In a recent interview, president of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has stated that cross-game chat will never make its way to the PlayStation 3. According to Yoshida the console’s RAM is consumed almost entirely by running software, without a sufficient remainder to power cross-game sessions, an online function PS3 owners have been asking for since the emergence of Xbox Live Party.
Once a game gets RAM we never give it back, it’s not possible to retrofit something like that after the fact…Â The game has to use its own memory to do [in-game voice chat]. There’s always voice chat in the game. But it’s a part of a game feature. It’s not a part of an OS feature. That’s the reason in terms of the ability to have voice chat across different games.
PlayStation Vita on the other hand will support cross-game chat, carrying a hefty RAM of 516MB, doubling that of its home console counterpart.
Source: Eurogamer
tonyyeb
516gb is certainly a hefty amount! ;)
DeathByNumbers
Day one purchase for me, 516GB! Wow! there’s one in the eye for the numbers guys. They said it wasn’t possible in such a small package, with Sony, anything is possible. lmao
ratkiller75
I think that it should be MB not GB as most top-end PCs are only mustering a few gigabytes of RAM and the PS3 hasn’t got much RAM at all, not needing to run thousands of simultaneous programs/calculations/etc.
DeathByNumbers
It’s a typo, mistakes happen* we are all being sarcastic :P
*sometimes.
Mason_Mk
(that was the joke) :P
metamorph
No shit, Sherlock! Somebody give this man a prize.
Louise
Getting that day one. I think i’ll dismantle it and just sell the RAM!! Gosh, that’d be an easy way to make money. :P
SilverCider
Also, 516 MB, not 512 MB? (in keeping with the 2^x pattern)
Totodile
LOL! :D
Same, I’m with the 2^ pattern too! :D
But Sony just love being different, don’t they? x)
yogdog
516MB of RAM? 516GB seems a little bit much! :P
3shirts
If it’s 516Gb, it’s quite the bargain!
shifty360
516gb is think its megabytes lol 516gb of ram in a handheld is unheard of in the commercial side god knows what they have running around tho
3shirts
Cool story bro
metamorph
You don’t say! Goodness what sort of project are Soney running around ‘ere!
Paranoimia
Glad they’ve finally come out and said this. Maybe now morons will stop typing “Cross game chat!!11!1!1” in the comments of every PS Blog post.
Sucks for those who wanted it, I guess, but never saw the appeal myself. If I’m playing a game, I don’t want to talk to someone playing something else. If you want to talk, talk to your clan/squadmates.
Although knowing Sony’s history with comments like “vibration is not possible with SIXAXIS”, the next firmware will contain cross-game chat. :-)
Paranoimia
Also, it would seem from Vita that Sony have learned lessons from the way PS3 was designed, in terms of architecture and functionality. I expect PS4 to be praised by developers for its power, functionality and ease of development.
bacon_nuts
I never saw the appeal of it either, but then, I’m pretty much the only person I know with a PS3, so have nobody to talk to in game or cross game.. Still don’t get why id want to talk to somebody playing a different game. Why don’t these people just use skype or some other device? a phone?
moshi
A phone ! , please explain this mysterious device you mention.
Lewis Murray
Did Sony ever say that? or is it the internet myth speaking again? Microsoft seem to spend alot of time making PS3 related internet myths…
I think if you put away your fanboyism and put your brain into gear, you will find out that the initial lack of SixAxis rumble was a patent limitation never a technical one.
BIGAL-1992
“PlayStation Vita on the other hand will support cross-game chat, carrying a hefty RAM of 516GB, doubling that of its home console counterpart”
Did someone say shoddy journalism? ;)
BIGAL-1992
On topic: Well that put’s and end to rumours of cross game chat on PS3. Vita might make some headway on it, and I suppose the PS4(whenever that get’s announced) will have to do something to accomendate it. Personally, however, even if it was availabe, I probably wouldn’t it at all. And I must remeber next time to wrap this all in one comment. *Facepalm*
3shirts
Did you find a bag of apostrophes that are close to their use-by date?
BIGAL-1992
They were all spoiled, so I chucked all of it into a skip and buried it deep underground at a landfill.
freezebug2
Which will require a suitcase with castors to transport it, therefore still being portable! :P
Forrest_01
Are people actually still bothered about this??
I know that personally, it would annoy the tits off of me if i was playing BC2 & someone was waffling on about killsteaks or whatever in my ear!
In game suits me fine thanks very much. At least i will have some idea of what the hell they are talking about!
3shirts
Mmmm, killsteaks
Louise
You actually made me burst out laughing. I wouldn’t have noticed that in his comment if you hadn’t of pointed it out :P
freezebug2
Nope!
skibadee
feel the same never been interested in it.
fattyuk
Personally I’ve never seen this uproar about it really? When you’re playing games surely you wanna chat to other people playing that game?
if you wanna talk to a mate just phone em but surely when you’re playing games that doesn’t really matter?
scavenga
Me too, I can’t see the appeal of cross game chat at all. Sorry for those who’ll miss out, but I must admit I’m having a wee chuckle on the inside.
yogh_wayne
Agree. I think even if the PS3 had cross game chat, I’d probably never use it. I’m glad they decided not to waste any of the available RAM.
