if i want to add someone using there Sony ID, then i'll add them. If i want to use another ID, then i'll used it. I could always do both. I mean, come on how hard could it be to send a friend invite, damn.

You know what this is, its not the fact that people will get confused on which ID too use, this is about people being too LAZY too send an invite to both accounts . How much harder and how much more time would it be to send two invites instead of one???

you can't sell online.microsoft can talk numbers all day but in the end sony will have more people online because of the fanbase.sony doesn't have to recreate live.why?because online is not that big of a deal when most play offline with friends,family or by themselves.only hardcore shooter fans and sports fans are online because they have this NEED TO COMPETE.casual gamers might shop for things for themselves like music or movies or for the games they have.but they will not be playing online.and if they do,it's probally one game only that they will play a lot.both systems without a true killer app for online means most people will be offline.for example.lots of people are online with computers because there's a massive amount of information floating out there.you don't have to pick up a book,magazine,watch tv,nothing.what do consoles have for online?shooters and racing?sorry,that's not mass market.sony will do okay for online even if it will be behind microsoft because of their experience.but the fact that it will have "FREE" internet,online stores for stuff that sony has more than microsoft to buy,means that they do have a chance of besting microsoft with more people but a slightly inferior online service from the get go.

Online is important in many ways comunacation, multi player, downloads, soon to be Direct tv on XBL, spectator modes ect ect ect. Give the Software king and father of world wide console gameing a break. U dont knowwwwww...

As we already said ages ago.

Sony = overpromissing & underdelivering.
Like the PS2 'great' online service. The PS3 is just an updated version of that but nothing more. Nothing close to premium online service!

I have been saying their service will run like this for months. And here it is restated.

So what. Both systems can receive firmware when sony is ready with an online scheme, they'll release it :shrugs:

But that is the truth, its not like the guy is lying. It is so annoying to have all these different ID's and friends list.

GMAB. It's too early to tell. Of course there are going to be growing pains, but at least you're not wasting money while it's being improved and updated. Complain in a year, until then, stick to your games and stfu.

MS must be really scared to talk such smack. As this fella alreadey said himself, the PNP isn't ready yet, so it's the main reason why devs are coming with their own solutions.

bladestar - Sony didn't lie about 360 being more expensive. It's a simple fact that if 360 want to offer roughly same, but without being future proof, it costs more. They just enforced the naked truth.

Truth.

I think this is absolutely crazy non-story. Microsoft criticise their business rivals, which is fair enough- but how is this news?

Yes MS have a successful online service, but they havent had a hands-on on the Sony online service.

When the Sony launches, if its below par, then criticise, but not before...

A blog opinion is not news

Said 1st that the PS3 online service would stand up aginst XBL. 360 fans did not say hey lets compaere. The Sony corperate fat heads said this.

"Our service will out do XBL and it will be free too."

Why are people acting like we do not know whats is going on.

so often and their OWN console that it is hilarious.

So offten that it is hilarious.

I say the xbox 360 is busted, how many games lag? Require Patches? Overheat? stutter? etc...

Keep your mouth shut until you fix your service.

Is Saints Row multiplayer playable yet?

Atleast we arent paying $50 a year to laggggg.

bladestar - Tell me please how this can be lies:
$399 Xbox360 premium + $199 HD-DVD addon + $99 Wi-Fi= $697
That's the simple, naked truth, no lies or anything. I think people can do simple math and there is no need for Sony to clarify this.

Thammie - As a MS fanboy it also doesn't make sence accusing any company of lying. Your beloved company are the biggest liars around, cause their lies have very bad consequences for their customers. Need any examples?
By the time they were releasing Xbox they were all so kind saying they care about gamers and don't wanna dissapoint them. Too bad that's exactly what they did while they killed the Xbox right after 360 was launched. Most gamers don't buy the new console right at launch and I know a lot of Xbox owners that are very pissed and don't wanna buy a MS console again. MS just doesn't care about their customers and you can be sure they have enough money to still support Xbox, they are not Sega. Xbox is probably the console of a wealthy company that didn't go bankrupt with the shortest life span in history.
Another good example is the HD-DVD addon. They are saying it's a HD movie player, sadly they don't mention it has only a limited usage time, cause it's without HDMI. HDMI is nescessary for the future copy protection and the movie studios will surely include it in the next few years. So how do you think will the addon buyers feel when let's say after 3 years they pop a brand new movie into the player but this device will sadly output it only in 480p? They will just like the Xbox owners that didn't jump in, feel screwed and betrayed.
So tell me please what are Sony's lies (E305 CGI)that were cleared after a few days compared to this? NOTHING and Sony also doesn't play a hidden agenda to milk noobs or kids:

"Unlike Nintendo and Microsoft's offerings, Sony doesn't hide the price of items behind an arbitrary "points" scheme - instead, everything simply lists a price in your local currency, so European types will see a Euro price, British people will see prices in Pounds Sterling, and so on."

