PlayStation 3 to get "LaunchPad" EQ, EQ2, SWG etc

[Arthur_Parker]

Linky

Sony's "LaunchPad" hints to PS3 online strategy
Wed May 10, 2006 7:25pm ET
By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) has revealed little about its upcoming PlayStation 3 online service to rival Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox Live, but an upcoming offering from the Japanese giant's online game division may hint at its direction.

Sony Online Entertainment in July will debut a service, known by its working title LaunchPad, which provides users access to several of its online PC games.

LaunchPad, which ties together several programs already offered by Sony, will also consolidate lists of players' friends from a variety of the company's games, support chat and provide downloads of new game content and trinkets. Also, it will offer a single point where players can manage payments and link to other Sony-run sites carrying player rankings and information.

"It's not going to stop at the PC," said Nathan Pearce, a creative director at SOE, which is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Digital.

At the debut, LaunchPad will connect users to Sony's "EverQuest," "The Matrix Online," "Star Wars Galaxies," "PlanetSide" and "EverQuest II." Unlimited play of all five games through a Sony Station Access subscription plan costs $24.99 a month.

Sony also will add "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" to the LaunchPad lineup this winter, Pearce said.

Games on LaunchPad will constantly update to computers with live online connections so subscribers can go straight into play rather than waiting for new information to download every time they boot up. The service uses technology from Microsoft that transfers files using leftover bandwidth, ensuring uninterrupted computer use.

Microsoft has had unexpected success with Xbox Live, which connects through its Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles and allows players to compete, download content, chat and build an online profile.

The community-oriented features behind Xbox Live's popularity are nothing new to many PC gamers who have been chatting, competing, trading and building virtual characters inside individual games for years. They have also helped to drive the success of upstarts like MySpace.com as well as major online companies like eBay Inc. (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research)

Sony, which aims to retain its dominance in the $30 billion global video game market with the PS3, has vaguely outlined its plan to offer features that will match Xbox Live.

This been mentioned already?

[Trippy]

No but LaunchPad already exists and has since the EQ days, though it looks like they are expanding it to better compete with Xbox Live.

[Trippy]

Also you are jumping to conclusions to say that EQ, EQ2, SWG, etc. are getting ported over to the PS3 (see my other reply here), though that hasn't stopped people from lighting up the SWG forums claiming Sony lied to them all.

[Arthur_Parker]

I'm not jumping to conclusions, they are, I just happen to agree with them.

[Trippy]

Huh?

[Arthur_Parker]

I hadn't expressed an opinion on it, but as you appeared to think I had, I thought about it and yes I believe some of SOE mmo's will be ported to the PS3.  Makes perfect sense to me.

[sarius]

Also you are jumping to conclusions to say that EQ, EQ2, SWG, etc. are getting ported over to the PS3 (see my other reply here), though that hasn't stopped people from lighting up the SWG forums claiming Sony lied to them all.

I cannot even imagine the sheer balls it would take to get a completely failed product, such as SWG, ported to the PS3.  I think something like that would actually make SOE accountable for once to the Board.

[voblat]

Also you are jumping to conclusions to say that EQ, EQ2, SWG, etc. are getting ported over to the PS3 (see my other reply here), though that hasn't stopped people from lighting up the SWG forums claiming Sony lied to them all.

I cannot even imagine the sheer balls it would take to get a completely failed product, such as SWG, ported to the PS3.  I think something like that would actually make SOE accountable for once to the Board.

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

[Lantyssa]

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

Is that a recent thing?  Now that I think about it, I can only remember them denying it would happen for the PS2...

[Soukyan]

Of course, porting any MMOG to the PS3 is going to be contingent on how well the Sony online service for their consoles works. I've never used it myself as I hate the idea of purchasing a bunch of fucking peripherals for consoles because once you've spent all that money, you realize you could have built a PC and bought a few games for the same price. Okay, maybe not, but it's getting close to that, especially if the PS3 does launch at $600.

(Little side note pet peeve of mine - if I did spend $600 on a console gaming system, I want a second controller thrown in the package. Hell, I would want four for that price, but I'd settle for just the second one like you got back in the good old days of Nintendo and Genesis. I could just choke the executive who pushed through the decision to only sell the systems with one controller to scam another $30 off of people. *deep breath* As a matter of fact, that is the major reason I stopped buying consoles. It may sound stupid but I chose to vote with my wallet. Unfortunately, few others did the same and my boycott failed, because it seems the rest of the console gamers of the world are okay with shelling out an unneccessary $30 to buy what costs a minimal amount for the manufacturer. Hell, look at the cottage industry of console peripherals that has sprung up from the willingness of people to pay for what should be included. Reminds me of "Batteries Not Included", but that's not quite a perfect analogy. Mind you, I think having third party peripheral options is fine. I just want a second damn controller with my console system! *deep breath* Enough of this parenthetical rant...)

I have not used the online service for the Sony consoles. Is it the PlayOnline service? If so, I guess I have used it on my PC for FFXI Online. It was functional enough and easy to navigate. But who am I to question those details. Sony is a huge company and I'm sure they have that all worked out. So I think volbat may be on to something with the DC Comics MMOG. That would be a good one to attract a market on the console. Vanguard perhaps not so much because of the apparent grouping needs, but then again FFXI seems to do it just fine with minimal keyboard and mouse use so I guess anything is possible.

[edit]Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt from not having paragraph breaks ;)[/edit]

[SurfD]

To quote a poster on the WoW forums:  "Wall of Text crits you for 200k, you die."

