PS3 Online: How It Works Comments by Rob Fahey

Hughes. No lets be fair here it's certainly not the case, I dont comment on all that many PS3 articles(although the last few months Ive posted in more than I usually do and for some reason some of them show up on the 360 section... perhaps EG like to stir things up I dont know), it's just that when I do Sony fanboys can be extremely defensive. For instance Ive said what many Live users have already, that the subscription cost is money well spent, the only negative thing Ive said that its FAR to early to assume PS3 will offer an equal service for free(its not likely and if it does MS may follow suit which might not be such a bad thing). I have thrown in some positive comments in where its deserved as I usually do(it is looking alot better than what was available on the PS2 at the very least). Theres not been alot of news regarding the PS3 online service apart from what they are aiming for so this was one of the odd PS3 articles that caught my eye. Sony fanboys are feeling very insecure lately but I guess that understandable, I've yet to buy a next gen console but Ive pretty much already made up my mind now having seen whats on offer from all sides.

Let us think of the fun we will have next gen and cheer up a bit though aye?(hopefully the wait is almost over for Sony fans... I think thats what has alot of them so grumpy and trolling the "Xbot" sections day in day out)

Fair do's old chap, I suppose the other comments your own found themselves among may have coloured how I read them. I've got plenty of time for a lot of 360 owners on here, and the debate seemed to have dropped to an unpleasant level after the decent tone last night.

I'm really hoping this generation being a closer match will lead to good things for all concerned, a better online service from Sony than the patchy efforts of last time, and maybe a price cut for those with Gold subs (I'm sure there's room for one, without damaging the service).

Hmm looked again, I meant 5 euro (Dutchie here), but seems it's more like 4 euro a month for gold..

Anyway I have a 360 myself, and I do enjoy Live. My judgement of bandwidth cost versus shop etc is based on my work as IT manager at an online business myself. I'm not denying there is bandwidth, upkeep, service and support cost. A more nuanced statement would be that I think that a Live-like service business model could sustain itself without a subscription fee on the basis of the shop and promotion alone. I reserve the right to be utterly wrong ;)

Some good arguments here though. Guess we'll know when we know, but that's so boring :-)

On the argument of MS paying for the downloads, of course the publishers of those games pay for that bandwidth, it is promotion of their games after all. Well I don't know the business model of Live, but I would expect this, unless bandwidth is very cheap for them (bandwidth is getting increasingly cheap after all, esp when you scale up)

Are you people not even the slightest bit embarrassed? You have somehow managed to turn an interesting discussion into what is basically a childish name calling competition. All this does is highlight the people who really need to be ignored...

These are the people who are considered gamers these days - Anyone depressed?

Xerx3s: "Lol? Do you actually have any idea how much servers cost? How much support costs? the overhead costs alone are gigantic and then we aren't even talking about the normal costs. Sorry, but that statement is complete cock and bull."

P2P stands for Peer-to-Peer. What that means is that no Microsoft server is needed. It's just two computers connecting directly (in the case of a game of tennis) where the game itself works as a server and a client at the same time. Trust me, on a Peer-to-Peer network there IS no extra cost for Microsoft.

It's pretty clear many of the posters in this thread are agenda spewing Xbots with no intention of ever buying a PS3 anyway, but it is ever so amusing to see them carry on as though this computer games console has them scared shitless :p

You never seem to fail to entertain me. Thx. \0/

Surely Sega could nicely ask Psuedo Interactive to "share" their net code to Sony's online service. :/

Well no, just because sega publishes it, doesn't mean that they will get all code. It depends on the contract. In the programming business, your better off holding your cards close to your chest, especially against friends.

I wonder if Sony fanboys like to spit or swallow the juices of Sony's proclamations?

Yeh, let's make this thread 1000+, shall we? ¬_¬

Thx DSMX! Finally something usefull out of this thread. Nice telly. :D

EDIT: I just saw all of them and it looks ALOT better than what I originally saw. The online system looks great (good to see that they payed attention to H2). This is exactly what ppl need for convincing, not vague promises. So when was this game out again?

