The Furure of Online Gaming/ Did Sony miss the boat again?

L

lordxixor101

CAGiversary!
This is something I've been thinking about over the last few days. Hearing that over half of Xbox 360 owners go online with it, at least to the arcade and marketplace (though, I'm sure a fair percentage have gold memberships), what is the future of online gaming and does it hinge on how well Microsoft takes over the worldwide market?

My thought. Microsoft has by far the best formula for online gaming. Paying a set rate to play almost every game is much better than paying game by game. Also, this helps cut down on cheating (though, doesn't eliminate it). This is truely a selling point over the system.

But, say Sony wanted to copy this, could they? Initially, the answer would be yes, they could, but will people buy? I happily pay my $50 this year to be on Live, but if I bought a PS3, I wouldn't want to pay an additional $50 to play on that system. So, likely, I would only buy one. Do you think most people would buy 2? If you are only buying 1, you'd pay for the best one, and right now, Live would offer more, just because it's been around more.

Nintendo is a different animal completely. Nintendo has those franchises (Mario Kart, SSBM) that many gamers salivate to play online. Whenever Nintendo decides to jump in, they'll have a market. Knowing how Nintendo loves to blatantly add-on costs, you can assume they'll set up a pay to play structure. If gamers bite the bullet and pay for 2, would they pay for 3?

Basically, is this the 2nd boat that has passed Sony since their dominance (the first being the probable mistake of adding Blue-Ray onto the PS3 and making the cost prohitibitive for many gamers)?
 
Given what Nintendo has done with the DS as far as online gaming, I cant see how you would expect Nintendo to launch a pay to play service.

Maybe the former market leader would be more concerned about online gaming (hell both former market leaders), if the leader in online gaming could....say, make a profit.
 
I'm worried about the furure too. I mean, who knows what will happen. I really wish I could predict the furure, but then again I kind of don't, you know what I mean? There's would be a fear of knowing when I am going to die if I knew the furure. Also, I would know about the Jurassic changes that are coming. No, I don't want to know about the furure. That settles that.
 
I honestly don't see Nintendo making the Wii exclusively pay to play, especially given that a major part of their core game base are younger gamers. I just don't see a lot of parents shelling out cash so little Jimmy can play Smash Bros. online. Add to the fact that the Wii's online features have been repeatedly promised to be free, and I think a move to pay to play would alienate a lot of Nintendo's customers.
 
[quote name='MidnightRain']I honestly don't see Nintendo making the Wii exclusively pay to play, especially given that a major part of their core game base are younger gamers. I just don't see a lot of parents shelling out cash so little Jimmy can play Smash Bros. online. Add to the fact that the Wii's online features have been repeatedly promised to be free, and I think a move to pay to play would alienate a lot of Nintendo's customers.[/QUOTE]

And maybe your right about Nintendo. I have not kept up with their online plans. Just knowing Nintendo's past of liking to have add-ons for their system (GBA connectivity for FF Crystal Chronicals, E-Reader for Animal Crossing extras, etc), it wouldn't surprise me for a cost to go online (since it isn't free to them).

Either way, Microsoft has already entered this market and is building a nice base. Will people pay for 2 services? Can Sony build a base without a Live type model (they haven't appeared to be successful so far).
 
[quote name='munch']I'm worried about the furure too. I mean, who knows what will happen. I really wish I could predict the furure, but then again I kind of don't, you know what I mean? There's would be a fear of knowing when I am going to die if I knew the furure. Also, I would know about the Jurassic changes that are coming. No, I don't want to know about the furure. That settles that.[/QUOTE]

Hey munch, well, I guess that makes life easy. You don't even have to save for retirement, heck, you might not even be alive to spend it.

Seriously though, you're, at the very least, extremely naive if you don't think that Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the big 3rd party publishers don't have whole departments devoted to forecasting the future, and making long term decisions based on it. These are questions that they are asking, so I think it's fun to get an idea what the average gamer thinks.
 
