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Xbox Live vs. PSN: Are we at feature parity?
- Thread starter Digital Limit
- Start date
Deadly Joker said:
I got a ton of $19.99 Xbox Live 12 month cards form Target last Christmas. I refuse to pay more than $30, so I wait and just stock up when they come around (we have 4 gold accounts in the house). The deals are there if you're not lazily waiting until you need to to renew *right now*.
staticneuron
Member
Bungieware said:
We are comparing networks not hardware. PSN is capable of delivering chat as a service. The Vita has it.
And I Get fantastic speeds in my current location on PSN.... but I am moving cross country.
I sure hope PSN speeds are decent in cali.
lastendconductor
Put your snobby liquids into my mouth!
All I know Xbox is a mess of ads, intrusive menus and stuff. The features are less in PSN, but I get an online experience that doesn't get in the way and it's free. Cross party game chat sounds annoying, I wouldn't even want to plug in a microphone anyway.
GTP_Daverytimes
Member
PSN on Vita is on par with XBL, PSN on PS3 still has some way to go.
Free trumps cross game chat, which I personally care nothing about. Besides the fact that most PS3 gamers don't use headsets, anyway. PSN does have cross game text chat rooms, which I guess is something. 
Serves me fine enough to communicate with PSN friends to set up multiplayer games.
Serves me fine enough to communicate with PSN friends to set up multiplayer games.xbox.com is underutilized and undervalued by many. The site is organized much better now than in prior years though I definitely miss being able to add tv show/movie content to the 360 from a single site. Now I have to do gaming only on xbox.com and tv show/movie on zune.net but either way there is something to be said for being able to access and queue content while not in front of your console.
The Crimson Kid
what are you waiting for
H_Prestige said:
What other PS3 games have replay and clip sharing, comprehensive stat records including location-based kill/death heat-maps for each player in every match, and custom mode sharing?
The best online games are built to the strengths of their respective platform. I don't think Halo 3 could be done with all the features that make it special on PS3, and the same for Uncharted 3 or Warhawk on 360.
With the system level features like the party system, quick game updates, a better streamlined marketplace ,and cross game invites, the 360 has a smoother MP experience all around than the PS3's fragmented offering.
However, for most games, once everyone is in a lobby and playing online, PS3 offers a functionally identical experience and occasionally better experience than what the 360 offers. Microsoft doesn't spend any time or money to improve the scale of what online gaming can do. If they had invested in MMOs for XBL or offered guaranteed dedicated servers for any game that wants it, then they could argue that they really offer the best MP around, which would justify charging $60 a year. At the moment, they charge you $60 mostly for access to the online portions of games, a fair selection of apps, and some modest deals.
While MS has a superior offering overall, their strategy is more focused on having you begrudgingly pay to unlock access to the rest of the system's capabilities rather than having you wanting to pay for the best online gaming experiences available.
toythatkills
Member
xbox.com is the slowest website on the entire internet. In the time it takes to queue a download, I could just turn my Xbox on and start the download myself.NavNucST3 said:
Even if I'm not at home at the time.
Monty Mole
Member
My issue with PSN isn't so much the feature set, but more the execution. Synchronising trophies for example - awkward and time consuming. In comparison, Xbox Live "just works" in my experience.
Infamous Chris
Banned
Monty Mole said:
This x 100000. Achievement integration is so.much.better on XBL over PSN. I mean, I know they copied the idea and all, but it shows if you're into this thing (and boy am I).
But like everyone has said l, it's pretty easy to see what's the better service. Saying "but it's free!!!1" doesn't even make sense; Sony launched PSN free only to compete with XBL. This is why PS+ exists now.
ColonelVirus
Neo Member
I read some article a few months ago that stated the PS3 wouldn't be able to have cross-game voice chat. Which personally I use for all my games. I HATE using the in-game chats, as it's mostly always full of retards screaming down the mics or listening to music, or just generally being douche bags (that's on all platforms ).
