XBox 360 or PS3

[smwScott]

It's not just about disc swapping, although for some games this would be absolutely horrible (GTA), while for linear RPGs it wouldn't be too bad. However, the difference is that when developers aren't limited by space they don't have to use the same restrictive compression techniques, which allows information to stream off the disc faster. Also, you'll run into instances where they will cut superfluous stuff like extra music and whatnot when they port games from PS3 to 360. Not to mention it cuts out the need to ship localized versions of games seeing as they can fit all the info on the disc.

Also, there's really only a $100 difference between the two consoles. People like to compare $400 360 to the $600 PS3, but that isn't logical. The $500 PS3 is more fully featured than the high end 360 and has the same HDD capacity (which is also interchangable with any other hard-drive). Also, because all PS3s ship with a HDD, games will be designed for it in mind - a huge advantage.

And then there's a fully functional Blu-Ray player, which by itself costs much more than $500. You don't have to pay a monthly fee to play online games. It has a better controller. Finally, in my opinion Sony has the best games/developers in their pocket (except for Bioware). When you add it all up, the $100 price difference is well worth it in my opinion.

 

[mirage4]

Im bying a xbox 360, if only for halo 3. When i played out halo 2 i was like:
Curse you Bungy

 

[the_wolf27]

O F*UCKING K

You've all convinced me. Its time for a 180 turn back to the store to purchase my new xbox, then another 180 turn back home to enjoy the genious of microsoft.

Hehe

 

[99.vikram]

Im bying a xbox 360, if only for halo 3. When i played out halo 2 i was like:
Curse you Bungy

Don't you wait for the reviews to come out? I mean, it's only one day more...

 

[Ludah]

You don't have to pay a monthly fee to play online games.

I disagree with pretty much everything you said in this post, but man... didn't you read earlier in this topic?

If the PS2's online plan is anything to go off, the PS3's will be just as broke. And even then it doesn't stop individual games requiring monthly fees. The price for Xbox Live is justified and actually needed for it to run as well as it does, and it's a relatively small investment that's worth it.

As for the controller... Well, I don't know how you can quantifiably argue the PS3's being better.

 

[mirage4]

Don't you wait for the reviews to come out? I mean, it's only one day more...

Yeah, i've seen the halo 3 trailer. It looks cool but thats what i also though't about the halo 2 trailer and most of the stuff in there wasn't in the actual game

 

[VirusType2]

However, the difference is that when developers aren't limited by space they don't have to use the same restrictive compression techniques

Forget all that compression stuff, you are paying extra money so that they can press one copy of the disc with all regions of the game on one disc. A Japanese version, European/Australian and PAL, and North American and NTSC version, all on one disc. This right here is going to make it so that their best bet is to make the game smaller, so that they can fit all 3 regions on the disc, and you KNOW IT.

These high powered systems are not using compressed images. Compressed images are for things like mip-maps - images that can be resized to fit, if you run a game in a reduced size window on your PC. My $40 video card doesn't even have to use compressed images. These systems use full sized high quality maps.

All audio is compressed, I don't care how much disc space you have, you aren't going to want to spend 500 megabytes of RAM to play a little song in the backround.

Which brings us to the fact that the 360 allows custom soundtracks in games. You can plug in your ipod or other music player, you can burn your favorite CDs or import music from your PC and play it from any game menu. The games will even switch tracks at key moments in the gameplay. It is very simple to use and you will love it. Press the button in the center of the controller to bring up your options for this, to shuffle or control the music volume during gameplay.

Which brings us to the controller. I think the 360 has the best general purpose controller ever made. It is almost too good to believe when you use it. Perfectly fluid and smooth analog control sticks. It just feels perfect.

The PS2 controller is uncomfortable and is strange and cumbersome to use the twin shoulder buttons. I always pressed the wrong shoulder button (is it the top one or the bottom one to shift gears?) and my fingers do not like to be that out of position for the top shoulder button, which I might add feels extremely cheap.

The 360 has full variable analog triggers properly located on the bottom, and is absolutely perfect for things like variable gas and brake for games when controlling vehicles, and for games with guns, it feels more like you are pulling a trigger.

