jakinov
Member
They don’t do that but they would if it wasn’t available. The platform doing it offers a unified/cohesive convent experience. You register once sign on using a single ID. You have one friends list. One profile system. One place to report problems or to report users. One inbox etc. It’s also better for a lot of developers who get to rely on common services existing and they just need make sure their games can interact with them.Developers and publishers take care of all that crap(or should)...all I care about is playing the videogame...I don't even care if a developer uses P2P to save money. I have the client...I want to connect directly to a player, or to the publisher's server. Who the fuck is nintendo?
Years ago...MS stepped in-between hardware and software to STOP packets. They utilized contract law to wedge themselves between customers and developers. All the console manufacturers have been pretending they offer some service ever since, when it's really just a giant cockblock. Online plans are the opposite of service, they are REMOVING SERVICE if you refuse to pay.
Maybe it was just more obvious watching it happen in real time, when MS effectively imposed Live on the whole console industry. There was no fucking plan to play PSO on gamecube. Nintendo saw Xbox fans take it up the butt and joined the party.
I don’t know what Microsoft did or didn’t do in the past but these consoles aren’t blocking internet access today. The consoles are walled gardens with very specific requirements for what is allowed to be released. One of those requirements is that anything multiplayer has to be integrated with a system that has a pay wall for users.
Sony and Nintendo do it because they don’t want to lose money on a division if they can avoid it. They saw that people were willing to pay a tiny bit of money a month so they did it too. Again It cost money to provide these service and nobody wants to use their traditional revenue stream’s profits to compensate for the “new” costs; especially if it’s proven they can avoid it.