As we complete the third straight week of the outage of the Playstation Network, I continue to the following exchange more frequently than I care to admit:
PS3 Owner - "I'm so tired of the PSN being down! This is ridiculous! It needs to be back online yesterday!"
360 Owner - "Glad I own a 360 and not a PS3! HA HA!"
PS3 Owner - "At least my online is free!"
360 Owner - "At least my online works! And even when both are working, mine is better!"
PS3 Owner - "My inferior free is always better than your superior $60/year in my book!"
...ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
So I decided to make a comparison. The original subtitle to this post was going to be "An Objective Comparison", but the more I thought about it, the more some things are going to be subjective no matter how "right" it appears to be. Below (in no particular order) are the top things that always seem to be talked about when comparing and contrasting the two networks. We'll score this in the style of boxing, to give weight to how much better one network may be than the other in a given "round". May the best network win!
Speed:
By anyone's definition, Xbox Live FLATTENS PSN when it comes to speed. Title updates that take upward of 30 minutes on the PSN are effortlessly downloaded in under 5 minutes on the 360. Fortunately, actual online gameplay speeds don't ever seem to be an issue, but overall, this is certainly one category that Xbox Live wins easily.
Winner: Xbox Live 10-8 (Extra point for an overwhelming advantage)
Ease of use:
Both networks make it easy to find a game to play online, but if you want to find a game to play online with your friends, you want to play on Xbox Live. The party system is fantastic, and allows you to meet up with all of your friends outside of the game before going in. Then once you're in, the game realizes this fact, and will make matches accordingly. PSN has no such feature, and desperately needs it. Getting booted from a match of Call of Duty because the connection flaked and then sending PSN messages to everyone to get them to rejoin is one of the most aggravating experiences in PS3 gaming. In addition, this party feature also allows users to group together and hang out regardless of what game you're playing. The chat feature is outside of the game framework, so you're free to hang out virtually regardless of your choice of game on a given night.
Winner: Xbox Live 10-9
Cost:
This is easily one of the most objective points we'll run across in this comparison. The PSN is free to play your games online. There is an optional subscription service (Which will be detailed later) for 49.95/year, but this has no effect on the ability to play your games online. Conversely, Xbox Live retails for $59.99 for the privilege of playing the games you've already paid for online. This is slightly misleading though. Only suckers pay full price for Xbox live. Doing a little bit of research online, I've found 12 month cards as low as $35, and you can nearly always find a deal for $40. It still doesn't excuse the fact that you have to pay for something that is universally free on any other system.
Winner: PSN 10-9
User Experience:
I don't think that anyone will argue that you'll find more jerks on Xbox Live than the PSN. This at least is my experience, and if you ask Wombat from the CAGCast, he'd likely agree after an experience he had a while back. However, the difference arises in what you can do about those jerks. If I run into a jerk on Xbox Live, I can mute him from the console, I can file a player report on him that will ensure I'm not matched with him, and I can also file a complaint with the Xbox Live service that could see the guy do some ban time if enough complaints are levied. The PSN, though the jerk population is lower, has no such tools at the user's disposal. So when you run into a jerk online on the PSN, depending on if the game has any of these controls, you have to suffer through the match, or disconnect and hope not to find another jerk in the next match. I believe that the fact that you have to alter your own game experience (leave a server you're on) or just deal with it if you're on the PSN tilts this one in favor of Xbox Live. Sure, I still have to take the time to mute or report someone on the 360, but at least my friends and I can all stay together, in a server that we may be enjoying otherwise.
Winner: Xbox Live 10-8 (Extra point for an overwhelming advantage)
Extras:
Both networks will run specials on their store from time to time, so consider that even. However, if you're a Playstation Plus member you get some special benefits. Every two weeks bring additional discounts, as well as free games that will rotate each time period. As long as you download them during that time period and keep a current Playstation Plus subscription, the game is yours at no charge. On top of this, the console can be configured to automatically check for system updates and game updates periodically while you're not playing and apply them. All you do is turn on your system and play your games.
This is a tricky comparison since you do have to fork over $49.95/year for Playstation Plus, and not all users will get these perks. But on the other hand, no Xbox Live users see free games on a regular basis on any level of that service. I have to hand this one to the PSN.
Winner: PSN 10-9
Conclusion:
In a close race in categories, Xbox Live edges out the PSN 3 to 2. It's also a little closer than I expected when initially conceiving this article in the points as well, as Xbox Live takes it 48-45. However, this is still a solid advantage. And were I to rate the importance of the categories, the categories that Xbox Live holds advantages in are overall more important than the ones the PSN has won. Too many people use the tired excuse that PSN is free and is therefore better. This simply isn't the case. Xbox Live is clearly the superior online service. It's only drawback is that there is a cost to use it. However, this cost is nominal when you find a deal for a subscription card, which can be found almost all the time. If you're patient, you can find even better deals that can lower the cost to $3/month. If you can't afford $3/month, you may be in the wrong hobby. The PSN hopefully will improve as time goes on and close this gap. However, at least at this time, Xbox Live is the place to game online.
Overall Winner: Xbox Live
that's exactly how I feel!
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