PS3 Online: How It Works Comments by Rob Fahey

:)

Good board this turning out to be, but im a bit baffelled.

I mean this all sounds great but didn't we all know Sony were goin to offer these services already?. Personaly i was never worried about PS3's front end, thats not the difficult part its the network behind the flashy front end thats the important bit.

There's no point having a flash looking porsche if its got the engine of a metro.

I really hope they are able to pull this off, because XBL will almost certainly become free.

And Shinji is right: Xbox Live doesn`t do multiplayer gaming, it's up to the games to implement that. All multiplayer sessions are hosted on one players machine (except MMOG-Realms).

Xbox live is: lobbying server, friends, chatting, etc., purchase and download content, setting up multiplayer sessions, score and achievements database, DRM for games an multimedia and - from developers view - a bunch of libaries and API's to access all this.
Xbox Live is not: dedicated multiplayer servers or actual MP-Network code.

@mattigan - JC said anything, since when does anything encompass only online? Unless he was being specific to the article, in which case he is still wrong, M$ could NOT get the kind of shopping standards Sony has the option of, simply because Sony owns parts of the Music and Movies industry, meaning the Sony shop will be far more interesting than the live marketplace.

Edit - It's good to know that Live uses P2P gaming, it meens that Sony's service may not be as "laggy" and perform as badly as people would have us beleive.

Except Microsoft talking to the owners of the content to sell it for them would not be impossible.

Whatever Microsoft do, Sony will better it.

XBOX 360 - PLAYSTATION 3

XBOX Live - PLAYSTATION NETWORK

I bet this is hurting all you xbox fanboys reading this, mwahahahaha.

Oi PlayStation Network is FREE.

You fools keep paying Microsoft to play games. lol.

Mugs.

Antena your praise is a little over the top and possibly premature,I don't think I've ever seen a post with such gushing support for an electronics company :/
Killahsouljah keep on fighting the good fight,your post is as informative as ever!....Twat :)

i can its already hurting rentboy the little batty boy.

Killa and I define the difference between a fan and a fanboy, take note people. ;)

Edit - @disc - You are correct, ad it may happen if SCE do indeed form close ties to other Sony departments for the shop, I mean it ould hardly harm them to do so, I think it will happen. Thing is though, it could be a massive source of income for them, less so for MS, simply because they would be paying for the privelage to allow the content for Dl.

It does seem that what I said when the psp launched, that the psp was released to test stuff for the ps3 was right, which also implies that sony have been working on the online system from before the psp was released which is a good sign.

From what little NEW infomation we were given it sounds very hopeful there's no major red flags as of yet and the interface seems very easy to use. However we still no nothing about the online game servers, will we be able to use our ps3's to set up dedicated servers for games? will it use p2p? Will companies charge to use servers? will it be laggy?

These are just some of the questions that need answering in less than a month. While I'm still undecided on which next gen console to get, or none of them as I'm yet to see anything that really says it's worth buying another console.

You shouldn't underestimate how expensive it is to host lobbying and presence services. It seems they aren't hosting lobbying/matchmaking, which probably saves a bit.

Actually they do serve the matchmaking lobbies as well. Not mentioned here though.

And you know it's not that expensive since they have to have that framework in place just for their shopping network and messaging services.

Wow, lot's of $-sign's flying around today. Next thing you know, they will bring them out and start swinging them about. 0_o

PlayStation Network
- PlayStation ID (Handle / Username / Password)
- User Profile
- Friends list
- Message system (text, image, audio, video)
- Chat system (text, audio, video)
- Matchmaking system
- Ranking system
- PlayStation Store (PS/PS2/PSP game downloads)
- In-game Store
- Web Browser
- In-game Notifications
- Online Gaming (free)

ALL FREE!

You mugs keep paying the richest company in the world to play games online.

PC, Wii, PS3, 360 - all multiplayer gaming will become free soon enough - either that or all models will start charging.

There's just no room for two such wildly different systems across rival platforms.

gerald: Nobody said live was a series of dedicated servers set up for Xbox live games either(well I certainly didnt), but Shinjis explanation was way to over simplified and yours was not much better. To make it sound like MS would throw so much money at an online service(something which MS are far far more experienced and equiped for) when they are more likely able to do this more quickly and cheeply than the competition if they chose to, is nonsense. They didnt chose some quick route to make a cheap buck or two(they have invested far more than anyone else in the console industry, that is FACT) ... why do you think this is?

