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PlayStation Network Details
Gamasutra has details on the gaming network that will underpin the PlayStation 3 online offering. From the article: "Co-developed by Sony Online Entertainment, the company's MMORPG development arm, and GameSpy Networks, the PlayStation Network Platform will allow players to compete online even in its free iteration, unlike Xbox Live. Sony will enforce integrated online capabilities between games, but publishers will be free to run their own servers." The folks on the 1up podcast were just talking about this topic last week. I'm personally not sure 'free' is the way to go. I'm willing to pay if it means I'm getting a quality service. Obviously you'd prefer not to pay but if it means the difference between an unreliable service and one the quality of Xbox Live, are you willing to pay?
Yes, Sony is going to model their online system on Microsoft's which was so bad that:
1) Less than eight percent of people were willing to pay for it - and that is being generous and taking Microsoft's inflated marketing numbers at face value
2) Large parts of the service have had to be given away with the 360 after the failure of the first online system
3) Sony had more people playing just one of their games online, SOCOM, than Microsoft had playing on their entire network
Microsoft is learning from Nintendo and Sony, slowly of course. Console gamers don't want to be ripped off just to play games online. Free online play is where Sony and Nintendo are at. Microsoft better scramble to come up with an answer.