Why is XBLA significantly better than PSN?

[KDR_11k]

Actually, I don't play online at all. I use XBL for its other offerings: video (mostly movies, but occasionally a TV show), Xbox Live Arcade games, messaging friends, and demos. But your point is certainly valid -- if none of that appeals to you, then paying anything at all would be silly.

Aren't those the basic silver-level features that don't require you to pay money to access? I haven't tried messaging or the video stuff but XBLA and demos work fine with a silver account.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I just like XBL more than PSN because I like the fact that all Arcade games have demos, we get Netflix, and XBL is significantly faster than PSN (YMMV.) Downloading updates on PSN during any time other than 9am-5pm is like a patience endurance test. Recently I had to download an update to Resistance 2 which was 26 megabytes big. I have a 6 megabit connection via U-Verse, and this download took me 13 minutes! That should have been my first clue that the game was not going to be very appealing.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Actually, I don't play online at all. I use XBL for its other offerings: video (mostly movies, but occasionally a TV show), Xbox Live Arcade games, messaging friends, and demos. But your point is certainly valid -- if none of that appeals to you, then paying anything at all would be silly.

Aren't those the basic silver-level features that don't require you to pay money to access? I haven't tried messaging or the video stuff but XBLA and demos work fine with a silver account.

Messaging will still work. Video should work, I think, but only for the direct download service; Netflix integration only works with paid subscriptions.

Most of Live works for free; you only have to pay if you want to play over the network or use a couple of extra services. (Paid accounts also usually get access to "free" stuff earlier, though.)

-- Steve

 

[out0v0rder]

I will say though, I doubt anything that XBL delivers would make it worth the $1199 price for 3 months of Gold [http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000B9RI0K/sr=8-2/qid=1234652893/ref=olp_tab_used?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=1234652893&sr=8-2&seller=&colid=&condition=used]

Yeah, for that price you could buy... like... half a playstation 3.

Or all the repairs you'd need for your 360 in a week.

Okay, I know this may come as a shock to you Mr. Troll. But xbox 360s do not break down as often as you think. Jesus.

This man speaks the truth, it breaks WAYYY more often than you think.

 

[out0v0rder]

Obviously, free is better than not free, but is $5 a month really such a damn hardship?

It's not $5 a month, Microsoft does not sell a $5 one month card. Might as well say it costs $250 per 5 years then.

 

[MrGFunk]

Obviously, free is better than not free, but is $5 a month really such a damn hardship?

It's not $5 a month, Microsoft does not sell a $5 one month card. Might as well say it costs $250 per 5 years then.

If it's $49.99 US a year isn't it pretty $250 US for five years? I don't get it.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=xbox+live+cost+per+year&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

 

[bad rider]

Problem with thread, not many people own both
I however only have xbox live, so I have no idea but the ingame chat system is cool, the masaging system is easy to use and it's quite user friendly. However sometimes finding things is a bit frustrating e.g changing voice output from mic to speakers.

 

[out0v0rder]

Obviously, free is better than not free, but is $5 a month really such a damn hardship?

It's not $5 a month, Microsoft does not sell a $5 one month card. Might as well say it costs $250 per 5 years then.

If it's $49.99 US a year isn't it pretty $250 US for five years? I don't get it.

Yes, it is $49.99 US a year. When you purchase the card you will pay $49.99 plus tax. Basically the forumite before me tried to make the xbox live costs look more appealing (or less ridiculous) by breaking it down to a monthly level. There is no installment plan that lets you pay $5 a month. It costs $50 out of your pocket upfront. That is what i was trying to troll..i mean say.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Obviously, free is better than not free, but is $5 a month really such a damn hardship?

It's not $5 a month, Microsoft does not sell a $5 one month card. Might as well say it costs $250 per 5 years then.

If it's $49.99 US a year isn't it pretty $250 US for five years? I don't get it.

