Sony Launches Online Sports Game Portal

Thanks to CNET News for their article discussing Sony's attempts to attract PS2 online sports players with a new portal. According to the site: "The new version of 989SportsOnline.com is set to launch Aug. 26 to coincide with the release of the football game 'NFL GameDay 2004'. The online service will feature message boards, tournaments, downloadable rosters and player rankings, and will let people who use a PS2 headset conduct voice chats." This further muddies the waters for online sports players, as "Electronic Arts, the independent publisher that dominates sports gaming, is putting all its online sports titles on the PS2 this year... EA has refused thus far to support Xbox Live for its sports games, citing concerns about the business model. Microsoft has its own sports lineup, XSN Sports, that also offers online play and lets people access message boards and player rankings." Which platform/online sports service is going to come out on top?

Comments

go play SOCOM

[Recoil_42]

there's one thing SONY lacks, and can never accquire on the ps2: patches. no matter how good the developer, no matter how good the testers, games will always have bugs that affect gameplay, and online games will always have people trying to exploit these bugs. go ahead and try to play SOCOM online -- whereas XBOX LIVE bans anyone with a modchip from online play, and sooner or later patches every vunerability that someone finds, SONY cant -- you cant download a 30-meg patch onto a 8 meg memory card, and even if you could, it would cost the players and extra 20$ each time a patch comes out (hmm.. interesting revenue model ;) ) anyways.. as a result, SOCOM is now plagued by masses of cheaters, and they cant be stopped. thats the main advantage MS has over sony.

Re:Can you read?

[PainKilleR-CE]

No, EA games don't just play on a Sony-only network, they work on the INTERNET through EA servers, just like 90% of all online games out there, such as Unreal Tournament, you name it.

EA runs the servers for EA's console titles, the story was about Sony launching the network for Sony's 989Sports titles. People have apparently been confused by the mentioning of XBox Live and EA Sports, both of which are seperate networks that compete with Sony's 989Sports network.

Also, how does 989=Sony? Unless Sony owns 989, which I suppose it is entirely possible that they do, but as far as I know, they do not.

Sony owns 989. If you'd like, check playstation.com's news/press section for press releases on 989 titles and then scroll down to the 'about 989 Sports/Studios' section. It says the following (example: http://www.us.playstation.com/news/PressReleases/D 011690.asp )
989 Sports(R) is the sports software brand of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Known for its top-selling sports franchise titles such as NFL GameDay(TM), MLB(TM), NBA ShootOut, NHL FaceOff(TM), NCAA(R) Final Four(R) and NCAA(R) GameBreaker(TM)...

So, when you say "Sony's network", I think you mean 989's network, right? That's why the PS2 is doing so damn well - people aren't forced to pay anything to join an online game, and that's the way it should be.

No, he means Sony's network, although the two would be the same (because Sony owns 989), the 989 network is really part of Sony's larger network. Sony's model has nothing to do with whether or not you pay to play a game, either, because Sony's flagship online title is fee-based anyway. Sony doesn't want to offer you online service for all games on their platform, they want to be able to charge you $15/month for EQ, $15/month for SWG, and maybe even something for their other games, too. Oh, and don't forget the $15/month (or whatever it's going to be) to SquareEnix for FFXI, either.

You already pay for the internet access, you shouldn't have to pay EA (or anybody else) to play a friend over the internet. I say that they make the ps2 act as a host if you want, and screw the third party servers, just let people host their own servers and rooms, and people will be happier.

If EA decides that they can sell access to their servers for their sports titles, the PS2 and GC are the only places they'll be able to do it, because MS' model doesn't allow the games to charge an additional fee (over the Live fee). As it is, EA is just selling customer info collected from online players to sustain the server costs. Many game titles won't work well with console-hosted servers, while those that do have that option (on most consoles, including XBox).

Of course, the reason the PS2 is doing so well has absolutely nothing to do with their online strategy. Look at it this way: Sony proclaims that SOCOM is the #1 online console title, since it sold ~1 million units, yet Sony had only planned to ship 1 million network adapters by the end of this past March (after SOCOM had sold 1 million units). Chicken, Egg? Sony has no idea how many people are using their consoles online, and they never will. Anyone can pick up an adapter (although frankly, I can't find one unless I want to buy the console again), and they've been pushing a lot more of them out since they stopped forcing people to buy the hard drive at the same time (then again, the only online title I see myself playing on the PS2 anytime soon needs the hard drive, too), but it doesn't mean that everyone that bought the adapter is using it.