Sony confirms Xfire on PS3 Comments by Games Industry.biz

Wow, Sony getting inspiration from the best online community, The PC.

Its good to know they are copying the best online method (ie the PC and FREE)

Now if we could only have some faith in Nintendo...

You REALLY think it's going to be free? LOL!

That's S_O_E, the Everquest people rather than S_C_E, the Playstation people.

Everybody seems to be getting confused over this. It seems to me to be more evidence of a lack of a solid central plan for their online service than for it.

This article could be a little clearer.

From an interview with the Xfire CEO :
"Xfire is not replacing SCE’s PlayStation Network Platform at all. They have their own network platform that they will describe and roll out. What we’re doing is complementary. Sony itself was interested in working with us because we have such a large PC community and since so many PC gamers also play console games—I think for us, 74 percent of our 5 million users play console games too—they use it as a nice segue to reach into the gamers of the PC world who already have PC Xfire accounts."

So, this isn't the PNP, it's just a way of PS3 users talking to PC users.

First decent decision Sony's made with the PS3 if you ask me...

This is still good news even if it's not the big news about PNP everybody is waiting for (to lambast or to congratulate).

That's S_O_E, the Everquest people rather than S_C_E, the Playstation people.

With an interview somewhere the Xfire people said that they have a deal with SCE to put their middleware in SDK and devs can choose to use Xfire if they so desire.

From the CEO.

There are two deals here, really. There’s one deal between us and SOE, and there’s one deal between us and Sony Computer Entertainment. The deal with SCE is a tools and middleware license that lets us basically build a plug-in for any PS3 game. Then we need to work with the publishers, and the publishers use that middleware to enable Xfire functionality in their games.

The deal with Sony Online is sort of the first deal we’re doing with a publisher. It just so happens that Sony Online has the same name as Sony Computer Entertainment. It could’ve been another publisher, but they’re two different deals.

Still sounds like a messy solution really.

I don't really see the point of it unless it works with all games, especially not if Sony have a similar "join game" service.

To be honest I don't think I really understand it - will it just be a chat program that works with one or two games? What's the point?

This is very confusing. So are they or are they not creating Sony's answer to XBL?

What’s the point of it? How many PS2 games that got a PC port do you remember being multiplayer at all? I can only see this really being of any note if SOE have plans to release some MMO on both PS3 and PC.

Does this mean Untold Legends is coming out on the PC as well? Otherwise I see nothing that makes any sense here.

In other news, its confirmed the PS3 (in Japan at least) is only shipped with a composite video cable, and doesn't have an IR port so you'll need a Bluetooth remote control to use it as a Blu-ray DVD player.

Either this article or the whole PS3/XFire deal is rather muddled. Let's hope it's just the article.

How is it messy or confusing?

PS3 online has a unified friends list, chat and messaging - that's what you'll use in all online games. Just like Xbox Live.

With some games you will be able you to communicate with your friends playing on a PC. A little like Live Anywhere.

How simple can it get?

@Gurgeh

or you could use the pad, but you knew that, right!;b

Gurgeh: In other news, its confirmed the PS3 (in Japan at least) is only shipped with a composite video cable, and doesn't have an IR port so you'll need a Bluetooth remote control to use it as a Blu-ray DVD player.

So? This is supposed to be bad or good news? Who on earth likes IR remotes? Bring on the new technology. If you fancy old stuff you can watch VCR with wire remote.

Stormflood: With some games you will be able you to communicate with your friends playing on a PC. A little like Live Anywhere.

Exactly. Easy peasy. If some multiplatform game launches on PC and PS3 they could have PC and PS3 gamers playing together. Great news if you ask me.

Definately more and more sounding like a very large kludge of a solution. I'll cut them a break and wait and see though, it could be great.

What, no IR? Man..., what's that supposed to accomplish? Me buying a 30€ PS3 remote, I guess. And of course that I can't use my universal remote (conveniently programmed for all my equipment) to watch BluRay movies.

Anyone know if you can control movie playback with the controller? There is no way I'm buying a PS3-only-bluetooth remote which might end up useless if HD-DVD turns out to be the winner / I buy a better player for the movies.

Some of you guys are hilarious: "Nooooo, I can't use my universal remote and if HD DVD wins I don't need BD-Rom". Seriously.

Aye t'is a bit on the silly side alright all HD-DVD winning would do would be to make movie playback redundant, there are other advantages to BD-Rom.

How is it messy or confusing?

PS3 online has a unified friends list, chat and messaging - that's what you'll use in all online games. Just like Xbox Live.

With some games you will be able you to communicate with your friends playing on a PC. A little like Live Anywhere.

How simple can it get?

Probably a lot simpler. So I'll need an xfire account (seems to be an existing and seperate platform at the moment, don't know much about it to be honest), a playstation network account and a link between those accounts. When I'm on the pc with my xfire account I assume I will only have access to the ps3 friends who have also opted to create and link up their xfire account (as well as friends just using the xfire on pc). Seems like it could easily get confusing and messy.

