You may recall last Christmas, when I got my PS3. All was well. I despised the Xbox 360 and everything to do with it, despite being told many times by friends to get one. I was a devoted Sony fan, won over by everything the PS3 had to offer – free online play, great games, Blu-ray support. All was well.
Then I got a few more games – Burnout and Assassins Creed – and enjoyed the gameplay of both, and the amazing online of Burnout. I made new friends on the PS3, and was persuaded to buy Call of Duty 4. All was well.
Then I got CoD4. I was plagued by the constant errors – “Cannot connect to host” – and much to my dismay, those gamers on the 360 had none of this. Our complaints to the game developers were ignored. Then I joined a clan, and found the lack of an in-game messaging system pretty annoying. Still, I put up with it, hoping for this much-requested feature in the next update.
The next update came, and went. So did the next one. They redesigned the store, but still no game invites, no in-game messaging, no sign of PlayStation Home, their big selling point, in sight. By this time it was getting to the point of insanity. Why can’t we have some basic features that the users of the 360 have had since launch?
Then GTA IV was released. I loved the single player, and me and my mate (who has a 360) had a night playing it. He brought his 360, I played on my PlayStation. He was playing away online, joining games full of players. I couldn’t get into a single game. Even when I hosted one, I hardly gathered 6 players, never mind 16, and kept getting disconnected from my own games.
Now my other friend is getting a next-gen console. When he asked for my advice on which console to buy, he seemed surprised when I said the 360. Unfortunately, I’ve put my money and trust in Sony and they’ve let me down. I’m now seriously considering jumping the band-wagon over to Microsoft and the Xbox 360.
Sure, I don’t mind paying £40 a year to play online. If you can get into games and have fun with your friends, it’s worth whatever money you’re paying. It seems that developers favour the 360, and so do the players. Sony released figures a few days ago saying that ‘the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Europe’. What’s the use in that if they can’t run an online gaming service?
The world of gaming is moving more and more onto online play, and consumers won’t put up with delays and excuses no longer.