The 360 controller also has the advantage of the rumble feature, which is one of my personal favorite innovations.


I also think that Microsoft has the best first and third party developers.Microsoft Game Studios, iD Software, VALVe, Epic Games, Crytek, Turn 10, Bungie, Raven, Rare, Bioware, Remedy, Bethesda Softworks, Ubi Soft, Activision, From Software, Team Ninja, Warner Bros., Bizarre Creations, Koei, Lionhead Studios, Vivendi, THQ, Hudson, Bandai, Eidos, LucasArts, 2K games, Venom Games, SNK, Tecmo, Taito, Silicon Knights, and tons of other huge companies, although not all of them are exclusive. Then of course the multi-platform 'developers' like Electronic Arts, KONAMI, SEGA, Namco, Square Enix, Rockstar, and Capcom

Nintendo has Nintendo and thats about it as far as exclusives, AFAIK, although I know the OP didn't even know what the heck the Wii was.

Sony doesn't even have Konami since Konami is working on at least three announced 360 titles right now, and they have gone on the record to say that they much prefer working on the 360! Hell, the 360 is so nice to work with, iD Software is actually using it to develop games on, instead of the PC! Amazing.

You guys call this PS3 support? I wonder if they have any good exclusive developers. The only game that looks interesting from Sony is God of War 2, and that isn't coming for PS3. It's due for PS2 in 2007.

I don't care if the PS3 was the same price as the 360 I still would rather have the 360.

Last but definitely not least in this round, you can't deny that connecting your 360 to your PC monitor is the ultimate in crisp quality. Can't do that on PS3.

I really don't understand why anyone would want a Playstation. Their first one was good because it had CD ROM. Compared to cartridges, it was far superior and beat the only competitor - Nintendo - pretty easily, but now they are just out of their league, and they have been Trumped.

If this console war had been an actual war, Sony would be defeated before they even came to battle - exactly what has happened.

And when it comes to online play? You get what you pay for. The 360 is the ultimate on-line console, and the ultimate all around console ever made. The new games coming for this system will definately win you over - if you aren't already.

Hate hate hate Sony. Junk. It's a trojan horse to sell their other Video products and to 'violate' your entertainment center. I don't hope Sony cumbles, they provide competition, keeping Microsoft honest, and keeping prices and competition fierce.

 

[AiM]

I disagree with pretty much everything you said in this post, but man... didn't you read earlier in this topic?

If the PS2's online plan is anything to go off, the PS3's will be just as broke. And even then it doesn't stop individual games requiring monthly fees. The price for Xbox Live is justified and actually needed for it to run as well as it does, and it's a relatively small investment that's worth it.

As for the controller... Well, I don't know how you can quantifiably argue the PS3's being better.

Why does reading other people's opinion / speculation have anything to do with his post?

Sony is taking pains to ensure that criticisms about its PlayStation 2 online strategy won't be repeated when the PlayStation 3 is released this November.

I wouldn't go with PS2's online plan, if anything it should be directly compared to XBLive since they now share many of the same features. It doesn't stop individual games from charging fee's but the only games I see doing that are MMO's. On the xbox they actually charged fee's on top of the subscription fee (Phantasy Star Online?), now whether this applies to 360 I'm not sure. That extra $50 you spend to play games online will add up over the lifespan of the console.

The 360 controller does feel good, but the design looks heavily inspired from the PS 2 / 3 controllers. For me personally the PS2 controller was the best the industry had to offer, and the PS3 is nothing different except slightly improved, which is fine since it wasn't broken in the first place.

