Yeah Fred T. beat me to it. My 360 made it through every update till yesterdays now its worthless, some online service. I also thought the ps3 was expensive, then I bought one. Super quiet machine with a far superior drive(not including the blu ray feature) As long as my ps3 doesnt start bricking I may have switched camps. PS3 and Wii FTW,
Former 360 Fanboy

jason B.

same thing happened to me. you are not alone.

jason B.

same thing happened to me. you are not alone.

that dude is such a xbot fanboy..

@1 But which company has delivered? I think that's the question about who has the right to be arrogant and cocky.

@3 There's that PS3 and the future thing... What everyone wants is what Sony can show NOW. Now that their system is out, Sony is still /promising/ features and services. When the 360 released, Xbox LIVE and the Marketplace were already in place and ready for 360-owners' use, with every game being Live-enabled or "aware."

all i know is resistance can hold 40 players online while Gears only holds 8... which service is a joke again?

"woah... now which company is arrogant and cocky?"

Well, in MS's defense, Sony was the one saying their online system will be better, and free, and that MS needed to worry.

MS is just showing the world there's no rubble, they're still around, and like everything else Sony has said, they were full of it.

The MS updates "Brick" systems when they sense unauthorised hardware and software modifications. Sometimes the update wrongly thinks a normal box has been modded and "bricks" it too.

I'm glad MS is fighting modders with so much fire, its been a year and I haven't seen any obvious modders on live.

and this is exactly why i don't want a two-horse race. since Microsoft already sees themselves as the clear winner, they won't see any room to improve, hence the same derivative shooters on sports titles. it would be pretty sad if you have to go to the Wii for variety.

@Fred T

Right, you are correct. Because all 5 million people who are connected to Live had their systems bricked by an update.

Yeah, uh, what's free about $400 x 3; as in the minimum number of times you'll have to replace your Xbox over the next five years.

"all i know is resistance can hold 40 players online while Gears only holds 8... which service is a joke again?"

Wow, such stupidity really does exist...

If you didn't notice while you were bashing Gears and Xbox Live, Epic PURPOSELY made the game only have 8 player multiplayer, since it is a tactical duck n spray shooter, not another LOLRAMBO clone of Halo.

Joystiq needs to fucking ban dickwads like you, all your kind does is pollute the comment pages.

@16. "all i know is resistance can hold 40 players online while Gears only holds 8... which service is a joke again?"

LOL, the amount of players in a game has nothing to do with the online service each company provides. That is a design choice made by the developers. Get a clue.

@16 - Be fair in this and realize that you just compared apples and oranges. Gears was built for a different multiplayer experience, not to mention the game mechanics are entirely different.

Sony fans grasping at straws FTW.

Ha! You guys are so cute.

Don't try to mod your 360 and take it online, cuz it will be bricked. If it was bricked by mistake, just let MS know and they can check it out and "unbrick" it.

I have heard that the awesomeness of RFoM 40 online is garbage. No slowdown, but it is just too many people, especially on the smaller maps. Wow, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. GoW 4 vs 4 was decided due to gameplay, not Live restrictions. GoW with 8 vs 8 probably didn't play well.

Good one, Hardcore. Hahahahaha, see what he did there people? He said $400 x 3 because we will have to replace our systems two times. Wow, *wipes tears away*, wooooooo, that was funny.

You are an idiot.

I have never had a system break down on me in any way. Intellivision, Sega MS, Sega Genesis, Playstation, Dreamcast, Xbox and the 360 never broke. However, I used to have a PS2 until it broke. What does that say? Do I go around trolling about how you will have to replace your PS2 about four times? No, it is my experience and represents about 1-5% of the tech adopters.

Now, be quiet because I can't hear my 360 with all that yapping!

"WELL WHATS FREE ABOUT 400 DOLLARS?"

Nothing, and they never advertised it as such.

Of course, to realize this, that would require what we adults call 'critical thinking.'

LOLRAMBO.

That is all.

The only reason Resistance is 40 players is because Sony needed a big title to point at to show what their "service" was capable of. What they're not telling you is that to accomplish that, they're hosting the servers for Insomniac.

I wouldn't be surprised if after 6-12 months, those servers go offline or go pay. They certainly won't be offering to host games for 3rd party titles and will most likely make every effort to make first party games user-hosted.