Hughes: Why? For being critical? In think that if you go back to this thread, you will find that I will be pretty much dead on. Services cost money, someone will pay in some way. A full blown OS on a console is something that is very hard (not impossible) to implement and will have complications.
If you don't believe that, fine, I really don't care. If that makes me a fanboy in your eyes, I would suggest that you take a good look in the mirror.
I am critical, yes. I am critical to those that make claims while they have not proven themselves in those fields. Calling me what you call me for that says more about you than me really (especially because there have been lot's of 'xbots' & '$$$' flying around and you happen to pick out 2 or 3 comments that are supported by the news (GTHD or what it is called i.e.).

Hmm looked again, I meant 5 euro (Dutchie here), but seems it's more like 4 euro a month for gold..

1,6 p/m by de V&D. \0/

I don't get why 360 owners would actually be ''scared shitless'' anytime soon,it's such a strong term to use just because there's a new console coming out.
What exactly should they be scared about?Is that they've had their next gen console for over a year before the competition finally arrives,is it all the great looking games that will be coming out over the next year,some exclusive and some not but looking great none the less,or is it the hd-dvd drive out in time for chrimbo that costs a lot less than most thought it would.
Silly,silly statement to make :/

I'm not arrogan, I was just making the point that no one else seems to be making when moaning about Live Gold charges.

Quite simply £40 isnt a lot of money, and if you're that concerned about spending £40 after you've alteady spent £280 on a console, £50 on a game, £60 on a wifi connector, agreed to pay £15-£30 a month for broadband, then maybe you should find another hobby.

Oh, and to those complaining that they should't have to pay more after paying their ISP "just to play online games", yeah right, it's just for games is it, you dont go on the internet, download music and movies, or post on Eurogamer using your home connection do you? No it's just for games I'm sure.

all in all sooner or later everyone will have a;MS entertainment machine... it's bound to happen like your Windows box there... at your place....

...in you work
... at your friend's
damn!!! they're everywhere!!!!

matt: you get Live connection on the 360 without paying anything, you just pay if you want to play online. About your last paragraph, not to say that ypu're contradicting yourself, but appart from that let me know how many posts to EG you did from your PS# a year from now, if not later...
I also got a tip: buy games online for your future 360, they range from 17.99 quid to 39.99, I own 26 games I not one costed more than the later, yes..., I have some special editions as well...
I bet you'll continue to use that trustworthy Microsoft Windows box of yours, 'cos you do have one don't you ?

In my case at my PSP, the fingers of one hand are enough to count how many times I used its browser..., talk about a flopped device...

PS3 might bomb but it sure is the most exciting console of the three if you count how many comments it sprungs everytime a text about it runs on EG.

miiiguel, will probably be able to count the posts to EG from any console on one hand. And am quite aware that you have to pay to play online, I can spell my name, do joined up writing, and also know how to suck eggs thanks you very much :P

I've Never bought a full priced game since I've been able to order online, I'm not stupid, well not that stupid! ;)

Just quoting RRP as that what everyone always quotes for a Live subscription, got mine for £17.

I actually think that the PS3 will be sucessful - SHOCK HORROR!!!

But refuse to sell out to Sony, well untill what they offer is worth the cost of my measly soul to me. So probably early 2008 then!

matt: chill mate I didn't want to sound agressive, it's the language thing maybe, that might have given the wrong imopression as english is only my 3rd (and last) known language, beeing portuguese the 1st, Unix the 2nd. ;)

I also think that PS3 will do good - as PSP did, although nobody uses the thing..., as nobody buys games for it, and UMD's dead as a media format's concern - but not because it's a good buy, it's just because it's a hip brand, you know..., it's like the girlfriends/wifes nagging us to buy an LCD/Plasma, it's cool..., it doesn't have better image than a CRT, but it looks good... .
360 has a price for the service it delivers that no other device can cope, imo, it's a bit sad to say (at least for me, I don't use Windows at all!), but it's true. They've got the deepest pockets, they deliver... .
They anounced 360's launch day to 20 November in the US, and 2nd of December to Europe one year ahead, and guess what ? They delivered!

