Insomniac Games Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings discusses why the PS3 is the console to beat
First of all, let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio. Sony has neither endorsed nor authorized what I’m writing here.
When I started this blog post I was planning to write about Home and Little Big Planet from a developer’s perspective. But as I read some of the media and message board responses to Sony’s GDC presentation, I wanted to address an ongoing industry phenomenon. Specifically, the sheer volume of negative spin toward Sony from both the mainstream press and the internet community. Mere minutes after Sony announced a beautiful, ground breaking, free, community-enhancing online PS3 service, 100 internet posters were trying to argue that this was somehow a bad thing. Whether you love or hate Sony, if you’re trying to spin Home as a bad thing I can only conclude that you’re part of Microsoft’s $3.2 billion viral marketing campaign.
I’ll be the first to say that Sony has had a very rough road from last E3 up through this year’s GDC. Some of their wounds have been self-inflicted, but they’ve also had to face a conspicuously hostile media. Take the New York Times article “How the PS3 will kill your dog, steal your girlfriend, and infect you with Ebola.” And Time magazine’s piece “Global Warming: Is It The PS3?” And more recently, GameSpot’s “Ten Complaints We Thought Up While Everyone Else Was Watching Little Big Planet.”
For the last nine months it has been fashionable to bash the PS3. At first it was controversial, even titillating, to make sensational and dire predictions about the PS3’s future. You could watch it happen again and again – a rumor starts on a message board (“The PS3s all caught on fire at TGS!”, “Blu-Ray won’t have any Porn!”), then it gets picked up by a games industry website, and a few days later USA Today runs the story with the headline “Experts Say PS3 Doom3d!1!!” But the tide has changed so much now that it’s downright controversial to suggest that the PS3 may yet be a success. So, in the spirit of sensationalism and controversy, let me present to you 10 reasons why the PS3 will be the console market leader by 2010:
1. Home & Little Big Planet
One of my jobs at Insomniac is to try to come up with “the next big thing.” This is something everyone at Insomniac does, but as Chief Creative Officer it’s also part of my job description. For the last two years there have been two concepts that I have felt had the strongest potential to be the next big thing. At GDC, Sony came out of the blue and delivered fully-realized versions of both concepts.
The first concept is a realization of the ‘Metaverse’ from Neal Stephenson’s groundbreaking novel Snow Crash. For those who haven’t read it, it’s what inspired Second Life. Over the last couple years, many of us at Insomniac have come up with lots of different ideas on how to make such a system for consoles. So when Home came out, already nearly complete and looking beautiful, it was both amazing and humbling at the same time. In short, Home is exactly what the online console community needs. I’m not saying that because it’s on the PS3. I’m saying that because Home is a fully realized version of something I’ve been trying to figure out how to do for two years.
The other “next big thing” I had been thinking about is how to make a game that is primarily driven by player-generated content. So when Little Big Planet was announced I felt like Orville Wright tinkering on a bicycle-powered balsa wood plane as a learjet suddenly flew overhead. Not only does Little Big Planet have stunningly beautiful graphics, gorgeous animation, brilliant physics and intuitive controls, it’s also a cooperative four player online game! This alone makes it accessible to a much greater audience than player vs player games. And most important of all, it has an absolutely ingenuous system for creating and sharing your own levels. This is HUGE. This is something that’s never been done on consoles and now it’s being introduced not as a half-baked add-on to another game, but as an absolutely brilliant, fully realized, breathtaking experience. You can bet that dozens of developers will create their own Little Big Planet levels as soon as it comes out. Many future game designers will get their start by designing Little Big Planet levels. Gamers who previously had no way to get their foot in the door as a game designer will have developers calling them in the middle of the night if they make a top-rated LBP level. I say again, Little Big Planet is HUGE.
It’s humbling to know that other developers had not only thought of these two concepts, but brought them to fruition in such stunning fashion. Mostly, though, it’s very encouraging to see Sony taking more of a lead in online innovation. While some people were accusing them of merely copying the competition, Sony has been quietly working on two of the most innovative ideas of this generation. “Mii too?” Give me a break.
2. Free Online
Among all the talk about the price of Sony’s console, I almost never see anyone mention the significance of Sony’s free online service. Xbox Live Gold costs $70 to sign up for 1 year, or $20 for three months. You can renew your membership for $50 a year. So if the Xbox 360 stays around for five years, you’ll be paying 70 + 50 + 50 + 50 + 50 = $270 to access features that Sony gives you for free.
