Cross-game party chat coming to PS3 (with strings attached) [Update]

by Andrew Yoon on Jun 15th 2010 6:55PM

Update: A Sony representative reached out to us, saying "Cross-game voice chat was not announced as part of PlayStation Plus." The feature was not officially announced at E3, however sources familiar with the situation say that this incentive will be announced at a later date. "The new offering provides subscribers features such as frequent discounts on PlayStation Store content, free and exclusive access to select games, full game trials, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and new functionality such as content downloads and updates which will automatically be "pushed" to the PS3 system."

Cross-game chat is coming to the PlayStation Network! According to our sources at the company, Sony will offer cross-game chat, which allows PSN members to talk to each other, even while playing different games. However, the oft-demanded feature does come with one large caveat: chats can only be initiated by PlayStation Plus members.

PlayStation Plus members will be able to send invites to any member of the PlayStation Network, free or paid. Up to four PSN members can be in a party chat, however at least one participant must be a member of PlayStation Plus. The chat will discontinue if all paying members disconnect.

While some may be disappointed that such a hotly demanded feature is closed behind a pay wall, the service is still technically available to free members. So long as you're popular and have friends that pay for PlayStation Plus, you should be able cross-game chat and keep your free ride, too.

Tags: cross-game-chat, cross-game-voice-chat, e3-2010, playstation, playstation-plus, ps3, psn, psn-plus, sony

Reader Comments (158)

Fair enough.

@Hexa Is it though? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something, but from what I gather, all this does is enable chat even if people are playing different games. I ain't no fancy-shmancy developer, but that doesn't seem difficult to implement or hardware-intensive. I don't see why it's a reserved right for paying people.

@Hexa

Yeah, at least its here now. I read somewhere that there is also some streaming music application for background music as well. Oh well.

@Hexa

Fair enough? I can't see how that makes sense. Because it was perfectly fair to pay for it at the "Other" company apparently. So is that now not fair enough?

@Hexa Ya it adds value to PSN+ I guess....I haven't really needed cross-game chat for the 2 years I have had the PS3. You really need voice chat to talk to people you are playing with in-game and that's always been there....or if you are both outside of a game you can video chat.

a little disappointed it's for PN+, but we all knew it would be...
And to get pissed at Sony when this has been Microsoft's policy from the beginning seems pointless.

@roark87

Its actually a little more forgiving than microsoft too. In many ways its bullshit, but its within reasonable amounts of bullshit.

Hmmmm only four people thats another lil let down. How many does the Xbox support I'm sure its atleast 6

@zefur

I wanna say its 8. Been a while since Ive used it. Only four is a little ridiculous.

@zefur

8 for sure

@zefur

Yea it is ridiculous hopefully it can be expanded on later I guess I will try it out in the free months. 6 should have been the minimum

@zefur 8 people can chat at once

If you guys don't know how many the max is, then you're obviously not utilizing it. If you're never using it, is it really necessary?

dick move sony... dick move

@s ls

Ya, because MS doesn't charge for party chat.

oh wait.

Its an Xbox 360 fan's dream come true!

@Namminamm It at last shuts up all those freaking people about this feature... They can pay for plus, use this crap and shut up about it.. I had enough of hearing about x game voice chat, x game voice chat to last me a life time..

I dont give a monkeys about it, all the people that want it can have it now and can stop bitching about it..

All thats left now, is to see what new thing they will start bitching about, because seriously XBL has absolutely nothing to offer over PSN now..

In fact PSN has home which is +1 Sony and a completely free platform to play games and it now also has steam support.. What possible thing do the XBL fanboys have to go on now ? Gabe Newell coming on stage and announcing the PS3 version of Portal2 will be the best should be enough to shut them all up at freaking last..

@Namminamm

Why did I get downvoted? I was just trying to make a nice comment. I AM a PS3 user, you knew that guys?

@Namminamm

Not really :) See, while 360 owners such as myself have to pay to play online, PS3 owners still don't subscription is optional, not mandatory, of course it comes with a few things we can't unless we pay, that's fine, and for Xbox pricing, that's still fairly fine, I wasn't too bothered with the fact I had to pay $50 annually for 360, it was the fact I was popping bullets up peoples asses online for free on PS3. I don't mind paying for everything else once Sony assures me my money is going to a good cause. Otherwise I could always stop, and still play online.