I'm only messin, no real offense intended. I just enjoy a bit of banter as much as the next man :)

@Wonga: Why don't you have a clear perception? When you go to a foreign country and exchange your money for different currency... Does matter to you how much a dildo costs in your original currency? It's irrelevant, you are trading in the new currency, And you can see the cost of the items in tokens, relative to how much tokens you have in your pocket.

Yes but I'm not in a foreign country. I'm sat at home in front of the TV.
I personally prefer to see clearly, the cost in pounds in front of me. I know what I'm spending and I don't have to start thinking in conversions. Its real money.

@ Xerx3s

At least 1 person looked at the videos and appreciated what ps3 online could be like, still the question is will all games be like that. At least we know that insomniac have set the bar for what ps3 online should be like...

I think the system helps, as you cannot make a mistake of buying something that you actually didn't want to spend your money on.
I think the Sony's wallet "thing" does this also, but in the end it's the same thing.
In my case every quarter I buy 1000 points, when it's spent, no more treats..., got to wait for the next one.

can't be arsed to read the comments as i suspect half of them might be sony V's microsoft inspired, but it sounds promising. I think the way online is handled on PSP (when it is... too few games!) is pretty good. there are quite a few free demos etc and it's really easy to set up and use (whether for browsing or multiplayer). one of the major things that encouraged me to buy cross platform games on xbox rather than ps2 or gamecube were live features (namely multiplayer). I don't have a 360 yet but the whole store thing sounds pretty cool to me. if sony can offer, essentially, the same service, but for free that'd be awesome.

my main concern would be regarding the way multiplayer was set up, especially if sony aren't putting as strict a guidelines on standards as microsoft do, but looking at the consistent way the psp handles it and the amount of copycatting sony appear to be doing with xbox live, i'm not too worried.

This article is useless. I already knew that the PS3 uses the same interface as the PSP, that the basic online functions will be free and that there will be micro-transactions through Sony's online store.

Also, the author fails to mention that third-party companies, such as Capcom and Rockstar, will still have the option of charging for online gameplay.
And anyone who actually believes that the third parties won't charge for online functions is just plain naive.

Also, there is mention in the article of the fact that on the PS3 a person can have more than one user profile. So what. You can do the exact same thing on the Xbox 360, but in the article it is mentioned as if it is some kind of revolutionary feature.

I'm calling out the faults of this piece because I myself am a video game journalist, and I would've expected this article to be more informative and accurate than it is.

Sony likes to tell everyone that they are on the cutting edge of gaming. But from the guide button on their controller that they ripped rght from Microsoft to the six-axis tilt function that Nintendo had way before Sony ever had thought of their own implementation, Sony is a company that takes the ideas of others and claim them as their own.

Good article in general . Including a browser does add a security concern but it does open the console up to alot more possibilities .
One point of note though , people have a concern about how can this service be free ?Well , Google and Yahoo are free and they're not dying are they .It's what economist will call 'seen economics' and 'unseen economics' .'Seen economics' is basically where the effects are clearly seen , you have a product , someone buys it and you make money .'Unseen economics' is you give something away ( free ) , you get people to use the product , the product that you sold is a proxy to other products that people might buy and that's how you make money .The unseen way works better because more people now use your product , they have access to alot of other goods and they have more money to spend on other products because the initial product is free .It's an old concept , certainly not 21st century stuff .Yes , yes so XboxLive isn't expensive but do concede it's money that you could have spent somewhere esle ?

Anyway , if the PNP will be free ( for multiplayer/chat/video/etc ) then I'd expect Microsoft to soon lower or abolish Gold .It'll be interesting how Microsoft responds .

It all sounbs very promising for Sony , in the end all I really care about is stability and lag .