So there you go with MS. They lie to you, they betray you, they ripp you off and you are still swingig their nutts. Sheesh there must be something terribly wrong with these MS fanboys.

who would have though that a news piece like this would bring about such dribble? /sarcasm

However, I think that Sony isn't ready with the unified service. As the Resistance developer said, they could make it unified when they get the final word on the PNP. When Sony finishes the dang thing, they can patch Resistance since everyone has a hard drive. All this crap talk won't matter if this happens. Because the PNP service wasn't ready, some launch titles don't include online functionality. Resistance was going to have online gaming with or without the PNP. What about the other games that have online functionality? What are they running off of? We will find out in 11 days. The only game that has come clean is Resistance.

The other reality check is that Sony can continually update this service like Live does. I would have to say when I first fired up live on the 360, it was broken in other ways besides multiplayer. Thankfully, Microsoft has fixed most of it.

thought that Sony didnt even HAVE an online plan for PS3. They got smacked in the face, now they are saying, well, its "busted". Not busted people, its just different. It doesnt have to be exactly like XBL. Anyways, I cant waitt o play Motorstorm and R:FOM online.

I think people should wait and see. Different gamer tags would be annoying true, but sony may find a way to unify multiple accounts or just change it altogether in the near future. So everyone calm down and lets just see what happens.

Here's a story! One company says the other company's similar product isn't good. Wow. I can't believe it. What has the world come to?

That being said, yes, Sony does seem to have some issues with it's online capability. I'll be interested to see what becomes of Sony's network plans but will wait until I see the final outcome before throwing stones at either side.

FREE INTERNET-FREE ONLINE GAMING IF I WANT TO is a good thing.FREE is good.and the fact that sony has more content to sell because of the other branches of the company means microsoft has to spend money to make deals to compete.people say the ps3 is priced out of the reach of casual,but casual buy ipods and digital cameras and hdtvs without batting an eye.all sony needs is a good service,but it will in the days ahead have more content offered.microsoft doesn't own music or movies and they sure don't have the amount of back catalog games to offer.it's not just about online gaming.it's part of sony's plan but the possibility of selling you something is where sony's thinking is.they want to sell you "STUFF".and for the hardcore it's online gaming.and if sony offers free voice chat and video chat,what's microsoft going to do to compete with that?

You guys are funny. Maybe M$ should focus on the 360. Stop spending time on what Sony is doing. The fact is this is Sony's third console. It should be the best in all the levels. HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, and SERVICES. Sony's online should be better guys. The console king should hit the ground running this fall. 10 years ppl compared to 5 for M$. There is no way M$ should be spoken of in the same breath as Sony. The PS3 will rule.

Is worth $50 a year. Connecting up with friends in private rooms are awesome. If Sony can do this for free then sweet.

As some have already pointed out MS talks about things it really does not know for sure will happen with the PS3 online. MS has no first hand knowledge of what online features the PS3 will have at launch or that will be incorporated as time goes on.

While RFoM has a seperate system at launch Ted Price did say its something that could be integrated later on. As well I know of one other online launch game that will use the Sony ID. Dark Kingdom will use this feature.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles...

If it can use the PNP I don't see why RFoM or any other PS3 online game can't. I think the biggest problem is that Sony did not have enough information for developers to integrate for launch. However it would appear to me that as time goes on that more and more developers will just utilize the existing capabilities of the PS3 network and have a unified ID and friends list for their games.

Lame, I always hate with global corporations bash each other...

Microsoft is being lame... There doing what they always do; just like they've done in the networking business. Can they be so afraid to actually bash competition?

Don't get me wrong on this, if Sony was doing this I'd be backing Microsoft; I hate to see companies do this to each other. They act to much like politicians; ingore the public and embrace themselves on there ideas.

I dont beleive these lies from microsoft they will do anything to lower ps3 sales

Sony said there will be one log on for all games....Thread dead!Oh M$ said something bad about Sony..say it ant so!

