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Sony Takes Aim at Xbox Live
Joystiq and the site ComputerandVideoGames are reporting on the first real action in the next-gen war. Sony is apparently readying a strong online service that will meet or exceed the features of Xbox Live. With no firm PS3 launch date yet released, the 360 still has the advantage, but if Sony is rolling out an online matching and media service with their (reportedly) more powerful console things could look bad for Microsoft's new system. From the article: "This story, together with the recent survey Sony conducted, should remove any doubts about Sony's online ambitions. Is it possible that Sony could create a network the size and scale of Xbox Live in such a short time. It has cost Microsoft, the world's largest software company, billions and taken years just to lay the framework for the current Live service. Sony is know for their hyperbolic marketing: the PS2's Emotion Engine, the PSP as iPod-killer; it seems unlikely they could take the crown from Microsoft on their first try, but any attempt is a huge relief. It was beginning to look like Sony didn't think the Live service was a valuable addition to console gaming, or a serious competitor to their hegemony. "
Playstation 3 with rootkit pre-installed!
Fascism is the greatest political ideology ever conceived. Sorry.
I'll believe it when I see it. Feature for feature and then some. Right. I have a bridge in NY and some beach front property in Arizona to sell you.
And the Emotion Engine is powering my workstation, Cell will dominate all electronics on the planet, the PSP will kick Nintendo out of the handheld market and beat the iPod in one fell swoop. Yada yada yada. Oh and something about incredible real-time CGI. When it all falls flat on it's face it's going to be whoever bought it's fault for not understanding the awe-inspiring vision that is exuded by the Sony corporation.
Put on your waders boys and girls, stand very still and brace yourself, the Sony people are talking and you wouldn't want to be killed by the bullshit.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Will the online service be free?
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
Sony might having to perform a "me, too" not so much because of MS - but the combination of MS and Nintendo both having online services, plus both having a "purchase games via this interface" system (the Revolution possibly having a monthly subscription for playing the NES/SNES/N64 games).
Sony might have decided that if even Nintendo was doing an online route, they didn't want to be the last ones to the party. My guess is that they'll tell developers "You can still have the setup you want" (so if someone like EA wants to run thier own lobby/interface with ad revenue, they can), "... or you can use ours" (so publishers won't have to put all of thier resources into hosting servers - let Sony do it).
If so, I think it would be a good thing for Sony, if for no other reason than not look like the odd duck out.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
It's interesting the juxtaposition of roles here. Sony was the incumbent of the console wars, leaving M$ in the position of proving itself. I think it is pretty safe to say that M$ has given Sony a run for its money, and now M$ is the incumbent to a firmly entrenched online gaming network.
To put succinctly, Sony has one shot to get it right--not to dethrone M$, but prove that its online gaming shows the potential to rival or better M$'s system.
We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
A game console that's coming out in 2006 will have "on-line" capabilities? Really?! I'm shocked! They'll try to be better than their main competitor? You don't say!
That's like saying Ford will be coming out with a car that has airbags! Or the pepsi company launching a new "soft" "drink" that is carbonated! And they're saying it will taste better than coke or fanta.. I'm so excited!
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
If you like real action with the IBM Cell processor in the next-gen war, why not try this baby:
http://www.mc.com/powerblock200/
It knocks the stuffing out of any Sony PS3.
Ok maybe I'm just jaded about having to pay for a console then pay MS for essentially just a NETWORK CONNECTION to other players, but why NOT make it free? (as in air) I know it would make my decision simple when it came to xbox 360 or PS3.
:| )
Actually when I heard you had to PAY to change the skins, I backed off completely. Where are the days when you paid for a product and just enjoyed it without a constantly being nibbled to death by Credit Card Ducks?
No sir, I will still to my "alternatives", as offline as they may appear to MS, Sony or Nintendo until one day one of these companies gets a clue stick and sets up their system to be more P2P in nature then B2B.
GIMME MY FREE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE! (not like the game, the console the internet connection cost me anything eh?
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
Well, Sony has been in the EQ game for a while. Sony Online Entertainment. So I have no idea why people would think that Sony has to pull an infrastructure do Live-like functionality out of a hat.
In other news, DNF will be a PS3 launch title.
Frankly, I don't see online play as a major selling point. Sure, there are always hardcore gamers who will pay monthly fees year after year for the chance to play against gamers they've never met, but how does this add any value to the average gamer's purchase?
Your average Playstation gamer has GTA, a couple sports/wrestling games, and plays with a few buddies huddled around the TV. They have no interest in challenging anonymous strangers, nor to continue paying usage fees for a console they've already shelled out a mint for.
But I missed the most obvious thing.
Duh me.
When I finished reading how downloading games aren't just for pirates, and the use of Steam and MS Live for purchasing games, it became a "duh" moment as to why Sony wants their own online service:
Selling games. You can buy games off of Steam and Xbox Live for around $10 to $20 apiece, which brings us to a kind of "long tail" theory: not everybody wants to buy a game for $50, but there are probably plenty who will buy one for $15 or $10 if it's fun.