Resistance is the Sony loss leader they use to get you in the store and buy other things with. It will hardly be the norm, Sony can't afford it to be.

The only other publisher that is even remotely capable of pulling off server-side craziness is EA, and they do it to push advertising content down to you.

I'd rather have my secure unified interface and gamertag and communications across multiple games and platforms, thanks.

Bah... I guess you people complaining about bricked 360's have missed the same complaints coming from Wii and PS3 owners. That's always going to be a risk when updating firmware, especially across the internet. And it logically follows that you would see more reports of 360 bricks given that there are many more 360s on the market and the fact that many of the bricks happened to modded systems. So, really, find a better complaint.

Personally, owning all 3 systems, I love my PS3 overall since I have an HDTV and can make use of the BR player, but the online service is currently lacking. I like the PS Store, though it's not as easy to navigate and considerably slower than the Live Marketplace. One feature I do like is the "Recently Released" list. Live has new release sections, but there is no overall list showing all new releases for every section.

But back to the slowness... when I got my PS3 on Christmas Eve I was able to download demos and games very fast, but after Christmas the speeds have often been very slow. I assume this is due to an influx of users from people got PS3 for Christmas. Twice now I have tried to download the demo for the F1 racing game and had to quit because it was taking too long. Just yesterday I let it download for over 8 HOURS and only made it to about 90% downloaded (it's a 678 MB download). But it was nearing 2 AM and I didn't want to leave my PS3 on while I slept. So I cancelled the download. Sadly, the PS3 doesn't yet have the ability to continue partial downloads, so the next time I try I'll have to start all over.

Contrast that with my 4 GB HD movie download from the Live Marketplace that I did last Friday... the download took less than 4 hours... I'm not sure what the exact time was because I was out at dinner when it finished, but the point is that the download is much larger, Live has many more users, and it still finished much faster than the PS3 download which I was never able to finish. Then add that fact that the 360 has background downloading and I could have stopped the download at any time and continued it later and it's pretty easy to see that MS is waaaay ahead of Sony.

Live briefly choked when they first added the movie and TV show downloads, but they had the issue resolved within days. I'm still waiting for Sony to even acknowledge their speeds issues, much less do anything about it.

i also have both the 360 and ps3, i am a long time sony follower, and sure the store isnt great YET but in the near future the store is gonna be awesome, i love the XBL interface and they have ALOT of stuff and so far thats where they are winning the online battle, but the service is horrible, i cant join games with my friends sometimes i keep getting booted from games, and the lag is horrible. but the PS3 is great i have never been booted from an online yet and i have had the system since launch and i had the 360 since before launch(Mountain Dew Winner) so in short

360 Marketplace > PS Store
Ps3 Service(Gameplay) > 360 Live

Since I don't have a PS3 can someone tell me if I am in Resistance playing a game, and my friend comes on and wants to play a little ridge racer, do I get a notification? Are there game invites? Is the PS3 online experience just a bunch of server names and I choose the one I want to connect to?

16-thebes congratulations on having the dumbest post so for in 2007, your stupidity is truly amazing.

@31

To counter point your post I have to say I haven't had any issues with lag or getting booted from games. The only time I was kicked out recently was a couple of weeks ago during a co-op games of Rainbow 6: LV... but that was because the host lost his internet connection. But you may play online much more than I do. I only play a couple night per week online... I tend to stick mostly to single player and co-op campaigns.

Anyway, you have to keep in mind that Live currently has many more users. Given that Sony already can't keep their speeds up with so few users, it has yet to be seen if they can do better than Live with a few million users. IMO, Live will always be better until Sony starts charging a fee of some sort. Free sounds better on paper, but in practice you get what you pay for.

Oh, and if anyone is thinking about bringing up PCs games, just forget it. PC games are all separate and disjointed. Live provides global friend's lists and ties everything together in a nice package. PC online games do not compare to this in any way. I'm a PC gamer as well, so I'd thought I spare anyone from beating that dead horse... doing so will only show you don't understand what Live offers.

Even though im an xbox 360 fan, i gotta say this ..

