Home Gaming Sony Admits They were Late to the Online Platform Party

Sony Admits They were Late to the Online Platform Party

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I’ve said it before, and for good measure I’ll say it again: As it stands right now, Xbox Live is undeniably the better online gaming service. If there’s one single thing that Microsoft’s done right with regards to the platform, it’s making the entire system unified and intrinsic. Not forcing developers to to create their own online networks makes it so that developers can concentrate on making their game, and also makes it easier for gamers to play online.

While the PSN has made monumental strides since its inception, and works particularly well if you consider its annual cost of absolutely nothing, it still hasn’t reached the user friendliness and maturity of Microsoft’s Xbox Live – and Sony tells us why…

Sony Computer Entertainment’s president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, in an interview with Edge Magazine has stated :

"I think we were late to offer the platform-level support, to make the online functionality work at that level,” he admitted. "We made the prior decision that you do not introduce the common centralised network names into every experience, so publishers made their own. That was fine at the start, but as more and more games have online functionality you need a unified approach.”

"So Microsoft took that approach in the last generation, and maybe that’s where people see the difference when they compare Xbox Live and PSN."

Microsoft’s Xbox Live has been around since their last console, and the service was deemed vital enough that the Xbox 360 was built around the Live platform. Had Sony elected for a unified online platform when the devised and developed the PSN, any debates as to which was the better service would be moot; Being free, it would have easily trumped Xbox Live.

Thankfully, Sony have realised their mistake, and according to Yoshida the company will continue to improve the service through firmware updates – and maybe, just maybe the PSN will match or even surpass Xbox Live this generation. If any of you fanboys ( Strange humans whose sense of self worth is illogically tied to a mega corporation’s products) are feeling butthurt, take comfort and consolation in the fact that the PSN is lightyears ahead of the Wii’s online “service”

Source : CVG

Last Updated: September 4, 2009

10 Comments

  1. Goose ZA

    September 4, 2009 at 14:19

    *grabs popcorn

    Reply

  2. easy

    September 4, 2009 at 14:43

    ‘butthurt’

    another word added to my vocabulary… cheers :biggrin:

    Reply

  3. koldFU5iON

    September 4, 2009 at 14:47

    I found organising some games can be difficult on PSN but we found a solution, switch on the xbox start a party and voila we have game chat while we play KZ2 🙂

    Reply

  4. Nick de Bruyne

    September 4, 2009 at 15:12

    R3000 headset?

    Reply

  5. easy

    September 4, 2009 at 15:15

    R3000 unpredictable headset?

    Reply

  6. janrik

    September 4, 2009 at 15:37

    Better than no headset with a R5K Console….

    Reply

  7. Pitty

    September 4, 2009 at 19:06

    “Not forcing developers to to create their own online networks makes it so that developers can concentrate on making their game, and also makes it easier for gamers to play online.”

    You really don’t have a clue how this works, Geoff.

    Reply

  8. Flamebaitboy

    September 4, 2009 at 19:54

    And clearly you can’t read….

    Geoff just rephrased what Sony themselves said :

    Sony Computer Entertainment’s president of worldwide studios, Shuhei Yoshida, in an interview with Edge Magazine has stated :

    “I think we were late to offer the platform-level support, to make the online functionality work at that level,” he admitted. “We made the prior decision that you do not introduce the common centralised network names into every experience, so publishers made their own. That was fine at the start, but as more and more games have online functionality you need a unified approach.”

    “So Microsoft took that approach in the last generation, and maybe that’s where people see the difference when they compare Xbox Live and PSN.”

    Reply

  9. Geoff

    September 4, 2009 at 20:22

    “One major difference between Xbox Live and PSNP is that Microsoft hosts its service, while Sony will expect each game developer to host its own servers and related content.”

    http://mobilitytoday.com/news/006319/playstation3_network

    As Xbox live’s services are unified – across all games and applications – it IS easier to play online.

    Reply

  10. Fudzy

    September 4, 2009 at 23:29

    You don’t have to pay a cent for PSN subscriptions though?

    In fact it’s piss easy to subscribe to a multitude of PSN regions on the same console. They recognise South Africa as a country and will allow you to buy DLC so long as you have a valid credit card number.

    Live on the other hand sees South Africa as grey area and forces you to buy points through 3rd parties and block a lot games/extensions which people want to play.

    In terms of value, I relate Live to PSN the same way I relate SABC to Multichoice. SABC will give you basic entertainment without the frills while Multichoice will gladly dig deeper into your pockets.

    Reply

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