Rumour: Official Firmware 2.40 screens and walkthrough next week

Just bloody release it already, every day there seems to be something new, I’m over it I just want to check my messages n’stuff

Not long to wait. I reckon next week’s on the money.

find out for sure & I’ll give you hairy manlove, oh yeah it also mentions a video walkthrough

You’re not touching me, you brute.

I’m going to try to get more today. Info. Not hairy manlove.

manlove has a new home VG247

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again.

This can only add pressure to MS to give XBL for free.

Nah. Never in a million years.

I don’t think MS really does being pressured. We’d have seen a BR addon and wireless in the elite by this point if they did. Though they did add the HDMI port… but you get the feeling they always knew they would at some point.

Shame really. If they knew how to react we’d have a much more interesting console landscape. They’re all about the bean counters right now though.

But think about it….

Before 2.4 they could say; Does PSN have media downloads such as movies (which may not be coming in 2.4 but coming soon), in-game friends/messaging and achievements.
I mean, even sony offers servers for games such as Warhawk without a fee!
Now the PSN is finally coming up to speed, what exclusive features does it have to warrant the yearly (or monthly) charge?

Now my XBL account is coming to an end, I’m really thinking to myself ‘Do I need one?’. The only multiplayer exclusive im interested in is Gears 2, everything else I can get on the PS3 and play online for free.

I completely see what you’re saying, but you’re going to have an exec in MS saying “We make x million a year selling this… why would we cut off the revenue stream?”.

Indeed. As long as 360 owners are happily paying and NOT defecting to the PS3, what’s the incentive to stop charging?

Fair enough but are they happy to keep paying? Its like paying for an MMO!

I’m, for example, not thinking about not extending IF these PSN updates really are good.

I think your see the PS3 sell more games which are multiformat due to the above reason if the PSN updates are great.

Just look at the weekly hardware (consoles) sales of late!
Mircosoft has many good reasons, apart from Sony’s update to 2.4, to finally offer their XLB-service for free.

Free online services does make a difference though. Chances are I’d never have played Mario Kart Wii online if I’d had to pay for the privilege – but it was great fun to dip in and play a few races against randoms from around the world.

Ironically, I think MS being the only ones charging will actually work in their favour. If Sony charged too, I reckon people would pick one or the other – since it’s only MS who charge, people will be more likely to carry on paying and take Sony’s free offering as well (if they have both consoles).

Newbie101: I pick the multiformat that run better, nothing to do with network functionality.

Quiiick: What weekly numbers would those be? The only weekly figures we get are Japan and nothing MS does there (short of buying Square) will help.

As for being willing to pay… my last 13 month subscription cost me £22. It’s irrelevant to me, though I think it’s pretty crappy that it doesn’t give XBL Gold access to everyone on my console rather than just me.

“Newbie101: I pick the multiformat that run better, nothing to do with network functionality.”

No, I’ll pick the one which costs me less. Maybe im just a tight git but once my Live sub goes, the only way I’ll be able to play multiformat games for free will be using a PS3.

I bought a 13 month gold sub from Ebay for £21. That’s fuck all.

Thing is, I very rarely play on Live anyway, but for less than £2 a month it’s worth it. IMO

Newbie101: You’d really choose the poorer version of a game to save a couple of quid? F that.

£21? Link? They only stay online for a few mins before they get pulled by Ebay IIRC.

The price I’d pay for the year of XBL could buy me a new game.

You say its worth it, quality wise, the recent multiformat releases have had hardly any technical differences (COD4/GTA for example) so it seems devs are finally getting to grips with the PS3 architecture.

My question is; If you own both consoles, regardless of price, why pay to play multiplayer if you can play it for free?

Assuming everything else was equal (it’s not)… you wouldn’t. But you’re discounting all the exclusives, all the XBLA games and the (currently) better functionality. Like I said earlier though… it’s irrelevant for most of us simply because there’s no need to take it into account because we’ve already got it for one reason or another.

You’re of course right when you say hardly any technical differences on the major games… but the differences are still there, pretty much without exception. Being a graphics whore I have to go for the version that looks and runs best. \o/

Fair enough, I love great graphics but not enough to buy for it. The odd jaggies doesnt harm my gameplay experience.

Your right about the XBLA stuff, but you do need to remember of course you need to pay for it (which is of course right due to dev costs).

The good news is that now the PS3 is starting to sell more than 360s, publishers are now starting to make it their lead SKU meaning we should get much better PS3 games.