To answer the question of whether or not I would pay for two services the answer is: Probably not.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: You get what you pay for.

I've had XBL for the past...3? years and every year I don't think twice about renewing my membership, it's that good of a service. And now with the 360, the Live experience has gotten SO much better, with the marketplace, video marketplace, video chat, online chat, XBL Arcade , it makes my $50/year seem even more justified.

I really do not see neither Nintendo or Sony catching up to Microsoft's online service in this generation. XBL is so far far and away that it always seems like a moot point to argue whether or not Sony or Nintendo will be able to match with their respective online services. Sure, they might add a few features here and there to possibly match SOME (like their online stores) of XBL's features, but the overall experience, I believe, will still be extremely lacking.

Though it is really disappointing to see Nintendo and Sony both take a huge dump on the gamers who were promised free but "fully-featured" online play, I never had my hopes up, not once. Just seeing what Nintendo did with the DS and the idiotic friend codes, and Sony with the PS2 online network, I had close to no expectations. Well, I had slight hope for Nintendo in the hopes that they would get rid of the friend codes...honestly....16 digit numbers to distinguish ourselves? Really?

But with Sony, I never let myself buy into their hype machine. "Oh, our service will be free, and just as good if not better than XBL." I remember hearing that for months and months prior to the launch. Now, I hardly hear anyone talking about it besides how slow the downloads are, and how crappy the store looks.

Maybe with the PS4, Xbox 3, and whatever Nintendo is looking to make next generation, we'll see better competition with a more even playing field, but like I said I think that won't happen until the NEXT generation.
 
Im sure Xbox live is a great service, But I simply refuse to pay money to play a game. I dont play WoW or any other monthly fee games for the same reason. I dont yet have a 360, but I'll get one eventually, and when I do, I wont be getting a gold membership. 95% of the games I play online are FPShooters, and they all look and play better (and for free) on the PC.

Im not dissing Live in any way. Im glad people are happy with it, but even if Microsoft one day annoucnes that 99% of 360 owners are on Live, I'll still be in that other 1%. The same thing goes for any PS3, or Nintendo game that decides to charge a fee to play online.
 
Eh, Live is nice, but I haven't bought a Gold membership in a long time. I usually just scrounge up a couple 48 hour trials to play when the guys come over.

If Nintendo would push all of their game franchises online, I could see myself paying for the service. There just aren't many games I care to play online, and I think only Nintendo's first party properties would get money out of me. (Assuming they put up enough of them!)
 
Sony definitely needs to get their online act together. I believe PSN has the potential to be great, and still free. It looks like most of the pieces are in place, its just a matter of making them standard and having all games support them.

I think, if there was a way to get the XMB to run on top of games, we'd have a pretty good online set up. Not as good as XBL, but a pretty good one for free. Given the choice, I'd take a free online set up, over a $50 a year one, but, if I had a 360, I definitely wouldn't mind the $50. It is a great service, just, given the choice, I would take the free one.
 
[quote name='MadFlava']I'm worried about the Furure, because I have no idea what it is.[/QUOTE]

off topic, but what is your sig from? (the B&W pic).
 
My prediction is MS knows what they are doing with online gaming. Sony will get it together over time and Nintendo will just fuck it up we will once again be left with nothing.
 
[quote name='Boeing 747']Nintendo's stance on online gaming is disgusting, friend codes to protect little kids? My god they suck at this.[/QUOTE]

Until we know whether the Friend Codes are per game or per system, it's premature to complain. If the codes are per game, yes, that's annoying. If they're per system, then they're really just Gamer Tags.

And it kinda depends on what we've been promised: Nintendo tends to promise very little by way of online service, so we shouldn't be surprised when we get that, especially for free. Sony on the other hand, has repeatedly touted how their service will be better than Live, and while "slightly worse, but free" could work out, I can't help but look at last gen, with all the big talk and a whopping two games (FF XI and SOCOM) that ever used the Online Adapter and Hard Drive to any effect.
 
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