This is because its necessary to keep things running as smooth, seemless and effecient as possible. It's also constantly maintained and improved as MS feel necessary(they do this quite alot, this tuesday for example). Sony tried to tell us they knew better last gen and so far I'm still not convinced even though it is a huge improvement over PS2s service(this is all thanks to MS leading the way... lets not forget they showed how it should be done, a good thing none the less for Sony followers), to say they've already mached 360s offering without even trying it yet shows some of the EG staff still have some bias(It's alot better than it used to be atleast but do they ever learn?).

I do I hope Sonys online system is good competition for xbox 360. It looks like it could do a fair job, but we'll only find out when its running.

So who foots the bill for server and bandwidth space? Do developers have to shoulder this burden?

I'll be waiting to see it in the flesh. Sounds nice and all but two things concern me:

1: Why is there no online functionality in launch and near launch games?
2: Where else will we get raked to pay for this functionality?

(Yes there are costs involved and they're already losing a TON of money on the hardware... so where's the profit coming from?)

Games supporting multiplayer at launch.

Resistance Fall of Man : 40 player multiplayer.
NBA 2K7 : 10 player multiplayer.
Fight Night Round 3 : 2 player with ESPN integration.
Armored Core 4 : 8 player multiplayer.
Ridge Racer 7 : 14 player multiplayer.
Need for Speed Carbon : 4+ player multiplayer (including strange coop mode).
Untold Legends : 4 player multiplayer (coop).
Full Auto 2 : 8 player multiplayer.

There are plenty of other potential ones that I didnt bother to check up on

Games that dropped multiplayer for PS3 at launch.

Tony Hawks Project 8
Virtua Tennis 3 (rumoured)

From playing about with it for the past day:

It's big, and it dominates the space it's near/in.
It shows fingerprints up (far less of an issue when it's under your TV compared to on your desk, of course. It'll be further away and you won't want to, or be able to, touch it)
It's heavy (or at least, the ***** is).
Pad is light.
It's quiet (during dashboard stuff anyway).

I haven't played anything on it. I can't comment on the graphical fidelity. The menu moves about nicely, but is more sparse than the 360's. I haven't taken it online. If I were forced to pick the better dash/menu now, from between the PS3 or the 360, I'd pick 360. But like I said, I haven't taken it online.

Hm... Disk seems to be forgetting one of the most important Euro launch titles:
MotorStorm (12 players)
Rainbow Six: Vegas (16 players)
Call of Duty 3 (24 players)

And some more games coming in March/April
Brothers in Arms 3 (unknown)
Haze (unknown)

And some online games you can get on Japanese import (region free rocks)
Gran Turismo HD

Honestly, I hope most of these games have international servers. Otherwise many good online games wil nog have enough users, just because there are too many of them.

Here are two questions.

1) Who is providing the network infrastructure? This is one of the core reasons PS2 Online was so bad - it was horribly slow and unreliable depending on where you lived. Blame Gamespy.

2) So - you put money into your wallet? I bet you have to do that in chunks, 10 quid at a time or something, which ends up being no better than Marketplace. Really cheap and dirty way to extract more money from people.

Now if only the PS3 came with an HD-AV cable...

CrunchinJelly Wrote:
Who on earth wants to view websites on their TV?

We had this with the Dreamcast and it just didn't work.


You had a HDTV when you had a Dreamcast?

Lucky bugger.

Dunno where you people are getting Sony-hosted lobbying and matchmaking from. If they do provide it, I guess Quazal have signed a pretty poor deal - what developer is going to pay them, when the platform provides it for free?

"Sony doesn't hide the price of items behind an arbitrary "points" scheme - instead, everything simply lists a price in your local currency, so European types will see a Euro price, British people will see prices in Pounds Sterling, and so on."

YES!!!! :D

Cool, I'll admit that I'd seen a lot of news about multiplayer being dropped from titles, good to see that it is there for those.

Mox: Quazal, Xfire and Gamespy are all supplying frameworks for developers to use. It's useful if a developer is creating titles for PC and PS3 and want to use the same libraries. The 3rd party libraries on PS3 will all build upon Sonys libraries.

Wonga: It's quite easy actually. When you see the price of a game in Microsoft Points you have nothing to compare it to. If you see it in dollars/euros/pounds/whatever you can compare it directly to the prices of games in the shops, a coke, a bag of crisps, whatever.