Good article in general . Including a browser does add a security concern but it does open the console up to alot more possibilities .
One point of note though , people have a concern about how can this service be free ?Well , Google and Yahoo are free and they're not dying are they .It's what economist will call 'seen economics' and 'unseen economics' .'Seen economics' is basically where the effects are clearly seen , you have a product , someone buys it and you make money .'Unseen economics' is you give something away ( free ) , you get people to use the product , the product that you sold is a proxy to other products that people might buy and that's how you make money .The unseen way works better because more people now use your product , they have access to alot of other goods and they have more money to spend on other products because the initial product is free .It's an old concept , certainly not 21st century stuff .Yes , yes so XboxLive isn't expensive but do concede it's money that you could have spent somewhere esle ?

Anyway , if the PNP will be free ( for multiplayer/chat/video/etc ) then I'd expect Microsoft to soon lower or abolish Gold .It'll be interesting how Microsoft responds .

It all sounds very promising for Sony , in the end all I really care about is stability and lag .

Sorry for the double post

@miiiguel

"matt: you get Live connection on the 360 without paying anything, you just pay if you want to play online. "

Is that true? Confuses me. I mean, if I have a *game* console with which I go online, it is most likely that I actually want to play. That's what the console is for, in the first place. So how does it make sense of having free services, but no playing included? I mean, it's clear that one has to pay for games like WoW with heavy server-side infrastructure, support etc., but for the casual P2P-games? Do you have to pay for that on XBL? Is that the difference between XBL silver and gold?

@JohnLee

Also, the author fails to mention that third-party companies, such as Capcom and Rockstar, will still have the option of charging for online gameplay.
And anyone who actually believes that the third parties won't charge for online functions is just plain naive.

Another person in deep denial of the last 4 years of free-to-play online gaming Sony offered. "It'll cost ya! Because I said so! Only a fool would say different!"

I'm calling out the faults of this piece because I myself am a video game journalist, and I would've expected this article to be more informative and accurate than it is.

As opposed to the selective ignorance of your own addition to the thread? Like this...

Sony likes to tell everyone that they are on the cutting edge of gaming. But from the guide button on their controller that they ripped rght from Microsoft to the six-axis tilt function that Nintendo had way before Sony ever had thought of their own implementation, Sony is a company that takes the ideas of others and claim them as their own.

Sony had a patent for a motion sensing controller back in 2004, before anyone had heard of Revolution or a Wii. As for other "ripped off" ideas, Two analogue sticks instead of one? Totally unprecedented, well done to MS and Ninty on that front! consoles that stand vertically instead of sitting flat? how original of MS and Nintendo, I wonder where they got that idea?

They ALL rip each other off, get over it.

Oh, never mind, it is just like that... Just found out myself from the XBL homepage. Shouldnt' ask so quickly sometimes if the info is just around the corner...

PS3 might bomb but it sure is the most exciting console of the three if you count how many comments it sprungs everytime a text about it runs on EG.

Unless it hits 1250+, we are not even mentioning it... ;p

Disc said: "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."

Incorrect, either third party network API can be almost 100% independent from Sony's libs. All that a developer using a 3rd party APIs has to adhere to is to make sure that any profile restrictions setup on an NP account are correct read and passed over to the 3rd party API.

As a PS3 NP programmer I can't confirm or deny anything due to NDAs, but there are parts of the NP setup that make me cry. Programmers working on the 360 and PS3, daily give praise to Microsoft's excellent XDK and mutter curses at Sony's SDK.

babyface: As the article says, and it's quite true, the majority of gamers don't feel compeled to play the usual brainless death-matches and clones, all in all it resumes to run arround killing each other with no plot, I include myself in that group. Although I have a Gold subscription, because to be honest I don't have many places to spend my decent sysadmin wage, as I have no kids, and I'm a bit of an ermit, but I rarely play those kind of games. What I do like is to download the trailers form TGS; E3 X06,etc., compare myself to my friends on the leaderborads, buy stuff from Marketplace, talk with friends from allover the world, and for that I didn't need the Gold subscription.

