PS3 'gamercard' option seen during demo
by Justin McElroy 
{ Aug 15th 2007 at 4:26PM }
What's more, a member of the Evil Avatar forums put forth an image from PlayStation Home that also has the "gamer card" option, this time with a space in the middle. We know very little at this point, but thought you all would appreciate a head-start on speculation. By the way, if the phrase "gamer card" seems familiar to you, you aren't imagining things.
Read -- 'Gamercard' spotted in UT3 demo
Read -- Gamercard image from Evil Avatar
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
DarthDavid @ Aug 15th 2007 4:33PM
As long as we (US) get it during/before the holiday season, I'm good to go.
Hiro of Time @ Aug 15th 2007 5:05PM
Isn't this term copyrighted by MS?
Jean Sebastien @ Aug 15th 2007 4:39PM
I hate how sony alway steal stuff from other compagny.
*cough* trigger on ps3 *cough* motion sensing * joysticks too?
TWiNKiE @ Aug 15th 2007 8:40PM
is it really stealing from Microsoft? i mean a gamertag is basically a profile, which is ridiculously generic.
The only thing I could say Sony ripped off was the name.
Ska Oreo @ Aug 15th 2007 4:36PM
Those bastards.
Exo @ Aug 15th 2007 4:36PM
Sony is always such an innovator
Agathos @ Aug 15th 2007 4:39PM
They are actually, the cell proc, BD in their console. It's just funny that fanboys attack the things they did differently from MS and then attack the things they borrow as well.
Bottom line: All consoles/companies are "borrowing" from their competitors successes and mixing it with their own innovations for their approach to market.
Sloar @ Aug 15th 2007 4:43PM
Holy crap! They even stole "invite to private conversation"! Does Sony have no morals?
Exo @ Aug 15th 2007 4:59PM
Oh i dont really care either way, sony got big from copying.
I only really care about the games, I couldnt care less what nintendo/sony/microsoft do to their hardware as long as it doesnt make the experience worse.
Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 5:06PM
Agathos, the BD was an attempt by Sony to boost Blu-ray sales. Thats not innovative, and it definitely causes performance problems. Example; the BD in the PS3 is 1x speed. That leads to horrible load times and games requiring an "install" when you first load the game where it caches much of them memory. Second, BD doesn't increase quality of the picture, as it is all rendered by the system anyway (not counting movies), and just means you can fit more on a disc- so you're just paying roughly 150 dollars more than you should on the console for a simple convenience (not having to switch out discs).
Also, the Cell processor isn't innovative. The Cells they have in servers is innovative, and the Cell in the PS3 is so hard to program for, that any performance increase isn't worth it- especially when that performance increase isn't much of anything.
PS3 should have stuck to DVD9 and a conventional processor and upped the GPU from the G70 they have in there (slightly different, but hey, its close enough and roughly equivalent in power), they would have had a REAL contender in this gen's console line up.
The PS3 cannot compare to the 360's power- not in any real world situations. Theoretically, it blows the doors off of the 360, but then again, it doesn't reach anywhere near the theoretical numbers (floating point is half of what Sony said), even in optimized tests.
PS3 should have left Cell processors to the PCs for programming methods to be pioneered before putting it in a restricting environment (consoles), and they also should have waited for BDs to lower in cost...
samfish @ Aug 15th 2007 5:08PM
"They are actually, the cell proc, BD in their console."
Those aren't innovations, just advancements in technology. There is a difference.
reiji @ Aug 20th 2007 3:40PM
Are you serious? If there's a single product that made Sony big, it's the Walkman - lemme guess, that's just a copy of the "Walkgirl", right?
dsub @ Aug 15th 2007 6:54PM
Innovation is bringing new things to the market that have never been done before. Consoles have had computer processors in them since the beginning. Sony putting the cell in the PS3 does not make them an innovator. XBOX Live! is innovative. The Wiimote is innovative.
Sony is not.
