ps4 Playstation Network: Time to jump ship?

[CarMadMike]

Something for y'all to ponder over:

 

It appears there was another PSN outage on Sunday for some users, after the hacking, other outages, and general lack of 'WE PROMISE IT'LL GET BETTER' on Sony's behalf, is it time to change allegiance (To those that use PSN?)? Or are you happy with the level of service you get for the price you pay?

 

I know we're mainly a PC/XB1/360 community but I hope some will be able to give an opinion on this article I saw on twitter by Time Magazine:

 

Is Sony's PlayStation Network as terrible as some seem to think?

 

 

It’s tempting to view online services as perennial. You probably paid money for the privilege of using them, whatever the fine print you didn’t read actually says about availability, and you expect the vast province of interlinked devices we call the Internet to operate with the continuity of running water or electricity (never mind the number of power outages I’ve endured living in southeast Michigan).

 

 

When things go south, you get mad, the friends you wanted to play with are nonplussed, grumpy cat gets even grumpier–who isn’t fuming?

 

Thus when something like Sony’s PlayStation Network goes kaplooey, as it did at some point on Sunday, is it any surprise we’re seeing angry, hyperbolic, message-board-like news headlines? Writers jotting off zingers like “Why trust Sony ever again?”....

 

Read the rest of the article here:

Is It Really Time to Abandon Sonys PlayStation Network?

[Milli]

I am more than happy with the service, as i pay nothing for it. :lol: Not sure about people who pay for PSN plus.

[TDUFREAK500]

I'm with Milli on this, I pay nothing for it (still on PS3) and I hardly ever use my Playstation anyway haha

[Milli]

I've also set a fake adress and no credit cards attached to the account. Hackers can hack... :lol:

[Ryzza5]

PC MASTER RACE :lol:

 

as in... there's no one service (besides the Internet itself) that will stop all multiplayer PC games from working. You'd have to target Valve, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, etc, etc, etc, just to get a large %age of it down.

[CarMadMike]

Yes but for those that are huge fans of Console-specific titles, or cba with the fuss a lot of games require a certain spec of PC to be playable to the max...this wasn't meant to be a PC vs console fanwar.

 

I just feel that to get to the part where a PC becomes less effort, you have to put more effort in than you do with a console, though i do appreciate the many positives of PC gaming, I can't see console gaming disappearing anytime soon which is what I wanted to discuss :p

[TIMELESS]

Steam my friend. Steam.

[CarMadMike]

Woah what's steam i've never* heard of steam before!

 

My point about it being more effort was referring to having to look at what games run at what spec, understanding whether your laptop will run this and also that the cycle of new tech rate with consoles is much slower, is this a bad thing? I'm not sure, as it means your money tends to go further. That and PCs that are capable of running high-tech games tend to be quite expensive unless you have the know-how to either build your own or do a lot of research/already have the knowledge, this is what i mean by effort.

 

There's just something easy about screaming across the room for your xbox one to boot up and start the game you want to play, knowing it should play the biggest titles for the next 4ish years with ease.

 

*i've had steam for years but thanks for telling me about it, my friend.

[TIMELESS]

My point about it being more effort was referring to having to look at what games run at what spec, understanding whether your laptop will run this

 

Well unless you're using a gaming laptop you're pretty much going to be in for a lot of disappointment, for the same reason that an xbox one isn't mobile a laptop won't be too good for gaming. And if you purchase a gaming PC it's highly unlikely there will be compatibility issues with certain games but over time your hardware might not be able to run the latest games at Ultra settings and maintain 60-80+ FPS. Luckily you can of course turn the settings down or use custom settings and just turn the AA or texture quality down a notch.

 

and also that the cycle of new tech rate with consoles is much slower, is this a bad thing? I'm not sure, as it means your money tends to go further.

 

Depends how you look at it. As time goes on console games have to be optimised more and more and beautiful games have to be lowered in detail and texture quality to run smoothly, something we've seen recently with GTA V. This is because a console has a certain lifetime before the next console comes out and you can upgrade. On PC you can choose when to upgrade and it's usually a matter of upgrading a specific component. What I'm saying is basically you're paying for longevity not quality.

 

 

That and PCs that are capable of running high-tech games tend to be quite expensive unless you have the know-how to either build your own or do a lot of research/already have the knowledge, this is what i mean by effort.

 

However how many people do you know that own a console but not a laptop or computer? Combine the prices of both purchases and you're talking about spending £600-800 on something that can do everything. Not just gaming, or just work/internet/audio & video editing but one for all of that for the combined price. I just ordered a custom built PC that'll be able to run the newest games for years to come without breaking a sweat for the top end of that budget, and you can save money by going pre built. And anyone that doesn't have the know how only needs to talk to customer service reps and tell them what they'll be using it for and their budget and they'll be sorted out.

 

 

There's just something easy about screaming across the room for your xbox one to boot up and start the game you want to play, knowing it should play the biggest titles for the next 4ish years with ease.

 

If you use Steam then you know how easy it is too, and like I said previously about loss of quality for longevity on consoles compared to both on PC. Also in regards to Steam, the prices for games seem fairer on PC. And less of the DLC ripoffs that we've being seeing lately.