Sony can use that, and if they're making a good chunk of 25% off of each game sold, that's more revenue. Nintendo already stated they wanted to have independants on their online network, Microsoft has that now (see the success of "Geometry Wars" - and Sony sees those dollars.
I should have realized that first. I wasn't thinking greedy enough. I'm sorry.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
The great thing about this new network from Sony, is that it can install rootkits for you. And not even on-demand, but non-demand! Isn't that great?
Except in Soviet Russia of course, there the rootkits install Sony's new network...
Firehed - Unfortunately, thanks to medical breakthroughs, common sense is not as common as it once was.
A few years ago Sony made a big to do about Cell Processing, and the ability to do distributed computing across networks. The idea was they were going to put Cell processors in everything from soup to nuts, and these would all combine to make your PS3 more powerful. In addition to this, Sony was describing the ability to connect PS3's together over a network and allow them to combine to create a super-computing gaming system.
The one thing that Sony could do to make their online presence greater then Xbox Live would be to enable some form of shared processing environment, either to directly improve gaming performance, OR even to facilitate using the PS3 to work on global science problems while your not using it, like the slew of _@home distributed scientific projects. Using your PS3 for more then just vapid video gaming would make it appeal to a greater audience as it could find aliens, accurately predict weather, cure cancer, solve world hunger and facilitate world peace. I would buy a game console that could do all that. Xbox360 sucks because it can't do that.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Exactly, especially given that this is the same Sony that still has stability problems maintaining EQ/EQ2/SWG and Planetside 6 years after they entered the MMO space.
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20051 104
Basically you find what most other people find. Online gaming is fun when you play against your friends and your friends are around the same skill level as you. Once you get into this giant online community, where people play 10 hours a day, it isn't fun anymore, because it's too hard, and not everyone wants to devote that kind of time to it. I think that with the power these new boxes have, you should be able to host your own server, and play multiplayer just with your own friends for free, the way it's been done for years on PCs.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Why even in NORWAY they have this to say! Bill Gates och hans någotsånär stora företag Microsoft har som alla bör känna till släppt nu två konsoller på marknaden. Den första gick enligt Forbes back hela 4 miljarder dollar. Gates snackar om detta, och han berättar att Xbox'arna är en långtidsinvestering.
;-)
The language you're quoting would be swedish...
Generally, we norwegians do not write in swedish
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
Sony Online Entertainment (provider EQ, Matric Online, SWG as well as various PS and PSP online titles) released an interview recntly that sheds a little light on this.... http://www.gamergod.com/article.php?article_id=353 8
Abso-fuckin-lutely not. People are used to Sony's constant hype machine bullshit, and when you're already used to the stink it's pretty easy to tell reality from BS and this is utter BS.
The fact is, Sony's constant "we don't need a Live service to compete with MS" has been shown to be as last-gen-thinking as the PS2's graphics currently are. Sony NEEDS to compete on this front (XBox Live/Arcade is fantastic) and isn't currently in any position to do it...at least if they launch in '06. MS is already on iteration 2 of their service for god's sake.
sony is totally that guy that just makes up outrageous stuff every time he opens his mouth.
here are some possible add campaigns:
Sony's online service: more amazing than the time michael jackson came over the house to use the bathroom
Sony's online service: More amazing than the time kutaragi saved those old people from that nursing home fire
MS's system is sure gabbed about like it's a success, when it's not.
Xbox Live! has, roughly, 1 million subscribers. There's been a pretty steady state number of subscribers since people would run out of interesting games on Live!, leaving a drought before the next set of interesting titles. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag became boring after a while.
Compare this with Nintendo's DS service. They've already peaked over 1 million people in the space of a few months, beating out Microsoft's Xbox Live! service. Surprise, surprise, Microsoft has admitted that it's not working by offering the basic service for free (after all, if you want to pay for basic access, you're going to limit your customer base).
Nintendo was right to wait and figure out the logistics. Sony was stupid to wait too long, and set some bad precedents on their front. Nintendo has managed to turn a lot of people's biggest complaint into their biggest strength with the DS online service, and it's soon going to be linked to the Revolution service. That's a pretty good lead.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
So let me get this straight. Sony of PS1 and PS2 fame, Sony the company that dominates the video gaming industry, Sony the company that laughed off Microsoft's XBOX Live plans...is now playing catch up? Microsoft, the company that always follows, the company that never innovates, the company that only copies...is the leader? Next thing you know, Apple will buy an old style media company.... Oh wait...
I'm a Nintendo fanboy, have always been, will always be.
But currently, Nintendo WFC supports a grand total of three games. I haven't given Tony Hawk a try yet, so I can only speak for Mario kart and Animal Crossing.