Yes, it is $49.99 US a year. When you purchase the card you will pay $49.99 plus tax. Basically the forumite before me tried to make the xbox live costs look more appealing (or less ridiculous) by breaking it down to a monthly level. There is no installment plan that lets you pay $5 a month. It costs $50 out of your pocket upfront. That is what i was trying to troll..i mean say.

You can, however, buy 3-month installments.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Yes, it is $49.99 US a year. When you purchase the card you will pay $49.99 plus tax. Basically the forumite before me tried to make the xbox live costs look more appealing (or less ridiculous) by breaking it down to a monthly level. There is no installment plan that lets you pay $5 a month. It costs $50 out of your pocket upfront. That is what i was trying to troll..i mean say.

Fifty bucks a year is not an unendurable burden; as I've pointed out to others before, it's less than I spend on take-out coffee. If that's too rich for you, then perhaps the high-speed Internet account (typically $360, often much more, over the same period) also needed is a bit of a stretch.

Breaking it down to a monthly average is hardly unfair, and does represent the actual value much better. Me, I've phrased it as under a buck a week and pointed out that I used to spend much more than that in coin-op arcades.

-- Steve

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

I don't know.... XBL just seems simpler if you ask me, easier to navigate. I have both so don't flame me for not trying PSN.

Wait you haven't even tried PSN but you have it? I can understand not trying Home but a little look at PSN, I don't get it.

No... What I'm saying is I have tried PSN, And I don't want people accusing me of never trying it.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I have both, so I guess I can speak up. I see no reason to list the "pros", as they've been done to death already in this thread. Let's go with...

Disadvantages:

XBox Live - I'll be honest, aside from the price, I have trouble finding an issue with Live's service. I've never had lag problems, although I did have an issue right when I first started that ended up being caused by my router. Also, there was awhile ago about a year back where a few people had live connection issues. I personally didn't, but I'd heard that they were happening. We got a free game out of it, but it sucked. Still, I guess it was something.

I don't like having to buy a lump sum of "points" which I can then redeem for products, essentially putting a purchase price at the closest approximation of points, as opposed to a set value.

So... let's see... I guess I'd say that you get more of the youngun's bitching at you on Live, though I've heard it frequently in Home and on PSN as well. That could be due to the overall higher population, I'm really not sure. And of course there's the price. At about a buck a week, it's hard to claim that it's too high, but there is a price there, so I suppose that's something.

PSN - I've had trouble with lag and matchmaking intermittantly in a few different games, especially games that have just been released (I tend to pick stuff up pretty early, it's a rare game that I'm still playing online regularly 6 months after release).

LBP was the worst offender in that they completely took down their online component for around a week right after launch, and even afterwards I suffered frequent problems with lag. We're not even going to get into how bad MGO was when I tried it (Hint: Very).

I originally had myself running wirelessly, but I found that I got regularly disconnected from the PSN every few minutes. After seeing the recommendation in the MGS4 manual to switch to a wired connection, I decided to give it a try, and while it has assuaged the disconnect issue, I still got a fair amount of lag.

I don't like the way that PSN handles downloads, as well as how frequently won't allow certain things to be downloaded in the background. I absolutely loathe whatever horrible process they use to perform their updates. Updating my XBox to the NXE took under two minutes. Updating my PS3 has never ever taken less than 7. Also, the PS3 is frequently missing DLC, which means that games I purchase for that system may become incomplete as time passes.

I'm not too comfortable with the knowledge that Sony has placed the weight of the multiplayer component of their games entirely on the developers. This has less to do with the service and more my take on it, but as XBox owners often state, the system *is* Live. It's so built in to everything that we do with that system that it's hard to imagine a 360 existing without it. The PSN may be free, but it also feels... additional. Like an added gimmick, much like the web browser that's built into the system. Cute, but not really what the system is built for. By not building and supporting their own massive datacenter to house their online, putting it instead to the studios to provide their online support, Sony seems to have undervalued the weight of multiplayer in this generation of gaming.

