Xfire NOT a part of PS3 online. But Gamespy is!
by Ed Stasick 
{ Sep 13th 2006 at 9:30PM }
Yesterday we reported on Sony's potential use of Xfire as a component of their Playstation Network Platform (aka the PS3's answer to Xbox Live). The news was reported by many outlets, including our parent-site, Joystiq. This morning Joystiq posted the following update:
"Sony Online Entertainment has contacted 1UP and clarified that the Xfire technology was only being evaluated for the PS3 launch title, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. 'This proposed deal is completely separate and independent from the PlayStation Network Platform, and is something that SOE was examining specifically for Dark Kingdom.' It seems we're back to square one."
As it turns out, we may not actually be back to square one. But, first, this response from Sony raises many interesting questions:
- Why is Sony experimenting with any facet of their online approach so late in the game?
- Does the response imply that games/developers can do what they want from an online perspective, without a consistent and standardized experience?
- If Sony's own proprietary stuff is so great, why have the trial with Xfire in the first place?
"Per your Xfire post, there are many network middleware providers partnered with Sony on the PNP. These are third parties that they use to supplement their in-house online solutions. This includes the likes of Gamespy and several others. To clarify the Internet gossip a bit, the Xfire story does not mean that Sony has outsourced their online platform to a single vendor. They are just one of the bunch. Sony continues to develop funtionality and their own Xfire-like capabilities while not trying to reinvent the wheel. Several PS3 titles use Gamespy, for example, to do their matchmaking already."
This comes from a reputable, but ultimately anonymous source, so interpret as appropriate.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Butterball @ Sep 14th 2006 1:21AM
So in essence...nothing has changed from PS2. No unified online network...and certainly no Xbox Live killer or even close to being equal.
This service best be truly free...cause it won't be worth paying a dime for.
Aragorn @ Sep 13th 2006 9:57PM
for once, I am actually going to take sony's side on this matter.
The PS3 not having a proprietary online platform certainly sounds very likely... cuz everything has been very slow going.
But I wouldn't call this a tramendous F-up... First and foremost, remember that the ps3's primary selling point is the Blu Ray.
on top of that, Xbox Live, the star online service in the console world... wasn't up and running until a year during the first Xbox's life... and it wasn't even working particularly well until a few years after.
Sony not having their online groundworks down during launch may not be ideal, but at this point, seems a bit early to declare the PS3 DOA, just because this one component isn't quite up and running yet.
ozymandias @ Sep 13th 2006 11:42PM
I think this is good for sony fans. Gamespy is a much better service than xfire imo.
Sonyguy @ Sep 14th 2006 10:37AM
You cannot compare the PS3 online strategy to xbox live when it came out. First of all the PS3 will be competing with the 360 not the XBOX and when live came out there was no alternative for online console gaming so people had no choice but to let MS take their time and perfect it. Why would people want to wait around for sony to take a year or so to do the same when their IS an alternative solution out there. It sounds to me like Sony is going to let the developers handle everything the way they want. Big mistake if they want to compete with Live! Like was discussed before I would hate to have to sign up with every company and have 100 different gamertags each time I played a different game. I playes PS2 online and while there was good experiences here and there, overall it sucked! And to the post about PS3s main selling point being Blu Ray. That may be Sony's plan but thats not the reason I would want to buy it, I want to play games, i dont care about watching bluray movies or giving developers gobs of space to fill the disc with extra prerendered movies and xtras that I will never use.
SuicideNinja @ Sep 14th 2006 11:05AM
Wow, Microsoft is usually the company that has problems adhering to a standard or even "standards"(*cough* INTERNET EXPLORER *cough*).
If Sony doesn't standardize the online play (the video/picture/audio media won't matter as much for this), then they aren't competing at all. They are just opening up the platform, but we could be left with different interfaces between games.
Gamespy is a fairly horrible service for the PC; we'll see how bad it "infects" the PS3 if this is true.
mememeitsme @ Sep 14th 2006 10:55AM
The only thing that has me concerned is "Basic service starts free of charge". Xbox live basic service is free of charge but you can't play games on it. Anyone have any further details on this?
Butterball @ Sep 14th 2006 12:21PM
Umm....Internet Explorer...like it or not is the standard...by simple overwhelming market penetration.
But IE has nothing to do with online gaming. PS3 online plans are fairly going to be compared to the excellent Xbox Live service and nothing else.
SuicideNinja @ Sep 14th 2006 7:34PM
You misunderstood my reference Butterball. IE doesn't conform to W3 standards, where just about all other browsers do. It's CSS support is abysmal, and it's box model is a PITA to deal with. Did you know that most websites have to be coded incorrectly in order to work with Internet Explorer?
Besides that, they can never decide what they will/won't support/fix, etc. As for IE being the "standard" browser, that has nothing to do with what I was talking about. It comes with Windows, of course people will use it.
IE itself is a messy cluster of crap. This news alludes to a potentially similar respective result with PNP. I am glad that Sony is pawning the job off to someone else who will do a better job though.
Besides that, I bet more games are played through Internet Explorer (online) than ALL of the consoles combined. So it does relate to online gaming in a way. (sorry...I had to be a smart@#%).
Mordeux @ Sep 17th 2006 9:55PM
Aragorn said:
"But I wouldn't call this a tramendous F-up... First and foremost, remember that the ps3's primary selling point is the Blu Ray.
on top of that, Xbox Live, the star online service in the console world... wasn't up and running until a year during the first Xbox's life... and it wasn't even working particularly well until a few years after."
First of all, BluRay isn't something I'd go bragging about. It takes longer to load, and with the triple-layer HD-DVD announced it really makes BluRay obsolete already.
Secondly, it is true that Xbox Live launched one year after the original console launched. And it is true that it wasn't handled the best until further work was done. However, going into a next-gen console war where over %50 of nex-gen consoles go online, NOT having a persistant and consistant online service is a huge conundrum. Leave it to Sony to shove BluRay down your throat, and not give you the choice to go HD when you want to.
Boo poor online service. Hoooraay Xbox Live!