I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now. But $270 better? And Sony is steadily narrowing the gap in online features. With improvements to the messaging system and support for background downloading, Sony is rapidly catching up with many of the key advantages that Live has enjoyed. Add to that the fact that Sony is offering virtually lag-free dedicated servers at no cost, while on Xbox Live you are paying for a more laggy peer-to-peer service. Furthermore, one of the biggest advertised features of Xbox Live is matchmaking, yet the implementation of this feature has been inconsistent since it is left up to the developer. The matchmaking service on Resistance: FOM, meanwhile, has been one of its biggest successes, proving that even at this early stage the PS3’s online capabilities are very competitive. And free. As the PS3 community continues to grow with new features and player-generated content from Home and Little Big Planet, Sony’s online service is looking better and better. And, again, they’re not charging you $270 for it.
3. 50 GB games
If you ever hear someone say “Blu-Ray isn’t needed for this generation,” rest assured they don’t make games for a living. At Insomniac, we were filling up DVDs on the PS2, as were most of the developers in the industry. We compressed the level data, we compressed the mpeg movies, we compressed the audio, and it was still a struggle to get it to fit in 6 gigs. Now we’ve got 16 times as much system RAM, so the level data is 16 times bigger. And the average disc space of games only gets bigger over a console’s lifespan. As games get bigger, more advanced and more complex, they necessarily take up more space. If developers were filling up DVDs last generation, there are clearly going to be some sacrifices made to fit current generation games in the same amount of space.
Granted, some really great Xbox 360 games have squeezed onto a DVD9. Gears of War is a beautiful game and shows off the highest resolution textures of anything yet released, partly because of the Unreal Engine’s ability to stream textures. This means that you can have much higher resolution textures than you could normally fit in your 512 MB of RAM. It also means that you’re going to chew up more disc space for each level. With streamed textures, streamed geometry and streamed audio, even with compression, you can quickly approach 1 GB of data per level. That inherently limits you to a maximum of about 7 levels, and that’s without multiplayer levels or mpeg cutscenes.
Sometimes people ask us, “If Resistance takes 14 gigabytes, why doesn’t it look better than Gears?” Well, for one, Resistance didn’t support texture streaming, so we had to make choices about where we spent our high-res textures. Resistance also had 30 single-player chapters, six multiplayer maps, uncompressed audio streaming, and high-definition mpegs. That all added up to a lot of space on the disc. Starting with Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction we are supporting texture streaming, which will make the worlds look even better, and will also consume even more space on disc.
There’s no question that you can always cut more levels, compress the audio more, compress the textures more, down-res the mpeg movies, and eventually get any game to fit on a DVD. But you paid for a high-def experience, right? You want the highest resolution, best audio, most cinematic experience a developer can offer, right? That’s why Blu-Ray is important for games, and why it will become more important each year of this hardware cycle.
4. Casino Royale
Casino Royale is the first high definition title to crack the top 10 on Amazon’s DVD charts, rising up to number seven shortly after being released. This is significant because it dispels the myth that high definition discs are merely a niche and will never take off with the mainstream.
A lot of people have been waiting on the fence to see whether Blu-Ray or HD-DVD would emerge as the winner of the format war. Well, at this point the war is as good as over. Blu-Ray has won a TKO. It always had superior technical specs and much wider studio support, but there was the question of whether HD-DVD’s earlier release and initially lower price would capture enough of the market to make it the winner. But Blu-Ray has already surpassed HD-DVD in overall discs sold, and is currently outselling HD-DVD discs at about a 3:1 rate. Many neutral observers in the A/V community have called the war in favor of Blu-Ray. If you want minute-to-minute updates, you can follow what’s left of the format war at various locations on the internet:
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
http://www.hdgamedb.com/amazon/versus.aspx
These sites mainly compare Amazon sales data, but the Nielsen sales data shows the same thing: Blu-Ray discs are outselling HD-DVD by a steadily increasing margin.
Many of Disney, Fox and Sony’s biggest box office movies will release exclusively on Blu-Ray in the next three months, likely pushing the sales separation between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to a margin where many retailers will begin phasing out HD-DVD. Retailers hate a format war even more than consumers, and I suspect they’ll take the initiative to end it as quickly as possible.
5. HDMI
A lot has been said about Sony’s choice to ship with composite cables. I won’t say I agree with that decision, but I think too little has been said of the fact that even the cheaper PS3 SKU supports HDMI 1.3. The PS3 was the first consumer device to support it, and this is a very important future-proofing step. When you go to buy higher-end TVs, the PS3 will support the highest possible audio and video input the TV and receiver can accept. If and when high-def movies start requiring an Image Constraint Token, the PS3 will still be able play them in high definition.
