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Alright, I must have seen twenty blogs reporting that Sony has no unified online network. Yet I see NO major gaming sites such as IGN or GameSpot reporting it. Not even any big tech news sites like The Inquirer. It's only on blogs. Google it. Top result is, surprise, Joystiq. Where is this coming from?


Frankly, I'm getting a tad annoyed that there's a bunch of false rumors about the PS3 and people are proclaiming it dead. So far, Sony came outright and said that the rumor that it would bind games to hardware preventing people from loaning out games was false. Sony also just recently said the PS3 will be $300-$400.

As far as I can tell, Sony never confirmed the things people were complaining about in this thread: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=74424

In fact, I can't even find any record that the stuff in that thread was ever actually published in PSM, all the web sites Google brings up says that "Oh, such and such site says it WILL be published next month".



In fact, the ONLY bad things I've found about the PS3 is developers complaining about the difficulty of development, but those are mostly just them mouthing off- they said the same things about the PS2, but nobody was stupid enough to not code for it.



So can anyone give me any actual record of Sony actually stating that the PS3 does not have a unified online network? Because last I heard, Sony made specific statements about having a unified online network at E3 (IGN confirms this) and even an online P2P network. And now comics like this are popping up:



Seriously, where is this stuff coming from??? From my view, it looks like it's just another false rumor. So far, the PS3 looks pretty good IMHO. Oh, and the latest news is no region coding. Yay.


So if anyone has an actual source for no unified online network, please post it.

PS2 had no unified online network. I would imagine that proof to the contrary for the PS3 would have to be announced to assume there is going to be one.

Where's the release where Sony has said they will have a unified network?

The big sites:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/636/636848p4.html

Will the PlayStation 3 use the same network setup as the PlayStation 2?

No, Sony confirmed at an E3 2004 press conference that it is currently working towards a new universal networking hub, which in no uncertain terms is similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live. Specifics about how that network will work (outside of confirmed peer-to-peer in-game item swapping) are still unknown.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/16 ... 24681.html

Sony also emphasized that the PlayStation 3 would have similar online connectivity and services as the next generation of Xbox Live. Calling it "an always on, always connected device," Chatani said the PS3 would be constantly in touch with a "PlayStation World" network "fundamentally based on a on community, communication commerce, and content." He said that subscribers could "exchange unique characters and items through the network," much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace.

Some more details are given in an interview with Phil Harrison:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9051

Can we expect to see Sony really working to catch up in that department on PS3?

I think that philosophically, PlayStation 2's online offering is an add-on to the hardware and software and operating system. In PlayStation 3, online is part of the DNA of the machine - in fact, the Cell processor itself is designed from the ground up to be connected to a broadband network.

So from switch on, day one of the machine, network functionality will pervade every aspect of the machine. We talked a little bit about that at the conference, but there's a lot more detail to go into about some of the really cool things - like, if your PS3 is switched on at home, it can be a media server to your PSP on the other side of the planet. Now that is incredibly cool. I could sit here in LA and navigate the data which is stored on my PS3, and download music and other data off my PS3, onto my PSP.

Well, then it's probably a rumor started by people who don't want the PS3 to succeed. Weird as hell though.

Wikipedia (not exactly a reliable news source though) states:

Sony has recently revealed that the online service for the PlayStation 3 will use the same non-unified architecture as that of the PlayStation 2. In the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony scotched rumors that it would be implementing a centralized online service similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Instead, online services for PS3 games will be decentralized and left up to individual games publishers. While this will give games publishers greater freedom in terms of what they are able to offer online, some say it may make it more difficult for Sony to control the quality of the online experience. Dentralized online services means that gamers will be required to maintain separate accounts on different servers for different games in order to access online games via the PS3 but will have the advantage of being able to choose which games or services they actually want.

I'm trying to find something to back this up. According to Wiki, the Official Playstation Magazine claimed no centralized online network.

EDIT: Grrr, can't find ANY serious news sites or major gaming sites reporting this, only blogs and those virtually-unheard-of news sites that like to copy and paste articles.

Bah, going to go to bed.