[CarMadMike]

I've not had a desktop in ages, so saying Laptop was a slip of the tongue i just meant PC, as i'm more than aware of the limitations of laptops :(

 

As for loss of quality over time, that is something I personally am okay with as I think it beats spending money on upgrading your PC more frequently however i'm also aware that this is quite individual and everyone has different priorities with this.

 

Also, DLC ripoffs will be just as popular on PC games eventually, everything in life seems to be going that way.

 

I still think we've swayed from the original PSN topic slightly though, i'll give my opinion on that in more detail when i'm not on my bloody phone >.<

[TIMELESS]

I still think we've swayed from the original PSN topic slightly though, i'll give my opinion on that in more detail when i'm not on my bloody phone >.<

 

Tell me about it :lol: *stares at DPD tracker*

 

Consoles are for the casual gamer and it'll probably always be that way. I just wish more casual gamers would give PC gaming a go as there's a lot of unfair stigma about PC gaming and consoles being easier and cheaper. I consider myself a casual gamer, haven't bought a new game since GTA V (and FM4 years after it came out) and without a doubt I'd still say PC gaming is better. Not to mention I like the fact that PCs are backwards compatible by several generations compared to consoles atm and multi purpose, I can do it all on one amazing platform.

[Nikki]

Whats a console anyway?

[Ryzza5]

this wasn't meant to be a PC vs console fanwar.

 

I'm sorry, I thought I saw the words 'jump ship' in the thread title. :cheeky:

 

 

 

The 'master race' is just a meme/#hashtag, sarcasm implied.

[CarMadMike]

I'm sorry, I thought I saw the words 'jump ship' in the thread title. :cheeky:

 

Other than the master race comment your post was very valid :p

[Eudemon]

Consoles are for the casual gamer and it'll probably always be that way.

Nope, plenty of enthusiasts on consoles too, facebook/iOS/android is the casual's gaming domain. PC gaming is fantastic though and will always be better in terms of visuals and modifications but a folly of it is that some (most?) devs choose the brute force approach rather than more direct optimisation to get more out of the components as a whole. This is indeed changing somewhat with AMD's Mantle and DirectX12 and whatever else is coming to succeed OpenGL but due to the literally tens of thousands of combinations it is nigh on impossible for devs to get as much out of and continue to push out even more what is in everyone's PC than it is with a fixed hardware system such as a console.

 

As for PSN being a bag of spanners at the moment, they went the pay route so now they have to provide a service befitting of that and with a direct competitor in Xbox Live they have to at least provide a comparable service. You do get more 'goodies' with PSN than you do with XBL and the free games and discounts with Plus are easily worth the money itself but at it's very core is the multiplayer and networking features. If they cannot provide that reliably then they are not providing the service that people are primarily paying for. Of course charging for the service now means money, and money means profits, however Sony isn't the most financially sound company at the moment and are pulling out of and selling their properties to bring in the funds. Yes PS4 is selling and really well too but it's not the holy saviour (that's their financial and insurance sector) and as a whole the profits go to benefit the company, usually to prop-up the losses of another division (phones, tv, computing) or cover R&D.

 

In time the PS4 will get hardware revisions and become more profitable helping bring in even more money but with more sales equals more players online and unless they start building up PSN to be robust and strong they may find people jumping to Xbox or perhaps even the PC.

[TIMELESS]

I don't consider the angry birds player a gamer :p

[CarMadMike]

That's almost like ruling out the Wii as a gaming console in my opinion, I see angry birds as an arcade game and I see nintendo as the arcade game console but of course they offer proper titles too (Zelda :D).

 

Looking down on app games seems unnecessary, they're not just Snake II on a Nokia 3210 anymore (unfortunately).

[TIMELESS]

That's almost like ruling out the Wii as a gaming console in my opinion, I see angry birds as an arcade game and I see nintendo as the arcade game console but of course they offer proper titles too (Zelda :D).

 

Looking down on app games seems unnecessary, they're not just Snake II on a Nokia 3210 anymore (unfortunately).

 

A lot of mobile games are pretty detrimental to the gaming industry. Kids don't grow up playing crash bandicoot anymore, they think a game is something you spend £4 to buy then X amount of £ to get coins to move further in the game. Then pay another £4 for the next level etc.

[CarMadMike]

A lot of mobile games are pretty detrimental to the gaming industry. Kids don't grow up playing crash bandicoot anymore, they think a game is something you spend £4 to buy then X amount of £ to get coins to move further in the game. Then pay another £4 for the next level etc.

 

I still see them as part of the gaming industry though to be honest, I think we'll see more titles getting better handheld versions as there's a lot of money in phone apps as you just pointed out.

[Ryzza5]

A lot of mobile games are pretty detrimental to the gaming industry. Kids don't grow up playing crash bandicoot anymore, they think a game is something you spend £4 to buy then X amount of £ to get coins to move further in the game. Then pay another £4 for the next level etc.

 

In both cases you're unlikely to be able to complete the game though :lol: