@129260: "I still don't get how anyone can support microsoft with anything since they are the company that wanted to restrict used games and other harsh DRM practices."
The only people this would have hurt is those who make a killing selling used games, places such as GameStop. Games would have still been sellable used, you'd just need to buy what was essentially an online pass for any used games, and this sort of thing would require stored like GameStop to lower the prices on used games to make them appealing still. The benefits of what MS was going to do would have been worth it though, you wouldn't have needed to have a disc in your system to play a game, meaning you could be nice and lazy and not have to get up to swap games, and makes installing games seem less redundant since you wouldn't still need to have the disc in to play. The PC realm also seems to be doing just fine with it's DRM and no used game sales, so again, I don't see how this would have a negative impact on anybody but stores like GameStop.
@zakhaev1: "I think it's because if you can all of a sudden connect with other console players, why buy a ps4 if you have more friends on the competition than you do on ps4?"
It's actually quite the opposite. Why would you need to buy the console that your friends are on if you can still play with them on the system you want to get? You can still get a PS4 even if all your friends are on the Xbone, and I know for a fact that this is the reason many people I know have an Xbone, because that's where their friends are. If cross-play was a thing, many would likely switch over to the PS4, but as it stands, they can't afford to have two systems, so they stay where their friends are.
@joshrmeyer: I honestly can't say I've played any console FPS where the draw distance limited the people I could see at range. I really can't see this changing with a more powerful system, outside of maybe having foliage and whatnot visible further out on the higher end system, potentially putting them at a disadvantage there. This is entirely a developer issue though, if they don't want to try their best to make the online experience the same for everybody, it's the fault of the developer, not the consoles themselves. I never see people complaining about this sort of thing on the PC, and there's people playing games on what is essentially toasters, against people on $3000 overkill gaming systems, and everything in-between.
This also absolutely benefits Sony. More players means games that may be otherwise dead can stay alive, and keep people paying for a PS+ subscription, or buying DLC for said game, etc. I let my Xbox Live subscription end because the few games I played online are pretty much dead now, and there isn't really a reason to keep paying for something I don't use. I have several PSN friends that have done the same on the Sony side of things with their PS+ memberships. Sure, communities for games that are pretty much dead won't suddenly come back to life, but it'll likely double the number of players on them, possibly giving some a reason to keep their Xbox Live or PS+ subscriptions going. It also means that somebody who's looking to buy a console is completely free to get the system they want, and not the one that all of their friends are on, for example, somebody who has 4 friends they want to play with are all on the Xbox One, but this person wants a PS4, with cross-play, they can buy the PS4, where without it, they would likely be buying an Xbox One. You're just being silly if you can't see any benefits for Sony.
@darknessboy: I couldn't agree with your comment more. I actually just wrote a comment about how there isn't even a report option on PSN profiles to report this stuff, but over on Xbox Live, there is, and they often revoke peoples communication privileges, suspend accounts, or even ban these users. As far as I ca tell, Sony doesn't do any of this, the most you can really seem to do on the Sony side is block the offending user, but this doesn't really do anything, as they're still free to spew their sludge onto other users with no repercussions.
"the company is concerned about the safety of its users"
I don't understand this. I was a pretty big Xbox fanboy for a long time, and the live service was great for the ability to report the less than desirable users you'd encounter. Since I've started doing more gaming on the Sony side of things lately, one thing that has really stuck out to me is how much worse the bad apples of the community there tend to be in comparison to Xbox Live (the place with things are supposedly worse). I've also noticed there does not appear to be any way to go into a users profile to report them. On Xbox Live, you'd always have a list of a large portion of the last players you've encountered in games, no matter what games you played, on PSN it seems to be limited to only certain games that support that feature, meaning when you find somebody who could use a report, you typically need to type their name in manually, only to find that there is no report option anywhere on their profile. If you can report people on PSN, it's something I still have not figured out how to do, and Sony saying they want to keep their users safe is kind of laughable when the community can't even do anything about the bad apples among them. Some may just see this as me being biased, but I'm honestly more a fan of Sony now, despite thinking they make some very stupid decisions about a lot of stuff.
tl;dr
Sony says they want to keep their community safe, but the do nothing to actually accomplish that, but Microsoft does.
@KennyKB: The game has pretty much nothing to do with the movies, if you're expecting anything other than a standard class based multiplayer FPS you'll be disappointed. There's no story or "lore" in the game itself.
He has only ever written 4 of the currently 63 episodes. Him not writing it is nothing new, it has always been adapted by the show writers. Him consulting on the final seasons is essentially the same as them adapting from the book.
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