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Is Xbox 360 Dominating the Online Experience?

Over the past few days there have been multiple comments being made about the superiority of the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Service and its superiority to the PS3. It's no secret that this generation is the online and connected generation for consoles. Many fans of the PS3 mock the Xbox 360's paid service Xbox Live, because of the fact that Playstation Network is free. But as the old saying goes…You get what you pay for.
Comments like those from Chet Falisek the Left 4 Dead project lead stating " the 360 is head and shoulders above the PS3? and that it's multiplayer-focused Left 4 Dead franchise isn't headed to Ps3 , lead me to believe that while you may not see exactly what you are paying for in your Xbox Live subscription per say. You do gain the benefits of a subscription based service that is constantly growing and evolving to enhance the community aspects of games. Apparently many designers are taking that into consideration when deciding on whether or not they want to publish on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.
UserThree - contributor
Published: 29 days 8 hours ago | Article | Xbox 360
 
 

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Showing: 1 - 50 of 112 Comments
1 OWNED | 29 days 9 hours ago - comment has been reported as SPAM -
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Gandalf - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.1 -
.


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BadboyCivic360 - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.2 -
To be honest, i dont like playing games on my 360 with a Gold membership,feels like something is missing, i think you get what you pay for...as for PSN, its always on because its free and no matter what anybody says,you cant beat free...
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Tinted Eyes - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.3 -
Nah, its just a stupid mentality that if you pay for it, it makes it 10 times better, even though PSN is nipping at XBL's heels, its just something to make certain fanboys feel better about being the only one to pay to play online.
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Saaking - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.4 -
PSN is FREE and just as good therefore NO the 360 is not "a better Online experience." The only thing it's better at is taking away you're hard earned cash on things that should be free.
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Genesis5 - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.5 -
Well I have played on both. I don't really see anything that I be willing to pay $50 (every year) for if I didn't have to.

As far as many designers choosing live over PSN. I only know of one and that's Valve and we all know why that is. It has nothing to do with the service quality.
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XxZxX - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.6 -
of course it will make fanboys cry. Cause the XBOX 360 fanboys have to fork out $50 per year, enough to make them cry.
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pippoppow - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.7 -
Owned, self owning for paying to play online. Is that you crying. Hah! Just had to.
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7ero H3LL - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.8 -
most people go by how many users are online using the service, more people means it's popular.

it's the same with the Ipod.

so the the answer is yes it is. one of xbox's top selling tittles makes 80 percent of it's sales off it's online campaign, which was established way far back to 2002.
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Gothdom - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.9 -
I have to say, better? maybe, by some features for some.

but asking if it's Dominating? What the hell is this guy smoking? E74's fumes? Seriously, this article is very stupid. I can't believe I gave them a hit. I mean, I can copy paste some BS I heard in the news and paste them together too, you know. Was there anything new? NO!
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ape007 - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.10 - 50 or 40$ a year....mmmmm
think about it,you get all these features while the earth rotates around the sun 1 time(plus month actually)

xbox live is justified,you want to bash 360,don't bash LIVE,bash its failure rate,LIVE is the best thing about it
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O2_Addict - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.11 - Xbox Live should be seeing more use than PSN
because 360 owners are typically fans of shooters like Halo and COD, which are pretty much defined by their multiplayer.

It's the demographic that bought into the original Xbox.

The problem for the 360 is that it hasn't broadened it's appeal.
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lowcarb - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.12 -
The 360 has much more variety then ps3 with its software and services. PSN comes nowhere near live and never will this gen so grow up and stop spinning things people. If somethings free it obviously isn't worth much.
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ABizzel1 - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.13 -
Yes. XBL has some things that make it slight better than PSN, but it's nothing worth making a game such as LEFT 4 DEAD exclusive over. People talk more on Live, because everyone had a mic, but now that a majority of the new 360 buyers are getting the Arcade (which doesn't come with a mic) what going to happen to XBL. THe same thing that going on with the PS3. Less talking (again a good thing in most cases unless your playing with friends only).

Sony has made great strides and caught up in the online department. The 360 experience has its ups and downs, but I admit it still has some perks over the PS3, and to put it in perspective here's percentages on which console does online the best to me.

Based off 100%

XBL 55% (Has the most features, cross game chat, voice messages, party, etc...)

PSN 40% (Came a long way, but needs more users with mics for good or bad, and features.)

