Cross-Game Chat Might Come at a Cost
02/17/2010 Written by Paulmichael Contreras
Cross-game chat, or the ability to voice chat with friends while playing different games, is a much sought-after feature for PlayStation 3 owners across the globe. A rumor has popped up that may disappoint some customers.
The latest issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine has a section called “Next Tech.” In it, a number of details about the possible future of the PS3 were laid out, including:
“…cross-game party chat is the obvious “next big feature,” even though it might be restricted to paid subscribers.”
Who among you would pay for such a service? What else could Sony include in their hypothetical premium PSN service that would entice you to fork over your cash? Let everybody know in a comment below!
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32 Responses to “Cross-Game Chat Might Come at a Cost”
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I was already buying the premium service so its just one more reason.
I hope it does go for the paid subscribers just how MS has there with a gold account only…
all these people crying for cross game chat will need to upgade. Than, theres no excuse to demand it to be free when 360 customers pay for theres.
I’ll gladly pay for online data storage, free PSOne games, exclusive demos and sharing, token wagering, and extended warranty. If cross chat happens to be in there, so be it. I wont use it much anyway. I’m not even mad at Sony if they charge for it. Its a genius business move. Not only will it likely have better quality if it costs, but they know how much people want it. Of course they’re gonna charge money.
@KweitStorm
me to.. just to store my saves as backups with be awesome. Im not drawn in by PS1 games or sharing.
i cant decide whether i realllllly want this or not… yess i have friends on the ps3 but do i realllyyyy have the need to talk to them while were both playing diff. games… i mean maybe for the females on my list because they dont play mag and itd b nice to talk to them..but then if im having dirty convos with the gurl on my list…what about my squad listening to all that.. im sure they dont wanna hear all that lol.. i guess now all it depends on is the cost (and why did i buy an annual subscript of qore and i only see 6 episodes i can d/l) the qore content isnt even that great this time around so if i bought that i probably dont see why i wont get cross game chat
I personally don’t think that X-Game Chat is that big of a feature I need to continue to play games on PS3. I see it as a distraction to be playing WKC and some friend wants to talk about losing his G/F or other of life’s troubles while I am trying to take down the SARAGANTAS in the Ruins of the Bunker Lode Mines….
So if they make it part of the “Premium” Service like M$ does with a Gold membership to use it in Live that is fine with my braincells. I would pay for an extended warranty program since it would make buying/owning a PS3 even more favourable in my estimation. It is different than than the 3 year warranty extension that M$ did to keep 360 owners from “Jumping Consoles”, that was done because they knew that the product they were selling had some issues. With this “Premium” service feature it would be an added value to making the PS3 more attractive to new buyers.
^ Somebody wanna tackle that one?
i would like that, maybe now more people will get a mic. i love cross game chat on the 360, so the ps3 will just get better. i can now talk to my girl with one bluetooth in my ear, if and when we get cross game chat.
I read some articles that explained how premium subscriptions will work and I’m looking forward to getting it. I don’t really care about the cross game chat but it’s obvious that it’ll be restricted to those get the premium subscriptions. I agree with the idea of making premium subscriptions while keeping the free service the way it is.
I’m not interested in having someone talk about their day while I’m trying to concentrate on beating a difficult section of a game or trying to communicate with squad members in an online shooter – I don’t see the point when we already have voice chatrooms available and probably 75% of users who are crying about not having it don’t even have a headset anyway .
Things I’d pay for in premium psn ? online data storage for game saves so I don’t have to keep using a usb stick for backups , extended warranties , earlier access to playstation store updates and exclusive dlc , beta access and freebies , automatic downloads ( it would be great to pre-purchase something and as soon as the store updates your ps3 turns on and downloads then shuts off after installation , come home after work or whatever and there it is ) . hopefully they’ll have 2 or 3 levels of premium services and you can get the one that has what you want
im not surprised, considering that survey you guys posted a while back… this isn’t worth paying for to me, I’m already paying for a cell phone, might as well call my friend and sync the blue tooth to it.
@BigWoop: Agreed. Don’t care about X Game chat, and don’t care about custom music. I have a cd player in the room if I don’t like the music, and I have a telephone if I need to talk to someone while I’m playing a game that they aren’t playing. It’s all quite ridiculous and useless.
ugh! no premium service!
