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XFire is Sony's Answer to Xbox Live
1up is reporting on Sony's 'answer' to Microsoft's Xbox Live system: XFire. The PC-based game networking service is already extremely popular among FPS and MMOG players. Financial reports indicate the service will now be extended to the PlayStation 3 as well. From the article: "By incorporating an existing service into their own PlayStation Network Platform (PNP), Sony hopes to circumvent existing problems in the console space that Microsoft has had to sort out and in using Xfire -- a company with an established messaging, matchmaking and gaming client -- Sony hopes to narrow the four-year gap in online gaming services that Microsoft currently enjoys (Xfire has been around since 2002)."
I thought XFire was Sony's answer to XBattery.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I think they should rename the PS3 to XBox, because that goes really well with XFire.
Xactly!(sorry, couldn't resist)
Monstar L
I wouldn't put too much faith in GTA and FF carrying Sony, especially now that GTA isn't going to be PS3 only...both franchises have been going downhill in my mind.
But then again i'm weird and still live in the 80s and 90s. I don't like the direction Final Fantasy has been heading since VII, and I would rather play GTA 2 (top down), than play any of the new 3D ones.
Only time will tell.
So Xfire is not owned by Sony, right? This is interesting because there is the very real possibility of this deal entangling Sony with a foreign entity[1]. We saw this during the last console cycle when Microsoft and Nvidia disagreed on chip pricing.
Worse, if the relationship goes sour, several bad things would happen. Depending on how the online service is implemented, old games could stop working. Players might also be forced to sign up for a new service, and hassling with learning how to use it and setting everything up again. Or Sony could go with another system for the PS4, leaving gamers with Xfire accounts for PS3 and something else for PS4. Contrast this with Xbox Live, where the whole service is done in-house, and these problems basically do not exist. Of course, you're still locked down to Microsoft, but that's another discussion.
But to me, the most interesting element here is due to Xfire recently being bought by Viacom. Viacom is a very large and powerful media conglomerate. Sony, while more diversified, also owns a lot of media holdings. I wouldn't be surprised if some collusion[2] happens because of this deal. Maybe Sony throws some Paramount trailers up on the PS3 download service, or perhaps PS3s start showing up on Viacom-owned TV networks. This could also be an interesting angle if any disputes arise.
Of course, all my speculation here could turn out to be total BS. Despite Internet forums and "market analysts" predicting PS3 DOOOOM, Sony has a pretty good record so far of being forward-looking when it comes to consoles.
[1] By "foreign" I mean "outside the company".
[2] Collusion is illegal, so they'll call it something like "cross-promotion".
Well, according to an update on 1-UP, it turns out that this Xfire deal was only for one game, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, and it is NOT meant to be the be-all end-all online solution for all PS3 games. Furthermore, the deal is between Sony Online Entertainment, and not Sony Computer Entertainment, which is the actual group that is handling the PS3. Now, things could change, and SCE could change their minds, but still ... this is all very bizarre.
:P
When I first heard of this news, I thought it was a good move by Sony. Their strengths are in hardware, not so much with software. Yes, SOE is handling EQ and Star Wars: Galaxies, but those are arguably not to be proud about (at least of late). So partnering with Xfire seems like a great idea. Maybe the start of some good news (finally) for Sony?
But upon hearing that this partnership really is limited to just one game? Huge steps backwards, once again. Does this mean we can expect every game to utilize a different network model? Will I have different friends lists and achievements with EA and Square-Enix, with some games not utilizing anything? It's also really late in development, so does that mean all of the network features Sony is claiming to be working on, are really really behind?
I was under the impression, as was many others probably, that there was going to be one network, and the reason why we weren't hearing anything about it, was because the devs were hard at work on it. (Compared to the 360, where MS spent a large amount of time showing off Live functionality at the E3 prior to launch) But news like this makes it seem like Sony doesn't really know what it's doing after all.
-- jchenx