The PlayStation 3 is simply incomplete.
I am not moaning nor am I complaining, actually I'm not sure what I'm doing but speaking my mind. I recently came across a comment by Jeff Rubeinstein who for those that don't know of him, Jeff is the kind yet unenviable guy who talks directly to the PlayStation community on the official PS blog - ala Major Nelson. Upon responding to the Sony Europe's decision to link user PlayStation network accounts to their message-board accounts - like Microsoft have with their official Xbox Forums, he confirmed that Sony had no immediate intentions to do something like a unified login that can be used across every PlayStation interactive medium but was a "dream" of theirs.
This stunned me.
Although Sony are a hardware company, they are more than capable of developing software so why can't they create a unified service where we can atleast login into messageboards, or blogs, with our PSN IDs like 360 owners can on their forums and on Major Nelson's blog? How can that be considered a "dream"? I dream of having the money to marry my girlfriend and affording a home for us tomorrow - that's a dream, but for over a year and still no ideas on how to unify their service should be considered a worry on Sony's part. Some will think immediately of the in-game XMB issue and then realise "it's coming soon", but this isn't a protest about the length of time it's taken to arrive but the sheer fact until it comes, the console is not yet complete in my opinion.
I own an iPod Touch, its very nice (and bloody expensive). I take it with me everywhere although I'm not a great listener of a variety of music (my favourite playlist with about 15 of my favourite songs) so why do I take it with me everywhere? I feel connected to it, like it's a part of me because it fulfils my needs on the go. I can be jacking someone's WiFi connection whilst waiting for the Pizza to be served, and I can double-tap the screen whilst I'm surfing N4G.com and automatically a little player comes up in the middle with basic play-back functions like volume, play, pause and forward and rewind. Double that off the screen and change browser tabs, I'm speaking to a friend of mine via Instant Messenger. He gives me a YouTube link and I touch it, YouTube opens and it's a Borat clip. Later on, I watch the entire movie as I have it saved on my iPod. That's 'connection' in my opinion; all your functions and features available to you no matter what, with quick and easy access.
When not playing games on my PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, I spent more time on the latter simply because I could mess about on the dashboard whilst talking to friends, seeing which Act they're on during Gears and if its my favourite Act, ask them to send me an invite and within a couple of seconds, that invite is there - press Join Session and within a minute I'm shooting it up. I'd get a voice message, check that out, and talk to a few other friends whilst playing that game. So I had all those interactive features available from the get-go, and what this does psychologically is make you feel more comfortable with your console than ever before. You would turn it on, simply to check your Inbox - and whilst there, your attention could easily be led to what your friends are playing, knowing you could join them if you wanted to within a few seconds - it is that freedom, and awareness of that freedom more crucially, which makes the console more user friendly and diverse than my PlayStation 3.
When I turn that on, I see my friends and what they're playing but there is no point in sending them a message because they will not quit the entire game, close it down, just to read and respond, and then play the game again knowing that they will most likely be expected to reply to my response. I'm sure there are others who feel the same way and hesitate messaging their friends. In general, you could find that you spend alot less time on the machine because of this - but obviously this will vary depending on your preference. Some multiplatform gamers spend more time one than the other, but my point is still valid in regards to this.
Today I read that Sony Online Entertainment will now directly be reporting to Kaz Hirai. He commented "as Online games become a more integral part of the PS3". To me, that sounds like they underestimated the importance of that prior hand, before they noticed how important Live was to Microsoft's portrayal of their box. You see, although Live is boasted about and heralded, it's not all that special but it does have one thing the PS3 does not - a unified service. This is the one simple fact that separates the two consoles - why you see developers play on Live, talk about Live, rather than the PSN. This isn't about who has the fattest network pipes or biggest servers as much as it is about the functionality of the service and those who own an Xbox 360 will understand. Those who don't, I'm afraid will just have to take my word for it. What it does is simple, nothing spectacular about it, but when you move on to the PS3 you will miss those features and be scratching your balls as to why it doesn't have it.
Well, lets hope your testicles don't fall off because from Jeff's comments it's still a "dream" for Sony. Hopefully it'll arrive soon. When this machine truly goes online, because it has not yet done so fully in my opinion (hence the 2.9 instead of 3), you'll love it twice as much.
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CCG writes - "WiZmans World Re;Try has some really interesting things going for it, and some cool mechanics and visuals that few other JRPGs do. It is clear some real care and effort went into this game. However, between the sheer amount of inevitable, unavoidable grinding; the lack of depth to most of the combat; the just-okay music and sound effects; and the moral issues that really make me question how this game got away with an E10+ rating, it's difficult for me to recommend. This is definitely a "play with a podcast or Netflix binge-session on in the background" type of game, even if you are in love with the things that make this one stand out. If that's your cup of tea, then WiZman's World Re;Try will provide 35+ hours of it for a relatively reasonable cost."
Saros builds on its predecessor, but can it evolve the formula without losing the intensity that made it compelling?
Although people have usually agreed with my points, and flooded me with praise which I was very flattered by, I doubt this blog will be as popular. Just being blatantly honest - a unified service adds to length of time spent on the console, more appreciate for it, more people on it, more exposure, bigger reputation = more Sony focus and a better experience in general.
We don't have that, yet.
What he said ... come on sony :)
I am going to disagree with you. Before you even started you answered your own question. Sony is a Hardware company and MS is a Software company. All you have to do is look at both machines and realize that both play to the strengths of what the companies are known for.
The PS3 is a marvel of what can be put into a console at a steal of a price. Blu-Ray, wi-fi, 2.5 HDD which can be upgraded, just an overall great built machine, like may other Sony built products.
The 360 IMO is lacking greatly on the hardware side, the system is almost as barebones as the Wii out the box. But what adds to the system is Xbox live. For you and many others Live is the reason to own a 360. Live is great at what it does, which is giving gamers the sense of community, which seems to be very important to many. But not for me. I know I'm still young, but when it comes to gaming I;m old school. I like to play at my own pace by myself and once its over its over. yeah I do play some MP with CoD4 taking up most of my time right now. but with me I can play for a while, if a friend sees me on and wants to play, coo, lets play. But once I have spent my time playing, thats it. I really don't care what else is going on within the community when am not logged on. I don't care if I dropped 50 rankings over night or where my gamerscore ranks amongst my small list of friends. Once I decide to turn off the switch, thats it, its over. I got things I need to take care of away from videogames.
Look at both consoles and look at where both are finding their success. the 360 has been blessed with many great games and a huge online community which is software based in Xbox Live. While the PS3 has find its stride, in great single player games that use the hardware they put into their machine to the best of its current abilities and also its Blu-ray format.
Sony has never been known as a company that has put out great or even good software on a regular basis, while the same can be said about Microsoft on the Hardware side of its business. and so far the current generation consoles are only extending on what the companies are will known with neither one expanding on uncharted territory..well at least for the time being.
While I am choosing to disagree with you, your blog was very well written and I did have fun reading it. But from where I stand both machines are incomplete to a certain extent and it's up to the consumer to decide what they want, great Hardware or Software. I choose hardware and I haven't looked back since.
We have alot of Mario here :D
Nope it aint.
x360 online service is imcomplete.
they can start off by making it free.