As a PS3 NP programmer I can't confirm or deny anything due to NDAs, but there are parts of the NP setup that make me cry. Programmers working on the 360 and PS3, daily give praise to Microsoft's excellent XDK and mutter curses at Sony's SDK.

Network programmer? If so, care to talk a bit more about what you can reveal? I should be far better reading material than what some other PS3 online explaining (with inside knowledge) ppl posted here.

To Hughes

I'm in deep denial? Okay, first of all, Sony's online "service" on the PS2 was a joke. The only game that had true online capability was Final Fantasy XI, and SquareEnix CHARGED a monthly fee for that game. So how, exactly, is that the "free-to-play online gaming Sony offered."

And about the patent that Sony had on motion-sensing in 04: That patent was NOT for six-axis functionality, and issuing a patent and actually implementing the technology are two very different things. You don't find it at all suspicious that Sony only put the motion function into their controller two weeks before E3?

Maybe you should do a bit more research before attempting to come at me with both barrels blasting, unless you want to get schooled every single time.

What I still can't cope with is how in hell am I going to have a 3-hour gaming session if I must be waving my arms ?
Must I start doing some jogging ?

Well, Sony's own network system will be not even be up to the specs and standards of Xbox Live when it first launched. There is one major feature which they had early on but removed due to server overload concerns. When you learn what it is you will shake your head and wonder what the hell they were thinking.

Expect rampant cheating in Sony NP (Network Platform, Sony's own API) games. This ties into leaderboards, which are going to be very basic to begin with.

Some of the APIs contain functionality that others don't, for example, invites.

The fact that you can't read messages in-game (as stated in the article), is a pain.

@JohnLee

Fact 1 : Games that you play against other people online ARE online games. Setting your own weasel worded defintion of "true online capability" to rule out anything except mmorgps, is a pathetic atempt to make your factual failure stand up to scrutiny. What's more, your chosen example of Final Fantasy XI required 360 owners to pay a SUPPLEMENTAL charge over and above the Gold subscription, so a worse example of the difference between Sony's online efforts and Live you could not have picked.

Fact 2 : Quite right, the patent was for a technology a great deal MORE like the Wii-mote than Sixaxis, and yet when "ripping off" Nintendo they came up with a very different solution, which you seem to believe appeared magically 2 weeks before E3 with no developement time whatever.

If this is your idea of "schooling" I sincerely hope you're not involved in the teaching proffession.

There are many people who are becoming excited about the announcment from Sony that the online capabilities of the PS3 will be free. But you might want to hold onto your elations until you know all the facts. The only part of the online service that will be free is the web browser. While Sony has stated they will not charge for online play in their first-party games, they are leaving it up to the third-parties as to whether or not they want to charge for online multiplayer in their own games.
This is something that still confuses a lot of people, and I'm not sure if it's going to become any clearer once the PS3's online network is up and running in November.
Also, microtransaction charges will still apply to all games no matter who makes them. Sony's claim that the online functions are free is only a half-truth, and it may be something that both they and gamers may regret. For instance, the $50 a year charge of Xbox Live is an all-encompasing fee for online play, with the exception of an MMO like Final Fantasy XI. But with all of the potential charges that the third parties could dream up, a person may end up spending much more than $50 if they play a lot of online games. We'll have to wait and see how all this turns out, so until then here's hoping that Sony's online strategy is a good one.

That's all true enough. I'm no fan of the microtransactions climate that is on the rise, and there will certainly be costs there, for those who opt for them. As for third parties charging for online play, I've discussed that earlier in the thread. Throughout the last 4 years of, admittedly patchy offerings, the overwhelming majority of online content was free to play, it still is, and it is on the PSP too (which appears to have been the testbed for PS3). Believing it will remain mainly free is based on plentiful experience, not hope or naiveté.

