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We'll take your average RPG game, Phantasy Star Online I and II as an example for this.
Using XBox Live, you pay £40 a year for the service plus £5.99 a month to play PSO. That's £111.88 a year just to play one game.
Using Gamecube, it's just £5.99 a month. That's £71.88 a year just to play one game.
It's not being released for the PS2 but the same would apply as Sony don't have a standing charge for their Networking service.
For your extra £40 a year on XBox live you do get some extras, like a consistent Gamer Tag and the ability to page others over the network no matter what game they're in (not sure if this will apply to PSO though because I think payments are made direct to Sega for the gametime). Is that £40 a year worth it when you consider that Sony and Nintendo still offer free online gaming for most of their titles?
Microsoft also take a large cut from game developers for allowing them to run games on their Live network, whereas the Sony and Nintendo network models give developers the choice of whether or not to support online service themselves.
In short, did Microsoft make a huge error on their choice of financial model for supporting their network?
Using XBox Live, you pay £40 a year for the service plus £5.99 a month to play PSO. That's £111.88 a year just to play one game.
Using Gamecube, it's just £5.99 a month. That's £71.88 a year just to play one game.
It's not being released for the PS2 but the same would apply as Sony don't have a standing charge for their Networking service.
For your extra £40 a year on XBox live you do get some extras, like a consistent Gamer Tag and the ability to page others over the network no matter what game they're in (not sure if this will apply to PSO though because I think payments are made direct to Sega for the gametime). Is that £40 a year worth it when you consider that Sony and Nintendo still offer free online gaming for most of their titles?
Microsoft also take a large cut from game developers for allowing them to run games on their Live network, whereas the Sony and Nintendo network models give developers the choice of whether or not to support online service themselves.
In short, did Microsoft make a huge error on their choice of financial model for supporting their network?
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Hedfix wrote:
> Cheers.
>
> See i want the benefits of a 3 pc style setup but with nice
> controllers instead of keyboards and mice. so is it possible to host
> with one xbox and have the other 2 boxes join whilst still letting
> other non-local players join? or is that too match traffic for one
> broadband line?
It may be. Hosting games take up the most bandwidth. Actually playing a game like Moto GP only takes up about 1/8 of the bandwidth of a 512K connection actually probably less than that. Hosting games takes up most of the bandwidth on 512K if you host with say 8 players in Unreal. I would assume that you might be ok using 3 XBoxes playing a game and not actually hosting it.
Also XBox Live may not work with more than one subscription on the same ADSL or Cable line. It may be wise to ask Microsoft if having more than 1 XBox and subscription will work on just one line.
> Cheers.
>
> See i want the benefits of a 3 pc style setup but with nice
> controllers instead of keyboards and mice. so is it possible to host
> with one xbox and have the other 2 boxes join whilst still letting
> other non-local players join? or is that too match traffic for one
> broadband line?
It may be. Hosting games take up the most bandwidth. Actually playing a game like Moto GP only takes up about 1/8 of the bandwidth of a 512K connection actually probably less than that. Hosting games takes up most of the bandwidth on 512K if you host with say 8 players in Unreal. I would assume that you might be ok using 3 XBoxes playing a game and not actually hosting it.
Also XBox Live may not work with more than one subscription on the same ADSL or Cable line. It may be wise to ask Microsoft if having more than 1 XBox and subscription will work on just one line.
Cheers.
See i want the benefits of a 3 pc style setup but with nice controllers instead of keyboards and mice. so is it possible to host with one xbox and have the other 2 boxes join whilst still letting other non-local players join? or is that too match traffic for one broadband line?
See i want the benefits of a 3 pc style setup but with nice controllers instead of keyboards and mice. so is it possible to host with one xbox and have the other 2 boxes join whilst still letting other non-local players join? or is that too match traffic for one broadband line?
Hedfix wrote:
> So how's something like darkage of camelot running on 3 PCs in a large
> game world different from 3 xboxs running mech assault in a more
> enclosed gaming world? i don't understand the technical aspects but as
> DAOC has more players and a large world yet runs fine, it seems
> reasonable that mech assault should run equal if not better.
