PS4 Free Multiplayer Weekend

By +Asmodai
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+Asmodai MVC

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3 minutes ago, Audioboxer said:

Still sad it came to this :(

Wait, what?  You're sad it came to a free multiplayer weekend?

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Grand Master

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1 hour ago, Asmodai said:

Wait, what?  You're sad it came to a free multiplayer weekend?

No, paying for multiplayer! Still believe it should be free on consoles with the Plus service for games/cloud storage/discounts and what not.

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+Asmodai MVC

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17 minutes ago, Audioboxer said:

No, paying for multiplayer! Still believe it should be free on consoles with the Plus service for games/cloud storage/discounts and what not.

I believe the big issue is the chat server.  Sony took a ton of flack on the PS3 because they didn't have any infrastructure servers for things like voice communication.  The PS3 just hooked up to the public internet and you could use whatever was there.  Game developer thus could use whatever they wanted but that means like EA might roll it's on solution for it's games while another company might make a deal to have TeamSpeak host the in game chat, etc.  This made it impossible for Sony to implement cross-game chat because everyone was using something different.  In order to resolve that they had to provide the voice services themselves so everyone would use the same one, developers no longer had to implement/license their own solution, and gamers got cross game chat.  The issue there is that means Sony has to run big servers capable of hosting large numbers of users simultaneously (everyone playing any PS4 network game using voice) and that costs money.  Sony's not exactly in the position financially to be giving away tons of stuff for free (especially not prior to the PS4 launch when these things were being decided) and so they had to make the users who use it (multiplayer gamers) pay for it.  If you play only single player you don't have to support servers you don't use and thankfully they didn't do the full Microsoft treatment circa Xbox 360 and put the web browser, Netflix, etc. behind the paywall as well.

 

I'm just curious, would you rather the multiplayer be free and lose cross game communication with each game/company rolling their own?  It's not really just voice communication either Sony offers other services I believe to PS4 devs kind of like Steam does with Steamworks on PC.  Only imagine Steam REQUIRED games that release on their platform to use Steamworks and that's kind of where Sony is with the PS4 now compared to the PS3 being more like gog.com or disc based non-steam games where there's no server services provided by the platform holder at all but you have full internet access.

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Grand Master

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I subscribe to Plus anyway for the games and cloud storage, so it kind of really doesn't matter. I don't play many MP titles as I can't stand most gamers (lol), but I do enjoy cooperative MP games as those who try to play like COD usually get frustrated and go back to COD. PvZ is great, can't wait for the second.

 

However I refuse to accept the argument servers cannot be good unless you pay some sort of sub. It really is just business/money and greed. The Xbox/360 done it better because MS were far ahead of Sony with software, and still are ahead in some regards, it's not because Sony are "poor". They just do not have the same software talent/experience as MS do. MS have been in the software business for ages.

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+Asmodai MVC

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8 minutes ago, Audioboxer said:

I subscribe to Plus anyway for the games and cloud storage, so it kind of really doesn't matter. I don't play many MP titles as I can't stand most gamers (lol),

 I'm right there with your, rofl.

 

8 minutes ago, Audioboxer said:

However I refuse to accept the argument servers cannot be good unless you pay some sort of sub.

Not sure where this came from.  I didn't say servers cannot be good unless you pay some sort of sub.  The difference is that on the PS3 the servers were maintained by the developers/publishers.  They could be great or terrible on a case by case basis but if they were terrible it was because of the developer/publisher because Sony had nothing to do with it (unless it was a Sony game which makes them the developer/publisher for that title not just the platform holder).

 

Sony had NO servers that were provided as a platform service to PS3 developers so their cost for multiplayer games not developed/published by them was ZERO.  As such there was no charge from Sony to gamers for multiplayer.  For the PS4 Sony now hosts certain platform services for ALL PS4 games (such as voice chat) even if they don't publish/develop the game.  As such they now have to maintain PS4 platform service servers and pay for bandwidth to provide those services where before they had none.  So unless you "refuse to accept" that running physical servers and paying for bandwidth as they do now costs more than running no platform service servers and paying for no bandwidth as they did with the PS3 I don't really see what the issue is.  It has nothing to do with if the servers are good or not.  It's about WHO is providing the servers... are they being provided by Sony at Sony's expense (which is the case for the PS4) or are they being provided by the individual game developers/publishers at their expense (as they were with the PS3).  If Sony is spending money on it that money has to come from somewhere.

 

8 minutes ago, Audioboxer said:

 

It really is just business/money and greed. The Xbox/360 done it better because MS were far ahead of Sony with software, and still are ahead in some regards, it's not because Sony are "poor". They just do not have the same software talent/experience as MS do. MS have been in the software business for ages.

It has nothing to do with being ahead with software or talent/experience (though I agree MS is better at software development, it's just not what this issue happens to be about).  They're completely different network methodologies.  PS3 just put the console on the public internet and told developers/publisher to have at it.  Xbox 360 made their own little private network and charged users for access and for the right to go from their private network to the public internet.  Personally I think the PS3 more open model is better but I acknowledge that that is personal opinion and so it's fine if you prefer the MS "walled garden" approach.  The PS4 shifted to a hybrid model where you still connect to the public internet like the PS3 but Sony provides and requires PS4 developers to use certain services (such as voice chat) instead of allowing/making them roll their own.  I actually prefer the PS3 model over the PS4 but in my opinion (which you again are free to disagree with) even the PS4 hybrid model is better than the Xbox 360/One "walled garden" model.  I'll also acknowledge that MS seems to be much better at keeping their platform services servers up but like software development skills that really has nothing to do with if they charge for multiplayer or not.

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Grand Master

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On 21/02/2016 at 8:24 PM, Piggy said:

Wait, what? Multiplayer is not free? I'm not a big multiplayer person but I do have PS+. 

MP hasn't been free since the PS4 launched. PS4 MP requires PS+.

 

MP remains free on PS3, however.

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