It's a trade off. Instead of dedicating the time and money it takes to have an online service, they are able to direct those resources to create more games.

I didn't know that 3rd parties didn't make any money when the games are $50 a pop. I hope you realize that "online play" is indeed a selling point to consumers.

Well, there won't be enough people who really want to play it to support Square's significant investment. If Sony wants to get a user base for the hard drive, they'll have to literally give the thing away the way Nintendo did with the rumble pack and the RAM expansion for N64. If Square hopes to make money off of the people who are willing to pay a subscription fee AND are willing to spend $120 on the hard drive and the network adapter, I wish them good luck. They will need it.


Well, I don't see the PS2 hard drive selling very well. No peripheral ever has. I'd say you can stack your PS2 hard drive next to the 32X, the Sega CD, and the Nintendo 64DD. It's pretty hard to even get developers to support the PS2 multitap. I can't imagine them supporting the hard drive. And I can't imagine the casual audience who buys games based on TV commercials ever biting for the HD peripheral.

I know I have no plans to buy it. If developers want to make a game that will require post-release downloads and support, they should probably consider developing for the XBox, although Microsoft is fragmenting the XBox market with XBox Live.

I can't tell whether XBox Live or PS2 Hard Drive users will be a smaller market. It's too close to call.

Other than the massively multiplayer developers, most game companies don't host a terribly intensive online infrastructure. They have a router for the server browser or the matchmaking service, and when the game starts, a host system takes the role of game server, and the players disconnect from the matchmaking software.

For many RTS games, where permanent game servers aren't maintained, the server duties can even shift from one computer to another, midgame, if the current server drops.

Unfortunately, the Microsoft Live concept rules out the possibility of free person-to-person online gaming.

I don't even want to play games online with other xbox owners - especially if they're gonna have a headset and will be able to talk to me... like I really want to hear some snotty little 12 year old telling me to "back da **** up, yo" in some homeboy dialect with his voice altered by the headset. I also resent the idea of having to pay extra when I'm already paying for my connection and I already paid for an xbox. Don't they have enough of my money? :p

You will have the ability to mute anyone you choose, even your own teammates.

Also, you will be able to keep a buddy list of people. Make your selection criteria by maturity.