As if to confirm our assessment of the troubled situation with the PS3’s online support, a number of games have seen their release dates pushed back this week. Our sources confirm that the delays for several of the titles are primarily due to the immature state of the online play for these games.
You have to remember that Sony America does not want to release any games without some form of online content and has applied pressure on developers accordingly.
Multiplayer support and downloadable content are the major sticking points holding back titles. As of now, it is still unclear what can and cannot be included in Downloadable Content patch. Developers don’t know if they will be allowed to patch the games executables or only the data in these downloadable content packs.
Furthermore, the patching of games is not an automatic process (as in Xbox Live). Consumers have to actively check for updates (if the games needs patching up). The patching mechanics still do not appear to be finalized, and developers are forced to come up with their own solutions within the limitations set by Sony.
As an extra inconvenience to the consumer, Sony has decided that the end-user license agreements (EULA) will have to be displayed (and accepted!) each and every single time a player logs on to play an online game. At the risk of sounding pedantic, why force the user to view the same EULA every single time, given that no one ever reads the damn things?
I previously claimed that Sony’s OS uses up nearly 100 MB of memory. This actually breaks down into 64 MB of system memory, and 32 MB of graphics memory. That’s 96 MB of memory which developers won’t ever be able to use.
Regardless, developers will still have to allocate extra memory if they want to use any of the OS functionalities: voice chat, camera support, on-screen keyboards, in-game stores, friends list, etc. will all require extra game memory to be allocated to the OS. Some of those features are still being slowly drip-fed to developers, and won’t be available for a while.
The online teething problems associated with launch titles will eventually disappear as the libraries mature, but Sony still has a long way to go. The games coming out for Christmas 2007 will provide a clearer picture of where Sony is headed with its online support. Let’s hope they get their act together by then.
[…] This is the final article in a 3-part series on the PS3 online. You can find the other parts here and here. A short follow-up has also been posted. […]
Left by Inner Bits » Blog Archive » Analysis of the PS3 Online: The Ugly -- Changing the Games Industry, One Bit at a Time. on November 20th, 2006