Aex @ Aug 15th 2007 11:49PM
Well, in that case dsub, neither xbox live nor the wii more are innovative, since in one form or another they have been done before...
Are you attempting to point out that most things never live up to the amount of innovation people think they do? Or were you just hating on Sony and proving yourself to be a total asshat in the process?
James @ Aug 15th 2007 4:36PM
So, which was rushed to launch more? PS3 or 360?
Seems like they were both launched missing some vital features, and the Wii's version 3 clock, too.
cc123 @ Aug 15th 2007 4:43PM
...uhm the one with a massive failure rate?
Jonah Falcon @ Aug 15th 2007 4:55PM
You mean like the PS2's 50+% failure rate?
Ever own an iPod? Yeah, the failure rate of iPods doomed them for when Zune came, right? (chuckle)
James @ Aug 15th 2007 5:26PM
It's just that this sort of thing and Live/Home whatever they're calling it should have been on the system at launch. If it jumped into the market without even being a competative product for the 360 then, well, hello reality.
I know ¨consoles are for games¨ blah blah, but the amount of time I've spent making Mii's and just using my 360 for MSN when my PC fried. They're great added value.
PS3 needed an extra year in the oven.
Sloar @ Aug 15th 2007 4:37PM
Cue the rabid fanboys screaming that Sony ripped off Microsoft.
mafafu @ Aug 15th 2007 4:39PM
you rang?
T3H WICKERMAN @ Aug 15th 2007 5:04PM
present and accounted for sir!
Sloar @ Aug 15th 2007 5:18PM
Alright men. You know why you're here. Proceed with the tirade!
Liqwid @ Aug 15th 2007 4:40PM
Imitation has always been the best form of flattery, in which case Sony excels greatly.
ExMcloud @ Aug 15th 2007 8:22PM
That might have been the best post I read all day..
Helloimbob @ Aug 15th 2007 4:41PM
At least they haven't stolen achievements.
YET.
gwangi @ Aug 15th 2007 4:45PM
Well they don't call them achievements, you get trophies.
Eric @ Aug 15th 2007 4:42PM
WHAT? SONY RIPPED OFF MICROSOFT AGAIN? BLASPHEMY, THIS IS MADNESS!
Crono @ Aug 15th 2007 4:45PM
THIS IS SONY!!!!!!!
AgentESPIO7 @ Aug 15th 2007 4:49PM
Dang it Crono, beat me to it >_
d-pad @ Aug 15th 2007 4:50PM
Slow-mo shot of Phil Harrison kicking Microsoft execs down a well...
Marasai @ Aug 15th 2007 5:05PM
Actually, Phil looks a bit too much like Xerxes to pull off that image.
AgentESPIO7 @ Aug 15th 2007 4:41PM
Damn, couldn't Sony at LEAST get a different name for it? I wouldn't call it completely stealing from Microsoft but still...
spunkyMP4 @ Aug 15th 2007 9:14PM
Agreed. If Sony is going to copy ideas they should at least change the name to make it less obvious.
Brandon Tyler @ Aug 15th 2007 4:45PM
That's hilarious. It's fine if the copy. It is the best form of flattery and will bring more competition in the live space.
mr nimblewick @ Aug 15th 2007 4:49PM
Anyone who says competition is good never owned a dreamcast. Le sigh...
KingOfGods @ Aug 15th 2007 4:47PM
Gamercard is already taken. "Gamertag" is my user name for Live and MS uses the term "Gamercard" for your profile on the 360 and on Xbox.com
Millerwakka @ Aug 15th 2007 4:50PM
Yeah, exactly. It's super awesome that Sony are doing this because its a great feature that I think all the consoles can benefit from, but why is it the exact same name as the xbox version? XD
rfom @ Aug 15th 2007 4:50PM
Can you belieive it, someone stealing ideas from MS, those poor dear innovators.