To be honest, newbie, I’ve yet to see ANY proof of that whatsoever. It’s what Sony said would happen, but as far as I can tell 99% of projects are still leading on 360.

AFAIK the official figures are (but could be wrong)……

No Europe figures for the 360, obvious why of course.

PS3;
Region Units sold First available
Canada 342,400 as of February 1, 2008[62] November 17, 2006
Europe 5 million as of May 6, 2008[63] March 23, 2007
Japan 2 million as of March 30, 2008[64][65] November 11, 2006
United States 4.29 million as of May 1, 2008[66] November 17, 2006
Worldwide 12.81 million as of March 31, 2008[2][3] (more…)

360;
Region Units sold First available
Canada 736,400 as of February 1, 2008[89] November 22, 2005
United States 10.08 million as of May 1, 2008[90] November 22, 2005
Japan 602,558 as of March 30, 2008[91][92] December 10, 2005
Worldwide 19 million as of April 25, 2008[1] (more…)

Wrong section Newbie?

well it was in reply to blerk here but just seen the other thread so posted it there as well so they can be torn up by people, ty .

I was talking about development, not sales. Most development projects are still leading on the 360, then porting to PS3. There’s been very little (if any) of the ‘doing the PS3 version first’ stuff that Sony promised.

Ahh ok, I’ll try and find a link as I’m sure both EA and Activision both said they were taking this line now.

The main reason being that its harder to develop on the PS3 so makes more financial sense to make the game on the PS3 and then just downgrade/re-engineer it slightly to the 360.

I know the reasoning, I’m just not seeing any evidence whatsoever that this is actually the case. Most multi-platform games are still running better on the 360, despite Sony’s promises that the gap would be closed. It’s definitely not as bad as it used to be (in most cases), but this shit really should be over by this point in time.

Firstly, whilst this and the content of 2.4 is still unconfirmed I think all this talk is a bit ahead of itself.

If 2.4 doesn’t have what others have speculated there will, I’m sure, be a bunch of gamers bleating about how Sony lied to them or something – simply because those gamers let speculation set their expectations instead of facts.

With regards to ‘better game, better network, cost of online’ argument. It’s different things to different people.

One train of thought is that, with any 360 game you buy you’re paying a premium on top just to play 100% of its features.

For example. Gears of War costs £x.xx in the store. You take it home you play it.

But if you want to play the multiplayer online component the game ships with you have to pay for the access to online courtesy of your XBL subscription fee.

So, one way of looking at it is to say every 360 game costs you extra if you want to use all of the features you thought you’d already paid for. The competition doesn’t have that issue. (And 2.4 or not, that’s a fact that’s unlikely to change)

Then again, that’s the been the Xbox story all along. It looks cheaper. But when you actually kit it out properly it comes out the same or, depending on what you want – like a wifi connection, it might even cost more.

The genius is that these ‘stealth taxes’ of Microsoft’s get percieved as an unconquerable advantage (somehow) and that those already paying feel an obligation to stick with the machine.

I personally don’t care if and when this XBL-like features turn up. If they’re comparable (and I’ll just go ahead and assume that any 360 owner will instantly claim they’re not) then it means competition. And competition is good.

What’s really annoying is Nintendo isn’t doing anything like this at all and it’s shitting over the competition with its last-gen featureset.

I’ll also go on record and say Sony is in a no-win situation with this one.

When they do something different from the 360 standard, gamers tend to moan about why they didn’t just follow the example set by Microsoft.

When they do something directly comparable to the 360 way, gamers moan about how Sony are unimaginative and just copying another company.

I recall gamers ‘demanding’ the PS3 get a price drop. It got dropped. I’ve seen the same gamers now stating that a price drop was a bad move and clearly shows Sony must be scared.

Even when people get what they want, they’ll still complain.

Of course, if you don’t give a shit about online, Microsoft leaving all that stuff out and charging extra for it suddenly seems like a good idea.

I totally agree that Sony is in a no-win situation here, though. They’re spent a long time on top and everyone loves to hate a winner. And nothing brings more glee to the winner-haters than that self-same winner suddenly ‘not doing quite as well’.

Have you ever heard of the word “Succinct” Shatner?

Yes. But I’d rather spend the time clearly expressing what I’m trying to say than make an ambiguous comment that sounds snappy but says very little.

Also, many topics are complex and have lots of factors that a short, succinct reply may not do full justice.

I’m succinct where necessary, I can assure you.