Right now, HDMI seems primarily to be a selling point to the hardcore audio and videophiles of the world. But HDTVs are getting cheaper and more popular all the time, and consumer sophistication and knowledge of high definition audio and video is growing. In a couple years, HDMI devices will be the standard. Graphics and audio in games will also continue to improve, and more and more consumers will want HDMI in order to get the best results on their home theater setups. As this happens, Microsoft has a difficult choice – do they stick with “last gen” video output, or do they release a premium version of the Xbox 360 that includes HDMI but effectively forces early adopters to re-buy the system to get the best results? Sony ultimately made their console more expensive by including HDMI, but over the next couple years it’s likely to play out as the right choice.
6. Standard HDD
When we were developing for PS2, I was jealous of Xbox’s standard hard drive. There are so many things this allowed you to consider as a developer – virtually unlimited save data, improved load times, custom music, downloadable content and user-created content just to name a few. But since hard drives, no matter what the size, never get cheaper than about $50, Microsoft lost money trying to compete with the PS2’s price. That may be the reason they left it out of the cheaper Xbox 360 SKU, thinking that Sony would again leave out the hard drive on the PS3. Instead, Sony made the hard drive standard for both SKUs. This added to the cost of the PS3, but it also let developers use the HDD in games.
The problem with including a hard drive in one version of the 360 and not in the other is that developers can’t use it for the games. Or, at least, they can’t use it for any required features. When you are guaranteed to have at least a 20 GB hard drive in the console, you can write your load caching routines around it, or use it for your application’s storage needs. To a developer, an optional hard drive is roughly equivalent to no hard drive at all.
Another advantage of the PS3 is that it will let you put in any third party hard drive you want. From a developer’s standpoint, this is good news because the market will gradually be able to support larger downloadable games over the course of the PS3’s life. As downloadable content gets larger and more sophisticated, PS3 owners can choose to buy larger hard drives at the best market price. The more this happens, the more developers will be encouraged to create better and better downloadable games.
7. The Wii Fad Will Fade
OK, this one’s going to be controversial, but I have to say it. I like Nintendo a lot. I think Nintendo has innovated far more than any other company in the industry. And I think the Wii is really, really fun. But… let me relate to you a story that may sound familiar:
Your friend Reggie invites you over for a Wii Party. It’s awesome. You and your friends partake in whatever beverages are legally appropriate for your age group. The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii.
A week later Reggie hosts another Wii Party. This time only half the group comes. It’s still fun, but there isn’t quite as much shoving to get at the Wiimote.
The next week Reggie hosts another Wii Party. You tell him you have bird flu.
Obviously I’m exaggerating, but the Wii does have many characteristics of popular mainstream fads. It’s instantaneously accessible, it’s unlike anything you’ve tried before, and it’s great fun to share with friends. In short, it’s everything Nintendo said it would be and it has captured the world’s imagination. The only downside is that the world is easily distracted. Tickle Me Elmo captured the world’s attention at one point, as did Furbies. They were both instantly accessible, were unlike anything people had seen before, and were fun to share with friends. But a year later, after everyone had seen them and tried them out, their popularity waned.
The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don’t normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.
8. PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage
The GPUs on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are roughly equivalent, with the Xbox 360 arguably having a slight edge. The difference in CPU power, however, is far greater with the PS3 enjoying the advantage. The PS3’s eight parallel CPUs (one primary “PPU” and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360. Just about any tech programmer will tell you that the PS3’s CPUs are significantly more powerful. The problem is that it has been challenging thus far to take advantage of the Cell’s parallel architecture.
With the PS2, Sony got away with making a fairly developer-unfriendly system, and its success allowed their hardware designers to ignore developer’s complaints as they made the PS3. People high up at Sony have realized that approach simply won’t work anymore and are trying to fix the problem. Sony is actively improving their libraries, tools and developer support in order to make PS3 development easier. They are giving first party developed techniques and code to third-party developers so that multi-platform games should start looking better on PS3.
Games developed from the ground up on PS3 are the ones that will really show off the PS3’s CPU advantage. The complexity of the distributed processing architecture means that PS3 engines won’t fully blossom until a little later in the lifecycle than the PS2. This has put the PS3 at a disadvantage early in its lifecycle, but within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360.
