There is a comprehensive look at next generation online presence over at Next Generation, appropriately enough. We can't even begin to summarize the analysis and excellent points of the feature, written by David Cole of DFC Intelligence. However, one interesting prediction made in the article relates to Sony's online presence for the Playstation 3.

Cole predicts that Sony will not even try to compete with Live. Although the GDC06 keynote by Phil Harrison stressed that Sony was embracing online content, Cole points out that we heard the exact same thing at GDC2000 about the Playstation 2. While the Playstation 3 will be online ready, Cole argues that Sony already has enough headaches trying to produce the system itself without trying to tackle a robust online service on top of that. Instead, they are going to go with a laissez faire online strategy which encourages other parties to build their own services for use in the Playstation 3.

There's a lot more to digest in the article, including Live, Nintendo, Gametap and MMORPGs across all the next-gen consoles. Cole's feature is sure to generate a lot of debate and there's a lot of soothsaying here to digest. A great read.

How Online Services Will Shape the Console War [Next Generation]

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