I also think that Microsoft has the best first and third party developers.Microsoft Game Studios, iD Software, VALVe, Epic Games, Crytek, Turn 10, Bungie, Raven, Rare, Bioware, Remedy, Bethesda Softworks, Ubi Soft, Activision, From Software, Team Ninja, Warner Bros., Bizarre Creations, Koei, Lionhead Studios, Vivendi, THQ, Hudson, Bandai, Eidos, LucasArts, 2K games, Venom Games, SNK, Tecmo, Taito, Silicon Knights, and tons of other huge companies, although not all of them are exclusive. Then of course the multi-platform 'developers' like Electronic Arts, KONAMI, SEGA, Namco, Square Enix, Rockstar, and Capcom

Let's see here... Microsoft Studios what have they done? iD, VALVe, Epic, Raven, Bioware, Remedy, Bethesda, and Lionhead all do PC ports. Crytek does a few games off their Far Cry franchise, but if I'm not mistaken they will not have Crysis on any console. Turn 10, Venom Games, Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden team?), Hudson (Bomberman?) I don't really have an idea what they've done or their track record. Rare used to be a great company, but many of their members have left and in turn became Free Radical, which subsequently does games for every console. Square-Enix has their Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises Playstation exclusive (does not include spin offs). Bandai, Koei, Taito (not sure), UbiSoft, Vivendi, THQ, 2k Games, Namco, SEGA, Rockstar, EA, Capcom are either like you said multi-platform or may even have PS3 exclusive games. Silicon Knights were responsible for the worst MGS game in the Solid series, although I'm not familiar with whatever else they do (Ninety Nine Nights?)

 

[smwScott]

Forget all that compression stuff, you are paying extra money so that they can press one copy of the disc with all regions of the game on one disc. A Japanese version, European/Australian and PAL, and North American and NTSC version, all on one disc. This right here is going to make it so that their best bet is to make the game smaller, so that they can fit all 3 regions on the disc, and you KNOW IT.

Blu-Ray holds 60GB. In order for them to have to cut things out of the game to make it all fit, the game would already have to be over 20GB. If what you say is true, that scenario is already a lot worse for the 360 which only holds 9GB on a dual layered.

Which brings us to the fact that the 360 allows custom soundtracks in games. You can plug in your ipod or other music player, you can burn your favorite CDs or import music from your PC and play it from any game menu. The games will even switch tracks at key moments in the gameplay. It is very simple to use and you will love it. Press the button in the center of the controller to bring up your options for this, to shuffle or control the music volume during gameplay.

The PSP already allows you to have a custom soundtrack in games that support it, the PS3 obviously will too. Also, it has a similar HUB button on the controller, much like the 360 and PSP.

Which brings us to the controller. I think the 360 has the best general purpose controller ever made. It is almost too good to believe when you use it. Perfectly fluid and smooth analog control sticks. It just feels perfect.

The PS2 controller is uncomfortable and is strange and cumbersome to use the twin shoulder buttons. I always pressed the wrong shoulder button (is it the top one or the bottom one to shift gears?) and my fingers do not like to be that out of position for the top shoulder button, which I might add feels extremely cheap.

It's a matter of opinion, I'm very at home with the PS2 controller and it's my favorite. The difference is that the PS3 controller has a tilt sensor which could be interesting for games that use it properly. It's certainly better than having rumble, although both would be nice.

I also think that Microsoft has the best first and third party developers.Microsoft Game Studios, iD Software, VALVe, Epic Games, Crytek, Turn 10, Bungie, Raven, Rare, Bioware, Remedy, Bethesda Softworks, Ubi Soft, Activision, From Software, Team Ninja, Warner Bros., Bizarre Creations, Koei, Lionhead Studios, Vivendi, THQ, Hudson, Bandai, Eidos, LucasArts, 2K games, Venom Games, SNK, Tecmo, Taito, Silicon Knights, and tons of other huge companies, although not all of them are exclusive. Then of course the multi-platform 'developers' like Electronic Arts, KONAMI, SEGA, Namco, Square Enix, Rockstar, and Capcom

Almost all of those are PC companies which may or may not release console ports of their games. See, I already have a PC, the PS3 offers me different games. You also listed a bunch of "exclusive" 360 developers that are releasing games for all consoles, even ones like Ubisoft which have exclusive PS3 and Wii games in development. Like I said before, the only developer the 360 has that I care about is Bioware, but those games usually get ported to PC too.

Sony doesn't even have Konami since Konami is working on at least three announced 360 titles right now, and they have gone on the record to say that they much prefer working on the 360! Hell, the 360 is so nice to work with, iD Software is actually using it to develop games on, instead of the PC! Amazing.

