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mercsix
06-17-2002, 09:53 PM
More on the well planned method Sony has for online gaming. MS is gonna hand Sony it's a.s.s. for a hat. MS has been struggling on Sony's turf now it's sony's turn to struggle.
Sony's Online Plans (http://www.teamxbox.com/news.php?id=3342)

Knight
06-17-2002, 10:43 PM
FF XI Online: More problems
By Cesar
06.17.2002 @ 03:25 PM

At Sony's annual pre-E3 press conference Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, SCEA President and COO, unveiled the online plans for the PlayStation 2. Kaz said their online gaming system can be described as "democratic" and that their competitors online gaming licensing rules are "authoritarian." Kaz used these words because Sony offers what they call an "open system" in which game publishers provide their own servers and the online infrastructure. By contrast, Microsoft's philosophy is to assist publishers by managing the hosting, networking, security and billing so that developers can focus on creating the best game content. That's why Sony calls LIVE™ an authoritarian system, but

The truth is ...

The first online game for the Sony's Playstation 2 continues to have problems. Square's Final Fantasy XI had its first major patch last weekend after a buggy launch. The PlayOnline servers were taken down for bug fixes and upgraded and the new patched version of the game required players to log on again. But this hasn't ended at all ... As our friends from Eurogamer reports:



However, although the patch seems to have fixed many issues, other problems continue to plague the ambitious online RPG. Most embarrassingly for Square - and indeed for Sony - is the revelation that the game is entirely incompatible with certain models of PS2. Some (unspecified) PS2 models allegedly refuse entirely to boot the game, instead displaying an error message and ceasing to function. Sony is thought to be aware of the problem, and players encountering it have been asked to notify the company, although it's not known what kind of fix is planned.
Perhaps even more damaging for the commercial success of the game, however, is the situation regarding the PS2 hard drive in Japan. FFXI requires a hard drive to be installed before you can play it, and it appears that poor sales of the game to date (compared with other titles in the Final Fantasy series) are almost entirely attributable to the massive shortages of hard drive stocks.
Most consumers are being forced to buy PS2 hard drives as part of an ISP service bundle rather than at retail, effectively squeezing out anyone who already has a broadband connection, and even those lucky enough to be allocated a drive are having to wait up to seven weeks for it to arrive. There are reports of gamers desperate to try the title having to ring around multiple ISPs on a regular basis until they find one who actually has a unit in stock (and is prepared to sell it).

Well those are the facts. Sony can say anything about LIVE™ and the Xbox but the truth is that with a hard drive, ethernet port and slots for the Xbox Communicator built in to all controllers, Xbox was designed by Microsoft to facilitate online play right out of the box. And with Microsoft's know-how (270 million unique monthly users worldwide on the MSN® network of Internet services, and the No. 1 online PC gaming site with Zone.com), Who do you think will run better the LIVE™ games? Xbox gamers don't want a FFXI launch experience. And you bet that with an "organized" system like LIVE™ you won't have the headaches of a "chaotic" online gaming service. Take that Kaz!

Kraft
06-17-2002, 10:50 PM
Wow, I actually kinda feel sorry for sony... I mean, they did invest a lot of time into this... but obviously not enough. i mean, incompatible with some ps2s??? Did they skip the quality control testing? This whole debacle is going to turn a lot of ps2 players off of the whole online thing.

BTW, this is a sidenote, but I think we can expect similar things from MS's launch of XBox live. Hopefully not to this degree, but problems will arise and we will see lots of patches thrown around. Its pretty much inevitable, no matter how much money you invest.

Highlite23
06-17-2002, 10:56 PM
Here's a visual....

Sony standing over the world, hands on it's hips laughing in utter supperiority!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA, no one can destroy us!!!

Moving up behind our enemy is Microsoft with a HUGE sledgehammer bearing down on Sony's overinflated head.

I just love my happy thoughts!

VAN
06-17-2002, 11:13 PM
I refuse to revel in Sony's disastrous online launch until MS proves XBL to be bug-free. (we all know MS aint known for providing the most trouble-free online solutions)

Hopefully MS can do it right the first time. Even a slight bug will deliver an incredible blow to their credibility.

Good luck, Microsoft!

Kraft
06-17-2002, 11:19 PM
Originally posted by VAN-XBA

Hopefully MS can do it right the first time. Even a slight bug will deliver an incredible blow to their credibility.