So, for the TLDR version:

Cons of Live:

- Price
- MS Points
- Additional youngsters

Cons of PSN:

- Regular lag and matchmaking difficulty in freshly released titles
- Wireless connection is ill-advised (but available straight out of the box)
- Frequent downloads which cannot be pushed to background
- Long update times
- Incomplete DLC roster
- Network model not built with this generation's reliance on multiplayer in mind

- J

 

[USSR]

Fanboys, that's why.

You may as well have written "FIRST!"
Are you saying that you don't know of any reasons except people's preference?

Are you saying his opinion is wrong? =p
If I am correct, unless a poll is taken to prove the reason, everyone's thought of the matter is an opinion
And In my opinion, I agree with his opinion.
..or perhaps I just like bolding the word opinion too much =/

I thought Dechef was being glib, which isn't unreasonable. Read the thread to see the resolution.
You are correct about what an opinion is, it seems a common consensus that Live is better. I want to know why it's considered better as I have no experience.


The idea of thread does not suit a poll.

Okay,

I did not suggest a poll for the escapist, what I meant was, for either one to be a fact, a poll must be taken by all PSN and XBL users and they must all agree on one thing for it to be a fact.

Which thus implies, unless an impossible action is taken, like the poll, everyone's idea is an opinion, and no one is wrong. For all the more reason, I can say, "The reason XBL is better than PSN is because I like pie!"

I was just simply correcting him on you can't lessens someone's opinion without looking a complete and utter dumbass.

=p

 

[out0v0rder]

Yes, it is $49.99 US a year. When you purchase the card you will pay $49.99 plus tax. Basically the forumite before me tried to make the xbox live costs look more appealing (or less ridiculous) by breaking it down to a monthly level. There is no installment plan that lets you pay $5 a month. It costs $50 out of your pocket upfront. That is what i was trying to troll..i mean say.

Fifty bucks a year is not an unendurable burden; as I've pointed out to others before, it's less than I spend on take-out coffee. If that's too rich for you, then perhaps the high-speed Internet account (typically $360, often much more, over the same period) also needed is a bit of a stretch.

Breaking it down to a monthly average is hardly unfair, and does represent the actual value much better. Me, I've phrased it as under a buck a week and pointed out that I used to spend much more than that in coin-op arcades.

-- Steve

It's not a dollar per week. It's $50 dollars out of your pocket at once. If you are a new xbox owner at gamestop and want to buy halo3, and expect to play it online, you will need to bring $110 plus tax with you.

I guess I'm just a weirdo, I don't know. It doesn't feel right to break down the cost like that because you don't pay for the card like that. Unless of course you saved a dollar a week for an entire year used those dollars to buy the card.

With this logic, why don't we all buy ferrari's, I mean the dealer told me it only costs $0.00333 cents per second!

 

[MrGFunk]

I don't know.... XBL just seems simpler if you ask me, easier to navigate. I have both so don't flame me for not trying PSN.

Wait you haven't even tried PSN but you have it? I can understand not trying Home but a little look at PSN, I don't get it.

No... What I'm saying is I have tried PSN, And I don't want people accusing me of never trying it.

Oh, I didn't think it sounded right, why have a system and not use it? As you have both - have you experienced lag axcessively on either machine? People seem to be suggesting both and neither have it.

 

[JaguarWong]

I have all three systems and the answer to this question is simple:

Think of everything you want an online service to do.

You got it? Make a list if you need to... okay.

Look at your list -

Every single thing on that list XBLA does better than PSN - Everything.


Except, of course, for you smart arses that put 'Must be free'.

 

[JaguarWong]

Except, of course, for you smart arses that put 'Must be free'.

And "must have Flower"

I'll give you that...

I've not got around to playing it (Flower) yet actually - I've been distracted by shooting mutants in the face with both hands... seems like it'll make for an odd juxtaposition.