Sony has confirmed details regarding their PlayStation Network. Chatting, friends lists, and online gaming will be free. The service will also support web browsing using a USB keyboard.
1- paying for demos is WRONG! 2- "The main difference between Sony's PlayStation Store and the online stores that Nintendo and Microsoft have is that Sony will use a straight cash system instead of a point system. Sony says that they'll be adding content to their Store on a regular basis."
using credit cards and cash cuts off all the gamers that dont have credit and can walk into a game store/walmart/ebay and buy a points card. the pre-paid card system on the 360 is far more user friendly than the PS3's credit card system.
Sony's system is basically a points system. If you pay $20 you get 2,000 points. People can still prepurchase $20 at stores and such, then the player has $20 in the online wallet. You still buy all that money at once, and then spend it later so you actually buy the points once whether you do it by credit card or in a store.
I do agree that purchasing demos is wrong, and just plain bad business. Demos are basically advertisements, and think how stupid it would be if we had the choice to pay or not watch commercials on tv. No one would watch them and the products would sell worse. The same thing goes for demos, they should be free, and trailers for unreleased games should be free too. Companies that want us to buy their games should be paying for advertising, not consumers.
totally agree! i dont even have a credit card so what good would it be to me? im glad MS went for the points option, buying them from the shop is great
It has been stated in multiple places that you don't have to buy demos (it states FREE with bright yellow on items that are free, including for now the demos shown).
By using local currency it makes the cost of items more transparent. The points system on XBL is there to lower the barrier of a purchace, and is solely there for MS benefit.
cause I want MS to make theirs free, and if they do this half-assed and charge for demos and nickle and dime people to death, then MS won't change their price.
Not to mention there's no actual online gameplay service- the devs have to go to a third-party system like Gamespy or XFire to actually make everything happen (apart from the gamercard system and online store- which is all that Sony actually supplies).
The gameplay is free because Sony basically isn't actually providing anything to make it happen. It's all up to the third-party support and devs.
That their service is run on Sony servers... And all games will be run on Sony servers... GameSpy is a partner in developing the Sony online network. XFire is there for publishers with multiplatform gaming and/or communities.
Maybe Sony will allow gift cards, but yes, it's all about pre-pay. Just like cell phones, lots of people don't actually like contract or online payment. They really do prefer loading up cards with credit to get things online. Points was Microsoft's way of making this payment system make sense.
Think of cell phone minutes- maybe you pay $60 for 200 "minutes". But those aren't strictly "minutes", because Extended Network or Roaming calls might cost extra. So you're really buying points you can redeem for airtime. This abstraction inspires consumer confidence- consumers feel they're getting something for their money. Their cash becomes abstract points. If they pay money in to get online credit, they didn't GET anything- they just converted their currency.
You can claim it's smart that Sony is going for cash, but in the end it's actually a dumb business move. It's nowhere near as good at inspiring consumer confidence, and (if they don't use prepay cards) it cuts off a large part of the audience.
And I do really hope they're not dumb enough to have gone for a credit-cards only system. Even I'm willing to hope they saw the problems with Xbox Live's original card-only system. Microsoft already learned this lesson for the rest of the industry, so everyone can jump on the bandwagon with pre-pay.
What? Points was Microsoft's way of saving money and making downloadable content viable. Every time a credit card transaction occurs, it takes money and time to process it, money that Microsoft would rather keep. By making only the first step (purchasing the points) involve real cash there is then only one real transaction taking place. That way, the company doesn't have to incur expenses every time horse armor is bought, only everytime points are purchased online. Sony is doing the exact same thing except the points line up with the currency. Think of it as 1 point = 1 cent. They are still prepurchased, prepaid points. If you put $20 into your playsation wallet, you are out $20, even if you don't spend it right away. The same goes with purchasing Microsoft points. Why can't you people understand this system, especially people who already play Live. It's the same thing!
based on the photo, it looks like the text size in the menue is going to be very difficult to read for those of us who still have SD tv's. I wonder if that will be a problem much like Dead Rising?
Some of these guys will always find something to complain about, even though they have no intention of ever buying the console. They're mad at Sony for having a policy of replacing defective controllers for free. They're mad at Sony for having a free online service. Etc. It's neverending. There's only about 6 of them on this site, but they're extremely vocal.
