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?

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SOE Warning

[eldavojohn]

"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.

For those of you with an XBox 360 who aren't in the MMORPG realm, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is the same team that brought you EverCrack, Star Wars Galaxies: A Fanbase Divided and The Matrix: Lagging Online.

This is just ample warning that you may experience one or more of the following symptoms when using the Playstation Network:

• An unlimited number of expansion packs you need to buy, each more expensive than the last.
• A development team that actually reads through customer suggestions so they can figure out what not to do. They then implement the opposite of what everyone on the forums wants. When the product fails, they'll blame the original concept creators.
• The death of your best NPC friend just because he was getting a little weird and creeping everyone out.

I honestly hope that this Playstation network thing is done right. But then again ... it's probably just going to be a system by which Sony can get the FR (first rootkit) on your new PS. Especially if you've managed to run Linux on it.