Well XBox does use more of your connection. Using ICS I can see my internet connection on the computer and can see how much it uses. using 3 XBoxes to play a game may be ok but you would never be able to host a game with all 3 XBoxes. XBox Live runs differently to PC games and does use more bandwidth. A 16 player game of Unreal can be laggy even on a 512K connection when as 32 player game on Unreal on the PC could be played on a few PCs on the same 512K connection without any lag.
Try 3 XBoxes with 3 different subscriptions but I cant see any point in spending the £120 to actually set it all up.
> So how's something like darkage of camelot running on 3 PCs in a large
> game world different from 3 xboxs running mech assault in a more
> enclosed gaming world? i don't understand the technical aspects but as
> DAOC has more players and a large world yet runs fine, it seems
> reasonable that mech assault should run equal if not better.
Well XBox does use more of your connection. Using ICS I can see my internet connection on the computer and can see how much it uses. using 3 XBoxes to play a game may be ok but you would never be able to host a game with all 3 XBoxes. XBox Live runs differently to PC games and does use more bandwidth. A 16 player game of Unreal can be laggy even on a 512K connection when as 32 player game on Unreal on the PC could be played on a few PCs on the same 512K connection without any lag.
Try 3 XBoxes with 3 different subscriptions but I cant see any point in spending the £120 to actually set it all up.
So how's something like darkage of camelot running on 3 PCs in a large game world different from 3 xboxs running mech assault in a more enclosed gaming world? i don't understand the technical aspects but as DAOC has more players and a large world yet runs fine, it seems reasonable that mech assault should run equal if not better.
Tóm wrote:
> Tóm wrote:
> The new Xbox features
>
> *Xbox Live
What are they as I havent heard of them ? Any links ?
> Tóm wrote:
> The new Xbox features
>
> *Xbox Live
What are they as I havent heard of them ? Any links ?
Tóm wrote:
> The new Xbox features
*Xbox Live
> The new Xbox features
*Xbox Live
The new Xbox features coming soon sound excellent.
Hedfix wrote:
> i'm planning to get a setup
> of 3 xboxes and take em online through one broadband line. feasable?
> my friend has 5 pcs going through his and they run their online games
> ok so i think 3 xboxes is feasable. 120 quids a years not too bad
> considering the fun.
Yes but PC games are different. You would find it hard to run 3 Xboxes on one connection at a time. XBox Live needs good upload and download so 2Mb connection could easily provide the download but its still limited to 256Kb upload like 512K and 1Mb. Plus £120 on subscription fees a year.
Actually we all say £40 a year for XBox Live but that was for the headset and communcator. Maybe Microsoft will drop the price seeing as PS2 is free for most games.
> i'm planning to get a setup
> of 3 xboxes and take em online through one broadband line. feasable?
> my friend has 5 pcs going through his and they run their online games
> ok so i think 3 xboxes is feasable. 120 quids a years not too bad
> considering the fun.
Yes but PC games are different. You would find it hard to run 3 Xboxes on one connection at a time. XBox Live needs good upload and download so 2Mb connection could easily provide the download but its still limited to 256Kb upload like 512K and 1Mb. Plus £120 on subscription fees a year.
Actually we all say £40 a year for XBox Live but that was for the headset and communcator. Maybe Microsoft will drop the price seeing as PS2 is free for most games.
If you have a lot of games 40 quids worth while aslong as they don't charge you extra (ie PSO). If you have enough games with 'downloadable content' the downloadable content for those probably makes 40 quid worth it and online play becomes a bonus! i'm planning to get a setup of 3 xboxes and take em online through one broadband line. feasable? my friend has 5 pcs going through his and they run their online games ok so i think 3 xboxes is feasable. 120 quids a years not too bad considering the fun.
Thanks Justice.
So is it just the 3 games (Moto Gp, Mech Assault and Unreal Tounament) that let you play 4 player + online play at the same time?
And UC suffers framerate if you do?
It's a start...
It would be nice if a company could dumb down the technical side of things to allow for larger scale battles, or atleast give you an option to dumb down the graphics a bit if you want to concentrate on a good framerate.
So is it just the 3 games (Moto Gp, Mech Assault and Unreal Tounament) that let you play 4 player + online play at the same time?
And UC suffers framerate if you do?
It's a start...
It would be nice if a company could dumb down the technical side of things to allow for larger scale battles, or atleast give you an option to dumb down the graphics a bit if you want to concentrate on a good framerate.
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