Wii 5% (Awful, but it does have online)

Again PS3 gamers get upset at this topic, because they make it seem as if Live is leaps and bounds over PSN, when it really isn't. Resident Evil 5 (give more on this if you ask), Burnout Paradise, and Unreal Tournament 3 are good examples of a PSN making the games better.
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pippoppow - 29 days 8 hours ago
1.14 - Good point O2
The main draw for FPS games are it's online component. Clearly the 360 has more FPS/shooter fans.

@ape----- Live is good but should still be free. It may have more chat options and a few other features but it has less dedicated servers. the most important feature when it comes to online gaming. Live should be free. Would the PC be justified with a $75 fee, The Wii with a $25 fee, The PS3 with a $50 fee for having more dedicated servers with games that have 32/64/256 players online at the same time. Online gaming has always been free and should stay free.
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NewZealander - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.15 -
yeah i have to say PSN is lame in comparison, and day by day XBL is getting better, new content all the time including movies on demand and halo waypoint, both are awesome.
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mal_tez92 - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.16 - The services are quite different
XBox Live:
-In game chat
-Cross game invites

PSN:
-Dedicated servers (lag free 60 players) for first party Sony games
-Free

I think you don't actually get what what you pay for. I think XBL is a little bit better, but maybe like $5 better not $50
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HolyOrangeCows - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.17 -
"…You get what you pay for"

When is paying for free services and stuff you can do with a telephone "what you pay for"?
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MGSR THE HD VERSION - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.18 -
of course it's better it was established first, there's more people using, it's in high demand.

you want to change that?

then stop wasting your free time at N4G or any threads like it.
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Shadow Flare - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.19 -
Call of duty: Modern warfare 2

360 gamers have to pay to play online while ps3 gamers get the same experience for me. 360 gamers, just keep bending over and smiling.

PS3 gamers get 256 player online games. Do 360 gamers? Do 360 gamers get 64 player games online? Do they even get 32 player online games??? And they have to pay for their service? Oh no, they're paying for the privilege of using a very dated network system and paying for the privilege of using their own router as the p2p server. lol
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raztad - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.20 -
I really dont care about who is "dominating", first of all what other guys are doing in Live doesnt affect the quality of my personal experience and second the origin of this article can be traced back to some random comment from well known PS3 haters, aka Valve.

However I can summarize the "dilemma" like this: want to chat? feel connected? facebooking?, twetering? and P2P? get a gold $50 xlive account, else if you want free service, with dedicated servers subscribe to PSN. Very easy for me, really easy I go with the second option.
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GUNS N SWORDS - 29 days 7 hours ago
1.21 -
i think it has more to do with the demographic, average xbox gamers that are connected to the service constantly use every single feature it has to offer. so updates and maintenance is always flourishing for that service.
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theEnemy - 29 days 5 hours ago
1.22 - lol
@Gandalf.
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7thNightvolley - 29 days 5 hours ago
1.23 - IMO
b4 now yes xboxlive use to be better.. but now i am not so sure anymore.. i think psn has really dont well is catching up and is almost matching some stuff.. putting aside the chat party and the cross game invites .. well and other minor stuff anything is practically the same only on xboxlive u pay for it.. well i never use to mind as such but now they are almost equal i kind of expect MS to reduce the price for online fee coz its beginning to annoy me coz every single ting u want to c they say... OHHH GET GOLD IF U WANNA SEE THIS ... OHHH GOOLLDDD ONLY $$$ a month.. its beginning to get really annoying.. if they want to charge me that much.. they need the 360 to really be doing more than.. what is doing i have no idea.. but this update with the whole facebook stuff.. is just BS .. coz ps3 has a browser and could always access all that crap.. ages ago.. with twitter if i may add if anything is gd.. is just the .. last.fm which functions just as a site and .. 1080p movie streaming.. (well due to the fact some xbox360 dont have HDD) so i guess that cancels out itself.. SKYplayer thing i bet its gonna go ps3 in a few months.. u wait and see sky already said they could do it so mark my words its going ps3.. very soon.. faster than netflix..