It's a mindset and Microsoft knows it and they probably make more money just by making them Points instead of 'Real Cash'.

Great article, also good note that online-gamers are a small minority. I wonder if online multiplayer is the right way.

Aside from that online distribution / content downloads will undoubtetly increase.

I agree with Calgon,everyone seems to be getting far too excited about PS3's online service far too early,and to claim it's already better than the 360's is just silly.Granted at the moment it's looking very nice and is clearly a vast improvement over the PS2's mess of a service,but before stating that Sony are the saviours of online gaming with their great FREE service lets wait and see how smoothly it all works for your average consumer when they start using it come mid November.
Not much in this world comes for free,i'm still willing to bet there will be a catch of somesort somewhere in this service.

Sony by making the base service free, and not having to worry about maintaining any kind of servers is a win-win situation for them. They can use the "free" thingie for publicity, while anyone who wants anything more than just check their friends, and needs some downloadable content will need to "open their Wallet".

Anyway, I'm glad Sony managed to build a good service, or what it seems to be, at least. Now, we just need to see this massively implanted with some dozens of thousands of players worldwide using it at the same time.

And btw, I just love the psp-like interface. Kudos for Sony for using it.

This shows me why Sony has been so arrogant lately. They simply have an amazing product here and once this is out with all these amazing fetures and games, no one will care about the delays, the price etc.
...
I am simply at awe at how well Sony is running their PS brand. Don't worry about Sony going broke, their software sales alone make them the richest company in the gaming.
...
I think the word "Perfect" won't be far off to describe Sony's online plan.
As a consumer, I am very pleased.

Thank you Sony.

Ken, is that you? Have you given us the first prayer of the Church of Sony?

Sheesh...

Really?I thought using the same interface was kind of unoriginal,yes it works fantastically on the PSP as it's a handheld and the simplicity of it all is well suited.
But to me the blandness and how empty of detail it all looks is a bit ''meehhh'', especially when it's on on a £425 super console connected to a giant HDTV :/

"I don't think i'm explaining this very well... but the fact that you purchase points in advance makes all the difference."

No it doesn't. It's an easy scheme to make you spend more money by using a 'currency' the value of which you don't have a clear perception. It just stinks.

/off to play KH2 again... Playing games is way better than reading idiot fanboy posts... ;)

sounds quite good, i don't know how the 360 user interface can be seen as bad, though?

Yea didn't get that clear perception lark coming Les either Wonga.
I reckon it's very clear you go to shop buy points for a set amount of currency. Buy downloads with points. Clear as crystal and not very complicated. It's a good system and it works.

PS3 online sounds excellent. It's what PS3 buyers wanted, plus some. The only arguments from here on are in the realms of fanboy squabbling and preference.

Aye, got hight hopes for it let's just hope it works well. Maybe then as a few others (the reasonable ones) have mentioned MS may ditch the subs for Live (can't see that happening though) Definately a step in the right direction from Sony.

lookin good.

PC, Wii, PS3, 360 - all multiplayer gaming will become free soon enough - either that or all models will start charging.

Ah, but that is where you are mistaken. All platforms charge for their service, they just shuffle around with who pays the cost and in what manner (be it visible or integrated in other essential products). There is no such thing as free, one way or another, you always pay the price.

anoncoward: Do you have one? How did you manage to do that? 0_o

sounds quite good, i don't know how the 360 user interface can be seen as bad, though?

Well, I wouldn't call it bad, but it definitely has much room for improvement. Again, MS has all the money in the world, but they keep coming up with half arsed design attempts (they are improving though).

Calgon wrote:This is because its necessary to keep things running as smooth, seemless and effecient as possible. It's also constantly maintained and improved as MS feel necessary(they do this quite alot, this tuesday for example). Sony tried to tell us they knew better last gen and so far I'm still not convinced even though it is a huge improvement over PS2s service(this is all thanks to MS leading the way... lets not forget they showed how it should be done, a good thing none the less for Sony followers), to say they've already mached 360s offering without even trying it yet shows some of the EG staff still have some bias(It's alot better than it used to be atleast but do they ever learn?).

You have yet to say anything at all. Microsoft is charging because it's "necessary to keep things running as smooth, seemless and effecient as possible"? What the heck does that mean? Why would the fact that you pay Microsoft tons of cash each year make your Internet Provider widen your bandwith, or make developers tighten their network code?