9. PS2 still outselling 360
I know, it’s outselling the PS3 by an even larger margin. But the continued strong PS2 sales really are a good thing for Sony. Anyone buying a PS2 at this point is probably not going to buy a PS3 or Xbox 360 in the next year. And when they do choose to buy the current generation of hardware, the PS3 will be in a lot better position. The price will have come down, the game library will be broad, and the top PS3 titles will probably have the edge in both graphics and sound. Just as important, the people buying into the PS2 now will be getting into many of Sony’s exclusive franchises that they will then later want to play on the PS3.
10. Something For Everyone
One of Sony’s biggest advantages is that it has strong franchises in every genre. Whereas Microsoft’s successful titles are mostly M-rated, and Nintendo’s are mostly E-rated, Sony has a big list of hit titles across the spectrum. When a 30-something gamer (like me) goes to buy a game console, it’s a lot easier to justify the purchase when there are games he can play with his kids as well as more mature stuff.
To Microsoft’s credit, they are doing a good job of catching up. The acquisition of Rare and the development of Viva Pinata have helped to broaden their spectrum. But it takes time to build a franchise, and Sony has been building their suite of titles for over a decade. Consider the breadth, success and critical acclaim of some of their exclusive properties: The Getaway, God of War, Gran Turismo, Hot Shots Golf, Jak and Daxter, Killzone, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow of the Colossus, Singstar, Sly Cooper, SOCOM, and Twisted Metal. These are all million-plus sellers worldwide that are either already announced or likely to appear on PS3. Add to this Sony’s new line up of first-party titles, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Uncharted and White Knight Story, and they have an even deeper and stronger line-up than what they had on PS2.
A lot of industry watchers and even a handful of publishers have been quick to write Sony off this generation, and I think that’s near-sighted. Sony has made a lot of decisions with the PS3 that may have slowed them down in the short run, but should give them a big advantage in the long run. The high price, hardware complexity, and the uncertainty of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war have contributed to the PS3’s slow start out of the gate. But as the price drops, developers master the hardware, and Blu-Ray becomes the new DVD standard, Sony’s early disadvantages turn to advantages. As downloadable games become more common, the 60 GB hard-drive will be a big advantage to developers and consumers. As games get bigger and more sophisticated, Blu-Ray storage will increasingly become a major advantage. And as more and more of Sony’s exclusive first-party titles get released, the PS3 will begin to outsell the competition on a monthly basis. Those publishers who have shifted resources away from PS3 development will find themselves behind the curve and losing money as the market center gradually shifts toward the PS3 over the next two years.
I’m sure many of you may have comments about my point of view. If you do, please email [email protected] and I’ll do my best to respond. Also, I’ll be visiting the various forums to see what people think, including our own at www.insomniacgames.com (click on the community tab). Hope to see you there.
Source: www.insomniacgames.com/commun…ull.php?bid=30
a good article. but I smell Sonys money behind it.
have to say, i agree with over 50%. its a shame that including stuff like HDMI /blueray etc. will only be apparent in 2 or three years time, when HDTVs etc become more that a tech geek toy.
I might not agree with everything that sony does ( or even half) but there is no denying that the PS3 has a far greater shelf-life than the Xbox360. not only because of all its features, but because they were included as standard.
Comment by hamildan — Mar 30, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
“let me make it clear that Insomniac is a 100% independent development studio.”
Except for the fact that the games are fully funded by Sony and Sony own the IP for the games they are producing …. yeh fully independent
Comment by mike — Mar 30, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Mike, is Epic unbiased when they comment on the 360 if Gears of War is published and funded by Microsoft?
Comment by PSN- andycapps — Mar 30, 2007 @ 1:05 pm
Just because they’ve been successful with Sony so far doesn’t mean they have to be wrong and biased whenever they talk about PS3 optimistically. Note how his points are balanced and they acknowledge what the competitors are doing well, unlike Microsoft representatives.
He makes a lot of valid points and there are no lies anywhere. Excellent article.
Comment by VG Aficionado — Mar 30, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
Damn, great article.
Comment by Brian — Mar 30, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
Great article well written and shows off a good knowledge of the buisness and where its heading.
Where i may not agree with all of the points, its a very strong argument that may even make a hardened M$ fanboy think
Comment by Scorn — Mar 30, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
On extra point, Sony can take Wii novelty market on easily, if they put a bit more effort into Eye Toy.
Comment by phil — Mar 30, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
a wicked article that explains everything properly to 360 owners
Comment by iagdad — Mar 30, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
hamildan mentions shelf life and it made me wonder whether Microsoft envisage new consoles every 3-4 years rather than Sony’s 5-7 year turnaround?