You guys call this PS3 support? I wonder if they have any good exclusive developers. The only game that looks interesting from Sony is God of War 2, and that isn't coming for PS3. It's due for PS2 in 2007.

Konami is making MGS4 for PS3, that's all I care about from them. Apart from that there's Naughty Dog, Ico team and God of War team. Plenty more third party games that generally stay exclusive, and some more in-house teams that are good too. And that thing you said about Id probably isn't true.

Last but definitely not least in this round, you can't deny that connecting your 360 to your PC monitor is the ultimate in crisp quality. Can't do that on PS3.

You have to buy a VGA adapter for 360 ... I assume same for PS3. It outputs in higher resolution so it shouldn't be a problem.

And when it comes to online play? You get what you pay for. The 360 is the ultimate on-line console, and the ultimate all around console ever made. The new games coming for this system will definately win you over - if you aren't already.

If you say so. I'm not paying anything for playing PC games online and its worked out pretty well. PS2 online was fine for me, all the games that good online bothered to do it right so it worked fine.

 

[VirusType2]

Blu-Ray holds 60GB. In order for them to have to cut things out of the game to make it all fit, the game would already have to be over 20GB. If what you say is true, that scenario is already a lot worse for the 360 which only holds 9GB on a dual layered.

Someone lied to you sir. The Blu Ray disc only holds 25GB Divide that into 3 regions = 8.3GB. Slightly less than a dual layer DVD. The tricky Sony "fool our foolish customer strategies" are so full of shit, it's disgusting. You are paying your extra money so that they may save money by pressing one Blu Ray disc. Whats been said, is that since the discs are so expensive, it is too risky to press different discs for each region. What if they don't sell? So, with all 3 regions on one disc, they don't have to worry so much about over-printing them, since they can sell it to a different region. 25 dollars that doesn't sell is a total loss for them. It's around 25 dollars for a blank Blu-Ray disc! These companies creating games are already taking many risks, is paying this much for the disc worth it? Sure, there will be some initial support - hey, the first few games will definitely sell right? When the system is new, if there are only 10 games out for the system, they have a good chance of selling you theirs right? 10% or better in this case, depending on how good their game is.

The PSP already allows you to have a custom soundtrack in games that support it, the PS3 obviously will too.

yea well, if you want to base your decisions on guesswork and assumptions, be my guest

the PS3 offers me different games.

Name some!

Konami is making MGS4 for PS3, that's all I care about from them. Apart from that there's Naughty Dog, Ico team and God of War team.

You know, there is a chance that you could see MGS games on the 360. They already have 3 games in development for 360. Also, I thought Ico and God of War were made by the same people. lol. And unfortunately, they are still working on God of War 2 for Playstation 2 - due out in 2007.

And that thing you said about Id probably isn't true.

It's true.
As many developers have stated, its quite easy to port from PC to 360 or 360 to PC.

Don't take my word for it, listen to the CEO of id, and the lead programmer from id Software:

“The Xbox 360 will probably will be id’s primary development platform. As it is right now, we would get the game up on the 360. When I would do major hack-and-slash architectural changes it was back on the PC, but it’s looking like the Xbox 360 will be our target. All of our tools are on the PC, and we’re maintaining the game running on the PC, but probably all of our gameplay development and testing will be done on the Xbox 360. It’s a really sweet development system.”

the upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein game is being designed with the Xbox 360 foremost in mind. "The next Wolf[enstein] game is using the 360 as its primary development platform

You have to buy a VGA adapter for 360 ... I assume same for PS3.

See you are assuming again. You can't use VGA with a PS3, thanks to your Blu Ray security measures, your resolution will be reduced to standard television which is about 640 x 480. They don't want you recording their movies in full high definition - thats high quality, like a master copy for bootlegging! The Blu-ray uses digital encryption. VGA is analog. Won't work. Blank Screen of death, or reduced to 640 x 480 if your lucky.. depending on the distributor.

I'm not paying anything for playing PC games online and its worked out pretty well.

You pay for things like Steam when you buy the game. This game is still full price... however long Half-life 2 has been out.

Try and find a server for one of your older games.