"It's there" is the only good thing I can say about it. Yes, it is a huge leap forward to at last be able to play like-minded individuals who were bored outta their minds while playing their friends on regular Mario Kart, watching the others duke it out for a good thirty seconds to see who would be in second place. Yes, it's a fun game, possibly the best Mario Kart ever.
However, disconnecting pieces of shit suck. Friend codes suck. The interface is really NOT GOOD. Finding a game can take some time. It just sucks. The game in itself rocks all hell, and actually playing with some "nice guys" (by the way, spread the love, www.dsmeet.com ) is a great experience. But this "OH WE DON'T WANT PEDOS TO PLAY WITH TEH KIDDIES" bullshit could have been handled in other ways, and even though IANAL, I'm sure there was a sensible way to avoid any kind of "MY KID GOT RAPED BECAUSE HE MET A PERVERT PLAYING POKEMON ONLINE" without pissing the old-school crowd too much.
Animal Crossing is great fun. If you like to type 15 characters per line when you wanna chat, instead of simply incorporating pictochat, if you find something to do with people, heck it's fun! But at the end of the day, playing dollhouse is MY secret shame, and I'm not inviting you to steal my furry girlfriend away.
All in all, as a first shot, it's well-done, I'm glad they succeed, I'm glad it's free, but Big N has a few kinks to work out.
I'm not really saying it sucks. It's just that it sucks LESS than the competition, and I'm not holding my breath for the DRM3, thankyouverymuch!
I for one, bought the Network adapter and find it somewhat of a disappointment since Sony has never really released any of the cool internet-based content that they *should* have delivered.
DEAR SONY:
- Please make the network adapter on the PS2 more useful.
- Please release a *FREE* or very low cost. Linux distribution. Your Linux kit was too expensive, impossible to buy separately, and quickly went obsolete.
- Please provide some sort of appliance-like web browser for the PS2
Set Linux on the PS2 free! With so many PS2s out there, I see a giant missed opportunity to turn the PS2 into so much more than it currently is and to give it a longer usable lifespan as a set top box or multipurpose computer. Just look at xbox and XBMC.
How sad is it that my tiny little router is a more usable computer than my PS2?
Xbox Live is cool. Everyone says you'd be a sucker to pay, only the hardcore, it's for nerds blah blah blah. It's only a 5 bucks a month. How much do you spend on your cable bill? Xbox Live is a service that costs money to run and should make money too. Why else would they run servers? To spread joy and goodwill througout the world?
Consider the free service Battle.net. It sucks. There are routine disconects, the clunky interface, and the unregulated spam. Look how great that free service is. I much prefer to pay a few bucks for quality than endure second rate service. If you show the developers that you're not willing to pay they will look to other sources of revenue.
If you recall every week or so there's an article on Slashdot about the insidous rise of advertisments in video games. Then everyone says "Ads suck! I'll never buy!" Well if you're not willing to pay for online service what do you think will happen? You'll get spammed every time you logon.
I for one welcome Sony's effort. Even if it sucks (because it's free) at least it's another market choice. Truly the main reason I bought live was to play Project Gotham 2. If Sony's service were to compete it'd need a killer app.
"Sony announces X" is quite different from "Sony suddenly realizes that it seriously needs X, and will start work immediately". For all we know, they've been working on "PS3 Live" for as long as the PS3 itself, but only chose to announce it now.
... and remember, this is Sony. Apart from consumer electronics, they're well established in the content distribution market. For them "PS3 Live" won't just be a gaming matchup service, it'll be another distribution channel with built-in client-side DRM. Given that the PS3 is supposed to have CD-RW capabilities, it wouldn't suprise me if they offered a straight-to-CD iTunes clone... which could make things very interesting.
Does (any Sony product) + (Rootkit Installed) = (Barrels of laughter at Slashdot)???
Never gets old does it? Boy, the laughs never stop here at Slashdot!
Your comment is insightful, but it's a little hard to initially take seriously when you have more "M$"s in it then you do sentences. If you insist on using such childish names maybe just use one early on and let the reader fill them in for the rest of it. That way those of us who recognize that Sony, Nintendo, and other corporations aren't nonprofit charity organizations won't be snickering the whole time.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Seriously, I don't think Sony will push Microsoft out of the market. Microsoft has many gajillions of dollars to back the console, and they'll keep at it until no amount of money will save it, which -may- happen in the distant future with the NEXT generation of consoles.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
"
Hey guys,
I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.
I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.
They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.
But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.
Kinda spooky.
Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill."
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/show/21589
Hmm. So you were wowed by the PS2 at launch? Can you remind us the name of the wowie-games? Oh, and learn grammar, your last sentence contradicts you.
PS3 actual development screenshot
PS3 hype "screenshot"
Yes, Sony, of coooourse we believe you.
Well...good thing they have a friends list and I can avoid most of the asshats you speak of. Additionally, the 360's Live service now gives you more options when it comes to rating a player's behavior online. So for me, it's not an issue.