With all said... as i see it .. looking at the momentum sony is gaining with the ps3 microsoft needs some big ace in the whole.. coz price cuts aint gotta cut it.. bob... ps3 is gaining online and with the price cuts .. sales will pick up big time.. so that whole online advantage as such will begin to diminish.. little by little...

ps finished borderlands on 360 heading to play some multi on Uncharted2.. love em both ..ps360.. owner..
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DocEvil - 29 days 5 hours ago
1.24 -
It really depends on the type of gamer you are... I am a very social gamer and for me live is definitely work the fifty bones. Organizing a session of a game with friends on live isn't much work at all and in an evening full of gaming I may switch between two or three games and it's easy to get friends to follow through or if they want they can be dropping in and out of sessions depending on what game I am playing and when. On the ps3 it's a LOT of work to the point where I am phoning people one by one to organise a game and we pretty much have to stick to that one title because so many people don't have mics that it's not worth all the effort to change titles. It's really a night and day difference which is why I mostly own single player games on my ps3 (except for the exclusives) and multiplayer games on my 360. I really think it also has a lot to do with the fact that lobbies are barren after a couple of months on the ps3 when the hype has worn off on a title while the same title on the 360 is still going strong.

It's probably not the same for everyone because everyone has different play styles but I can definitely say for a social gamer like me, live makes my life a LOT easier and for that alone I personally find it miles better. I would happily pay for psn if it offered some of the features that live has, paying a buck a week for live saves me probably an hour of work organizing people every time I sit down to game. It also keeps games feeling spontaneous where I don't feel like I have to get all organised ahead of time, I can just sit down and game.
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ape007 - 29 days 8 hours ago
2 - I played on both services a lot
I can tell that they are all great services but Xbox live give a richer online experience overall and psn is great for free

xbox live feels more alive and connected and really makes you enjoy playing online,one little overlooked feature in xbox live that no body tralk about yet it's one of the secrets of xbox live,the deep player status system,it's pretty amazing

on the other hand,the ps3 got awesome games to play online,kz2 is absolutely amazing to play online,uncharted 2 is awesome,it mix gears of war style plus platforming,perks and the smart money system,as for warhawk,I didn't like it,although many loved it and I respect that

happy to be ps3\360(and wii) owner
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BadboyCivic360 - 29 days 8 hours ago
2.1 - ^^^
i seriously wonder why they disagree with you for saying that...i guess they want you to be a fanboy and only have 1 system
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Nuri - 29 days 8 hours ago
2.2 -
I will admit that player status system was something that I actually liked when I logged onto my live account and saw my friend playing Guitar Hero. Saw what song he was playing and everything, I thought it was just interesting to see that.

I know Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has something similar to that as I saw what level my sister was playing as what character she was using as well and this was on the PSN version. So hopefully more developers will do something of the sort.

I also don't get why he got disagrees.
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gamesR4fun - 29 days 7 hours ago
2.3 -
ya warhawk aint for evryone but def one of the most popular games on ps3 and my personal fav been playing it almos daily since it launched...

n ya the disagrees are wack no matter what system u play you shouldnt disagree with someone jus for givin their honest opinion... especially when its has unbiased as this one.
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carsstarsandgames - 29 days 3 hours ago
2.4 - I really do not understand
PSN............is a great service...so it does not have cross invite!!or cross chat!!You can meet in Home and launch most games with a friend. Voice chat is official in Japan with WKC...game status is available on PSN...Marvel Alliance 2 has this do not know what other game does this but not really a big deal......

I own both systems...360 first(paid the first two years has not paid for LIVE ever since) then PS3....what I hate about LIVE you have to Pay to play with a friend....Pay to play a new demo.......PAY to be on Facebook Tweeter and Last.fm and all these services are free...Pay for Netflix plus Netflix account.....why can't Silver member get these features...

There's almost no reason to have a Silver membership....what the point of "Silver"????

Everyone say's you get what you pay for...well I like playing with friends for free...playing the latest demo's for free....browsing porn...facebook..tweeter....fo r free....32...64...256 MP..for free...

People on PSN has mics....every time I play Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 someone is talking or has mics....there's just no 9yrs cussing or rapping Soulja boy or Lil Wayne(F**King annoying)

Side note: Valve sucks I believe they are the most overrated game maker on CONSOLE this generation....L4D 1 & 2 overrated garbage...just played L4D 2 demo...the exact same thing as part one...SAME GAME AS L4D 1.......SAME HORRIBLE TERRIBLE EARL IN MY MOUTH GRAPHICS....SAME HORRIBLE SOUND.......and they are charging $60.00 plus LIVE Membership...I guess you get what you pay for!!!!!and they are making fanboy comments........
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IdleLeeSiuLung - 29 days ago
2.5 -
I have to agree, that the Xbox 360 feels more connected. Just take a look at the dash, and you are immediately connected to all the stuff going on Xbox Live including upcoming events.

