Home Free: Why Xbox 360 and Wii Owners Should Root for PS3’s “Home”

vashivihan · 02-26-2008, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Although all three consoles of this generation offer online play, originally Microsoft stood alone in it’s decision to charge Xbox gamers for the ability to join their friends in online multi-player matches. Recently this trend has continued with the announcement of Wii Pay & Playthat will similarly charge gamers an as-of-yet-undisclosed fee to take particular Wii titles online. The PlayStation 3 stands alone as the only console that gamers are not asked to pony up any dough whatsoever for online multi-player support.

At present, Microsoft feels confident that the market can sustain the $50 they ask of their Gold members annually. After all, Xbox LIVE offers 360 owners a few things console gamers can’t get elsewhere, like player screening, TrueSkill matchmaking, and a reputation system that encourages everybody to play nice. Regardless of whether or not you feel the subscription fee is justified, Microsoft’s success with their LIVE service established an important precedent: It’s OK to charge people to play games with one another. Sony has been promoting the fact that they don’t charge people to use the PlayStation Network, but currently the PS3’s online gaming experience is lacking many of LIVE’s popular features, prompting many Xbox fans to declare, “You get what you pay for.”

However, Sony might just have an ace up their sleeve that could change this pay-to-play paradigm. Home, their free social network which has been in the public eye since its unveiling last March, is poised to launch with a whole slew of features that should give LIVE and Wii Pay & Play a run for their money. Features like the ability to access your friends list from within a game, free social spaces, a trophy system, and live blogging tools that let you upload your Home content to a Sony-hosted website (and vice versa) should offer PS3 owners an experience that matches (or even surpasses) the experience available to LIVE’s Gold subscribers but without any added cost to consumers. Although Home users can spend real-world dollars to pimp out their virtual space with digital furniture and clothes for their avatar, such expenditures are entirely optional.

Xbox 360 loyalists on video game community forums often dismiss PlayStation Home as little more than a Second Life knock-off with little chance of supplanting LIVE’s status as the most full-featured online service available to console gamers. This dismissal from Xbox enthusiasts is curious considering that all three hardware manufacturers are adaptive entities that constantly change their features and services to remain competitive in today’s dynamic console market. When I recently talked to Major Nelson about the possibility of LIVE becoming free should Home prove to be a success, he simply stated, “Microsoft will respond to the market.” Make no mistake, if Home is a huge hit for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft may be forced to adopt a similar free model in order to keep up with increased expectations, benefiting all budget-conscious gamers regardless of their platform of choice.

Ultimately, it’s all about the accepted market standards. Whereas Microsoft raised the bar regarding online features, Sony is attempting to match (and improve upon) that standard by providing much of what LIVE offers but at a lower price. Meanwhile, Nintendo seems to be trying the “one foot in, one foot out”approach by only charging people on a game-by-game basis. This strategy affords Nintendo the luxury of abandoning Wii Pay & Play all together in the event that their new online solution doesn’t prove lucrative. If you’re an Xbox 360 or Wii owner who doesn’t want to pay for online play, (and what person in their right mind does?) you’d better pray that Home is a smash success. If Home does as well as Sony hopes, we may even see Microsoft and Nintendo create virtual (and hopefully free) social spaces of their own.

a strongly agree with the article. linkage

CantGetAWii · 02-26-2008, 06:39 PM

I think its still too early to say personally.

We don't know what Home is going to be like, I have heard both good and bad about it, there is mixed feelings.

We know what Live offers its players, and clearly that for the most part is a success. We know nothing or very little about Pay To Play and what it will offer. If its in our best interest to "Pay and Play" then people will do it, because the free thing for Nintendo right now is just not cutting it.

So really we need to wait another month or so till we know more, and have a better idea of what is in store for all.

vashivihan · 02-26-2008, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CantGetAWii

I think its still too early to say personally.

We don't know what Home is going to be like, I have heard both good and bad about it, there is mixed feelings.

We know what Live offers its players, and clearly that for the most part is a success. We know nothing or very little about Pay To Play and what it will offer. If its in our best interest to "Pay and Play" then people will do it, because the free thing for Nintendo right now is just not cutting it.

So really we need to wait another month or so till we know more, and have a better idea of what is in store for all.

oh i think home will be a success. just mark my words.

T3kNi9e · 02-26-2008, 06:48 PM

Stupid reason for 360/Wii owners to "root" for it. Atleast for 360 players... MS will never make it free, they are making ALOT of money off of it. Chances are MS just comes up with new things to make LIVE worth paying for, not making it free.

thas · 02-26-2008, 07:15 PM

^ i have to agree. if home does do well, nintendo and microsoft will be forced to put in more features, not go free.

Budo · 02-27-2008, 07:56 AM

There's a reason why some things have fees - servers and bandwidth aren't free.

All those "free" PC game servers aren't free. That's someone either renting a server from a company, or they're using their home computer as a server, and subsequently, it's bandwidth to host a game.

Before anyone uses EA as an example, it's not, it's an exception. EA can eat the loss for hosting game servers, almost no one else can do that. Hell, they couldn't even justify hosting servers in Australia, because of how few people they felt would actually take advantage of their "free" servers. i.e. they didn't think they would sell enough copies of the game to pay for however amount of time they think it will be popular.

Silent-Sniper · 02-27-2008, 09:19 AM

I like the sound of Home, it's one of the few reasons I actually like the PS3.

02-26-2008, 06:48 PM	#4
T3kNi9e Conquistador Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Augusta, GA Posts: 2,234 Friends: 2	Stupid reason for 360/Wii owners to "root" for it. Atleast for 360 players... MS will never make it free, they are making ALOT of money off of it. Chances are MS just comes up with new things to make LIVE worth paying for, not making it free. __________________ Mod Edit: Image removed. Some users may find it offensive and inappropriate. SSBB FC: ????-????-???? (New Wii, so I gotta check) Gamertag: T3kNi9e Been playing alot of WarCraft III lately, anyone up for game? Just message me, my account is the same as here and GT.

02-27-2008, 07:56 AM	#6
Budo Raging Clue Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Canadia Posts: 724 Friends: 0	There's a reason why some things have fees - servers and bandwidth aren't free. All those "free" PC game servers aren't free. That's someone either renting a server from a company, or they're using their home computer as a server, and subsequently, it's bandwidth to host a game. Before anyone uses EA as an example, it's not, it's an exception. EA can eat the loss for hosting game servers, almost no one else can do that. Hell, they couldn't even justify hosting servers in Australia, because of how few people they felt would actually take advantage of their "free" servers. i.e. they didn't think they would sell enough copies of the game to pay for however amount of time they think it will be popular. __________________

02-27-2008, 09:19 AM	#7
Silent-Sniper ↑ Awesome ↑ Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Warrington - UK Posts: 887 Friends: 0	I like the sound of Home, it's one of the few reasons I actually like the PS3. __________________ Trading my Wii again! Come on home 360! Games: Metroid Prime 3, Super Paper Mario, Ghost Squad, Link's Crossbow Training + Wii Zapper, Geometry Wars, Battalion Wars 2

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02-26-2008, 07:15 PM	#5
thas Canadian/Gamer for life Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 1,113 Friends: 6 4614-1471-6665-4276	^ i have to agree. if home does do well, nintendo and microsoft will be forced to put in more features, not go free.

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