News PSN will continue to be free

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/04/psn-will-continue-to-be-free/1

Sony executives have confirmed that they still have no plans to make PSN a subscription service despite rising costs.

 

It's free.. But it's just a shame that it sucks compared to LIVE.

 

PSN, LIVE?

No thanks, I'll stick to Steam and Battle.net. What's that, they're free you say? Work perfectly fine you say?

Oops. Maybe PCs aren't dead after all.

 

Steam's great... but it just can't beat the ease of use of LIVE.. and not every PC game uses it... in fact, only Valve ones do at the moment.. Of course soon there'll be more non-Valve games putting it to use, but I think you get it.

 

Try using steam since 1999?

 

Steam has plenty of non valve games on its service such as, bioshock, the whole collection of ID games, Prey, max payne series, audiosurf and many more:
http://steampowered.com/v/index.php


The problem with the pc platform is that for the average joe they won’t know how to fix any problems that might arise or even getting their microphone detected. This is the one area where consoles are better being just plug and play if something goes wrong turn off and turn back on.

 

Sony will most likely offer up Qore here as a method of generating revenue, its like an xbox Live Gold thing where you get exclusive access to stuff but unlike Xbox you can stil game and stuff like that online for free, seems fair enough, better than having a load of ads infecting my XMB which is another alternative that was talked about.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008...king-you-behind-the-curtain-with-playstation/

 

That's not what I meant, though, is it? I meant all of the Steam Community features which are what make it in any way comparable to LIVE. The friends, the achievements, the messaging system.. chatting with friends in-game..

 

Had my first experience of Metal Gear Online last night and through it was pretty damn good tbh.

 

That's because in the PC world we have such fantastic things as competition, open platforms, modifiable games, complete digital distribution..

Heck, every feature the current generation of consoles have that they're touting, we've had for years, sometimes even decades before they had them. 'HD gaming'? Given that Sony's definition of that is 720p and sometimes less, we've had that since the 90's, thank you.

 

Stop being so patronising and talking to me as though I'm some lowly Console gamer who thinks "PC gaming is too fiddly"...

I am a PC Gamer, but the LIVE platform is just so well thought out, it's perfectly simple.. I love it. The fact is that there are SO many platforms on PC that you can rarely find one that all your friends use. Steam is the best, undoubtedly, but the in game chat that is with friends who you are not currently playing with only works with a limited number of Valve games.. automatic updates only apply to Valve games.. It needs further growth before it's as good as LIVE.

 

I must admit that whilst I'm a PC player at heart, the short time I've had a play with Live it came across as extremely smooth and easy to use. Something that to be honest not even Steam can claim to always be.

 

Oh ok thought you meant steam as a whole but yes the steam community options are limited, so far it only a few games fully supported with steamworks which is where LIVE is set apart as being a fully complete tool for achievements, chatting and friend system for all its games.

LIVE is still ahead of PSN just little things annoy me with the PS3 such as not being able to password my account so say my brother could login as me play as me online or use my saves.

 

As good as LIVE may be, the fact that it's not free is the reason I haven't bought a 360. Even on the PC I won't upgrade to gold - silver's free and it's the minimum I need to play the GFW games.

What are the main differences in infrastructure between LIVE and PSN? I've heard that quite a few 360 games actually host the multiplayer on someone's 360 instead of a server - is this the same on PS3, or are the games hosted by the developer/publisher?

 

£40 a year is bloody peanuts, mate.

And yes, quite a few games (such as Halo 3 and CoD4) do host on someone's 360 as opposed to a dedicated server... It works well, but makes international play considerably more laggy... especially when playing across the pond.

 

I don't know what your situation is, but £40 a year is a lot of money, especially if you have to pay it all in one go. If you can pay it monthly I bet it's more, too!

 

As a one off payment, I suppose it is a little steep, and yes.. the monthly plan makes it a little more expensive.. but it's not a bad price for the services you get. I think it's definitely worth it.

 

PSN store is better than Live.

Live's integration with the multiplayer aspect of games is better than PSN.

PSN is free... Xbox is cheaper...

It's pretty much neck and neck.

 

From my (limited) experience with PSN store.. I would say that it is better than XBL Marketplace.. BUT, the downloads from the PSN Store took FOREVER!! It was stupidly slow.. It may have been my brother-in-law's router, or internet connection but Jesus Christ.. it was like running on a 14.4k modem or something..

 

Lol QFT