News Microsoft says Sony underestimated Home

Yes it does host severs, you're not getting that, I know that the players host the games themselves, but MS has the servers which control all the matchmaking processes. Do you think when you boot up something like Team Fortress 2 and hit the join server button, the steam client scours the entire internet for TF2 servers? Hell no, that's why you have the option to connect directly to an IP address, so you can add a server you know about that steam might not. The PS3 doesn't magically pluck hosted games out of thin air, your PS3 asks a server owned by the company who made the game, "what games are there that I can join?", the server tells your PS3, you decide to join one, you connect to the PS3 that is acting as the host. Take away the server and it would fall apart, yes, you'd be capable of hosting a game, but no one would be able to find your game.

Someone please correct my ignorance if I'm wrong, but I, and the several people who told me it works that way, are pretty sure that's how it works. I'm also pretty sure Sony only owns the servers of the games it published, so if say, MGS4 had online gaming, you might find Konami pulls the plug again.

 

Same as Sony. It's the same thing. Both provide basic services with their own servers but do not provide servers themselves to host the games. That is what I meant; I know that they need some sort of gateway to establish matchmaking. Do those other people actually own Playstation 3's? It is in Sony's spec's for the Playstation 3 that match making is offered up via PSN.

http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/network/onlinegaming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Network

Both list match making as a primary service for the Playstation Network.

 

How much does it honestly cost to keep a server running?, especially just a basic one (I'm not talking WoW servers here). I mean you'd also think if a game was to have a sequel any company would want their first/previous title to be up and running (multiplayer/online if allowed) until the next installment was to debut, thus phasing out the previous title. I guess the choice is really at the game developer's discretion according to what max is saying to turn off servers or keep them running....

 

Probably 2 servers for each server

(probably less fault tolerance then that with more servers) plus a technician for every 100 servers or something
Then the general running costs of the server, and the costs of cooling the room that its in