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aLkaLiNE on 19 December 2016
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CGI-Quality said:
GribbleGrunger said:
This is where PSN needs to match LIVE but any features on PSN that aren't on LIVE are of no consequence.

Having experienced them both this gen, on console, PSN gets the nod from me for several reasons:

  • Faster downloads (yes, still faster than LIVE)
  • Game Installs (again, the X1 is slow compared to the PS4's relatively quick install process)
  • SharePlay (a very lovely feature that LIVE has been playing catch up with)
  • Easier to join chats/send messages (the 360 was The King for this, but the X1 UI takes several steps back).
  • A more streamlined UI (LIVE is a clusterfuck to me - but I'd say that even the PS4 takes a step back from the smoothness of the PS3's UI - particularly for viewing pictures/videos).
  • Communities on the PS4 really was a game changer! It made meeting up with people far, far more easy and hasn't really been replicated by any service in my view, not even the remaining champ, Steam.

The chat/message thing really was horrid on the X1 in the beginning and only after key updates was this fixed. The PS4's UI has remained the better of the two, but LIVE has closed some distance. Also, while I don't usually include the controllers, I find the X1 controller to also takes step back from the 360's. For games like Gears of War, especially, the 360 controller is leaps and bounds better. On PC, I'm using a good, ol', wired Windows 360 controller.  Then there are racers and sports titles, which the 360 controller handled better. However, if we include fighting with racing + sports, the PS4's controller levels the playing field, but both the 360 controller and DS4 crap all over the X1's controller (which feels more like the original Xbox's controller, to me).

 So, overall, while I expect the narrative to remain unchanged, I find PSN has stepped ahead of LIVE this gen, as the 360's was miles better and the PS4 has jumped over the PS3 in critical ways. 

I will say that PSN is fast enough to overload my 75mbit connection consistently (downloads between 9-12 megabytes per second) and I've never had to deal with lag in online matches. What definitely made a difference was port forwarding, setting a static Ip for the Ps4 and hardwiring it. I think 99% of the issues people have stem from the poor wifi card on the OG model or a poorly set up home network infrastructure which is ashame because their lack of technical know-how gets blamed on PSNs network when that doesn't seem to be the real issue.