Good luck, Microsoft!

Im sorry Van, but everyone needs to be realistic about it. Even Blizzard, the king of online gaming, who has put out game after game after game of amazing quality and great fun, constantly patches games. Online games are always plagued with bugs due to there being soooo much more to look for. Diablo2 is on, what, its 9th patch now? starcraft has had even more. Patches are a way of life in online play and it is incredibly naiive to think that MS has a chance of being bug free, as much as everyone (me included) would like it to be...

Adema
06-17-2002, 11:25 PM
Leave it up to Sony to screw everything up. They have their heads so far up their a** they can actually see their future and suprise suprise its a future full of ****.

MOrgE
06-18-2002, 08:23 AM
Originally posted by KraftSLU


Im sorry Van, but everyone needs to be realistic about it. Even Blizzard, the king of online gaming, who has put out game after game after game of amazing quality and great fun, constantly patches games. Online games are always plagued with bugs due to there being soooo much more to look for. Diablo2 is on, what, its 9th patch now? starcraft has had even more. Patches are a way of life in online play and it is incredibly naiive to think that MS has a chance of being bug free, as much as everyone (me included) would like it to be...

i agree with you totally man...
i dont think i can even name an online game that hasn't had any patches... developers do make mistakes and thus the reason for patches...

XboX Live will have some minor problems... i think that is inevitable... but i HIGHLY DOUBT that they will be in the same boat as Sony's Online service... they are smarter then that :)

Magnum Blast
06-18-2002, 11:22 AM
You guys wanna talk about alot of patches then you have to talk about Tribes 2. It got like what 5-6 patches the week it was released and quite alot after that. I still loved that game and had sokme great experiances but Dynamix really needed more time to fix things before it was releasd. Damn Sierra and Vivendi.

JJaX
06-18-2002, 12:44 PM
BWhahahaha i hope sony + square go broke!

Hahahahahaahahaahahaahaahaha!!!!

Dre
06-18-2002, 03:17 PM
Originally posted by JJaX
BWhahahaha i hope sony + square go broke!

Hahahahahaahahaahahaahaahaha!!!!

I hope Sony goes broke then Square comes to MS looking for some jobs. I'm still a sucker for FF games.. the stories are just too cool

y2kash_14
06-18-2002, 05:10 PM
c'mon guys, i know this Sony problem is a good thing for us Xbox owners, but with posts like these, it looks like we are all turning into Xbox Fanboys, lets not turn that

Rusted Gundam
06-18-2002, 05:58 PM
What makes no sense to me is that Square is going to do games for Nintendo cause it knows that if it sayed with Sony it would be Finicial Sucide w/ the upgrades. Okay now that you read above. Isnt Nintendo going to have upgrades? I mean they have no online plans really.The only reason I can think of is that Square wants to bring back SNE games on the GBA. Another reason, which is probably the reason (sad also) cause Nintendo is japense based. Alot of japense people hate the idea of american consoles (hint all of them are dead,and most died b4 they even were being selled).

I hope Sony does fail with online plans cause I want them to learn you cant ripp off smart consumers (which most are w/ Xbox).
This isnt a victory for Xbox cause we havent been online yet, but Im sure Beta Testing will help out alot of problems b4 it comes out.

faceoff508
06-18-2002, 06:01 PM
Square, Rockstar, EA, and TakeTwo are loyal only to Sony!!

mrmp3
06-18-2002, 06:36 PM
I hate when my friends who are PS2 fan boys say "I'd rather have a DVD player than a hard drive any day" HA! Now I can shove it in their face they need to buy a hard drive to play games online. They always said the xbox was ugly. Now I can say "Yours is so ugly with that f*cked up looking harddrive on the back". Didn't a post a little while back say MS is setting up servers all over the US and one in London and other foreign countries? That shows me MS has a good idea of what they are doing. However, it's gonna cost a **** load of cash and I don't see how $50 to get a year of service the headset and the software will have them making profits? Anywayz..PS2 seems to have rushed their online plan to beat MS. Big deal if it sux noone will want it. I'd laugh if GC because they waited longer had the best online service. BTW, will you be able to download add-ons with the PS2 Harddrive? It defintely seems like Xbox Live although may not be the first released online service, it'll certainly change history as a good online game service unlike Sony. Signing off...

P.S. That article made it seem like Online gaming is happening in Japan already. Is it?