Most PC games are run by servers which thrive from advertisements and game fans who PAY themselves. You can't do that on a console, the developers have to foot the cost, and you won't see them willing to keep their servers up for too long, especially if their game sales have slowed down.


I don't mind if some of the games will be for PC and 360. To me, that gives me choices. If a highly modable game that I might want to mod for is for PC, then I might pick up the PC or even both versions, But I can't afford to keep buying new computer components every year. By next year, none of the new games will even run on my PC. Do you have Vista? ; / The 360 is totally ****in sweet, and I know the game will play like it's ment to be played. Full on performance.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Someone lied to you sir. The Blu Ray disc only holds 25GB Divide that into 3 regions = 8.3GB. Slightly less than a dual layer DVD.

Dual-layer Blu-ray discs will hold up to 50 GB. Now divide that into 3 regions....

Plus:

To ensure that the Blu-ray Disc format is easily extendable (future-proof) it also includes support for multi-layer discs, which should allow the storage capacity to be increased to 100GB-200GB (25GB per layer) in the future simply by adding more layers to the discs.

That should be enough room considering a 50GB disc can hold 9 hours of HD content and 23 hours of SD content already.

 

[VirusType2]

Dual-layer Blu-ray discs will hold up to 50 GB. Now divide that into 3 regions....

Do you actually believe PS3 can play dual layer blu ray discs? I know my old DVD player can't play dual layer discs or DVD-R or DVD-RW.. my CD player can't play CD-R or CD-RW.

I seriously doubt the PS3 can play dual layer discs.

Have they even got the dual layer to work yet? If so, very well, here is my question:

Will this be compatible with current gen blu-ray players? (such as the PS3). See, when DVD first came out I believe it was called DVD1.0 and it was single layer, then everyone had to get new players because of DVD2.0 which was double layer. Everything read double layer from that point out.

And if they have the 200GB technology, why not sell us that? Money.

They want to sell you a new player every few years. See? So that would mean the PS3 can't play dual layer BD's. They start at 25GB, then a year or two later, they sell you 50GB, 100GB, then finally 8 layer 200GB.

I can't find the facts on this, I think it's because they don't want us to know the truth, because the truth is ... they want to sell us new players ever few years.. THINK.

What did Sony's Kat Katuragi just say "The ps3 might be upgraded every 1 or 2 years to be relevant, like a computer"


So, the first PS3s will be single layer 25gb, and a few years later, they release a new color PS3 with dual layer support.

Im thinking right here, so if you don't listen, then maybe you don't want to know the truth?

Ah well, doesn't really matter to me I guess. I say 360 hands down as the best choice, without any doubt - but thats just my opinion.

 

[Ludah]

Why does reading other people's opinion / speculation have anything to do with his post?

He made out free online PS3 gaming as a plus. But if you read earlier in the topic, you'd see why it's really not all that great. Xbox Live has worked stellarly because of the money going into it. Sony's online plan for the PS2 was a mess because there was no unfirom service and pretty much no quality control. The PS3 without its service fees is liable to fall into that same uneven territory of online console gaming. That's all.

That extra $50 you spend to play games online will add up over the lifespan of the console.

So does eating on a daily basis. Or my cable bill. But it's still affordable, and it's timely.

For example:

Paying 250 dollars on a single item in one day is expensive.
Paying 250 dollars over the course of a year is not.

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

See you are assuming again. You can't use VGA with a PS3, thanks to your Blu Ray security measures, your resolution will be reduced to standard television which is about 640 x 480. They don't want you recording their movies in full high definition - thats high quality, like a master copy for bootlegging! The Blu-ray uses digital encryption. VGA is analog. Won't work. Blank Screen of death, or reduced to 640 x 480 if your lucky.. depending on the distributor.

Well, first of all they get reduced to 540p (960x540) without HDMI, if the ICT flag is on. And second of all, that is only for movies, and has absolutely nothing to do with games. Everything including movies without the ICT flag on will be able to display at the highest resolution the movie/game is made at, provided the cables/display can handle the resolution.

 

[VictimOfScience]

I know my old DVD player can't play dual layer discs or DVD-R or DVD-RW.. my CD player can't play CD-R or CD-RW.

