Will ps3 free online gaming cause xbox live to follow?

Nephew

I read somewhere that the ps3 will have free online gaming from day one, do you think this will cause MS to reconsider charging for xbox live?

kaimera

Doubt it.

Perhaps a drop in price but as it stands Live is a vastly superior service.
You're paying for the quality.

Nephew

I dunno about that, having to pay 8e to change your name is a bit ridiculous tbh

kensutz

Won't change.

DarkJager

It hopefully won't. Xbox Live is far superior to the Playstation network and I'm more than happy to pay for membership of a service that is already providing me with some of the best gaming I've had in years. Playstation Network is free but there are so many downsides to it when you compare it against Xbox Live.

kaisersose77

The ps3 online service doesnt even have online play for every game and its up to the developers wether they want to add it or not. If they made them include online play then it provide some competition to xbox live. So atm the way ps3 online is, you woulnt want to pay any money. But if they had something like xbox live i wouldnt mind paying at all.

DarkJager

Also of note is that the playstation network is not "interconnected". This means that if you are playing a game, your friends can't invite you to play with them as they cannot see your current status. A few early reviews of the online capabilites of the PS3 are saying that it makes the whole multiplayer experience seem very disjointed.

unklerosco

Nephew wrote:

having to pay 8e to change your name is a bit ridiculous tbh

I wish they'd change that.. All i wanna do is change unklerosco to UnkleRosco....

AppleBack

I always thought Xbox Live was free to play on?! Doesn't everyone get a silver membership which allows everyone to play for free? Theres another membership called gold but thats for extras. It says so here!

Ciaran500

Silver doesn't let you play online, lets you do nearly everything else though.

McDermotX

DarkJager wrote:

Also of note is that the playstation network is not "interconnected". This means that if you are playing a game, your friends can't invite you to play with them as they cannot see your current status. A few early reviews of the online capabilites of the PS3 are saying that it makes the whole multiplayer experience seem very disjointed.

It is certainly a little disjointed in its presentation, especially if coming straight from Live,
the actual execution in games such as Resistance and Motorstorm is excellent though, and is certainly the equal of Live when done correctly. But as you say, the interconnectivity isn't there to rival the MS service yet.
Thats the price to pay for a free service though, but I wouldn't exactly call MS's service value for money for all its superior attributes and if Sony's idea of the free PS Network and "Home" service takes off, MS will really have to re-evaluate their current structure..
Maybe the time has come for the whole advert-subsidised Live idea to come about again, then again the notion of the free subsystem may lead to the likes of EA charging a separate monthly fee for specific games..... (a very real danger for the PS Network over time)

Kenny_D

Silver allows access to market place for downloading demos, videos etc. Gold sub is required for online play. You can pick up a years subscription for under €40 on ebay from america. €40 isnt exactly a fortune for a years subscription and its easily worth double that for the features Live provides

DarkJager

McDermotX wrote:

It is certainly a little disjointed in its presentation, especially if coming straight from Live,
the actual execution in games such as Resistance and Motorstorm is excellent though, and is certainly the equal of Live when done correctly. But as you say, the interconnectivity isn't there to rival the MS service yet.
Thats the price to pay for a free service though, but I wouldn't exactly call MS's service value for money for all its superior attributes and if Sony's idea of the free PS Network and "Home" service takes off, MS will really have to re-evaluate their current structure..
Maybe the time has come for the whole advert-subsidised Live idea to come about again, then again the notion of the free subsystem may lead to the likes of EA charging a separate monthly fee for specific games..... (a very real danger for the PS Network over time)

I think for Microsoft, their position is pretty stable now,and they can take whatever Sony can throw at them. People are getting fooled by the "free" PS network; nothing in life is free, especially Multiplayer Online Gaming, which is a serious money earner for any company. It may be free to start with but its guaranteed that at some stage the free ride will stop and people will be paying possibly higher than xbox live rates for second rate service.

The whole "Home" thing that people are getting hyped over, is a just a puffed up version of the sims. I understand why people would like that sort of thing, but most gamers just want content and voice chat without the need to be playing a sims style game while you do it. I'm impressed by its features, but just don't see a need for it.

McDermotX

DarkJager wrote:

The whole "Home" thing that people are getting hyped over, is a just a puffed up version of the sims. I understand why people would like that sort of thing, but most gamers just want content and voice chat without the need to be playing a sims style game while you do it. I'm impressed by its features, but just don't see a need for it.

Its not for me either,
but I'm sure there is a lot of people out there who will go for it.....how many "community" ideas have started up in the last few years and exploded in popularity ? If it comes off for Sony with a new and improved integrated gaming system, it cold potentially be massive and leave Live looking underfeatured to say the least..
Live as it stands is a decent enough service, but personally I barely use it anymore, and it'll probably get to the stage where I'll resent renewing it at its current price. As has been pointed out before, with the numbers MS are claiming are signed up to Live Gold, it is vastly overcharged for the infrastructure required to maintain such a service.
Of course people who use it more will not complain about handing over €60 a year and consider a good service for the price, but if it ever gets to the stage where Sony can match Live connectivity for free, it won't take long for 360 owners to complain..
But, little in life is free, and servers do cost money to run (just not €60 from Gold members ), so the idea of monthly fees from publishers to utilise a free service is a real possibility.....and not a pleasant one..

chrislad

I got my one year sub in Dixons last week for 15euro. They're getting rid of their old packs so your local one may have some left. They're the packs with the FIFA, Outrun and Rainbow Six 3 demos.

DarkJager

Chrislad, can you tell me more?

unklerosco

Ditto... For me live is well worth the cash. Im on it every day for 1-3hrs, its stable n a sinch to use...

DarkJager

Yeah its just one of those services that has every thing you need for the online experience. Voice channels, text chat, friend lists, the ability to see what game your friends are in and join them plus good solid performance while in multiplayer. I'm averaging about 3-4 hours per night on it...just can't put rainbow six vegas down at the moment!