I have no interest in cross game chat. When I turn on my PS3, it’s to play a game. If I’m so disinterested in the game that I’d rather chat with someone, then I’ll turn it off and go and chat with someone.
I should have made mention of the fact that if you have Skype on your computer or a PSP you already have free cross game chat, no cell phone minutes wasted or battery life on talk time…
@Spd55
the point is having one system instead of various products.
I could care less for cross game chat.
even if it is I won’t be paying for it…I like my free PSN just the way it is…if someone wants to talk to me then can do it when I’m not playing games.
Nope not paying for it. I have a cell phone to call friends who I play online with.
@JackC8 – Best comment I’ve seen all day. That is the truth, for sure.
I will pay for what so they choose to take in the premium contract.
I don’t care actually. Just bring me cross chat and i am happy
This feature isn’t a big deal to me, but I would be interested to see what other features could be in this hypothetical premium PSN that I kinda still hope doesn’t end up existing…
Since I was going to go ahead and buy the Premium Service, I’ll consider this another advantage.
why do I have a feeling that most of the stuff that was on that list awhile ago will never even make it to this RUMORED premium subscription. I see no reason to talk about “ifs”
if the subscription comes with ps1 then that’s awesome
@ wtGp Yeah I read that PS1 come with it but I don’t know how it exactly works. There’s another cool features too. But the only thing I’m wondering about is, will subscribed members have their own -better- servers?
Judging by what chat I have heard online in Live and PSN……no thanks.
Last thing I need are some more idiots blowing in the mic, yelling at their kids or trying to talk tough.
But charging for this feature in particular is pathetic. It breaks the whole concept. It would mean that \if i pay my subscription like a good bitch then my friends will have to too or else its pointless.
@cjschrissouth
dude seriously? you cant meet new friends that have/use that feature???? the same way you met those ‘friends’ in online games.
with Microsoft you have to pay 50$ to use it as well. Its not free…the subscription service doesn’t mean your only getting cross game chat.
Q: Do all console platforms wish to be truly mass market?
A: Yes
Q: Do any paid subscription services (TV, mobile phone, music downloads, the internet, newspaper delivery, milk delivery, etc) ever have true massive market uptake?
A: No
Premium services, should mean services that won’t have mass market appeal, and require subsidy by their niche customer base (to make them economically viable).
The business model of a successful internet businesses is to give everything you can for free at the start. Advertising revenues and indirect monetization make the service economical; provided you have sufficient customers, market share and worthwhile products to indirectly tax the running costs from. Sounds an awfully lot like PSN at the moment.
Customers probably want less subscriptions in their lives; not more, and platform holders need to reduce barriers to mass market uptake. Even if PSN had 20million premium users, it would still be niche, relative to the potential market size.
Marketing psychology might suggest that Microsoft made a mistake segregating their customer base into silver and gold. I’m quite sure there would be more disgruntled silver customers, than happy gold ones, if the 360 had the same customers as the Wii does.
I was going to subscribe to the premium service anyway so this does not matter to me. I don’t see myself using cross-game chat much anyway.
I would pay to have that feature.
@old school,
A lot of what you said makes sense, but as you can see, more people are ready to pay for this service than not. I am willing to bet that 20 million will sign up on day one. Just like all the people who jumped on “Home” and probably dont even use it (like myself) it WILL sell more than enough to not be niche. I cant say I will buy it, I dont know if what they have to offer is worth the bill to me. I back up my own data, I dont play PS1 titles anymore, and I dont care much about cross game voice chat since most of the people on my friends list dont have headsets anyway. I havent unplugged mine in MONTHS. There isnt anyone to chat with.
this will wind up being like Qore… I’ll wait a year and decide by then if I care enough for it to bother and if I DO buy it I will probably hate it by the time I need to renew.
One more thing, you may be right about X360′s Silver users, and that same attitude will transfer over to PS3 users… but those same people will only want to buy the subscription more because of what they are missing, not pout that they dont have the same goodies without shelling out the extra bucks.
Nothing is free in this world .. even NetZero costs 15 bucks a month. lol