The first Xbox had a reasonably short life, arriving after the PS2 and was replaced before the PS3 launched. Will the PS3’s longer term approach force Microsoft to release a new machine (and I mean more than the ‘Elite’) in 3 years time?
After all, if the 360 is so much cheaper, consumers won’t mind buying 2 Xboxes in 6 years for the same total price of 1 PlayStation, will they?
Comment by Rikki — Mar 30, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
“I agree, Xbox Live is overall offering a better online service right now. But $270 better? ”
Absolutely, I own a PS3 (great machine) but I won’t be cancelling my Xbox Live subscription
Its not just the matchmaking its the fact I am connected to my friends no matter what game (or DVD) I or they are playing.
Of course its just my opinion but the difference between the online services is more significant than any other feature
Comment by Sean — Mar 30, 2007 @ 3:38 pm
I have to take exception to the free online thing. Yes you have to pay for Xbox Live but the huge majority of games 99%, require no further payment to play.
Sony have already said that they are leaving it up to the developers to chareg what they like for online, so are we faced with the prospect of constantly having to pay for individual titles? Are the developers going to have continual free access to enough servers to deliver free online to users?
Have Sony given that commitment anywhere? Not that I have seen.
When EA start really rolling on the PS3 do you think for a second they are going to let PS3 owners play on their servers for free? No way. Either Sony pays or we do, which is it going to be?
Comment by shiesevens — Mar 30, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
What a rant! Actually I agree with every point he makes (Live costs slightly less than he claims), and as a PS3 fan, it’s great to hear, but still, what an emotional rant.
I think he is frustrated with the overwhelming and mostly undeserved negativity that the PS3 (and Resistance) has gotten from the media. I can’t blame him for that.
Comment by ps3fan — Mar 30, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
Shiesevens your were speaking towards the end of your statement as if you are part of EA… “When EA start really rolling on the PS3 do you think for a second they are going to let PS3 owners play on their servers for free? No way. Either Sony pays or WE do, which is it going to be?”
Sony has already said and nothing will change it, online services on the PS3 will be free. Only thing that may cost is addition to games like levels but thats up to the developers.
Onto the article he stated some very good facts and some that could be argued. I own a PS3 myself and i’ve noticed everyone who gets a PS3 are always amazed or know they bought a great console.
Comment by Nick — Mar 30, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
The idea of EA, or any other publisher, charging for peer-to-peer games is ridiculous. I (shamefully) own some EA ps3 games, and guess what, the online is free. Of course it will be, this is just FUD.
Anyway, good blarg by Insomniac. Although the Wii won’t fade as fast as tickle me Elmo, it’s not the same class as the PS3 and barely deserves mention.
Comment by john — Mar 30, 2007 @ 5:04 pm
shiesevens- We won’t be paying to play EA games, or rather, if we’re paying, Xbox Live users will be paying as well. Heck, everything on XBox Live is P2P anyway. What exactly were you paying for again? Dedicated servers? Try again.
Comment by PSN- andycapps — Mar 30, 2007 @ 6:37 pm
PSN-Andycaps: XBL users are already paying to play EA games, MS pay the money, it’s all part of the deal they did to get EA onto Xbox (XBL was one of the main sticking points).
Not all XBL games are peer to peer, Battlefield Modern Combat being a good example. So saying everything is P2P is just wrong.
So as you say: Try again.
Comment by shiesevens — Mar 30, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
What on earth are you sony loving diots babbling on about?
Shinesevens is absolutely spot on.
EA would not charge xbox live owners for using their servers - the £40 xbox owners pay a year for their gold service means they can play any game online. Sony on the other hand charge nothing, and they wont want to pay EA for providing its PS3 owners with servers to play FIFA and NFS forever, especially if the PS3 sales trend continues…
Sony are not leading the way in the online arena, home or no home. And xbox owners pay for the gold service for a reason.
Sonys online service is pathetic in comparison to Microsofts.
Xbox live provides matchmaking in all games - Sony do not.
Microsoft enables you to chat to friends, send voice and text messages WHILE PLAYING ONLINE games. Sony does not. If you recieve a message while youre playing motorstorm online - you need to go back to the XMB (dashboard) to read/listen to it. Highly annoying and disruptive to the gaming experience.
Video marketplace, active downloads… the list goes on. And its not a 100% peer to peer service. PGR3, perfect Dark Zero, Battlefield 2…in fact all EA online games… GR:AW… I need not elaborate any further.