Check out Xbox.com forums, xbox live section and look at all the problems the users are having with xbox live. And specialy let us not forget about how they neglected the international users by banning their credit cards from buying MS points and in the same time they still withdraw money from the same credit card automaticly for gold subscribtion and basicly your not allowed to take off your credit card info once you put them in [unless you call them and put you in line for 3 hrs and reply with "we'll call you back later" and forget about you"]

You gonna say its not MS fault, its the video marketplace fault. But MS were missing alot of countries in their list and most users had no choice but to select differnt country.

They promised for a solution since 2 months but none heard a word from them ever since.

Xbox live is better than what PS3 online has but MS need to pay more attention to its loyal costumers.

P.S: i dont need to mention the MS pre-paid cards errors that alot of people been having lately.

P.S.2 : Ahhh !! You didnt face an error !!! well, others did. It's not their fault that they were not lucky as you were.

Despite all this, i still love my 360

OWNED!!! hahahaha SUCK FONY

#32 If someone send you a "Come and Play" invite or any other message you get a notication of that message. However, you can not just click on the invitation and switch games. You have to exit your current game and jump into the other game to accept the invitation. As for regular messages, you just can't reply within the game which is being included in the March update as announced by Sony

"Right, you are correct. Because all 5 million people who are connected to Live had their systems bricked by an update."

Man now here's a guy who really does know his facts and figures. Seriously. 5 million bricks huh. Man. Xbox must really suck. Sony is way better and totally worth the price. Pfffft!

WHO GIVES A SHIT IF THEY BRICK?! XBOX IS FIXING THEM FOR FREE AND REFUNDING REPAIR MONEY FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR! I could care less if mine bricks a thousand times. I'll pay whatever cost to have it fixed 10 times over before I buy one of those shitty PS3s. All 10 of the PS3 games are weak and the online service is DOOTIE. Sony keeps dropping skat on you morons and you keep eating it up while defending them! I think these comments needed to be said because they're 100% true and you fanboys know it. Don't worry. Your system will get better someday (haha).

@31 - to me, it sounds like your internet connection / router is to blame, not XBox Live. I wish you guys would learn more about all this stuff before posting - the individual games have nothing to do with the actual service... you are not going to be able to be connect to servers sometimes because they are hosted by other users, and their internet / router settings can drastically affect connectivity.

RE: #35
...Check out Xbox.com forums, xbox live section and look at all the problems the users are having with xbox live..

So XBOX Live has 10mill+ subscribers, Let's say it's 1000 ppl posting about problems with Live, so I guess the problem is the service, not the .00001% of the population. Your logic's killing me.

PS I've had Live since it came out 4 years ago and have had no problems. I've counted 2 unscheduled nights (and maybe 3 scheduled) since its launch that I've seen it go down. That's reliable. Having a unique gamertag persistent from one game to another, being able to invite/chat with your friend when's he playing another game, video chat, messaging, etc.. Anyone who has used Live know its not perfect but its pretty damn close.

The fightin' words from MS are funny. Sure Sony has said some cocky things so they feel the need to fight back. I get it. To say Sony's online service is bad and that it took 4 years for MS to get where they are though is stupid. It just points out how close to catching up Sony already is. Sony's has been online for 2 months and already does a ton. I can already download demos and full games, trailers, and one thing that the 360 doesn't do-- download games for PSP. When Tekken drops to the PS Store in the near future I'll be able to download a full-release retail title, something we still can't do on 360. We've already got 40 player online multiplayer which 360 doesn't have yet, and when the March update adds background downloading and likely HD movie downloads they'll basically be caught up-- in about 6 months. The jab at how the online service is free but the PS3 costs $600 was also ill-conceived. To do anything useful online with 360 you have to pay $50 and have a hard drive, bringing the cost of doing anything online up to $450 minimum, when I can get a base PS3 with online for free for just $50 more and I get blu-ray...

Just a few thoughts...

"WELL WHATS FREE ABOUT 400 DOLLARS?"

