PS3 online concerns

[Ryne]

This week, some of our deepest fears about Sony's online service were confirmed when Insomniac's Ted Price revealed in an interview that one of the biggest launch titles for the console, Resistance: Fall of Man, is set to use its own buddy list, clan registry, in-game messaging and chat services, and so on. While the game sounds like it has a very extensive and comprehensive range of online gaming options, and it runs on Sony's international network of servers to guarantee a high standard of network performance for online play, the simple fact is that the last hurdle Sony needed to jump has been missed, at least for the launch titles. The central buddy list doesn't integrate into the game; you'll need to add all your friends again to play against them in Resistance.

The ball, in other words, has not so much been dropped; it has been hurled at the ground with alarming force. Sony has done the hard work - it has built a console operating system which can be updated over the network, which is always-on and network aware, which can handle multiple user profiles and friend lists, messaging and chat, and so on. It has built an infrastructure which can support multiplayer games running on remote servers with players all over the world taking part. Somehow, however, it has failed to take the final step - actually providing the single sign-in, single-ID, single profile service which lies at the core of a console multiplayer offering.

The reasons developers cite for this problem are simple; the libraries to do this were not available early enough. The speculation they offer for why that happened is intriguing, however; there is a strong suggestion that until relatively recently, Sony had planned on simply offering games a connection to the Internet and letting them get on with whatever buddy lists, profiles, match-making and so on they wanted, completely unaware of any other game on the system. This is how the PlayStation 2 worked online, much to the chagrin of users.

Someone, somewhere within Sony, wanted things to stay that way. It's an illustration of just how out of touch a company can be from what its consumers want or need to enjoy their experience of a console and its software, and thankfully it was overturned. PS3 will, eventually, sport a unified online interface - but the tragic thing is that whatever internal battle resulted in this decision was won far too late. PS3, at launch, will be crippled in an online sense by an admittedly promising service in the operating system which is not utilised by key, big-name online titles such as Resistance. As teething troubles go, it's an absolutely huge one - and Sony will have to work very hard to win back the confidence of gamers who had been drawn in by the promise of single sign-in online gaming on the platform. It may be forgiveable in launch titles - but if the second wave of PS3 games doesn't cement the vision of a unified online gaming service, the price Sony has to pay for this oversight may be one that's difficult for the company to stomach.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=69535

[PL_ Veteran]

How hard can it be???

I can't see why they don't use one name across Xfire, PS3, PS2 and PSP.

[Spartan_X]

How hard can it be???

I can't see why they don't use one name across Xfire, PS3, PS2 and PSP.

it's not hard, it's expensive... that's why Microsoft charges a nominal fee for Xbox Live Gold to keep servers up and running while offering the most reliable online gaming service ever. Xbox Live Silver is free b/c it doesn't require that many resources to keep a cetralized server hosting profiles, friend lists and so and so. :happy: :yes:

In order to setup a service similar to Xbox Live Sony should have invested around $100.000.000 which I don't think they where in postition to do at that time and they didn't saw this as an important factor for their online strategy and that's why they let every game developer to run their own servers if they want to. :wacko:

the problem to that aproach is what happens if that game developer start feeling the burden of keeping those servers up and running? yes, they will not think twice to pull the plug and leave you in the darkness... :cry: :pinch: :no:

[magik]

the problem to that aproach is what happens if that game developer start feeling the burden of keeping those servers up and running? yes, they will not think twice to pull the plug and leave you in the darkness... :cry: :pinch: :no:

... or start charging gamers. It's inevitable. Sony and/or the Developers will eventually start charging for online play. There's simply no way around it. Mark my words.

[Meshuggah]

But they have a browser.I want a browser for my 360. :(

[John Veteran]

Is everything going wrong with the PS3 or is it just me?

But they have a browser.I want a browser for my 360. :(

Who ****ing cares? Do you want to surf the internet or play games? What good is a browser for more than downloading updates. Anything game related should already be do-able through the game itself.

[lukeangel]

You never know. The built in web-browser may be part of this missing feature online. Instead of game companies having to make in-game ladder results and rankings, they can just display it on the web in PHP or ASP format, then use the built in browser to display them for a more "universal" approach. :) That way they still have the ability to view your stats even if you don't have a PC that you can do it through.

but that is just my 2 cents. :)

-Luke Angel

[Ironman273]

You never know. The built in web-browser may be part of this missing feature online. Instead of game companies having to make in-game ladder results and rankings, they can just display it on the web in PHP or ASP format, then use the built in browser to display them for a more "universal" approach. :) That way they still have the ability to view your stats even if you don't have a PC that you can do it through.

but that is just my 2 cents. :)

-Luke Angel

Wait until someone makes some sort of Trojan that automatically downloads from tehPS3r00lz.com. Then you'll get to buy Symantec Norton Anti Virus for PS3 ($60). ;)

[spenser.d]

Wait until someone makes some sort of Trojan that automatically downloads from tehPS3r00lz.com brickmyPS3.com. Then you'll get to buy Symantec Norton Anti Virus for PS3 ($60). ;)

:p

I don't understand the big deal with a browser. Hell if I want to browse the net with my games console. I have a desktop and a laptop for that.

Does seem like Sony dropped the ball here. They want to compete with XBL, and manage to neglect one of the biggest things that makes XBL so great.

-Spenser