It's a fu*kin war zone in here. If it's more akward to use then Sony's boasting is busted claiming that it's service equals LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I put $1000 bucks on the fact that neither service will be the same this time next year so this artical is NULL. It will be interesting to see what MS/Sony come up with, with their ever evolving OL services. I'll put my money on the company that has decades of Web based technoligy experiance.

read this article, so i don't care,

sony/microsoft!

bladestar - That's one of the funniest things I red the last few days. Your post is so flawed and funny, I still can't stop laughing. First learn to read correctly. I didn't suggest that everyone that wants a 360 wants a HD-DVD or uses Wi-Fi. I said "if 360 want to offer roughly same". Yeah roughly the same, namely HD-DVD, a format on which you can watch high definition movies. It's also roughly the same, cause as sad as it is the HD-DVD addon is not as future proof as PS3 and you can watch high definition movies on it only for a limited time. No HDMI means 480p in a few years :-(
Then buddy, what a freaking comparison did you make? When you make comparisons, both should offer roughly the same and you surely forgot to mention that if a PS3 buyer picks HD-DVD he also has Blu-Ray. Time to enforce the truth with a real comparison and not some fakeass one:

Somebody that wants to play next gen games and high definition movies:

PS3 buyer:
PS3 20GB = just $500 for a console with a future proof high definition movie player (Let's forget the Wi-Fi here, it doesn't change anything, cause I would also have to add it for 360)

360 buyer:
Xbox360 20GB + HD-DVD addon = $600 for a console with a not future proof high definition movie player.

Somebody that wants to play next gen games and having both formats/somebody that wants to play on both consoles having both formats:

PS3/360 buyer:
Xbox360 Premium + HD-DVD addon + PS3 = $1100

Somebody that wants to play next gen games on both consoles and having both formats beeing future proof:

PS3/Xbox360 buyer:
PS3 + Xbox360 Premium + HD-DVD standalone = $1400

Lastly somebody that bought one console(or just did the mistake and bought the 360) and want to have both formats beeing future proof:

PS3 buyer from 17.11.2006:
PS3 + HD-DVD standalone = $900

360 buyer:
Xbox360 20GB + HD-DVD and Blu-ray standalone = $1900

So as you said it, choice is the power and if you ain't a kiddie and want to play next gen games and want to watch high definition movies, the best deal is PS3. No matter how you twist it, PS3 is always the better deal if you ain't a kiddie. Thats the simple and naked truth. Sony ain't dumb, they know most of their 100 million buyers already grown up and want something more than just a console. If you are a kiddo that just jumped in, so go for the 360, that's surely the best deal for you, but don't diss the PS3 for offering you more than you want. But are all 360 buyers kiddos? Are all 360 buyers not interested in high definition movies? I really doubt it, especially after I saw the pre order number for the HD-DVD addon some time ago. It looks like most next gen gamers are also interested in watching movies in next gen resolution, so the 360 buyers made a big ass mistake. It would be better to just wait for the PS3. The waiting is worth if it's cheaper and future proof.

I know ps3 fanboys will say they dont care. But really those running out to buy a ps3 should really be concerned with not buying the best option available in a next gen system.

Fanboy aside and look objectively. Sony just isnt in it for you, the gamer. Why are you still in it for them?

"Vrignaud points out that you will likely need separate IDs ....."

A. He's "guessing"
B. Big deal if he's right .... it's 'different', not 'busted'

about the PS3. Every time they say something to make Sony look bad, it backfires because they have no idea what they're talking about and it portrays them as a company that talks more about a competitor's product than their own.

Every time they come out with some crazy accusation against Sony, a lot of my friends say "What, again??"

I would love to see a journalist with the balls to grill a big Microsoft exec on some big, hard questions. HDMI, HTCP, why it took so long to support 1080p, why they chose one HD format over the other if they're so 'neutral', the lack of a web browser when PNP offers it for free, etc.

Sony must sue Microsoft for its comments, just as Microsoft wanted to do with them. LOL!! Microsoft HATES competition!!!. MONOPOLY FOR THEM. LOL!!

PS3 fans have lots of time to kill by posting, at least for a few more weeks/months, but the question in my mind is the overwhelming amount of time spent on pro-360/anti-PS3 posts by 360 fanboys. The more balance 360 owners are a joy to read, because they're obviously real gamers.

Is there a reason you're not too busy playing your 360? Is it true that it's become a two-horse pony (Halo/GOW)? Are you that upset over the PS3's mere existance?

WTF is going on with gamers these days. It's all talk and no play.

Stupid kids. You're all sickening.

All these articles are meant to do is create publicity and light a fire and you all are eating it up. Just keep pounding those chests until they all cave in and save us all the trouble. The fact is there will be NO clear winner this time around. Just pick your system and go quietly play in the corner. LOL

Despite what all these idiot spokespeople are claiming, here are the facts WITHOUT speculating performance:

1. While Sony did say that the online backbone that they will provide will be free, they never promised that their 3rd party providers will do the same.

