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May 08, 2003 - Online console gaming is steadily carving away a place in gamers' homes, and Sony and Microsoft are at the front of the line. But where Microsoft has a unified online structure and built-in hardware, Sony offers an unintuitive online system, and forces gamers to buy additional hardware. Voice chat, downloadable content, a hard drive, and friend's lists are all things Xbox Live gamers are currently enjoying, while many PS2 gamers are left out in the cold and/or jumping ship to Microsoft's own.
But as E3 nears, information is slowly leaking out, and predictions are being made. The excerpt below is taken directly from our exclusive interview with Andre Vrignaud, Director of Technical Strategy for Xbox Live. While the following information is purely speculation, it is an interesting read. And who knows, maybe 'ol Andre is really a psychic…
Want some E3 predictions? Time to go to town...
1. Sony will announce a hard drive for the US.
Continuing their new 32X strategy, Sony will make content download a reality by finally delivering an add-on hard drive. However, it will be interesting to see just how many game developers take advantage of this aftermarket afterthought since the attach rate will *always* be far less than Xbox's 100% attach.
2. Sony will take credit for "adapting".
While Xbox Live has been innovating the online console gaming market by including that hard drive and Ethernet port in every box ever made, Sony's response has been to adapt, by shipping... well, an adapter. No one should get credit for selling an adapter - what matters is community. We've built a community of over 400,000 avid gamers, and each and every one of them is connected by broadband, a Friends list, and voice. The power of community is unstoppable - we know what the Live community wants next while the PS2 online crowd is too scattered for Sony to glean any insight. (Notice all the recent PS2 online surveys that have been coming out lately? Hmm....)
3. Sony will hint at their own Live.
Watch for announcements of a Live clone. In order to compete in the future, Sony needs to step up with a Live-like strategy. Friends, voice, presence, content download, invites across games, a hard drive, community - these are all *required* to have a viable online gaming story. What about new features like Teams, Tournaments, web presence, and Alerts in IM? Done. Look no further than the new sports games coming from Microsoft Game Studios this fall. Check out the relaunch of Xbox.com this fall. Check out publishers who are already building community sites around Xbox Live data. Heck, check out the IM Alerts we'll be releasing over the coming year, and their integration into IM!
Again, the above information is not confirmed by Sony in any way. But as the online competition heats up, expect at least a couple of the concepts mentioned to become a reality.
We'll have more news on Sony's online plans as E3 heads underway/
im not sure what to make of all their "predictions". i know all of them won't be true. and even if Sony hasn't confirmed any of this, im pretty sure that IGN knows somnething we don't.