I do have a mic, but I just use it for when I'm on with friends. I'm just one of those people who prefers not to have it always connected.

However, enter a game like Socom and they're very harsh on you. I remember on Confrontation where I had to have a mic in or else I would get kicked. Personally, I think you should be allowed to play which ever way you want.

When I play KZ3 and Uncharted 2 most of the players have mics
I couldn't care less for cod...

people have them. I actually enjoy listening to them flame each other. My favourite ones are when two people that did TERRIBLE start mouthing off calling each other crap even though they both did equally shit. lmao

Plenty of people on PSN have mics. Just because everyone is not talking doesn't mean no one has a mic. Also when I'm playing Black Ops on Live, no one talks. Only time you hear people talking is in a SnD game, other than that it's quiet most of the time. Everyone else is basically in party chat.

I do, it's just I only talk to my friends

depends what game ur playing but i hardly ever hear people on mics and when i do they sound about 10 shouting out ramdom racist remarks. Some people should NEVER get hold of a mic lol

I doubt it.

Not everybody speaks English well. I'd say that probably majority of PSN users worldwide don't have enough command of the language to freely speak to anybody they meet. So they just don't see a point in having a mic.

i got a mic. all of my friends i went to high school with have them aswell. i just dont use my mic unless im playing with them. typically if im playing in a game with strangers the mics off. this article states the truth. there was even this one time i had my mic on in a room of strangers and i started teaming up with another player sticking by his side, talking to him and strategizing and low and behold, a few minutes into it his mic turned on. and that was in 2009!

I have a mic but i never use it. Morons on the otherside jack the sensitivity way up so that i can pick up the sound of thier tv, or they are bsing with thier friends that are in the room, hearing oneside of the conversation is annoying. I heard a guy creeping on a clearly young chick.

I generally only use it with friends.

I'd say less then 50% of PSN users have mics and less then that actually use them. Sony should have included a mic with the PS3. You can really tell they just kind of went with things as they developed when it came to PSN.

You can tell they don't have a mic when there is no icon next to their name. I'm sure some don't have them plugged in, but the majority just don't have them.

My friends and I always joke around if we come up in a room on XBL with some no mic people, we say it looks like PSN up in here, always gets a laugh.

I refuse to believe gamer's from two separate consoles even on the same game, would play so differently. How do you communicate if you don't have a mic? or if you don't use it?

I know on XBL you can always communicate with teammates....but then I also noticed how much better the voice chat codecs are on the Xbox 360, things are so much clearer, so maybe that is the real issue.

*Edit*
Nobody that had a mic would constantly not use it. Games would be so much less fun without communication and team work. One of the main reasons I stopped playing games on PSN was the terrible quality of the voice chat and the overall lack of people using headsets. How can you talk to or recruit players for a competitive team if nobody can freaking talk?

I think the fact that you cant plug headsets in the controllers is also a factor, a lot of people have their TV's pretty far back and cords aren't long enough.

Lack of planning...

tell that to all the mp games ive been in and no one has had a mic, the one time i ran into someone with a mic it was some speaking another language and they were annoying as hell....needless to say i muted them

i used to play unrealtournament on the pc with my friends and the only time you want to use a mic, is when you are in a team match so you can communicate with your friends where you are ect ect, when you play online by yourself you dont want to hear others talking while you are playing, it is distracting and very annoying hearing young kids/adults swearing or playing annoying music, imo you should be able to turn off the mics of other players so that they cannot annoy you when you play in all games.

Quite a few on Red Dead Redemption have a mic.

well the problem is just that, its debatable and it shouldn't be, communication should be standard, its should not require a sep purchase.

Games are simply more fun with friends in your own chat ESP in co op

SONY hopefully gets this next go around - in their long struggle to get caught up in the online arena great exclusives I love them the most but the online market place they are still behind by a good year or so

people who want a mic have a mic nuff said.

Only use with friends/family, and when it's team based games.

I have microphones for three different platforms and never use them...

Unless it's co-op, no one cares, not a single "team based game" have ever been won or lost on using a mic because, unless it's some elite clan, the communication basically boils down to meaningless exclaimations and not a single thing that helps the team.

People put too much weight into communications in games, especially when cross game chat is so popular for 360... that's going to be useful for playing online, eyes rolling in a hugely sarcastic fashion.

I only use mic when I'm playing with friends and most of the time we only talk about stuff that is not even related to the game we are playing.

I have a few different mics plus a PSeye. I just choose to not use them when playing online. I also mute players on COD.

people always try to fight rather then use team work so i never use mine.

The more people with a mic, the more people I need to mute before the start of a game.
Unless they're friends, then I'll put my own on.
I'll occasionally use mine for teamwork purposes in MAG, when playing Squad Leader with a squad that actually LISTENS that is.

the fact that there isnt a mic included with the ps3 naturally causes the lack of people using it in general, where as the 360 includes one in every console sold,so its there and it ends up being used becuase everyone knows everyone has one, thats the difference.

If you want people to play with mics, just ask them. Most PS3 owners have microphones, but don't want to use them. I'm ONE of these people.