With Live (and Live Anywhere) its just a single account. You either have one or you dont.

Ofcourse I could just be completely misunderstanding the whole point, in which case this sounds like its going to be great!

Its good to know they are copying the best online method (ie the PC and FREE)

Unless you count shitty home servers, the pc has never been free, they just use a different payment system.

And to answer your statement; If you have the same illusion about PSonline being free as well, your going to feel a bit cheated. Companies are there to make money. They are not your pals or friends, they don't want to give you money. If they host servers, it costs money. Lot's of it. It also costs time and expertise, service desks, etc. All of this over an extensive period, even long after the sales of the game have tumbled.
Do you really think that those companies are going to pick up that bill? They will simply bring the costs back to the user. Either through subscription (that they are free to charge individually), expensive game components that you need to play on-line (GTHD) or an added fee on top of every box sold. One way or another, you will be paying. That or the alternative of it being another PS2online.

When I'm on the pc with my xfire account I assume I will only have access to the ps3 friends who have also opted to create and link up their xfire account

... and even then, only if they're running a PS3 game with the Xfire middleware on active in it, since it's not part of the underlying system.

And there are no TCRs to dictate how and when xfire needs to be implemented, so there will likely be annoying inconsistencies between games in a manner that doesn't happen with Live.

Make no bones about it, it is a horrendous kludge. And if you think the PC is a better example for online gaming than Xbox live, just have a go at the Battlefield 2142 demo's microphone setup wizard...

@Xerx3s

If you've played any PC games online you'd know that most servers out there are rented by fellow gamers and clans, and plenty of home servers give great performance with less lag than most XBL games.

All these PC game companies want to make money too, yet the game is cheaper and the online is free and without any lag.

What is the "different payment system" you mention?

It's quite an odd choice of Sony Online Entertainment, I can understand why since they have a lot of customers playing Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies and they're probably using X-Fire a lot. Adding this 'coupling' is a good idea and quite interesting.

But to only do it on a per game basis makes the usage quite pointless. So ok, while you're in the game you can talk to your x-fire buddies but not when you're in the PS3 OSD then you can only talk to other PS3 users.

Xfire and Sony should probably think of a better solution.

By the way, in your head do you pronounce it Ex-Fire or Cross-Fire?

For me it was always the X, but I guess crossfire makes a lot of sense.

The X is silent.

Since you can only use it with "some" games at this time, does that mean PS3 onliners won't have 1 single gamertag, ala xbox live? Will you need a different name for each game?

@ronuds

It sounds like this will work in addition to any existing online ID system. StormFlood's post sums it up well I think.


@Xerx3s

Good post.


"With Live (and Live Anywhere) its just a single account. You either have one or you dont. "

I think we should probably bear in mind that even if the PS3 online ID management gubbins isn't quite as good as XBLive out of the box (which it likely won't be I guess, given the head start MS have), that doesn't mean it won't still be very good, or at the very very least adequate for our needs.

Things don't have to be either completely great or completely shite. My very biggest requirement is that it simply works for the majority of my needs for the majority of the time. So long as it does that, I can be patient for the extra widgets like online account management (which I've actually never used for my 360 profile).

If you've played any PC games online you'd know that most servers out there are rented by fellow gamers and clans,...

Did you just prove my point?

...and plenty of home servers give great performance with less lag than most XBL games.

A) Iirc, the number of games where I had lag that I actually noticed is below 10.
B) I have been playing online games on the PC from the days of doom so don't tell me that home servers are great, it is the exception that proves the rule.
Paid servers like clan servers are usually oke, but the vast majority of 'home' servers suck balls.

And this still doesn't undermine my original statement as these servers are provided by ppl and not the dev (apart from the master server that does nothing else than list other servers). That still means that the dev can provide it without paying anything (the costs are after all at for the user). Under a closed environment (like PSonline, XBLive, etc.) this is not possible unless sony allows server hosters to offer packages that host PS3 games. And even if they would do so (what I seriously doubt, but nothing is impossible), the cost would still be for the user in the end.

Interesting commentary from PA's Tycho:

I've said for weeks now that that Sony should enter into a dialogue with gamers about their service, and now that we finally have some information - almost none of it from the company - I understand why they haven't done so. There is literally nothing to say.

I'm not trying to be glib: what I mean is that it's difficult to discuss the ethereal, and it seems like the framework is pretty loose. What they are providing is apparently so subtle that companies - indeed, even companies they wholly own - must leverage third-party tools to gin up their basic internet functionality. The user experience from game to game is so dependent on how it's using what service that there isn't really a conversation to be had. As long as everything is designed to "play" relatively "nice," I doubt the precise methodology actually matters to most people. I imagine "most people" just want to play Madden. Right now, I think the Playstation 3 enthusiast's main challenge is trying to own the machine for less than an two thousand dollars.

Original here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/10/13

Xfire = Good service
Untold Legends = crap game

Combining them will lead to unpredictable results