Cross Game chat could come from Homebrew

E4G: Just think about it, Sony has taken a long time to implement a feature such as cross game chat on the PlayStation 3.

[Anime-Vixen]

So am Im the only one who doesn't care about cross game chat. It would seriously be distracting if Im talking to someone while im trying to play a game!

[mmoracerules]

and why not? you rated it 4 stars ;D you must like it

[WildArmed]

I think Anime-Vixen does that in every post anyway...

on topic:
It makes no sense for it to come out of homebrew..
It'd be a PSN feature NOT a ps3 feature..
unless you want to be hosting your own servers (Since tech. sony has no servers set up for private voice chat yet)..

But, what do I know? I'm definitely not a programing major..

But with that said, even it did come, i wouldn't care. The simply Sony made fw will do me just fine thank you very much.

[ThanatosDMC]

Now where are they gonna get the ram for the cross game chat especially when running games.

[badz149]

1st it was linux, and then PS2 BC and now XGC? we know that these thing are not going to happen and these no name hackers/coders think they can better Sony? plus, this is impossible to do at the moment. Jailbreakers can't access PSN and how the hell can you perform XGC witout even being online? busted!

[rockleex]

I'll believe them when they can deliver PS2 BC like they promised.

[dkblackhawk50]

List your reasons why...a no thxs (Even with bad grammar) does not support your cause...

[mmoracerules]

Well if you state that, that could imply to certain games. But some people are relaxed/calm when talking amongst their friends.

[hamoor]

You don't like to have the choice at least?
Nobody gonna force you to talk You know

[mrcash]

thank you... It would be great to have the choice. Heck they could make it part of plus, that might draw more people in.

[heroicjanitor]

I'd like the choice too, not sure how much I'd use it though...

And just because it would be optional doesn't change that he doesn't care for it

[Christopher]

Don't see how a homebrew option is possible considering games specifically control program functionality and memory use. They would need to completely rewrite each firmware and any special code for games that is located on the firmware.

No one has even been able to create custom firmware at this time.

[raztad]

You said it very well, enabling such feature like XGC would require a very delicate coding to optimize memory allocation and not to break existing games. The very idea that it may come as a homebrew app is LOL worthy.

BTW, I dont think we will see any CFW in the foreseeable future. Hackers are yet to properly break in to the PS3.

[HSx9]

you have no idea what u are talking about buddy, running unsigned codes= homebrew, just not how u think of it, which is already possible on PS3.

[Eamon]

some people spit crap for a living.

It is most likely possible via homebrew.

[Christopher]

From someone who actually is a programmer...

It's not very likely. In fact, extremely unlikely.

Look at games like Uncharted 2, God of War 3, or Killzone 2; games that manage their memory like crazy and use it for graphical processing as well. You add in a homebrew application that sits on the HDD and runs in real time alongside the OS, which already takes up one SPE for managing and running that in real time, you're going to be taking away that potential from the game application. If you utilize a homebrew application in parallel to a game running that is using the 7 other SPEs, then you're taking away from overall performance and will cause issues at moments when the game application is designed to completely utilize all 7 SPEs for intense processing (physics + ai + lighting calculations).

The result could be as little as very noticeable drops in framerate to as bad as freezing and crashing due to memory errors that interfere with graphical processing and memory management of data and the calculations performed against them.

On top of this, game applications are also programmed on most occasions to lock out all but the most basic of OS features through the firmware. This is done for security purposes to prevent multiplayer cheating by using parallel software apps and to prevent the hacking/ghosting of the data stream. You would need to override this capability on the firmware side in order to make it work at all. Otherwise, you'll end up with a homebrew application that functions much like the photo gallery from the XMB, in that you have to exit all other applications before you can use it.

Sorry, but this is highly unlikely to be possible in a manner that won't cause huge issues with your gameplay, let alone the fact that the firmware hasn't been hacked yet. All people have done is install unsigned but otherwise recognized compiled code on the PS3. That's the same as me creating a Windows application and distributing it as freeware. Something very easy to do and is done all the time with PC games... they're called cracks and trainers.

[dkblackhawk50]

To be honest, it would be one nice feature to have althought if I remember correctly MS pattented something like this...can't remember exactly what it was about lol ^_^

[Charazani]

People who comment against cross-game chat because of the distraction it causes make a legitimate point. I wouldn't want someone to yell out BOOM headset really loud, while they are playing Killzone and I'm trying to beat Flower. But, what I'd use cross-game chat for is not for campaigns of different games but their multiplayer components. It's just easier for a group of friends to communicate without all of them having to boot up a game. Someone may want to jump into BC2 a round or two after, or may be waiting for a spot in our squad. And if anybody gets booted out of a lobby, its easy to communicate and bring them back in.