I find it absolutely hilarious that idiots believe what this incompitent from insomniac is telling you! He is anything but independent - INSOMNIAC HAVE NEVER DEVIATED FROM SONY HARDWARE - why is that I wonder?
(Sony branded cash straight in the back pocket)
What he says is not fact. Its opinion. And most of what he says will probably never ring true. Take it with a pinch of salt ffs.
*rolls eyes*
Comment by MadDog128 — Mar 31, 2007 @ 12:05 am
Resistance 2 with streaming textures is going to kick ass.
Comment by nmc75 — Mar 31, 2007 @ 1:08 am
xbox live sucks.. really, i think the xbots are smelling the fruits of the PNP and they are afraid… very afraid…
so afraid in fact that they come to threespeech to convince themselves that XBL is the better service.
they will never have the god-awesom-o Home, in 7 months time ps3 users around the world will piss on your expensive puny XBL service.
it really is a matter of time before zealots look at the great PNP with envy and ask themselves: why are we paying for a service that is inferior to something that is and always have been free?
online gaming has always been free on PC with the exception of MMO, why should consoles be any different?
from here on out i am laughing at all the xtards getting robbed by MS and still thinks its all good, truely patethic tis
Comment by whatdafunk — Mar 31, 2007 @ 6:18 pm
shiesevens- I can guarantee you that EA games on PS3 will not be pay to play unless they’re an MMO, like Final Fantasy XI, which XBox Live users still had to pay a monthly fee of $12.95 for. Yes there are a couple of games on 360 with dedicated servers, but as of now, they’re few and far between. Hopefully MS will stop short changing their customers.
Comment by PSN - andycapps — Mar 31, 2007 @ 10:52 pm
Quite interesting how many people visit a semi-official Sony Playstation blog to…flame. That xbox live subscription is really serving you well if you’re bored enough to go troll against Insomniac. I think you’re all just jealous of Resistance.
I’m a gamer, as such, I started on the computer. Online gaming has always been free (save for those money grubbin addictin mmos =D). To be expected to pay for my ISP (an expense, kids) and then to further pay for another layer of access just stinks. I agree, Xbox Live does provide services I’m quite fond of on my computer (which, ironically, are also free). Need I remind you that it took a year for Microsoft to roll out a proper online service? Those who purchased an Xbox were drawn to it as early adopters, the same exact case present here with the Playstation 3.
I would like to commend you, Mr. Hastings, on providing realization and unbiased views on one of the most lovingly, passionate and opinionated fanbases to ever grace this lovely earth. Insomniac has always been a very talented group, a place amongst the crew would truly be my dream job.
Comment by Kris — Apr 1, 2007 @ 4:04 am
Kris,
Not on here to flame.
I own both consoles and the guy asked a question (all be it rhetorical) is Xbox Live worth $230 more than the free Sony Service.
My answer is a categorical yes
Why would you have trouble understanding that it represent value to some gamers
Its real strength lies in offering total communication across all games and applications.
I can voice chat with a friend playing Gears whilst I am playing GRAW. That goes for all kinds of comms… invites, text, pictures
Its just not the same on the PS3, so that where I see the £230 value
Comment by Sean — Apr 1, 2007 @ 9:29 am
To be frank, I hadn’t meant you in that unfortunate blanket statement, Mr. Sean (if I may indeed call you that =D) And I’ve no intention of proving its useless to anybody (as possible as it could be, given my skills) After all, as you’ve pointed out, it certainly has its value. However, I haven’t the inclination to spend more money monthly on something when I should be getting it free, and that there ends my opinion. What is quite interesting, and I’m sure you can appreciate this, is how this very simple question has become so very…dynamic.
I mean take a look at launch, where there was no background downloading, no announcements, no worthwhile purchases or uses for the PS Store and no other interesting facets of the network. It was a baby step from the PS2 era. Take a look at it now, its hardly perfect, but its come a ways of sorts, with new announcements, background downloading, and new features. How much more robust might the network be in 6 months time? It’ll be interesting to see how each network will compete against each other to drive innovation and hopefully bring new and exciting features to both. Well I can only hope, in the spirit of competition, that my last statement doesn’t seem to optimistic. Turns out, it doesn’t matter who ‘wins’ or ‘loses’ because its not about them, its about us gamers, and ultimately, no matter the outcome, we usually always win =D
Comment by Kris — Apr 1, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
Live is currently better at the moment for comms between games and friends lists etc.
But as Phil Harrison announced concerning Home:
First it will be P2P and when your offline your Home will be too.
Later it will be always on as Live is and your friends will have access to your Home, trophies, profile etc.