@McDuckScrooged

1. You're a enraged fanboy apparently.
2. Gabe Newell knows he's despised in the Sony community and I'm almost certain him being on stage was a complete PR move (a la Kojima/MS)
3. I can think of quite a few things that puts Xbox Live head and shoulders above PSN as an online service. I use both services and its apparent which one is more streamlined.
4. Playstation Home. Really? That's a +1?
5. Let Sony fans have their say. I've been hearing about Cross Game chat since 2006, and now we know there's a reason they've been screwing with us. It's called the ol' bait and switch.

@Namminamm Sorry I got exactly what you meant, I think some people read your comment and understood it the wrong way.. It happens, Sorry :/

@BiCuriousGeorge -- Blah blah bullshit, Microsofts next big announcements will be a replica of the move controller and a 3d world for your Mii rip offs ala home rip off..

Then Fan Boys like you will jump up and down about this 3d world we have had on the PS for a few years and exclaim that its such a cool rad idea and its so Innovative and its such a fresh idea.... Oh How Microsoft truly innovate, its such an amazing company, they sob sob truly are the best sob sob.. blah blah bullshit ..

Ok I don't thing we want to take it that much to the extreme. I've seen enough downvotes to last me a lifetime by the looks of it with every one of my comments here almost fading away into the abyss. I don't think we want to insult anyone here, whether there PS3 or 360 supporters.

I was just trying to make something funny (which by the looks of it failed miserably) because I've often seen 360 fans argue over how there service is better because they have that and that one thing is what makes there demotion so important (as I've seen from some fanboys). So now that The PS3 has it I thought It would be a good idea to say how cross game chat was so imperious is now on the PS3, meaning its like a dream come true, but in reverse.

Some people can't just take a lame joke the right way.

Alright, that's cool.

Actually more generous than I expected. I kind of expected you to only be able to party chat with other PSN+ members. Rather it not be paid, but props to Sony for finally making it happen.

But it's not just reserved for paying people. Only one person in the chat has to be a PSN Plus member...

Same thing can be said for the xbox 360 charging to use online play with your friends that should be free for everyone yet they bundle it with gold to get people to pay. So why is Sony being hated on for charging for this? While Xbox has been charging to use it for years..

These are companies out to make some money and if Sony gave all the free PSN users the same stuff as PSN+ then they would being getting any of that $. Just be happy that they aren't going the live gold route and charging to play online.

Sony is brilliant!

Now all I have to do to make new PSN friends is pay for Plus and everyone will friend me. With all those friends, there's no way I would ever leave because they are so dependent on me being online to initiate chats with them and their other friends. This will keep me coming back to game on my PS3 and will for sure keep me paying that monthly fee.

Glad you're not a developer, because x-game chat is difficult to implement with considerations to not infringing on the IP of others and if not done properly it does take up processing power.

not raggin on this in particular but man this E3 is the worst in years!

@(Unverified)

by the way this comment system is even more broken than the last. I find my self going to other site because of it. just a heads up

@(Unverified) yeah it is i was so disappointed that this is the only "huge" highlight of this E3 no new hardware and no new IP

@Jakinov.. From the very start of the PS3 we have been able to connect external devices and watch content directly from that drive.. In fact its a shame they removed it, but it could even load other operating systems..

Can you do that with the Xbox ?, have they at last provided you with the ability to just plug a 1TB disk and watch whatever you want directly from the drive ? How about moving stuff like Films , PlayTv recordings directly onto the drive ? No ?

You press a triangle button and you view all, is that forcing you ? Is it really that difficult for you ? You can organise stuff however the hell you like on the drive.. You can backup your entire system on that same drive..

What about dynamic background themes ? Do you have that on xbox ?

As to the rest blah blah bullshit.. The offline multiplayer games was sorted out a long time ago..

