Independent Review of Sony PS3 Online Service
I wrote earlier about Sony's online network being broken; not surprisingly, some took umbrage at my statement. Now that the PS3 is out in Japan the reality of the situation is becoming more public, and others are finding the same. A blog called Inner Bits did a good overall summary of Sony's online network, and I'll point you to it here. Note that this summary highlights both positive and negative aspects.
On the positive side, Inner Bits had good things to say about the XMB bar:
Even a cursory look at the XMB reveals that Sony has put a lot of thought into the design. The interface is sleek and simple to use. The XMB lays out all of PS3’s most anticipated features the PS3 in easily accessible buttons: Videos, Music, Photos, Games, etc. The media bar also provides all the standard functionality of a friends list, allowing you to send messages, add friends, and so on. Unfortunately, the media bar cannot currently be accessed from within any game.
The PlayStation Store has been designed with the same level of care as the XMB. A consistent interface makes for easy store navigation; many would consider this is an improvement over MS’s hectic Marketplace environment. It is also obvious that the site is designed to take on the iTunes Store.
I also like the simplicity of the XMB bar, though I'm disappointed (but not surprised) at the lack of availability of friends list from games. On the negative side, Inner Bits goes on to say:
The fact is, in its quest to surpass Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, Sony may have overlooked the most fundamental reason for online connectivity: playing online games with others.
Sony has carefully avoided all discussion on this topic, save for mentioning that Resistance: Fall of Man will support 40 players. The developers themselves are the only ones to have made any comments on the service provided. Resistance will offer up a full suite of online support, including “its own buddy list, clan registry, in-game messaging and chat services”. This is unfortunately damning for Sony as none of the PlayStation Network’s functionality is integrated into the game. The game’s buddy list, and Sony’s are two completely distinct entities.
The developers explain that Sony did not deliver the online libraries in a timely fashion. However, the author suggests that Sony never planned on providing a fully featured online system. He implies that Sony has only recently realized their mistakes and attempted to correct it. As we’ll see tomorrow, this assessment is actually closer to the truth than one might expect.
The reality is that the friend’s list support that Sony have provided in their libraries is terrible. From within a game, you are notified when your friends sign on and sign off (with a nice translucent overlay)…and that’s about it. Developers have no way of interfacing with this list in any useful manner. You can’t find out if your friends are watching a movie, surfing the net or playing another game. If you send them an invite, you have to hope they sign on to the same game you’re playing before they’ll even see it. Furthermore, there is currently no functionality to even “accept” the invite. It’s just a message to come join a game; it won’t actually take you to the game. Developers have to deal with that problem themselves.
Ugh. Those of you who have been reading for a while know this isn't a surprise, but man... what a mess. Frankly, the fact that I can't even see a game invite when in another game is worse than expected. I had thought you'd at least be able to know when someone sends you a message (if not act on it). It appears if you're expecting a game invite, you'll actually need to quit out of the game you're currently playing on a regular basis to go check for the message in the "dash." Sure blows that whole immersive experience concept all to hell. <sigh>
Note that there are a lot of good observations (both positive and negative) in the three part article. I won't quote them all here, but it's worth reading. Part three of the article, discussing PS3 developer experiences, is also pretty insightful (and accurate, as far as I can tell).