Live is 5 years old now and some of the things we like about it took years to be implemented. PSN is a few months old and already has many things which took years to arrive on Live.
Both will expand and both will be fine…but very different.
As to the cost of PSN. When Home is active businesses will be able to rent property there and set up shops just as in the real world. You will be able to walk into a sports shop, buy a hoodie for your avatar and a few days later you’ll get delivery of a real one to wear yourself. You want a pizza delivered to your house, go to Pizza Hut online and order one, 30 minutes later there is a a knock on your door with the same pizza. That’s how much of the PSN will be funded.
Comment by Evolution-One — Apr 1, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
no matter how you look at it, MS is walking right into a wall, face first
just look at the live initiative theyre setting out on the PC platform, it really is a joke.
its as if all MS really want is getting theyre fans back to the PC.
bill gates: omgz sry we robbed you, now come back plz, i promise, no more upgrade every year to play ze games
they are touting cross-platform gaming on LIVE when every other dev hates the idea.
cause they know PC owners will not succumb to teh greed that is MS and pay for a service thats been free since the dawn of online gaming.
In fact, i heard its more likely well see such X-platforming on the ps3, whos online model is much more similiar to PC than XBL is.
you say competition is healthy?
well i dont give a flunck, i want to see MS crash,burn and die then GTFO of the gaming industry..
they are the sole purpose for whoring out some of my fav game franchises…
Deus ex2
perfect dark zero
halo2
i mean WTF??!?
and the list just f** goes on and on… :,(
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 2, 2007 @ 11:05 am
Someone may need a blood pressure check
Comment by Sean — Apr 2, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
Its funny how all you who are saying ” EA wont let you play on their servers for free” just because you MS fanboys are paying online doesnt mean PS3/PC owners will have to pay as well. Dont be mad because you are a sucker.
What am i talking about? Well right now i own Battle for Middle Earth 1 and 2, Need for Speed Carbon for the PC and guess what? I get to play for FREE!! haha, i dont have to pay MS anything, i get to play those games ONLINE for free.
Thats how the PS3 versions of those games will run, like the PC version, for FREE
Comment by jojo29 — Apr 2, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
Those who think EA would do such a thing are obviously a little skewed towards the ‘money-grubbin-no-good-corporation’ image of EA.
If you’ve such an image, stop buying the games. We live in a capitalist society, which FOSTERS competition. EA just happens to be REALLY good at it, so now they’re the bad guy?
The Xbox Live vs. PSN argument is new and interesting and won’t be ending soon. But its only a part of what Mr. Hastings is saying here. If online gameplay and features made a system a straight out success, then why didn’t the Xbox become the market leader last generation?
Say, you MS boys should be off playin Live instead of hittin up a Sony blog. You’re payin for it, might as well get your moneys worth =D
Comment by Kris — Apr 2, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
I’ve missed this argument. Shame because I had a good question: Do we have a statistic for how many of those 6 million Live users pay for the Gold service???
Comment by Rash' — Apr 4, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
I’m sure MS has dedicated units that troll about online looking for forums to slag off the PS3. Just look at the amount of xbox fanboys posting here!
I posted here a few months ago writing that due to the price and delay with the PS3 that a few of the group of lads I hang about with went out and bought Xbox 360’s. Up until then we had all been PS2 owners and this was great. Every body was proficient at what ever game was being played on a Thursday night and were willing to gamble a few quid on a game or two. It’s not like that since the arrival of the xbox 360. When they released the PS3 here in Ireland two of us went out and bought a PS3 each the first day. Two weeks later and already those 360 owners have admitted that they will be buying PS3’s at some point this year. A couple of them were incensed that MS were planning to release an upgraded machine “360 Elite”. It was said that if they were aware of this at the time they would have waited until Sony had released the PS3.
At this point I have spent enough time playing both consoles to come to the conclusion that the only advantage the xbox 360 has over the PS3 in the quantity of games available but setting that aside the PS3 is a far superior console and even with the upcoming 360 elite it will still find itself trying to keep up the PS3. Great machine Sony! Pity about the marketing!
Comment by prunch — Apr 4, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
no shiesevens, you won’t have to pay for online on regular PS3 games only for things like MMO’s which is also going to happen on the xbox360 though…
so with the xbox360 you pay for live and if you want to play a certain MMO you need to pay a fee again.
plus sony isn’t going to push developers towards letting users pay for online via pay per download, this means the online is free but you can upgrade the game with some extra content, which is also something you do on xbox360 live with xbox360 points but you have to pay xbox live+ xbox live credits.
it’s the xbox360 which makes online not just expensive but extremely expensive if you want to use it to it’s fullest.