I can't understand why people say that online play won't be free or how it can't be free ( at least for 1st party games ) , microtransactions is another kettle of fish .And no one is forcing you to buy horse armour btw .

TO HUGHES

I can see your point. It's very clear that over the past few years all of the console manufacturers have ripped one idea or another from each other. That fact is not lost on me. And that is the reason that I'm sick of Sony claiming that they are so absolutely cutting edge when compared to Nintendo and Microsoft. They have actually said: "We are the true innovaters of the next generation." But in reality, it's Microsoft that had the first fully-realized online gaming presence. No, the Xbox 360 doesn't have a web browser, but I also have to question whether or not that really matters. And no, Xbox Live isn't perfect, but there has been no evidence so far that Sony's online service will be any better.
And I am not in any way trying to say that Nintendo revolutionized motion-sensing capabilities.
In fact, I feel that the more a game can suck you in and make you forget about the controller in your hands, the better, but Nintendo seems to be taking the opposite approach.

I can certainly see your points, Hughes, and I'd appreciate if you didn't try to completely discredit mine.

But what about horse armour sponsored by Coca Cola, that makes your horse invunerable to arrows. that everyone else online has got, so you can't compete without it?

That is an extreme example I know, but similar things could be planned to generate extra the revenue required to run these free services.

@mattigan
I think the point still stands , no one is forcing you to buy anything :-/

Fair point, it's just that Sony have previous for "feature slip" after they've anounced all the wonderful things their new product will be capable of with it's eyes closed, and I always get the feeling that they are being "economical" with the truth when they start previewing new product.

I know that this is basic PR, and they all do it but, I don't know, something about the way Sony has done it in the past and seems to be doing the same thing now just seems particularly underhanded to me.

Then again, it could all turn out to be true, which would be surprising. And good news all round, as MS would have to up their game too, and we all would be winners!

Penny Arcade nailed this today:

"Scouring the web on the heels of the Eurogamer PS3 article, it's been intriguing watching (and sensing) the momentum shift to Sony's horse. Based on what we actually know, I'm not sure it's deserved. But the arguments are so visceral that you can't defuse them that way.

Sony claimed that their service would be both better than Live, and free, but it's discernable immediately that - for most gamers - being free makes it better, automatically, independent of the offered functionality. The actuality is a good deal more complex than that, but the position can be expressed with such elegance. Let us suppose

Console life cycle = 4 years
1 year Xbox Live service - ~$50
4 x 50 = $200, or the Price Difference Between the 360 and the PS3.

There's really nothing to say to that. We've discussed the idea here on the site as it relates to micropayments - that the difference between paying no money for something and paying some money for something isn't a thing you can measure. It isn't like the difference between three dollars and four dollars, let's say. It's the difference between oblivion and infinity - but that kind of imagery isn't even necessary for this exercise. You can simply aggregate it out to the life of the system, watching with horror while - as though in time-lapse footage - a tiny hand zips in and our of your wallet each month, his clutch bursting with cash.
Well, not bursting. It's like Four Bucks. But, yeah. You can't minimize it rhetorically. It's real money.

Comparing each company's scheme for knitting together online communities isn't really an apples to apples thing - with Sony, online is implemented, with Microsoft, online is a shell-level assumption that runs through every application, a potent distinction. It doesn't really matter. I like that there is such a thing as a "Gold Account" that can be revoked based on player behavior. It doesn't matter. Microsoft needs to respond to this. They need to respond to the browser thing, too, even if it's absolutely unimportant and a departure from the whole Goddamn argument.

Eurogamer had a lot to say about Sony's online store, and I haven't seen it, so I don't know. But it served to highlight what a haunted, wretched warren the Xbox Live Marketplace is. That is not how we arrange content on an otherwise world-class service. I always emerge from it gasping for fucking air, having downloaded the first file I saw. I'm always slightly afraid that whatever lives in there will find its way out.