Lewis Murray
Indeed, I can message people cross-game, tell them what I am playing, and my PS3 can do this already but I certainly don’t want to be chatting to people playing ****OTHER**** games, that’s just pointless. I want to chat to people playing the ****SAME**** game, which my PS3 does just fine…
I think Sony are right on this, X-Game change is a pointless white elephant, and if they implemented it, people would discover that. Better they don’t bother in the first place.
DeathByNumbers
Apparently, people want it to arrange games etc. with groups of people, clearly they have not heard of skype or mobile phones.
GTRsannin
Or even PC. Never been interested in this either
fattyuk
or psn group message or text chat?
DR-DAVROS
Actually this is something I’ve wanted for a while. More for same game chat for instance FIFA etc that does’t support chat in game. Also I like to keep my chat personnal amongst friends and having the ability to chat rather than type is much easier. Games in the past eg battlefield 1943 had a terrible chat system that just didn’t work. I have now moved to using skype on a laptop/iPhone to oovoo for my in game chats and use whatsapp to arrange meets with friends.
Chat also allows you to explain to those trying to access your party how to do it as sometimes it’s not easy to work out eg GT5 with it’s menu system.
I’m personnelly amazed no one wants thus feature.
To add some in game chat systems also sound incomprehensible and my hope was for xgc to be implemented that worked so I could finally use my official ps3 headset, I even have the official chat pad which was a waste of money, audio chat all the way.
Going forward it’s obvious the new vita OS will be implented on ps4 to accomadate party chat and I’m looking forward to that next step.
Dimpoc
Agreed, not point in being able to talk to each other when playing different games. If you just want to chat there are plenty of ways to do it. It is useful when you are trying to meet up in the same game though. When someone is already playing and you want to find them. Although the way you can join from the XMB in COD is good enough. If only all games did that.
Kaminari
Shit’s gonna hit the fan.
As a sidenote, cross-game chat is still the numero uno requested feature on PS.share, so much so that Sony is terrified at the thought of closing the topic with a laconic “can’t be done”.
3shirts
Yeah, if they know this (and presumably always have done) they should just have said so from the beginning. I hate it when companies string peoples hopes along for the sake of trying not to upset them/lose face
fattyuk
Give me playstation exclusives games all day long over this feature!?
it’s not even a major feature IMO as god knows how many playstation users aren’t interested in it!?
Maybe its time for a poll TSA’ers ;o)
TROPtastic
I could go for a really nice poll right now… or maybe I’m just hungry.
DeathByNumbers
now what would be a great idea is if you could log in to the same account on vita and ps3 simultaneously, using the vita for chat. On the other hand why can’t you just plug the vita into a spare USB port and use it’s RAM for the purpose?
Paranoimia
Not a bad idea. Perhaps it’s something they’re looking at. I expect a few Vita functions to make their way to PS3 via a future firmware update, most likely being LiveArea.
Peter Rushton
Eh just wait for the PS4, not a major feature that I will lose sleep over after reading this tbh ;)
Smallville2106
I’m not bothered about it at all.Why would I want to play Burnout or something and hear someone effing and swearing at people while playing COD.
xdarkmagician
Good. Cross game chat just kinda annoys me. If you’re playing a team based game you should be talking to your team, not someone playing a different game. IMO, Cross game chat during multi-player is rude. The PS3 already has a big problem with in game communication and anything that adds to that is a poor addition to the system. The PS3 is a media hub and gaming system, not a telephone.
icuyesido
But what to those who don’t want to talk to the randoms on the game or are playing single player and just want to talk to a friend? Surly by using a mic to talk to your ‘team’, you’re still using your PS3 as a telephone? Besides, I don’t know about yours, but my phone charges me to call people… cross game chat wouldn’t which is hardly a bad thing is it?
fattyuk
use a mobile? or talk to a mate after you’ve finished gaming? or both play the same game?
I’ve personally never understood the fuss, if I’m playing an online game I wanna chat to my other team members for the sake of the game, if I’m playing SP then I wanna be engrossed in the storyline not talking to my mate about what time do they wanna go down the pub
xdarkmagician
There’s a difference between communicating and talking. Think of it this way, when a race car driver is racing he’s communicating with his team. He’s relaying important information, it’s part of the race. Now how do you think the driver would feel if the crew cheif was talking to his friend during the race and wasn’t relaying important information back to the driver? Unfortunately for me, I understand that not everybody wants to win and people do all kinds of things while playing, but I just don’t feel that Sony has to further the lack of communication on the PS3 with cross game chat when there’s already a good percentage of people that don’t communicate. If the game would host special matches for CGC that’d be a different story, but adding it to ranked matches isn’t fair for the people that do communicate and want to improve their leaderboard spot. And sadly I know it’s expensive, but if you want to talk during games it’s only fair you pay the bill.
icuyesido
I play have fun and to have fun with people I know, I don’t focus all my gaming around winning because for me, it sucks the fun out of it… I’m not saying that I need cross game chat now, just something that’s good to know I have if ever I needed/wanted to use it. And yes, maybe if I we’re a crew chief I may be more focused on what’s at hand and not on the phone to a friend, but it’s only a game, games are for people to have fun if nothing else right?…