Tell me, why does Online gaming work so well in PC titles then? Or do you believe this is because you annually send 100$ in a sealed envelope to "Microsoft, C/O Internet Gaming gods, Redmond, CA"?

Well said, Roamer.

Some people talk as if Microsoft had invented online gaming. Besides being able to play online (which is great, but quite an ancient concept), the Live "experience" is pretty pointless to me. IMO scoring achievements or being able to buy Galaga or some in-game item doesn't add any value at all.
Having to pay to play online makes me feel robbed, just as having to pay €20 for the privilege of charging my gamepad while I play.

I understand why some people may like all this, but the system is far from perfect.
Competition is a good thing! (tm)

EDIT: grammar!

Maybe I'm just getting old, but the 5 euro a month I pay for the live gold account is a bargain. I know I can just pop in a game and it'll go. No messing around with seperate accounts for voice or individual game subscriptions. Its all there.

As for the points versus cash, well, I think ms points actually make me buy less on live (I've bought geometry wars and street fighter since launch). I think if they had just let me register a credit card and click a big shiney buy button I would have been more inclined to buy stuff. As it is I have to go through the process of buying points and then using those points to buy what I want. Its just an uneccesary step which I cant be bothered with. Sony are probably doing the right thing to get people to buy more stuff.

Sony in "Something designed to compete with Xbox Live actually turning out to be quite good" shocker!

Well, I think its best to wait and see. After all this is an article about sony written by Rob Fahey. Large pinches of salt should be kept close at hand at all times. When the service is up and running with actual games and (10's of?) millions of people we'll get to see how good it is then.

Yeah Jiveguy. But we need to waste the time until we can really see, so why not with mindless speculation and pointless discussion over stuff that does not even exist yet? :)

We are gamers who love to talk about our hobby, that's all.

EDIT: Even though some of us should take our hobby a lot less serious...

Roamer: You're not putting up much of arguement yourself, you seem to be under the impression that Live is the same as anything before such as PS2 and your average PC game. This is bullshit(youve probably never played live or do not understand the differences), Ive played online PC games and I noticed instantly where the money was spent($2 billion my friend, between Xbox Live and 360 was what was planned to be spent as they geared up to get everything up and running, theyve spent atleast that and thensome you can bet, how can you beleive Sony are able to do this for free and offer the same experience?).

What was meant by that quote was nothing to do with what you followed up with(you probably knew that), it's to do with the ease of use("seemless", you arent expected to do much, most of that is behind the scenes and done for you, which makes it easier for people like yourself to get playing online), it's to do with how fast you can find a good game with the right conditions and begin playing("smooth") and it's also to do with the fact that this is a closed network for gaming with a broadband connection a network thats been configured and tweaked to optimise the performance of network gaming, for example hosting on the same connection in most cases lag is less of an issue thanks to Live("efficient").*you cant always blame the netcode but it is sometimes the cause. In Xbox and 360 Live's favour(for the sake of the effectiveness of Live anyway) we have the fact that most modern PCs have more memory to work with and in some cases faster hardware too*

Now this is all thanks to how MS have managed to tie in the many features available(optimatch, auto-update-patching, voice chat, invites ect) along with this CENTRALISED online gaming system they've built. The centralisation is what sets it apart from what you were getting at(PC, PS2 and the like). Yes developers provide the games which includes gamecode, netcode and gamplay(duh! I dont think we needed to point that out though did we?... apart from the fact that MS provide good support to help developers with Live enabled games), but MS DO provide the server bandwidth and user frontend; this removes the usual costs from game developers. This was the main reason Xbox had so many more online supported games than any other console has ever had, perhaps this trend will continue(reports already of developers droping online for PS3 games?) perhaps it will be more even this time around but all that matters to me is which is the best service and that is where Sony have ALOT to prove(especially since Xbox Live is already successfull enough to ensure many years of online gaming fun to most people).

While we are comparing to the PC space why not make a fair comparison and look at a service which is actually close to live(you know offers the same kind of things for a start rather than ignoring what you want to), take a look at this list and notice which service offered is closest to live and how much it is:
http://www.gamespyarcade.com/download/


*Hint: I'd say founders club... and even then Im still not sure how well it works compared to live, anyone here use it?*