Furthermore, we got Netflix first on a console and now Last.fm, which by the way is awesome. From a gaming perspective, as far as I know Xbox Live give developers so much more data to work with that is accumulated about the user:

http://www.oxmonline.com/ar...

One often overlooked thing is how this helps improving multi-platform games. So even the PS3 gets the benefit from this!

Also, just take a look at your account and poke around and see how much user information you find about how Xbox 360 is used by others. Furthermore, the headset/mic is a godsend, because everyone practically has one. If you don't want to hear other talk, mute them.

I hate paying $40-50/annually, but got to admit I like Xbox Live!

PSN is what it is, a free service so there is no complaint. After all, you can't beat free and it gives you very much the basic functionality.
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mastiffchild - 28 days 19 hours ago
2.6 -
It's a complicated and often personal issue, imo. I've just, for the first time while owning a 360, decided not to renew my Gold membership. To me it's not worth it anymore and I feel slightly conned by ever having to pay for it tbh-what I have on Steam and PSN is equally good for me(though as I'm in the UK Live isn't the same service it is in the US at all and we pay a little more as well!). However, the things which finally made me make the choice to sack Live wre really all MS fault.

Firstly the fact that 360 has never been a reliable console for me(a few failures sadly)means I got less and less l;ikely to buy multi plats for that console which left me with a service that offered less than US gamers for more money that I only ever used for Gears2(which is dtill wonky online even now and host advantage ruined for an age)and Halo-and I cannot justify paying t play, besically, one geat game that I've already played to death over the last couple of years-maybe I'd have bought ODST if they hadn't priced it wrong and justified that price by selling me what I'd already bought(which got up my nose so much that, for the first toime ODST was a Halo FPS I wouldn't buy)and that might have made a difference.

Also with what I sabe I can buy another game to play either on PC or PS3 and still be free to play it with mates for free online too. They(MS) also made another pair of balls ups as far as my tastes were concerned. X game chat on Live stopped me playing my favourite online game in TF2-the way it's implemented is poor and enables cheating and why not offer servers for team based games where it isn't available-that would stop the cheating AND the way people get distracted talking to mates elsewhere. Some games just aren't built to cope with X game chat and MS didn't look into it enough-really wound me up at the time I was struggling with that as it was ALWAYS hard finding good teams for TF2 at the best of times. I lso accept that some folk love Live for X game chat and party incites-though, sadly for me they'll arrive on PSN soon enough.

Lastly, and I know I'm not alone in this. I much preferred Live and the Xbox dash pre NXE and Avatar. I found it less messy before AND I despise avatars esp mine which is gimpy as all hell as I DIDN'T EVER want it! Why can't I kill it? Virtually beat it to death with it's own entrails? Fine if you want one you should be allowed but why force them on people who hate them? It makes me feel like a child and for a man with kids that's wrong all over. AND it's unamerican(the lack of choice that is)!

Then theres the methods of payment MS accept which, as I'm Bi polar and don't want to risk credit cards(not again anyway!), means they won't(unlike Steam,Ninty or Sony) accept my debit card so I always have to pay in one go either by getting overpriced MS cards at a store or by using someone elses CC. Not convenient at all. Not great value either when I play more games on PSN to start with and more have dedicated servers nd better online performance.

Thing is I totally get why someone else might love Live-but it isn't for me and the new services don't add anything when you can do them for free and could from launch on PS3. What I can't agree with is that it's worth the money in any way at all. It really should be free. There's no excuse in my eyes and I don't understand defending it when we should be asking MS to sort it out-and why they wn't allow games like L4D to be the great experiences they are on PC(another game which, had they allowed it to be as good as PC I might have stayed for)? Why no mods? Why weaker support in general and why, if not, do we pay more for it? I guess MS just don't agree with anyone getting anything for free even if it's mods that gamers made themselves!
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Nuri - 29 days 8 hours ago
3 -
Honestly? No, are they pretty much on par if one compares and contracts each strength and weakness next to each other? Yes. There are things that make both very appealing to the masses obviously as figures would show, and each can still draw those in that have yet to purchase a current-gen system.

