Xbox live vs Playstation Network

Downloaded LittleBigPlanet karts this afternoon as it was free for psn+, was a 14gig download and another 150 odd update after, it took just over an hour to download and install, infact I think the actual install to HDD took longer. So not bad on virgin 60meg, a lot better than 7 years ago back on 1meg,lol
 
I've never understood how they justify paying for the ability to play multiplayer, they're big companies already making plenty of profit including ads, we host the games on our hardware and connection, they may provide some matchmaking servers which i doubt cost much to run along with all the servers they have anyway, the occasional updates don't count either.

Id like the option for a basic or ad supported account (we get them already) to play something which should have always been free anyway, it's greed and pathetic business as usual and we all know it.

It's kind of a good thing i've gone off gaming in recent years, it's feels like mostly the same thing now, i think only vr will make gaming good again.
 
I've found my new super slim 500gb PS3 seems to download and install way way faster than my old 40gb fat PS3 ever did.
 
I've never understood how they justify paying for the ability to play multiplayer, they're big companies already making plenty of profit including ads, we host the games on our hardware and connection, they may provide some matchmaking servers which i doubt cost much to run along with all the servers they have anyway, the occasional updates don't count either.

Id like the option for a basic or ad supported account (we get them already) to play something which should have always been free anyway, it's greed and pathetic business as usual and we all know it.

It's kind of a good thing i've gone off gaming in recent years, it's feels like mostly the same thing now, i think only vr will make gaming good again.

It costs money, therefore they charge money. If Sony could get away with not charging the probably would have, they enjoyed twisting the knife into Microsoft far too much to pass up on that opportunity if it was a possibility.
 
Sony realised that the only way they can compete with XBL is to invest heavily in the service and infrastructure, and the only way to do that is to guarantee some income. Make the service worth paying for, and people will pay for it.

You're already getting quite a lot for your PS+ subscription so I think most people will find it reasonable. Plus you still get access to regular stuff like Netflix without having to pay, which is the way it should be.
 
I'm sure PSN will improve hugely from what it is today on PS3, and it might be good enough, I don't necessarily need all the bells and whistles, but just a level of coherence across the console that XBL seems to provide.

I will say that I think XBL is not standing still either, I can already see they are trying to make cross game matchmaking and multiplayer as seemless as possible..

It'll be interesting for sure, and now MS have dropped the 24 hour check, I'll have both to compare against each other, I already have Gold paid up until 2015 (thanks to the £1/month offer last year), and I'm already subscribing to PSN+ as of last month..
 
It costs money, therefore they charge money. If Sony could get away with not charging the probably would have, they enjoyed twisting the knife into Microsoft far too much to pass up on that opportunity if it was a possibility.

What money? Sony have always been just as bad with thier limitations and custom formats (sd cards with a different design etc), they just want the same subscription money because microsoft got away with it for so long and now it's seen as an acceptable artificial limitation to profit off the masses of stupid gamers who don't seem to mind endless drm, overpriced map packs and reskinned games.

It was no surprise to me when we found out they were pushing even more restrictions for profit once again, i was more surprised to see gamers for once didn't bend over and take it, however companies will keep trying to get their way, just wait and see, i knew this rubbish was coming and getting worse over ten years ago, all starting with pointless logins and personal details.
 
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I do think Sony need to sell the charge to users outside of the PS+ benefits we already get, it was acceptable when it was free, but now gamers directly pay for it I think there should be some expectation with timescales what they are going to do to improve PSN.

Id like:

Better download servers
Dedicated servers
Better game integration (some would say thats better UI, but theres some tweaks server side that need to be done)
Better sync, both trophies and saves
Quicker store (Im sure thats just because of the PS3 hardware, but there are steps there that need to be streamlined)
Im sure Ill think of more :p

Sony you better do some talking at Gamescom!

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Downloads on PSN are super slow with Sky broadband. I've tried 2 different routers and looked up various "tips" on the internet and it's still the same.
I only get about 8MB download anyway but PSN is downloading at around 1MB. I set it download 4 games yesterday afternoon at maybe 40gb altogether and they are STILL downloading. And it's been on around 20 hours!
 
I do think thats Sony and ISPs just not working it out especially as they could get away with it because it was free. PSN is totally servicable just need to pick and choose when you download stuff - thankfully PS+ helps as I schedule downloads via the web store when it does it daily update. Its those stupid custom download setups that sit witin games that annoy me (looking at you MAG)

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Most of my online mates (we have been gaming together since PGR2 on Xbox) are still swaying to Xbox as they don't see the PS online experience as being much good, personally I find it ok (apart from GT5) and as long as they have party chat then it will be fine for me.

With MS going all dedicated servers then I hope Sony are doing the same though.
 
I think PSN is craptastic on Virgin Media connections for some reason and has been for some time, with both companies blaming eachother.
I've got both consoles and I hardly ever use the PS3 anymore as even downloading the smallest of updates takes ridiculously long, whereas I always seem to download at full speed with XBL.

For that reason I'm going to hang back on buying a PS4 until I've heard the verdict from other VM subscribers.
 
I think PSN is craptastic on Virgin Media connections for some reason and has been for some time, with both companies blaming eachother.
I've got both consoles and I hardly ever use the PS3 anymore as even downloading the smallest of updates takes ridiculously long, whereas I always seem to download at full speed with XBL.

For that reason I'm going to hang back on buying a PS4 until I've heard the verdict from other VM subscribers.

= traffic shaping on the VM network
 
= traffic shaping on the VM network

It's the same issue as with HD youtube videos during busy times. They try to cache the content on their own servers but fail horribly, but if you force PSN or youtube to use a different DNS then it all works well.
 
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