Go away .. Stop moaning find something else to do, stop whining and bitching about rubbish.. Go back to your super xbox 360, which has become so advanced that its decided to copy the original PS3 shiny look and touch sensitive buttons.. Woohoo you at last have an integrated drive and wifi ... Welcome to PS3 launch you elite console you..

"Xbox actually has games..."

Yea, 2007 called..

@jakinov shitty OS ? I think you have the wrong console there your obviously looking for this:

http://www.joystiq.com/xbox/ :)

better than nothing

I highly, highly disagree. This has been a very good E3. Either you haven't been following E3 and the industry very long or you just are a very whiny person.

I feel you about E3 being a bit on the lame side. Were it not for the 3DS, the Xbox Slim, and Portal 2 for the PS3 and Twisted Metal, I think that this year might have ranked among the worst.

Not bad....but i still need to see a bit more to drop 50 bucks a year on this..I already have a fair amount of psn games so i need something to make it stand out

Didn't they mention a 3 month trial of psn+?

@boredasfook
you pay for the sub, and your first 3 months are free

If you care, just pay for it.

Yeah that's pretty damned disgusting.

Ah but Sony will simply say that they promised the feature but that they never said that it would be free to use. (unless they said it would be free...anyone?)

It's good to give the free players an 'in' but it's still pathetic and money-grubbing and bordering on a long perpetuated lie.

We are really being nickled and dimed this gen and saddest of all not many of us are standing by our convictions to not pay. (horse armor, map packs, paying for cheats/unlocks, paying to use our own bandwidth, and so on...we aren't a very frugal or principled bunch us gamers)

@FOI

I'm just happy we still get to play online...can you imagine the shitstorm they would've stirred up if they made everyone pay up for PSN access?

They could've made it happen a long time ago. They just chose not to. PSN has to have some limitations. Why do you think they left the main services free? They know not everyone will jump for it at first, but as soon as it catches on, they'll yank the carpet from under everyone & force everyone to pay for it. Trust me, it's gonna happen. Sony needs to make up for the cost they lost in the past few year. But I'm surprised that it won't have as much features as I thought it would.

Reply fail... And why do I have the strange feeling this is going to be a reply fail too...

Yeah, what I said was that I'm surprised it's like that instead of everyone having to pay.

But I already have cross-game chat! It's called a cell phone!

Okay honestly, why would I feel the need to talk to someone else when they are in a different game? I can only see chat being good for joking with your friends in the same match or for tactics..

they don't even let us use the in-game custom music now, why would they with streaming music? it's such an unsupported feature, i only have a couple games that actually use it.

Man...i was so goddamn tired about hearing 3-d this, 3-d the moment Kaz Hirai stepped up to the plate and opened up his mouth.

I'm sorry buddy, but I'm not throwing down $3000 or whatever you guys want to get me to buy *yet* another LCD panel in the near-term.

After reading your comment 8 times I still have no idea what you're saying.

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Cross-game party chat coming to PS3 (with strings attached) [Update]

Reader Comments (158)

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:56PM Hexa said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:01PM ch3burashka said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:06PM MLC said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:06PM Namminamm said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:43PM Nomi said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:57PM roark87 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:24PM Blkant said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:58PM zefur said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:02PM NukeAssault said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:03PM KingOfGods said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:04PM zefur said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:05PM silvercloud159 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:35PM akmdpc said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:58PM s ls said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 8:33PM Punkrawk Bbob said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:58PM Namminamm said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:08PM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:10PM Namminamm said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:10PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 11:31PM BiCuriousGeorge said

Posted: Jun 16th 2010 1:21AM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Jun 16th 2010 11:48PM Namminamm said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 6:59PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:05PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 8:18PM Blay said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 8:24PM Morisato13 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 11:13PM cgoodno said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:01PM eat it said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:02PM eat it said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:06PM Frank the tank said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:24PM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 11:13PM ThatStuffsLethal said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:01PM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:01PM edge426 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:05PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:07PM PilzE wants your mint spaghetti said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:02PM psnkillstrike said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:02PM boredasfook said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:19PM Osnaz said

Posted: Jun 15th 2010 7:05PM koehler83 said

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Posted: Jun 16th 2010 4:26AM kentuckyfried said

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