2. These providers will be competing between one another to capture majority usage which means they WILL NOT play nice with one another. Just refer to the downloadable music services for an example to see what lies ahead.

3. Microsoft is in the process of implementing Live Anywhere which will connect every 360, every PC running Windows, and every mobile device running Windows mobile. You tell me how there will be any other network that will compare with the size of that??? The irony about it is that there will be Sony PCs that will contribute to this network.

Now if you all shut up for one moment and realize what EVERYONE will really need to worry about...micro-transactions. This is the evil both systems will fall victim to. This is how BOTH companies will nickel dime us to death and make us happily pay for stuff the developers and communities used to provide for free. Sure there will be legit stuff that we should pay for, but there will also be piddly stuff they will also try to get us to buy. This is the area ALL gamers will need to be most vocal about. This is also the one area where Sony may try to makeup its cost to run a "free" network. Not a bash...just a warning to keep one eye open at all times. Keep in mind these are both corporations...happiness is their marketing, money is their motivation.

Sony's Online is Free but Weak in comparisson to Xbox Live. I'll take the 4 dollars a month/1 dollar a week/13 pennies a day option for the award winning unmatched online service that now lets you download HD Movies for the same price as a movie rental. So for 399 you can watch HD movies without stepping a foot outside your house to buy the movie or rent it. Amazing... Thanks Microsoft...

"why it took so long to support 1080p"

This is where i realize that One saying where it goes "Never argue with a Dummy, They will bring you down to their level and Defeat you with a perfect" It does'nt make sense to debate with none of you Fanboys whatsoever. The Writing's on the Wall and you refuse to ignore it. You can lead a horse to Water but you can't make him drink. Sometimes a lot of you only post to hear yourself talk and that's a shame. I hope this site Goes belly up. It will stop the Madness once and for all.

BTW To answer a Very Stupid question with a Common answer. Most TV's Are 1080p.

But here is a review for GOW, brought to you by X-PLAY.

http://www.g4tv.com/pile_pl...

is that Sony has just reinforced another "broken" promise to its gamers. They swore up and down that their online service would be leaps and bounds what we had used on the PS2.

Well, sadly its not!

The setup is exactly the same. Sure, there may be some more multi-media functions, but the core online gameplay will so far remain the same.

You will have to create your own "tag" and friends list for each individual game. How is this better than PS2? It isn't! Its exactly the same! But hey, at least its still free right?

Last night while playing Splinter Cell: DA on the 360, I was invited to play a co-op mission with someone on my universal friends list as soon as I logged onto the the "Live" server.

I was then thrown directly into his game as soon as I accepted the invite. It was fast, simple, and convenient! Not to mention that I could see what all of my other friends were playing.

No matter what you fanboys say, Sony once again "dropped the ball".

Liked it, i remember readin an article few months back (obviously there may be more now).. and there were 3 1080p tvs in the Uk

This is hilarious. I love hearing all of these PS3 fanboys talking about how expensive the XBL service is at $50 a year. Getting cheap on us all of a sudden? But these same fanboys are willing to shell out $600 for the system, and $100 for a HDMI cable, or drop some money to buy one track or car for GT4.

"But $50 for a unified gamertag, gamer score, superior online experience, and much more is highway robbery"

Let's get real folks. There is NO comparison between LIVE and PS3 Online.

"I just wrote another long post. But then it hit me... Why waste my time? So, I deleted. When I read this, "just did the mistake and bought the 360" I just realised there are some people you simply can't have an intelligent conversation with. Also, "No HDMI means 480p in a few years"... you actually believe the 360 can't possibly support HDMI, when it is even posted on some retail stores.
It's ok buddy, you PS3 will soon be out and you will be the hapiest person on earth. The PS3 is the future, the 360 is the biggest crap there is... HD-DVD is dead and it's not true HD... the 360 cost $5,999.99 and the PS3 is $99.99. Did I forget to mention that it includes a 51' Sony HD TV. Man, it is so easy when you just agree with people like you to get them out of the way."

Haha be hoenst kid, you just didn't have the right answer. This is all you could come up with lol. BTW why doesn't it hit you and you stop spamming the PS3 section? You MS zombies are the reason for all the flame wars.
I stand to the things I said. People that bought 360 made a big mistake. Why? The answer is simple: People usualy don't like to get ripped off and that's what MS is doing. Do you think 20GB will be enough for the next 4 years? Nope. Happy spending $99 for just 20GB? Nope. Happy having a console that will be immediatly killed after 720 arries? Nope. Happy having a not future proof HD-DVD addon? Nope. As I already said, no HDMI=480p down the road. What did you say? Some retailers are already posting HDMI cables for 360? Haha you obviously don't have any clue:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006...