Sony just cant win because MS had 4 years to perfect Live. So, if they create a similar online service, they get accused of copying - and I would say just go ahead and do it. Its server based system already offers better multiplayer than the supposedly "superior" Live (no host advantage as in gears, no lag), they have voice chat enabled for key games such as Warhawk and Motorstorm that are most popular for multiplayer. All they need is to copy Live features such as a easy-to-use friends lists, add Home on top of it (which should also be a substitute for achievements) and PSN will be miles better than Live (USD50/year, year after year)
PACMAN4EVER! @ Aug 15th 2007 5:00PM
And then you woke up...
AnonymousTipster @ Aug 15th 2007 5:01PM
As much as I'd like to see dedicated servers on the 360, I don't think that the PS3 model will last too long. I'm pretty sure that the dedicated servers are funded by Sony or the company who developed it, IE one organisation. Dedicated servers work on PC, because each is individually owned, if one company is footing the bill, either it's too expensive to keep going, or there aren't enough servers to go round.
Zeus the God @ Aug 15th 2007 5:10PM
Yeah, not to mention those are for a SINGLE GAME- that game is Warhawk. Everything else is hosted off the console itself.
Nice try, though.
TWiNKiE @ Aug 15th 2007 4:52PM
Well if Sony never had "gamercards", I think we would make fun of it for not having it.
Kinda like Macs and PCs. Mac users always made fun of PCs because the icons weren't as big, bright, and colorful as the Mac icons. Then along came Vista. Now Mac users are criticizing Vista for ripping them off.
Vidikron @ Aug 15th 2007 4:57PM
That's how it works. PSN is constantly bashed for missing features that Live has, but as they continue to add more and more of these features they are bashed for copying. Welcome to the wonderfully ignorant world of fanboys!
mccomber @ Aug 15th 2007 5:05PM
Cool, someone else already pointed it out. Although, it would be all-around better if they could come up with something other than gamer card...
Jonah Falcon @ Aug 15th 2007 4:56PM
Considering the PS3's first friends list stunk on hot ice, and they have to revamp it....
Jonah Falcon @ Aug 15th 2007 4:56PM
They did have a online messaging service. It stunk on ice.
Jonah Falcon @ Aug 15th 2007 4:57PM
And there's a trophy on the Achievements Unlocked message.
rfom @ Aug 15th 2007 5:00PM
And before someone trots out that old, smelly "Live is so better" line - the USD50 per year that MS charges is ONLY for multiplayer - for 4 years thats USD200, which is the same that Sony charges for a bigger hard disc, 99% lower defects, blu-ray, HDMI, PS1/PS2 BC, wifi.
And all those small features that do make Live better at the moment are ALL FREE - for good reason. Becuase anyone could just copy all those features in no time.
The reason SOny has not simply copied Live feature for feature, and is instead going for a different approach and new ideas such as Home, is simply because they are not MS - a richly profitable company that has barely created a single innovative idea.
Marasai @ Aug 15th 2007 5:13PM
Except now the PSN isn't quite so free. With games shipping without online on ps3 and with it on 360, it comes with a price. Then there is the much greater price of actually having to pay to get certain games online as is the case with tekken and MGS.
Anyone who buys Metal Gear online forfeits the right to complain about Live pricing since you just paid 60 bucks for MGS4 online. As for lag, I suggets you learn to set up your network better, because I don't get lag on live. EVER. i used to get it if I was torrenting something and my wii was accessing the net, but even those don't lag me anymore.
And they key thing about that 50/year....is that it is per year. ask anyone if they'd rather pay in installments or all at once and I think you;ll find that most people are confident in their ability to scrape together 50 bucks per anum.
HoodOrnament @ Aug 15th 2007 6:37PM
Depends on where you look but live subscriptions can be found for as low as 40$ a year, and thats not bad at all. I would rather pay for a wonderful unified service rather than a gobbed together compilation of rip off after rip off.
Who cares about defects, it will be replaced. Hell, my console from november 05 still runs, no hiccups. I wont knock on wood because I don't question it. In addition I bet the PS3 would have a higher defect rate, then again, it can't have a system failure sitting on the shelf. Thats just a failure in general.