Also, I think many designers are more or less looking at how much their cost will be if they design for both rather than online majority of the time ( if they want to do a decent job on both systems ), though I am basing this mainly on the articles that came out before stating the PS3 was hard to develop for and costly.
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O2_Addict - 28 days 20 hours ago
3.1 - As someone who doesn't play online shooters
just being able to hop onto google in my living room is just awesome. The 360's whole concept of Microsoft controlling what online content you get is decidedly outdated.

People make a huge fuss about the 360 getting facebook and twitter. Gee. Wow.

PS3 and Wii owners have had that since 2006!

When will Live ever catch up with the PS3's online features?
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mcslick101 - 28 days 11 hours ago
3.2 -
In all respect. I know - maybe PC gaming isn't for you. It's expensive,tiresome and some migh find it 'awkward'. If your looking for online features then the PC has everything your looking for. The PS3 and X360 have nothing compared to us. Think about it if you'd a spent some dosh on your PC it would be FAR better than ANYTHING for gaming...
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mcslick101 - 28 days 11 hours ago
3.3 -
...except a nintendo wii ;). jk jk
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Fishy Fingers - 29 days 8 hours ago
4 -
360 has more features, but the core function of playing online is exactly the same. If you dont care for the bells and whistles and just want to play your game, they both do the same thing.
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ape007 - 29 days 8 hours ago
4.1 - couldn't agree more
lot of my friends don't care for xbl features,they liked psn more
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7thNightvolley - 29 days 5 hours ago
4.2 - well
couldnt put it any better if i tried.. brav..
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O2_Addict - 28 days 20 hours ago
4.3 - 360 has a lot fewer features
I can't even use google from it.

Over 70% of modern console owners have access to a much richer online experience than what the 360 provides.

I wish the 360 had more content. If it at least had a web-browser (even the Wii had it) it would make a good cheap ($199) living room PC if nothing else.

The problem is that Microsoft is intentionally limiting it because they want to control and profit from everything you do on your 360. I wouldnt be surprised to see them throw "Bing" on there eventually for anyone who wants to pay $50 every year.
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morganfell - 29 days 8 hours ago
5 -
So these are the articles that have replaced, "PS3 is teh doomed"

Like life, desperation will find a way.
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Nitrowolf2 - 29 days 8 hours ago
5.1 -
dude i know. First it was PS3 doom, the Blu-ray doom, and now PSn online Doom. watch, now more of these will start coming in. Funny this was never an issue before up until Valve made that statement.
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Nuri - 29 days 8 hours ago
5.2 -
Morgan just say the word and I will write an article about the Dualshock controller being doomed :).
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Eamon - 29 days 7 hours ago
5.3 - MorganFell
I've noticed for a while that most of your comments seem depressing.

Are you depressed? What a sad life you must have. Most of your comments make you sound like you believe the world and the int3rweb are conspiring against Sony and their fanboys.

The end is nigh.

DUN DUN DUUN (Video linked first by Gandalf)


5.4 JokesOnYou | 29 days 5 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show
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morganfell - 28 days 12 hours ago
5.5 -
Well Nuri that might be an idea who's time has arrived :)
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UserThree - 29 days 8 hours ago
6 -
Hey, I own PS3. I don't think it is doomed by any means. I just find myself on LIVE more than I do my PS3. Just making an observation based on some statements by DEV's recently.
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soxfan - 29 days 8 hours ago
7 - well
i can say ive been playing online gaming for years i started on psn back on the PS2 and i played a lil bit on the dreamcast as well and been on xbox live since 04 of course im going wit microsoft on this one to me it feels like a crib people come over and u just chill u kno thats why i prefer live over psn but psn u can have massive people on the same server like 32 people in a room thas amazing to me
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Neo604 - 29 days 8 hours ago
8 - xbox pay to play online and psn is free. Ofcousre play games online is the main reason, don't even bring up the little feature like xchat.
if you have the same game online there is very little different experience
except homophobic and immature asshole.
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ReBurn - 29 days 8 hours ago
8.1 -
Clearly you've never been in PlayStation Home. That place is full of bigotry, racism and sexism. Unless those twerps doing the running man in girls' faces is just a fancy way of saying hello.

This is a serious problem on both networks, not just Live.
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