I love the ability to just jump on my 360 create a party chat invite a bunch of my mates and just chat, even if we're not going to be playing games or playing different games, which we do quite a bit. I treat the party chat a lot like a Ventrilo server for my 360. To me that £40 is justified in this feature alone, because... £40 a year is nothing. I believe I personally would play my PS3 a lot more if they added this feature, but apparently it's not possible
so I'll only get the big exclusive titles and never play online 
. Can't wait for uncharted lol
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-19-why-the-ps3-cant-do-cross-game-voice-chat
).I love the ability to just jump on my 360 create a party chat invite a bunch of my mates and just chat, even if we're not going to be playing games or playing different games, which we do quite a bit. I treat the party chat a lot like a Ventrilo server for my 360. To me that £40 is justified in this feature alone, because... £40 a year is nothing. I believe I personally would play my PS3 a lot more if they added this feature, but apparently it's not possible
so I'll only get the big exclusive titles and never play online . Can't wait for uncharted lolhttp://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-19-why-the-ps3-cant-do-cross-game-voice-chat
DKnight said:
This must be a US thing, because I rarely if ever see ads on NXE. At least, not ads that don't relate to the Xbox in some way. The only one I've seen lately is for Head and Shoulders and it's the last panel in the Spotlight section, which means I don't even see the ad unless I look for it.
Carl said:
No, of course you won't use something you don't have.
A while ago I used to work in mobile phone sales, and so many customers use to tell us they wouldn't use this feature and they wouldn't use that feature.
My reply was, yeah you think you won't use them because right now, you don't have them.
You use great features once you have them.
I can assure you that this whole constant 'why do people pay for Live?' round a bout and whine fest only exists because Xbox Live is great and so many people are more than willing to pay for it.
But I guess each to his own. I'm sure some people deem PS+ worthwhile for cloud saves. Me, I don't because I can back up my saves pretty easily for free, and I don't buy much PSN content to make use of the discounts, and whenever I check the PS Plus section of the store, nothing I'd ever buy is ever discounted anyway.
But if PSN is up to code next gen, I'd consider paying for it if they charge. But it would have to improve greatly given I don't have many friends on PSN that I could play online with anyway. A lot of my Xbox Live friends are also on PSN and yet we all pay for and play online on Live.
Go figure.
The Crimson Kid said:
I don't see how that has anything to do with PSN or XBL, it's up to each developer to implement those features. In any case Uncharted 3 has replay and clip sharing, you can edit your replays and you can even upload them to youtube(with no duration limit) or post them on facebook, all from the game. And Killzone 2 had this, although in all fairness you accessed it from the official website.
PSN is quite far ahead of XBox Live.
The main issue is that you pay 60$ for the games, but only get access to half the game on Xbox.
If you concider the paid option, PSN+ and XBox Live Gold costs basically the same.
You get crossgame chat on Live, and access to the final half of the game, auto-patching and downloading on PSN - aswell as about 250 Euro each year worth of content.
Also Home has gotten much better, and is quite many free games there.
So XBox Live has a few ways to go before they reach feature parity, I think.
The main issue is that you pay 60$ for the games, but only get access to half the game on Xbox.
If you concider the paid option, PSN+ and XBox Live Gold costs basically the same.
You get crossgame chat on Live, and access to the final half of the game, auto-patching and downloading on PSN - aswell as about 250 Euro each year worth of content.
Also Home has gotten much better, and is quite many free games there.
So XBox Live has a few ways to go before they reach feature parity, I think.
Uno Venova
Banned
They both have some features over the other, I'm more interested in online play for free.
Zoe
Member
Satchel said:
I have two people on my friends list that I would actually talk to. If I were to talk to them, I'd rather do it in person.
Not everybody needs or wants all of the online interaction that Live offers. Demons/Dark Souls is the extent of interaction that I'd consider, and Live wouldn't allow me to do any of that unless I paid.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Satchel said:
There are three kinds of ads:
- Direct, content awareness panels for games. Stuff like "This game is on sale" or "This game just came out".
- Ads for non-game media content (Movies, TV shows) on XBL, or tiles for game-related video content like SentUAMessage / Major's Minute / IGN Achievement stuff
- Actual advertising.
People who are complaining never bother to explain which they're complaining about, which is too bad. I hate number three, I'd prefer to disable number two but can deal with them, and I appreciate number one and think that it contributes to XBL being a better, more aware experience than PSN (and Sony knows this, because they've added "ads" in that sense with the Ticker and the What's New section on the XMB)
Monty Mole
Member
The difference is, games patches download and install in seconds on the 360 so this feature isn't necessary.KongRudi said:
Zoe said:
Fair enough, as I said later, each to their own. PEople who like and are willing to pay for Live will continue to do so unless circumstances change, and the people who aren't, wont.
Problems arise on here when the ones who aren't, bitch about it (not you, just in general).
I mean, this was a thread about feaure parity, and it became about willing to pay again.