These two machines will be improved monumentally by the competition, and we'll see the benefit in a period of months. My guess would be that Microsoft has the development agility to stay a step ahead, but when Sony was roused by PSP homebrew community they responded with frightening alacrity. The game which sits above the ones we play - historically almost naval, in its pace - is more fascinating than ever, this time around."

Amen!

:-) Well said!

Great post Yossarian and they have definately nailed most of it firmly on the head (even if it is Penny Arcade)

Sony having a good (or even great) service will definately kick MS into action. A MCE like interface perhaps?

Yep, good stuff Yossarian. Not sure I really understand the oblivion to infinity stuff, but hey. Seems like a good point to end the thread.

/ turns off the light and closes the door quietly.

He's saying you can't quantify the difference between Oblivion (total destruction) and infinity (neverending...something). In the sameway you cannot quantify the difference between something Free and something which costs money. Not sure why he used that analogy though, I can easily quantify it...$50/year. :P

JediMasterMalik, you are quite certain that whatever games you play online with your PS3, they'll all be free and the yearly total will not approach anything like $50?

Did Sony announce that all on-line gaming will be free, and I missed it?

Well, I have some things to say.

Frist of all, Free isn't always better, ands this is Sony were talking about.
Expect to be able to only use a specific copy of your game per account ect.
Depending on how/if/when Sony screws up and does what DRM did to the music
industry, to the video game industry. OR not, this is speculation. Its unrealeased, and Sony has been disappointing lately, but they might actually save face. Hopefully...


Anyhow...

This is how I see it. Microsoft will charge $50 per year for their AWESOME service, and I know, I have it. Sony will up the compatition, something that makes Microsoft have a product worth using (look at internet explorer? It gets better when threatened, and this happens with all of their products).

Sony, well, they will hopefully make something on par with Xbox Live. That is not my concern though.........

I am worried about individual game charges. MMOs don't count.

I don't really thing Sony is gonna charge boku for their First Party Stuff...

But Sony having First Party? They are known for the Third Party stuff...

And thats wear the charges come in...

$5 for EA Sports per month, $3 for F.E.A.R per month, $7 for that premo shooter that just came out per month, $12 for those "Free Downloads" and many others.

What? Only gonna get games that amount to $23 bucks a year? Thats where the true reason why Xbox Live shines comes in...

Cheaters. Free accounts mean more cheaters. With Xbox Live, that cheating could get your Halo 2 Live account shit listed. Or that racism could lose your whole account, gamer points in all.

I just hope Sony has something up their sleave.

thekittenofterra -

I'm sure Sony has already considered all of the possible ramifications of their network play design and implementation. Were we not told that PS3 was designed to be online capable, right from the beginning?

In-game notifications. Hmm ...

Cheaters. Free accounts mean more cheaters. With Xbox Live, that cheating could get your Halo 2 Live account shit listed. Or that racism could lose your whole account, gamer points in all.

I just hope Sony has something up their sleave.

An IP lockout?
Works for Forums... most of the time.

People need to realise that XBL yearly income is nothing compared to Microtransactions.

Using the Xbox's figures 2 million subscribed to XBL at $50 each that's $100 million a year.

Here's a neat trick providing that the MT's are actually worth buying say $4 a pop that same 2 million would provide $8 million revenue from that one Microtransaction from that one game alone, and very quickly if devs play their cards right, that $100 million a year MS gets from subscriptions is pocket change compared to MT's.

It's most likely why Sony is going to re-sell their old games over the service as does Nintendo (which people fail to mention is also offering free online gaming :/ ), and by offering free online gaming is like free advertisement to those Microtransactions like those Gap or L'Oreal commercials.

That's my take on it, but Sony is going to have to be strict with their own MT's for it to work, atm devs are abusing the system. :'(

the amount of people who are just going to download the odd old ps1 game they fancied at the time but never got round to buying, or just to see what the downloads service is going to be like will be quite high, i'd guess. same as live arcade. i'd guess the amount of people that have downloaded at least one live arcade title would probably equal if not outnumber the amount of gold subscribers. anyone have any official stats?