On the Xbox, In the past 4 years, I have had about 8 mic's, 3 Wireless, All stopped turning on, and 5 wired ones...only just realised you can get them for £3.50 for Microsoft ones on amazon...instead of paying £15 a time..Fml

People on xbl seem to like to talk to strangers more. But yeah the only time I turn on my mic to talk to people I don't know is when they mention something I have something to say about.

its not worth the trouble of putting on your mic on the PSN. But if you put it on and tell people "put on your mics !!!" i bet at least 2-3 people will too then a few more after. If you dont, then its just not worth the hassle until you know others are communicating too.

Have 3 of them and only use them with people I know offline as well (usually).

It seems like a lot of my observations were correct

i never had a mic before. :(

i have two of them, one Nokia (shitty one) and other official sony headset so....

It should be illegal to give a mic to anyone under the age of 18 to be honest.

The voice quality on ps3 is worse than my 80's walkie talkie I had as a kid

I have a mic for the ps3, which I rarely use, most of the time playing BF2 the people dont even realize they have one on and all you hear is them talking to their pets or their family or just breathing heavy. It gets creepy and annoying.

I've got a mic but it never gets any use these days. I'd much rather boot up Skype or Teamspeak on my phone and have a chat with much better quality than that what's on the official headset.

Also it works as a kind of cross game chat, even cross platform chat :)

I tried the sony bluetooth mic and I just found it to be too distracting during gameplay, so I returned it back to the store of where I bought it from a day or two after I bought it.

Before then for the most part on most occasions I found people that used it(especially young kids) to be annoying(Thank GOD for the "mute user" option, the best online feature imo). So for me it is a useless add-on/feature to have, because I want to play games rather than yap during games.

The only time I use my mic is for GT5 because I got tired of people starting the race before I finished tuning my car.

I don't always use a mic, but when I do, i'm kicking ass at Bad Company 2.

I have like 10 mics I could use for the PS3. Even on the PC with a headset, I rarely talk. Built in radio commands on the PC are faster, clearer, and more entertaining than my voice can ever be. Like in TF2.

Bought one the other day. Digital Camm was on sale at gamestop. Used it last night on Socom 4. People talked some, not a problem for me... Theres a difference between talking too much and talking enough in my OP.

Dumb article. I've actually not heard the mic problem in over a year. Their is a reason for that too. Yes people have mics on psn, and yes they don't talk to people usually. On XBL since the party chats, you don't get very many people talking either. A lot more people have mics on XBL but a lot of people is in a party chat, unplugs there mics, or mutes people. Party chats have taken over because you don't have to deal with annoying people. PSN on the other hand, since mics dont come with the ps3, a lot of people really dont have mics. It's fact, so this article is dumb. I own PS3 and 360. Love them both.

With Move controller becoming more common, everyone who owns a Move set has a microphone. Unless the Move gamers unplug or disable PS Eye with mic, it's there all the time.

I got one too. I never use it though... Only when I'm playing with my "real" friends.

A strong % of ppl on PS3 actually have mics... Regardless if its an actual headset, blu tooth, or PSeye...

I have joined games many of times and no one was speaking... By simply asking folks to turn on mic and start communicating you get alot of ppl joining in...

COD is really the only game I played where it will either be crickets for a whole match... Or everybody talking bout stuff unrelated to the match their currently playing...

Arbitrally throwing in a cheap headset in the package simply because 360 does it would be a waste...

PSeye owner since day one...

I think the majority of PSN users have a mic. I have 2 Official PS3 mikes but if I play with strangers I don't use it. Only using a mike if I play with friends. Otherwise I mute everyone.

How does shit like this make it on this site...*sigh

I'd like to see Sony promote online culture more though and bundle mic's with the consoles.

just use a freakin $10 blutooth headphone

Most people have a mic. Someone just has to start talking first.

soon as it goes to 360 for sure..

more shovelware

Yeah the only reason I did not purchase the first was because no disc. Does anyone know why no disc for PS3 and a disc for the 360?

Shovelware? This game is freakin sweet. They advertise it as some kind of anime porn or whatever, it has absolutely nothing to do with that. It plays like FF Tactics. The moves are great, game play is great, though can get a little repetitive, but overal its a decent 8. The only thing it has to do with "porn" is that you have to talk to girls, which are your comrades and build up a relationship with them so that you can have a child with them and use said child in the next gen.

sweet i loved the first one and im sure ill love the 2nd but ellis is still the best no matter what -.-

Yakuza 3 is on a disk and it does not have English voice overs.

ok ok ..we need agarest ZERO ( prequel ) to reach the us or eur shores Before my interest in that goes up

got mine with titty mouse pad :o

That it will hit western shores or the old continent?

The "known as Record of Agarest War 2 in the US" seems a bit misleading as the article doesn't mention anything about anyone releasing the game here.

Hope it does tough.

---
Also agarest is still on a disc(Ps3), just not in the US :p
has even limited edition.

It's on Disk in the EU for any US PS3 owners who don't want to download nearly 20GB.

They cocked the first's release up badly: 2 years late, only subtitles (because they take 2 years, don't they?), no DLC... unless you buy it from US PSN which gets you DLC and Trophies (No trophies for EU? WTF).

Let's hope 2 will be more consistent across regions.

It was on a disc in europe. Which is how I and other smart people bought it.