Geez, that sucks for you. I have a $20 (after rebate ) DVD player that is over 4 years old and it plays everything I ask it to!

And if they have the 200GB technology, why not sell us that? Money.

They want to sell you a new player every few years.

Hahaha! No kidding. Its called technology--its what everyone does. I am not ignoring the truth, but have come to learn to live with the extra expenditures for upgrades every couple of years. Yes it sucks, but that's the way of it.

Ah well, doesn't really matter to me I guess. I say 360 hands down as the best choice, without any doubt - but thats just my opinion.

Its true, it really doesn't matter. We should both be pretty happy with our choices and really, all this competition does is force developers and console makers to make their respectives wares as amazing as they can be. Everyone wins! :cheers:

 

[Asus]

Single sided blueray is 25GB.
If they made double sided discs then that would be 50GB.
You would have to flip the disk over if you wanted to get to the content on the other side. IMO the same thing as if there where 2 discs.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Single sided blueray is 25GB.
If they made double sided discs then that would be 50GB.
You would have to flip the disk over if you wanted to get to the content on the other side. IMO the same thing as if there where 2 discs.

Layered, not sided. And many more layers will be possible if necessary....

 

[Dynasty]

I have to admit, ive always hated the xbox. I had the image of a PC shrunk down with no monitor, keyboard or mouse.

However, as i quit paintball for this year/season due to my team loosing 2 or 3 players through their own financial problems, i sold my marker and used the money to..well..ahem..buy an Xbox 360 as a Uni investment along with CoD2 and Ghost Recon came with the package.

I have to say im still completely and utterly blown away by this awesome force in such a small, if weirdly heavy, box. The graphics are better than some of the top PCs in some places when the lighting is right. Damn it ive been converted.

Ive yet to try Xbox live yet, cant find a cable that will reach my router across the hall..and its a wireless so i doubt i will bother setting up a normal router again anytime soon.

And the PS3? Its later release is one huge downfall. Its double the price of the 360..i mean..wtf Sony? You really think people will choose something with similar power and less features and a higher price tag? Come on guys wake up.

Xbox 360 has one HUGE downfall : £50 for a game? Get bent!

 

[Gray Fox]

Wait Virustype, why do they have to print the whole game over again if they make it for all three regions. Usually the only differance is the language audio and texts and wheater or not it is PALor NTSC.
So why would you devide a 25gb disc by three when only 3 GB at most is different for differant regions. that means you have 22 GB over.

 

[Stigmata]

Wait Virustype, why do they have to print the whole game over again if they make it for all three regions. Usually the only differance is the language audio and texts and wheater or not it is PALor NTSC.
So why would you devide a 25gb disc by three when only 3 GB at most is different for differant regions. that means you have 22 GB over.

That's a good point. AFAIK, the region encoding is a very small portion of the code base. All it is is alternate text/speech files, slightly different resolutions and refresh rates (NTSC is 640*480@60fps, PAL is a different res @~55?), and perhaps one or two other small bits of code that need to be changed to comply.

So really, a multi-region game on a single-layer Blu-ray disc could very realistically be double the size of a dual-layer, single-region DVD game.

 

[MultiVaC]

Wow, Virus, some of those quotes from John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead are pretty disturbing to me. Id is doing all their playtesting and developing on the Xbox 360? If they do that it's likely the PC versions of their games will be an afterthought, poorly tested and unoptimzed, and even worse, they will be designed for a controller. PC and console versions need to be playtested seperately, since thier control methods are different and the PC version will obviously need testing for different hardware configurations. And it makes my stomach turn to see the next installment of Wolfenstien, the oldest PC FPS franchise, being "designed with the Xbox 360 foremost in mind". Wolf games have always been PC games, the next one should be desingned with the PC foremost in mind. If it has that console feel to it then **** them, it will be ruined.

/derail

 

[AiM]

He made out free online PS3 gaming as a plus. But if you read earlier in the topic, you'd see why it's really not all that great. Xbox Live has worked stellarly because of the money going into it. Sony's online plan for the PS2 was a mess because there was no unfirom service and pretty much no quality control. The PS3 without its service fees is liable to fall into that same uneven territory of online console gaming. That's all.