One advantage of the points system over a straight money system is that the points cards occasionally go on sale.
About a month ago Futureshop (canadian electronics box store) had a sale where their 1250 pts cards were 25% off (14.99, reg. 19.99). This was basically like saying everything on the live marketplace is 25% off. I of course bought a couple and still have points left so future purchases on xblm will also be '25% off'.
"It's a virtual trading place where they can use their version of an electronic wallet to purchase games, and download new content, demos and trailers."
Does anyone have a link to a concrete statement that demos are not going to be free, because the sentence above can be read several different ways. I haven't seen anything implying demos will cost anything. If you read the statement above it sounds like the games are what he's saying you can use your e-wallet on. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I can't understand charging for demos and trailers.
It's a demo paying for it, even if it's just a dollar, defeats it's purpose. I was looking forward to playing demos, as I don't usually have time to research any games that might interest me. I don't want to pay a dollar for every game I try. It's not being cheap it's just being smart.
according to the live blogs yesterday the demo (motorstorm) showed a tag that said "free" next to it, along with trailers and stuff. i'm sure most (if not all) demos will be free. nothing has been stated to show otherwise.
Whinning, complaing and nit-picking! How the hell can you argue with FREE? Free web browers! Free gameplay online! And nowhere does it state that any demo would cost anyone anything but the time it takes to download it!
Another point is (and I own a 360) that MS sometimes doesn't even release demo until after the game is out!
If you have no intention of purchasing a PS3 to enjoy the experience then how the hell do you feel you have a reason to complain! I mean the game EVERY 360 fanboy is yammering about GOW, doesn't even have a demo yet for is to enjoy even though epic and MS know damn well we want to play it!
Find something worthwhile to do with your time instead of saying everything Sony has done with the PS3 is bad! You have options you know play/but a 360 or a wii and enjoy gaming! I'm so tired of reading every immature gamer commenting like they have intentions of buying a PS3! Calm down and quit your damn nit-picking its so pathetic!
Sure this online will be much better than the PS2 online, i will still not pay to play demos that i could download off XBL or my PC or get from the magazine for mostly free.
I have downloaded 10, 20 or maybe already 30 demo's for free.
If Sony charges 1 dollar/euro per demo, that already would have bring me somewhere over a year Live subscription because I bought 2 for 20 Euro each (old XBOX 1 with 12 month subscription work on 360).
So I guess premium flat fee can be cheaper then 'free' and paying for content
1- paying for demos is WRONG!
2- "The main difference between Sony's PlayStation Store and the online stores that Nintendo and Microsoft have is that Sony will use a straight cash system instead of a point system. Sony says that they'll be adding content to their Store on a regular basis."
using credit cards and cash cuts off all the gamers that dont have credit and can walk into a game store/walmart/ebay and buy a points card. the pre-paid card system on the 360 is far more user friendly than the PS3's credit card system.
cause I want MS to make theirs free, and if they do this half-assed and charge for demos and nickle and dime people to death, then MS won't change their price.
because by the time the PS3 comes out there will be no such thing as internet. We will be using telekinesis.
Maybe Sony will allow gift cards, but yes, it's all about pre-pay. Just like cell phones, lots of people don't actually like contract or online payment. They really do prefer loading up cards with credit to get things online. Points was Microsoft's way of making this payment system make sense.
Think of cell phone minutes- maybe you pay $60 for 200 "minutes". But those aren't strictly "minutes", because Extended Network or Roaming calls might cost extra. So you're really buying points you can redeem for airtime. This abstraction inspires consumer confidence- consumers feel they're getting something for their money. Their cash becomes abstract points. If they pay money in to get online credit, they didn't GET anything- they just converted their currency.
You can claim it's smart that Sony is going for cash, but in the end it's actually a dumb business move. It's nowhere near as good at inspiring consumer confidence, and (if they don't use prepay cards) it cuts off a large part of the audience.
And I do really hope they're not dumb enough to have gone for a credit-cards only system. Even I'm willing to hope they saw the problems with Xbox Live's original card-only system. Microsoft already learned this lesson for the rest of the industry, so everyone can jump on the bandwagon with pre-pay.
[And yes, paying for demos is wrong.]
based on the photo, it looks like the text size in the menue is going to be very difficult to read for those of us who still have SD tv's. I wonder if that will be a problem much like Dead Rising?