If a HDMI cable would be possible, MS would release one long time ago. MS said, that there is no need for HDMI, cause it's not nescessary for the 360 life cycle. In other words if you wanna enjoy movies in HD resolution for longer than 360's lifecycle you will have to buy their next product haha poor MS fanboys. They get ripped off and betrayed bigtime and they are still swingin on Billy's balls haha

This is not surprising at all!!

Microsoft ran their mouth about how Sony wouldn't have any 1080p games out this year: Bull$hit

They tried to downplay the ps3's backward compatibility advantage by saying gamers don't care about backward compatibility: They were wrong.

Microsoft was downplaying the native 1080p advantage that ps3 offers and even went as far as to say that 1080p is not that important, yet now they are trying to catch up by attempting to imput 1080p functionality for the xbox 360; NOW they are so damn excited and optomistic about 1080p

Microsoft just loves to make such malicious comments about sony, whether they know its true or not. This is nothing but black market tactics; malign your competition as much as possible before they can have a chance to enter the market.

Now that sony has responded about Microsoft's plans for TV downloads over xbox live, this website posts the headline as if sony is jealous and bitter (look down the main page a little), when sony is just commenting on microsoft's decision to split the 360's consumer base by making this new feature only accessible to 360 premium owners.

Sony is not screaming about how "Microsoft can't do it" "anything they do won't be as good as what we will do" "Their plan for TV downloads is not good enough" because that is the exact attitude that microsoft is displaying every single time they talk out of their a$$ about Sony.

As of late, this web site seems to have very malicious intents toward sony; they post the same articles about how "everything is looking bad for sony", "sony's profits are down" the same stories that were posted weeks ago, just with different headlines

bottom line: Microsoft would not be acting the way they have been if they were not worried about the ps3s chances for success.

as hard as their praying and hoping for a console market monopoly, it isnt going to happen.

i wonder why they would call a rushed service that uses lots of middleware to run "busted".

maybe because it is.

Now that Jim Ryan is gone just need to remove Herman Hulst from his position! And maybe give Shuhei the position he deserved.

This gen hasn't been the best for games, last gen consoles are still out there and now there's been talk of the PS6 and Xbox Two for a year or so. Many games this gen will be ported to next gen and the cycle will continue. The re-release of the Neo Geo AES+, games on cartridge for £70 ($95), gaming is going back in time. Gaming has gone pricing mad with the high cost of games, consoles and controllers. The men and women at the top are clueless.

It’s always interesting to hear behind-the-scenes stories like this, especially involving veterans like Shuhei Yoshida and leadership figures like Jim Ryan. That said, there are usually multiple sides to decisions at that level. It could be less about not “listening” and more about differences in long-term vision for PlayStation. Yoshida played a huge role in shaping the brand, so whatever the reason, his impact is undeniable.

If true, and I'm inclined to believe it is, it goes to show that Sony lost their way when they became more western/didn't respect the PlayStation origin story. Andrew House and Jack Tretton did great work, but they also didn't try to fundamentally change the PlayStation DNA. Ryan oversaw the death of Japan Studio and a live service direction.

I already figured this, good lord imagine if Shuhei took over instead, would've been a platinum era 😩

I miss the first three generations of PlayStation. The way they turned PS3 around, we knew they meant business. We were all worried for a bit there around launch. Eventually from 2008 they started shifting slowly. But since Yoshida was fired, it's never been the same. Still enjoy my PS5 daily. I got a backlog dating back to PS2 lol So I'm fine but new games aren't as appealing anymore.

It seems like we were thrown on to the worst timeline possible where everything is too expensive and the wrong people were put in positions that makes the world a shitty place. We could have had Shu as the head of PS but we got the shitty alternative. Same goes for everyone in power around the world. Doesn’t matter the company or country the majority of us got the shitty picks and the world is declining like never before. I do think PS can come out of this because of their studios, talent and IP but they need someone more in touch with gamers leading things like Shu was. They’re still the best place for console gaming imo but it could be much better than it is especially without the massive live service failures. The rest of the world I have a lot less hope for right now. Hopefully the pendulum swings back towards the good ole days but I’m preparing for the worst.

There goes illuminati distraction story

So now there's certifiable proof that Ryan was in fact "fired", as opposed to when it was first announced that he "retired", in order to save face.

There's another guy who recently "retired" as CEO of another large gaming company, after doing a dismantling job as lead for well over a decade.

seems legit, the business man, fires the one who has ideas to move the business forward.

Jim Ryan is the reason why we are entering year 6 since the PS5 launch and many of us don't feel like the PS5 has gotten started as yet.

I hope going forward, we will see a return to form.