-Flash

Microsoft never said it was free, there the difference, and as a matter of fact, Live Silver is free and pretty kickass, only lacks one feature of the gold.

it appears i struck a nerve with the xbotfanboys. that tells me there is validity to my comments.

does the 360 have any shooting game that can hold 40 players? no. you would think that at least Battlefield would do it... then again maybe the 360 cant handle it? proof is in the pudding.

single gamertags are garbage. when friends come over and play online, they have to use your gamertag. oh but who cares right? what about having to pay $50 for each person in the house who wants to play online. what about if you tire of a name? thats another $10. xbox live nickels and dimes all over the place, and you guys want this to be the norm?

xbots are the morons.



ps. good point about not being to delete your credit card info from live. that absolutly pissed me off.

yea lets not talk up value since the 360 would get destroyed on that area

u have to spend like $800 total to get the exp of a $600 Ps3, AND you are GUARENTEED at better games than a 360. i mean it took like 6-7 months for the 360 to get a real awesome true next gen game(IMO Fight Night) while the ps3 HAS a killer app at launch(Resistance) and is getting 3more just 3months later(VF 5, Motorstorm, Heavenly Sword)

thebes:
Perfect Dark Zero had 47 man (32 human players + the option to add up to 15 bots) lag free online multiplayer with voice chat, friends list, achievement trackers, online co-op, and leader boards.
mmm mmmm...humble pie :~)

Sony's had this coming for a very long time. They've been living in denial for the past 3 years. How many time have they said "we will have no unified online service." "we will have no unified online service." And then in the next breath, "we will have online gaming, and it will be freeeee!" Hello, Sony? Are you in there? Are you trying to sell mattresses or game consoles? This past summmer they announce their "service" - but they still haven't committed to an online multiplayer architecture.

The PS3 developers have been left out in the cold (literally) to design one on their own... all the while knowing that there's ZERO continuity w/ other games, and they have NO assurance whatsoever that a future Sony online service will even support it!! That's crazy.

This is what Sony gets for living in denial. Sometimes, the truth hurts.

@39

To be fair it's much easier to copy than build from the ground up. Also, there is a difference between offering all the services and those services actually ebing functional. Again, I had to quit my demo download after 8 hours of waiting. That's ridiculous.

Also, you didn't address everything Live offers. The PS3 doesn't have a global friends list for all games yet. You can't accept invites from outside a game. Is there any sort of matchmaking service? Many of the Live games have "ranked" matches where you are pitted against players with similar ranks on the ladders. Live is also divided into zones. For example, if you like to trash talk you likely want to put yourself in the Underground zone. You will then be matched up against people in the same zone (the other zones are Family, Pro, and Recreational). You can have mulitple chat channels open... so you can be talking with people in the same game as you and also have a channel open to a friend playing a different game (or watching a movie, or just at the dash, etc...). Can the PS3 do any of this? I haven't explored everything on the PS3 online service, but I don't remember seeing any of that stuff from what I have used.

Live really has a ton of small yet useful features that tie everything together in a seemless package. Sony still has a long way to go. Even after implementing everything you listed they still won't be close.

@thebes

So, really, the whole 40 player game is all you've got to whine about? Will there be one? I don't know, but I'd say it's likely they will. Also, you have no taste in games if you think there wasn't a true next gen game for the 360 for 6-7 months. What about GRAW? I like Resistance, but it's not THAT great. It's basically what you get if you combine Call of Duty and Halo. Seriously, the whole tower level at the end of the game is just like the Library in Halo.

@Avalaunch

I'll agree that the PS3 is a great value from a technology standpoint, but not everyone wants/needs or can even use a BR player. So at $500-600 it's still a hefty price to pay from someone that just wants games. I understand both approaches (everything in one both vs modular/upgrades), but it has yet to be seen which will win out. Also, how is the PS3 gauranteed to have better games? That's reallu pure speculation and opinion. At the moment the 360 is waaay ahead in good games.

RE: 38

That might be true but what about banning the credit cards for MS points only? it came out from MS lips.

41. it appears i struck a nerve with the xbotfanboys. that tells me there is validity to my comments.

does the 360 have any shooting game that can hold 40 players? no. you would think that at least Battlefield would do it... then again maybe the 360 cant handle it? proof is in the pudding.

single gamertags are garbage. when friends come over and play online, they have to use your gamertag. oh but who cares right? what about having to pay $50 for each person in the house who wants to play online. what about if you tire of a name? thats another $10. xbox live nickels and dimes all over the place, and you guys want this to be the norm?

xbots are the morons.



ps. good point about not being to delete your credit card info from live. that absolutly pissed me off.


psss, let me tell you a secret, original xbox had 64 players in Battlefield 1942

Oh snap!