So does eating on a daily basis. Or my cable bill. But it's still affordable, and it's timely.

For example:

Paying 250 dollars on a single item in one day is expensive.
Paying 250 dollars over the course of a year is not.

No, they're tackling head-on with Microsoft XBLive. The new PlayStation Network Platform (PNP) is eerily similar, right down to the centralized servers. The difference is, Sony allows everyone to play games online right out of the box, without any sort of payment. The Live network forces you to pay the gold membership cost on top of the games cost to play games online. The PNP will circumvent the cost by supplementing the online portions with things like paying for musics, movies, custom game content (Oblivion anyone?) and possibly some advertisements.

An analogy with your food idea would be:

a) XBLive makes you pay $50 per year to eat pizza
b) PNP makes you pay $0 per year to eat pizza

In response to Microsoft's successful Xbox Live network, Sony announced a unified online service for the PlayStation 3 console at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in Tokyo. The name of the service has been given the working title of "PlayStation Network Platform" and Sony has confirmed that the service will be free and include multiplayer support. However developers will be free to charge a subscription fee if they should choose to, as is commonplace for massively multiplayer online games (MMO). It is being jointly developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment.[16]

Online features

Communication/Community:
Online Gaming
Voice/Video chat
Messaging
Lobby/Matchmaking
Score/Ranking
Friend list/Avatar
Game data upload/download

Commerce:
Shop (accessible from inside games)
Content Download
Micro Payment
Subscription
Entitlement (user access rights) management

Account:
User Registration
Login ID/Handling of name issues

 

[Stigmata]

Wow, Virus, some of those quotes from John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead are pretty disturbing to me. Id is doing all their playtesting and developing on the Xbox 360? If they do that it's likely the PC versions of their games will be an afterthought, poorly tested and unoptimzed, and even worse, they will be designed for a controller. PC and console versions need to be playtested seperately, since thier control methods are different and the PC version will obviously need testing for different hardware configurations. And it makes my stomach turn to see the next installment of Wolfenstien, the oldest PC FPS franchise, being "designed with the Xbox 360 foremost in mind". Wolf games have always been PC games, the next one should be desingned with the PC foremost in mind. If it has that console feel to it then **** them, it will be ruined.

/derail

Yes, because there is absolutely no way to plug a USB keyboard and mouse into the Xbox 360.

 

[VirusType2]

No, they're tackling head-on with Microsoft XBLive. The new PlayStation Network Platform (PNP) is eerily similar, right down to the centralized servers. The difference is, Sony allows everyone to play games online right out of the box, without any sort of payment. The Live network forces you to pay the gold membership cost on top of the games cost to play games online. The PNP will circumvent the cost by supplementing the online portions with things like paying for musics, movies, custom game content (Oblivion anyone?) and possibly some advertisements.

An analogy with your food idea would be:

a) XBLive makes you pay $50 per year to eat pizza
b) PNP makes you pay $0 per year to eat pizza

Yea well, I'm not sure I would believe it. Sony promises much more than they actually deliver. If you haven't noticed, many of the things they say their system will do have been recently scratched from the actual console announcement at E3. Their entry level PS3 is missing quite a few features, and both versions are missing an HDMI port.

There are almost definitely other things that they promised the PS3 would have that they cut, but I'm not interested enough to even look it up. In fact I am hearing that their RAM isn't up to speed and things like this.. after they announced the final specs.


About the ID announcement:

all of our gameplay development and testing will be done on the Xbox 360. It’s a really sweet development system.

I believe that using the 360 as a development platform could actually make the PC version better. The PC version will be developed at the same time. What it sounds like to me is that the 360 is just a better platform to develop on, and they can actually make the PC version better, or make the game in less time.

If anyone has programmed in MS VB or other languages, there are already pre-programed segments that you can use. For example you need a OK/CANCEL window box? Press 2 buttons and you have one. Instead of programing shit-loads of code to create this window, there are already pre-made parts to make creating the real part of the game the only real task.

So, it's got to be something like that. In fact, it must be something even better than what I mentioned, since you can already do that when programing on the PC.