[Trippy]

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

Is that a recent thing?  Now that I think about it, I can only remember them denying it would happen for the PS2...

Smedley said almost a year ago that DC Online will be available on the PC and the PS3 and possibly even the PSP.

[Lantyssa]

I meant for SWG (or other games) which they have specifically said "no console port".

[heck]

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

Is that a recent thing?  Now that I think about it, I can only remember them denying it would happen for the PS2...

Smedley said almost a year ago that DC Online will be available on the PC and the PS3 and possibly even the PSP.

Soon after the NGE hit, there was buzz about SWG being "revised" to be playable on ps3 (and more like WOW of course).  A few game site articles mentioned it.  The accusations and theories were there, SOE denied it tho and it kind of faded away.    

[Yegolev]

About the Current State of Controllers That Ship with Consoles...  I do agree.  But!

It was a good enough excuse to me that I was going to buy the 3rd-party wireless version anyway, and when people visited I could give them the wired controller or they could bring their own.  In fact, I really don't know why you would go visit a friend with the intention of playing a console game and not bring your controller... even though everyone does this.  If I was going to your house to play a PS2/Xbox multiplayer game with you, I'd bring my Logitech wireless.  I'd even bring an extra pair of batteries, since I'm not a dumbass prick at least 70% of the time.

People seemed to have a similar mental block with the Crystal Chronicles game.  FF:CC didn't require you to buy four GBAs, it just required you to buy one.  If your friends showed up without their GBAs, it's their fault, not yours.

[voblat]

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

Is that a recent thing?  Now that I think about it, I can only remember them denying it would happen for the PS2...

It was denied officially again yesterday in response to the various 'launchpad heading for ps3 = swg on console' threads that multiplied there.

[Lantyssa]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up.

[Trippy]

Th eofficial denial has already happenned about a PS3 SWG, in response to the aformentioned rabid 'you lied!!!!!' posts on the official forum.

SWG would not make a good port, too old, even if it was working, Vanguard is a possibility, but Id be laying bets more on the DC comics MMO for next year as the first soe produced MMO on the PS3.

Is that a recent thing?  Now that I think about it, I can only remember them denying it would happen for the PS2...

It was denied officially again yesterday in response to the various 'launchpad heading for ps3 = swg on console' threads that multiplied there.

They did not deny that there will be a console port of SWG or whatever -- they said that the article did not say that, which is true. From the SWG forums (emphasis mine):

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=775677

The Launchpad is the technology that lets you download updates and use a chat room for the SWG Service, it is not the game itself, this application is used for all of our games Except for EQOA. The article people keep quoting as saying that SWG is coming to the PS3 (or any other platform for that matter) does not say that at all. It says the Launchpad may. This also Does Not mean that the Launchpad will enable all of the PC games that use it to run on the PS3.

People are also confusing Station Access with Launchpad, again 2 separate things, Station Access is the Games that we bundle for one monthly subscription cost as a added value to our customers.

I hope this clears up the confusion some of you have about it all and to state one more time, this is not a declaration, hint or otherwise confirmation that there are any plans to bring SWG to a console. If you wish to talk about launchpad or station access please use the General Any Topic forum.

Additionally many "repost" type articles on news/info sites are reposting info about the story INCORRECTLY and are rewriting what was originally stated, there is nothing we can do about that other than inform them of the incorrect bits.

Regards.


Message Edited by GarVa on 05-11-2006 04:00 PM

GarVa
Community Relations
SOE Forum Usage Guidelines
Galactic Home Show   
05-11-2006 01:55 PM

[Lantyssa]

So they're backing off from their previous statements of absolutely no port.  They may not have plans, but it seems like they're trying to wiggle their foot back into the doorway.

[Trippy]

Right.

[voblat]

Just to confuse the issue, in
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=774779#M774779


Garva also stated

Same reply as my other moving message, people need to read the press release and not interperti it to whatever they want before making post like this, It says Launchpad. Launchpad is ONLY a gateway to our different games, this does not mean ANY current launchpad using game is going to the PS3. SWG is not, as has been stated endlessly before.

Which i take as a flat official denial.

[Lantyssa]

They seem to be going to great pains to not say very simply and clearly:

"We are not porting SWG (or game X) to PS3."

[Trippy]

Just to confuse the issue, in
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=774779#M774779


Garva also stated

Same reply as my other moving message, people need to read the press release and not interperti it to whatever they want before making post like this, It says Launchpad. Launchpad is ONLY a gateway to our different games, this does not mean ANY current launchpad using game is going to the PS3. SWG is not, as has been stated endlessly before.

Which i take as a flat official denial.

Except the post you quoted was made before the one I quoted and mine was in its own stand-alone stickied post. In other words, his/her later post backed off the outright denial statement.

[Riley]

In other words:

We have no idea how to compete with XBL but we have this program already that does automatic updates and chatting that we might be able to throw on the console and make work.  If we throw in some music downloads, we may be able to ramp up the marketing machine and convince people that we have a cool online gaming platform.

[MrHat]

I was watching this YouTube video of a lady demo'ing the PS3 UI (apparently much like PSP).  At the end, she mentions being able to hook up a keyboard to it.  So I'd imagine porting over some PC games, using the internet, and all that good stuff could be possible.

But can you play games with your keyboard and mouse?  Can you just bring a bluetooth set into the equation and use it?


EDIT: "You can also hook up a keyboard and mouse through usb.."