[---stone---]

Put Skype on the ps3 and have all the cross game chat, sex talk, circle jerk, tupperware talk and trade recipes you want.

[MARNEY]

for almost as long as XGC has.. take a look at the ps & skype forums. every year, starting around E3 & ending just after TGS the rumors fly that this will be the year XGC comes to the ps3. it never happens. even putting aside the XGC feature, i keep asking myself, why hasn't skype been added to the ps3's XMB? to have the option to use a watered down version would be a great convenience for many ps3 users, no need for video or text chat, just free skype to skype voice chat, 12 person party, & the option to buy upgrades from the ps store for voicemail, & the option to call out to land lines & cell phones on your ps3. seems like a no brainer, but no one @ sony or skype will comment on the subject in any of the numerous forum posts i've seen over the years... gotta wonder why some cell phones can access skype & the ps3 can't... boggles my mind.
http://forum.skype.com/inde...

[rwarner174]

It will not be implement this way because its a memory footprint issue. Stupid article.

[jukins]

im wondering since sony showed cross game chat and video chat (even tho it was prob a pre recorded video) before launch if its something legal holding them back because it really shouldnt take this long to implement the feature even though i think its kinda pointless. ppl who constantly argue that cross game chat is worth so they can talk to their friends while they play different games remind of that girl you see who always has her cell phone up to her ear lol

[Nitrowolf2]

here the thing
Sony prob. can ban for this, i mean what would be the point of having it if you are banned?
i am just saying why work on a feature that is for online use when you are at risk of being banned?

[unrealgamer58]

What happened to journalism?

[Pedobear Rocks]

the CIA killed Kennedy and we all lapped up Walter Cronkite (CIA mole) telling us it'll be alright.

[dkblackhawk50]

What happened to your bubles? *sigh* fanboy...

[rdgneoz3]

And you'll be able to use cross-game chat when you can't log onto the PSN, since you don't have the latest firmware installed...

[Solo227]

Sony promised it before launch 4 years later we still dont have it... Its a damnshame we cant even send audio messages... Sony really dropped the ball..

And im not paying for any of it on PSN+

[SpitFireAce85]

No cross game chat Sony is doomed Omg whats going on..
I couldn't care less for it i just hope we get it so
people can stop asking for it.

[BlueEye]

Cross console, now that would be crazy!

[IPUMPMYGUN]

That's the only reason why it's illegal( which is obvious). If Sony is to make money that must police the hack capability and exploit it and use it too they're advantage and make a profit off homebrew.

[IPUMPMYGUN]

We already have a chat room with mic/video capabilities why doesn't Sony just enable cross-game chat from there or enable a mic icon beside our name and if someone wants to voice chat with us they click that icon and a notice pops-up on the screen saying "do you wish to cross-game chat with this user". It's not hard.

[i_am_interested]

sounds all fun and dandy until some of the games out there start spazzing out while playing them because all of a sudden theres a feature there that developers didnt plan for

[rwarner174]

Once again people. This is not a simple issue. XMB was never designed with multitasking in mind. Cross game chat will probably never happen. If a homebrew? version comes out it will mostlikely crash half your games due to memory paging errors or something like that. I hate when people write articles with no technical knowledge of the issues at hand or why the problem is difficult.

If the PS3 was designed today with an XMB geared towards multitasking it would already be done. But it wasn't designed today and 100s of games were designed assuming the current system. To fix it you would have to back test every signle game and make sure they all work. No easy task.

Do you honestly think that it takes 45 seconds to load an XMB icon because the Cell processor cannot handle loading the icon? The reaason it takes 45 seconds is because the system is accessing the hard drive to load the icon because there is very few MB of memory reserved for XMB during gameplay. If they can barely load an icon why would you think running a background chat program would be easy.

Once again understand, the PS3 is powerful enough hardware wise, it is just crippled by XMB's design.

[Dazel]

Seriously need to think what about what you wish for, you just might get it.

[zero_gamer]

People over-inflate the importance of a CHAT feature to the point of threaten to abandon the PS3 for the Xbox360. Just read the PS Blog Share comments on the Cross Game Voice Chat idea. Pathetic...

[ChronoJoe]

lol only catch is you'd get banned using it.

Also cross game chat is a pretty important feature, people saying it's not I can only assume either don't play with people regularly online, or just don't want to say it's good because XBOX already has it.

[dorron]

If homebrew keeps growing I won't be missing my PSN connection. I would exchange it anytime for emulators and such other stuff...