XFire is Sony's Answer to Xbox Live 63
1up is reporting on Sony's 'answer' to Microsoft's Xbox Live system: XFire. The PC-based game networking service is already extremely popular among FPS and MMOG players. Financial reports indicate the service will now be extended to the PlayStation 3 as well. From the article: "By incorporating an existing service into their own PlayStation Network Platform (PNP), Sony hopes to circumvent existing problems in the console space that Microsoft has had to sort out and in using Xfire -- a company with an established messaging, matchmaking and gaming client -- Sony hopes to narrow the four-year gap in online gaming services that Microsoft currently enjoys (Xfire has been around since 2002)."
XFire NOT the answer to XBox Live (Score:5, Funny)
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XCOPy that (Score:2)
I'm surprised that they didn't name it: Wee-8-FireBox'sX.
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Re:XFire NOT the answer to XBox Live (Score:4, Funny)
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Good news.... However (Score:1)
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That's asinine, even for a Slashdot AC. If you think that anyone (besides Steve Ballmer, perhaps) would be crying like a baby at PS3s selling well, I would like to suggest that it would be you, sir, who is likely to cry like a baby if they don't end up 'flying off the shelves'. It sounds to me like you have a little too much emotion invested into this expensive toy.
Cool links. [blogspot.com]
But This Will Still Not Save the PS3 (Score:1)
Not that this change will really sway anyone here to get a PS3 after all. Holes that deep are not easy to dig out of...
as if... (Score:2)
You're kidding, right?
There are lots of /.'ers who will line up to get the first PS3s. When the price drops and availability is no longer an issue, TONS of people here will get one, especially when the big PS3-only titles (Final Fantasy, GTA) roll out the door.
The 360 has had the marketplace to itself for a year and in that time, the PS2 has outsold the 360. I don't think Sony is that wo
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Re:as if... (Score:4, Interesting)
But then again i'm weird and still live in the 80s and 90s. I don't like the direction Final Fantasy has been heading since VII, and I would rather play GTA 2 (top down), than play any of the new 3D ones.
Only time will tell.
I'll go a little further here.... (Score:3, Insightful)
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I think that by the time the PS3's price drops enough to be considered reasonable by the average gamer, it will be far, far too late for it to do well in the marketplace - unless we consider "the marketplace" to be liquidators, a la "Atari Jaguar and 20 games for $49.99!"
IMO, companies like NVidia and ATI can be moderately successful selling to the tiny minority of people who will spend $500 on a video card, because the same technology is easy to adapt to the sub-$200 range that are sold
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It depends on what you consider to be "reasonable" and "average". Like lots of /.ers, I could afford a PS3 on day one, assuming I could find one. I'm certain that it will sell out in the beginning due to a combination of actual shortages and fanbois. The question for me, and most other folks is whether it is worth the price Sony is willing
Ha ha ... Your half of the boat is sinking! (Score:2)
Which brings me to the next point (made by many before me). Sony has the unenviable position of having the best gaming value on the shelf right next to the worst. Final Fantasy is a big draw, it's true. FFXII for PS2 is looking better than any PS3 launch title.
If I were Sony, I'd just stop selling the PS2 when the PS3 came o
arrgh (Score:2)
And then... (Score:3, Funny)
They'll call it... (Score:2)
is has some subtle meanings.
Love Xfire (Score:2)
As a old tribes player, the game is old enough that there isnt always a full server, or the servers are password protected. Xfire lets me play that old game.
Also, PS3 might support Xfire IM?! Lets hope so.
Innovation! (Score:2, Interesting)
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Plus, if the product already exists, its no longer about innovation. It's about reverse-engineering and overhead.
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I'd estimate a rock-solid service of this type to be tens of thousands of man-hours. The scaling and reliability issues are challenging. That includes significant maintenence and feature-addition, and isn't entirely programming either (art assets, etc.), and I'm not including testing in that count, which would probably push it up into the hundreds of thousands if you include stress testing with real beta customers, although Sony probably wouldn't be paying for that dir
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But when... (Score:2, Insightful)
Does anyone else detect a rather lame naming gimmick catching on across the board?
Re:But when... (Score:5, Funny)
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*glances at the PSP pitifully.*
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braindead (Score:1)
Ha! (Score:1)
Foreign Entanglements (Score:3, Interesting)
Worse, if the relationship goes sour, several bad things would happen. Depending on how the online service is implemented, old games could stop working. Players might also be forced to sign up for a new service, and hassling with learning how to use it and setting everything up again. Or Sony could go with another system for the PS4, leaving gamers with Xfire accounts for PS3 and something else for PS4. Contrast this with Xbox Live, where the whole service is done in-house, and these problems basically do not exist. Of course, you're still locked down to Microsoft, but that's another discussion.
But to me, the most interesting element here is due to Xfire recently being bought by Viacom. Viacom is a very large and powerful media conglomerate. Sony, while more diversified, also owns a lot of media holdings. I wouldn't be surprised if some collusion[2] happens because of this deal. Maybe Sony throws some Paramount trailers up on the PS3 download service, or perhaps PS3s start showing up on Viacom-owned TV networks. This could also be an interesting angle if any disputes arise.
Of course, all my speculation here could turn out to be total BS. Despite Internet forums and "market analysts" predicting PS3 DOOOOM, Sony has a pretty good record so far of being forward-looking when it comes to consoles.
[1] By "foreign" I mean "outside the company".
[2] Collusion is illegal, so they'll call it something like "cross-promotion".
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They can... (Score:3, Funny)
Very smart. (Score:1)
The $ implications of this (Score:1)
After 4 the PS3 becomes cheaper with each additional year one keeps the XBL subscription.
Hopefully MS will recognize this and start knocking that price down. Or perhaps MS will simply hope the consumer doesn't notice.
Big Update: Xfire is for 1 game only (Score:5, Informative)
When I first heard of this news, I thought it was a good move by Sony. Their strengths are in hardware, not so much with software. Yes, SOE is handling EQ and Star Wars: Galaxies, but those are arguably not to be proud about (at least of late). So partnering with Xfire seems like a great idea. Maybe the start of some good news (finally) for Sony?
But upon hearing that this partnership really is limited to just one game? Huge steps backwards, once again. Does this mean we can expect every game to utilize a different network model? Will I have different friends lists and achievements with EA and Square-Enix, with some games not utilizing anything? It's also really late in development, so does that mean all of the network features Sony is claiming to be working on, are really really behind?
I was under the impression, as was many others probably, that there was going to be one network, and the reason why we weren't hearing anything about it, was because the devs were hard at work on it. (Compared to the 360, where MS spent a large amount of time showing off Live functionality at the E3 prior to launch) But news like this makes it seem like Sony doesn't really know what it's doing after all.
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Again, Sony misses the point with Xbox Live. What they'll deliver is esstentially the same half-assed, free-for-all that we got on the PS2. The only "service" they'll provide will be an ethernet connection on the console and a lame portal.
-Eric
X-Fire (Score:2)
Basically X-Fire is an alliance between IM software like icq and an amazing game browser like all seeing eye.
It tracks stats and gives other players links they just click on to join the server you're in (find out what song you're listening to etc.
Endorsed by Thresh (The gaming god) it's got a tiny memory footprint to save those precious fps.
It also provides sound so you can ghost (A Form of cheating where dead players tell their frien