There are more than a few people who feel that Sony and the PS3 are going to have a big year in 2008, and Peter Dille, Senior VP of Marketing & PLAYSTATION Network, is obviously one of them. In a post yesterday on the PlayStation.Blog, he outlined all the things that Sony has in store for the PSN this year. He first talked about the revamped PlayStation Store (and his personal dissatisfaction with its previous interface), though he said it’s “the first step but it’s only one example” of what Sony will be bringing to the PSN in 08.
Here’s some of the exciting stuff he discussed. He mentioned four “key pillars” that will make the PSN a success: “The PlayStation community”; “Free online gaming”; “Digital media download services”; and “Original content”. That gives me solid reason to believe that Sony will always keep the PSN free. Then he moved on to the games (“fewer arcade remakes and more original content” — a subtle jab at Xbox Live, methinks): stuff like SOCOM Confrontation, flOwer (from the makers of flOw, natch), and echochrome.
Next up was the rumored North American PSN video service. Dille had no updates on it, but noted that “it’s already been confirmed that we’ll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you’ve seen or used.” Apparently, we’ll be hearing about this “very soon”, and it’ll deliver “TV, movies and gaming content.” His next paragraph was community-oriented, talking about in-game XMB access and “other community-related services”.
Lastly, Dille delivered another bit of good news: Sony will finally be bringing PlayStation Cards to the American market. He said, “we are rolling out the PlayStation Cards to retailers nationwide as we speak.” The long-awaited cards — we first heard of them way back in mid-December — will be available in denominations of $20 and $50. All these updates have got me really psyched (yes, that’s how it’s spelled — not “siked”) for the future of the PS3 and PSN...what about you guys?
[Via PlayStation.Blog — thanks, Gynecologist Cobra!]
Contest:
4:49 PM on 04.16.2008
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PSN ID: unangbangkay
Also, Destructoid profiles have no entries yet for PSN IDs. What gives?
Anyway, I'm glad that the PSN store is finally getting its act together.
somewhere...
im not home yet, so just send me a inv: Crunshii
But the store is much better. Now pressing circle does what it should do.
The one thing PSN doesn't really do yet is streaming video. I'll be interesting to see how they handle the trade-off between bandwidth and picture quality.
Also, Everyday Shooter 2. It doesn't exist (yet) but goddammit I want it.
@Y0j1mb0: Everything Sony says might as well be gibberish until they get in-game XMB out. When they put that essential feature out, then we can discuss this fantastic year they may have.
A non-positive comment regarding the PS3? Who are you and what have you done with Y0j1mb0?!
Either way, whoever promotes Coming to America already wins the battle.
blu ray has already won, it was decided quite a while ago
I'm talking streaming, as in YouTube. Nothing downloads permanently, and average bandwidth is not a constraint.
My PSN id is Benji20
New 360's are far less susceptible to the RRoD.
You think he could've mentioned more than 3 games to flaunt "more" original releases. If all you list is echochrome and flOwer then Wiiware's lineup for the year easily rivals two good games, perhaps even exceeds them.(Socom is more digital distribution of a disc quality game than a PSN game, actually I wouldn't count anything over $20 in the same league) I'd say you're mincing words by saying you have more original releases than the competitor when you offer so few titles in comparison.
They should have had the PSN cards at release not a year and a half later. It was bad form to make people only have one option to pay for content on PSN (credit card).
Also, I very much agree that we should have had in game XMB with chat rooms like on XBL. It's not like the PS3 doesn't have extra available processing power to handle voice. How many more cores does it have than the 360? 4? Not that, that means everything... But it sure seems like it should, in my little world.
but the more the better! let greatness rain down upon us :p
PSN is just fine, it's especially great considering it's FREE!!! You may not think $50/year is a big deal for that supposedly much more feature rich Live service (which you can get for free on PC's using certain programs with less advertising too), but $50 = 5 PSN games per year. I'd rather have 5 games (Bionic Commando, Everday Shooter, flOw, Super Stardust HD, and Pixel Junk Monsters) than be able to chat with my buddy while playing a totally different game than him. All the other games I have, have chat in them if it's needed. Doesn't that make sense? Why would you need more than that?
Also, it's been confirmed that the ingame chat/messaging will be addressed in future updates, (not fast enough in my opinion, but still addressed).
So what will the Xbox fanboy battle cry be then? !!!!We're dumb enough to pay $50 for peer to peer gaming servers....in your face PSN!!!!
I love the 360 too, I play for HOURS on end with my buddies all the time. Live is awesome, but not worth $50 more than PSN no matter how a fanboy slices it. Remove your head from your butt please.