Comment by mark — Apr 4, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
o sorry it is going to push not isn’t.
sorry typo.
Comment by mark — Apr 4, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
I own both consoles and to be honest I only play PS3 online. This is due mainly to the fact that albeit being a proper gamer, I do have a life and can’t know a month in advance if I will play a lot or not. So I won’t bother to spend money for the Gold Live and then play online once! With the free month that comes with the premium I only played online twice, ’cause I had quite a busy month. So, I decided to not make a gift to MS of my hard earned money and never paid another month again. On the PS3 I already played 35 matches of Motorstorm and 10 of Resistance and will keep on playing online, ’cause it’s really big fun, but won’t have the pain in the proverbial, saying “oh no, this month I paid, but can’t find a minute to log-in and wasted my money”. No more rush, I play when I want and won’t feel guilty for spending a week end reading a book instead of rushing to switch on the console to avoid wasting my money. My 360 has never been switched on again since I bought the PS3 (maybe also because it’s one of the first batch of UK 360s and I’m a bit afraid it might give me the 3 red leds anytime now. Plus, playing not online with it, I’d rather play my PS3 on and off line!). Also the PS3 online works quite smooth as well, so for the Live price, screw the messaging while playing, should I ever feel the urge for a chat with some friends playing something else, I’d give them a call on the mobile!
Comment by Jan_Solo — Apr 5, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
Forgot to say that the article was really interesting and is saying what I’ve being telling friends for a long time about the Wii and the 360.
Wii is just a powered up Eyetoy. Very nice to play with friends a couple of times (if nobody gets injured…), but you’ll soon put on some good next gen (I mean PS3 or 360) game, where you can really spend hours playing without getting bored…
As per the 360, it is probably even with PS3 at the moment, but to have most of the stuff PS3 comes with, you have to spend much more money.
We should also consider that PS3 is already (apart from Gears of War, but let’s wait Unreal Tournament 3 and we’ll see) on the same level of the 360 which has been out since 1 and a half year. When PS2 came out we had Fantavision, now we have God of War 2… I expect by the end of this year PS3 to show some of its true power…
Comment by Jan_Solo — Apr 5, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Article blew me away. This is the kind of stuff they don’t want us to read.
Comment by Fredrik — Apr 7, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
tssssSSss.. you hear dat????
thats me pissing on your xbox live, now what are you gonna do about it xbot?
just give it up, on threespeech your viral campaign means shit, go play with your paperweight on 1up with the rest of the retards
regards, the last true fanboi
Comment by whatdafunk — Apr 8, 2007 @ 3:56 am
amazing you summed up the entire generation and everythin said can be backed up. the PS3 is future prrof the wii IS a fad(and i can say that knowing that after owning one since Xmas i havent played it in months) and the 360 will be better until ppl come to expect more than the console can offer even if the elite has HDMI. briliant artical by a briliant company.
cant wait for rathcet+clank on the PS3
Comment by Jack — Apr 8, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
I own a Xbox 360 and a PS3 and I have to say the difference between live and psn isn’t worth the cost. It’s nice being able to voicechat and all that, but not £35 per year nice - to me anyway.
Comment by Jimmy — Apr 8, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
who gives a rats ass. buy the system that has the games you like. people are talking about xbox 360 vs. ps3. vs wii like this its superbowl. everyone chill out.
Comment by ed — Apr 10, 2007 @ 3:53 am
i messed up my 2nd sentece, its supposed to go: like its the superbowl. thanks for reading.
Comment by ed — Apr 10, 2007 @ 3:55 am
Ouch, mega burn to you 360 brainwashed fanboys.
Comment by -soul_reaper- — Apr 11, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Resistance is 40 player online and its all free.
Home can hold as many players as there possibly can be and it will still be free.
The only games you’d probably have to pay for is Online RPGs. Just like on PC’s. So its not such a bad thing. But at least you have the choice what you want to pay for.
Unlike 360 where you HAVE to pay if you want to play online.
Also, the services 360 offers, Sony can always add those services in later… for free.
And do you know why Sony offers it for free? Because they want more people to use their system. The more the people use it, the more they’ll like it because its free, then the more they’ll buy stuff for the system, which will make money for Sony in the end.
As you can see, Sony thinks about everything in the long term. Which is why Sony is so succesful.
And before you say how Sony is failing with the PS3, remember the word… LONGTERM…
Comment by Rock Lee — Jun 3, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
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