Stumpokapow said:
Pretty much. But again, in terms of number 3, those rarely if ever happen down here in Australia. 1 is probably responsible for 85%, 2 for like 14% and 3 1%, but I don't know about the US/UK.
I have no problem with 1 and 2 and actually prefer them. I'm actually in the habit of going through the spotlight section to see what's up.
On PSN, I do the same on the PS Store icon that now brings up it's own version of spotlight. It's good to be told what's new because you never know what could interest you, especially when stuff is discounted.
But even the non-gaming related ads don't bother me all that much because in general you need to go out of your way to even see them (down here).
H_Prestige
Banned
What does Vita do that 360 doesn't? I'm not doubting it isn't equal.Man said:
OldJadedGamer
Banned
One feature I really miss from XBL when playing online with PSN is the automute feature. On XBL I have it set to mute everyone by default except the people on my friends list. On PSN, after each game starts I have to comb through the menu and mute the singers/mouth breathers one by one while my character just stands there. Then the next game starts and I have to do it all over again. Soooooooooo aggravating!!
PSN is always going to be just a tad behind just to the nature of it's limitations, but honestly it's gotten close enough that it made me realize what a waste of money XBL was to the point where I stopped paying.
I don't really get XBL party chat anymore for multiple reasons. I can see why people would use it but for me it boils down to that if I'm using it in a multiplayer game it's immediately taking me out of communication with my teammates and for me I can't fathom using it in a SP game. It's like inviting a group of people over to talk over a movie.
I don't really get XBL party chat anymore for multiple reasons. I can see why people would use it but for me it boils down to that if I'm using it in a multiplayer game it's immediately taking me out of communication with my teammates and for me I can't fathom using it in a SP game. It's like inviting a group of people over to talk over a movie.
Live Free or Die
Banned
nel e nel said:
No, but, 360 user accounts are getting hacked everyday and no one seems to care about that.
Live Area.H_Prestige said:
Every game has a mandatory 'teaser app' with a forum/twitter section where every buddy can post messages. Also all their major achievements (beating your score) or from worldwide events gets posted into this same same feed. Every game has this! Live Area also has the specific DLC store for the game, the website etc. All this read within the Vita OS (you don't load the Live Area).
There is also Near connectivity but there's obvious reasons why that can't be in a stationary console.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Man said:
It's not even out yet. Let's judge the online when we actually have the machine in our hands.
Monty Mole said:
Also, the Guide button is amazing. You get an achievement, you push the guide button and it takes you directly to the achievement you just earned. A friend signs on? Hit the guide button and it takes you directly to their profile.
kneePat said:
Just to clarify a bit, it's 2 different processes on 360 too it's just that they had the genuine idea to not involve the player and made it seemless between the two. Also, the download itself is roughly the same speed on both consoles, the only problem causing all you mention is indeed the way they patch the games on PS3. The patches aren't incremental, you need to reshoot the whole exe, therefore the download is bigger, therefore it appears to take more time to download and then more time to install. This is where software engineers of experience (microsoft) are shining!
Uno Venova
Banned
And people are actually getting their points drained and their accounts aren't useable for weeks for investigation.Live Free or Die said:
Monty Mole said:
Ditto. 360 has some big features like cross-game chat missing from PSN, but for me it's all the little small things that add up. Like the following (just a few examples):
- Game title updates on 360 take like 10 seconds to download and install. Resistance 3's day one patch was a fucking ridiculous 656MB.
- System/firmware updates on 360 are much faster too, and don't require to read a TOS and go through four menus and all that shit. It took less time to update to the NXE (which was a complete overhaul of the dashboard) than it did for one of those minor PSN "stability improvement" firmware updates.
- PSN's notification system is terrible. When someone signs in on 360 I can press Guide button to go right to their profile and invite them, or when I earn an achievement press Guide button to see what it was etc. On PSN that does nothing. You also can't disable sign in/out notifications on PSN, you can't disable them for movies/Netflix, etc.
That's rather different. Most accounts that get 'hacked' are hacked by tricking the user into revealing his password or guessing his account recovery options. If users avoid phishing scams and use strong passwords/questions they can mostly protect themselves. (Though social-engineering the help-line is not unheard of.)snap0212 said:
No PSN user could have protected themselves from the hack. That was entirely Sony's fault.
Uno Venova
Banned
Actually there are people don't even own Fifa that get hacked, but most of the purchases are for Fifa content.vireland said: