come on, why is Wii online bad, i have Ps3 and Wii, i don't see why Ps3 online is better

there's lag in most Wi-fi Wii games, but not in the most recent ones, Medal of Honor 2 or Mario Kart and so on

there's a news channel, a nice browser, weather channel, downloading games, dlc starts to show up on Rock Band and Samba de Amigo, Miii Contest channel, and the best of all, the Nintendo channel with videos and info about games

but have to agree that the Friend Codes concept is awful..... : (
you cannot register people you meet online as Wii friends and so on, but in some games like Castlevania Judgement there's no lack online as with SoulCalibut IV on Ps3 and you can register people you meet online in Castlvania without friend codes, which is good

for me, Wii online is good, and has more things to do than the PSN

@Munkeh&papflesje: So... You don't have the online features available unless you go online through the XMB?

@OkeyDokey: Ehh... It's far from limited. It's better featured than Live or PSN.

I think I have a handle on this now.

Seems to me the only significant design differences are:

1) Whether friend codes or whatever are persistent outside a particular game

They are on PS3 and Xbox 360, but are not on Wii. this would mean that on the HD consoles you can keep contact with people outside of a particular game/keep friend lists outside the game environment/see what people are doing/compare scores and so on. Whereas on Wii you have to keep swapping friend codes with people for every game you've got.

2) How you meet people

You can meet people online and befriend them that way on PS3 and Xbox 360 but not on Wii where you have to make contact some other way first (except maybe on MK Wii?)

3) Whether there's a public forum (for want of a better term)

There is for PS3 (Home), but there isn't for the other two.


The rest of it is all down to content/reliability and the sort of people you meet.

Is that roughly it?

XBL has the most features but you have to pay $50. Also XBL has more lag in games than PSN. I have had my connection interrupted more times than I can count on CoD4 for 360.

Well, if your console is not connected to the internet, you will not be online, but if you have an internet connection, you will be automatically connected to PSN

@phisheep:
1&2. Yes. Live has Gamertag, PSN has PSN account(?) and Wii has friendcodes, two types; console code, 16 digits and game code, 12 digits. Console code is needed to make friends with someones console (to send messages etc.) and game code to be able to play with a friend online. If you have changed console friendcodes with someone, you can send a friend request in Mario Kart to your console friends, with a few button presses. And you also can add people as game friends in Mario Karts friend matches (in the lobby when you wait for friends to join and game to start). But, it isn't a standard function in all games.

3. Yes. PSN has Home as a public forum, but during the online play, you can chat with the people you play with on PSN and Live.

I don't know about the Wii but here's the basic advantages Live and PSN have over each other-

XBL- Much better voice chat system-can chat to people in different games. The whole thing is more standardised, meaning Achievements and voice chat in every game. Cross game invites, movie store and more content in Marketplace. Comparing profiles against friends in game is quicker than on PSN. You can also leave voice messages to people in-game.

PSN- More dedicated servers despite being free- eg, Halo 3 has no dedicated servers while something like Warhawk has, which I've always found odd. Seems to have more "big" online games such as 40 payers in Warhawk, 60 in R 2. No file size limit on Store, can download much bigger games than on XBL, like SOCOM, GT5, Siren etc. Also has Remote Play, Home and internet browser which you can download various things from.

Much thanks everyone. I think I have got what I wanted!

PSN has PSN tags, it is basically the same as gamertag, your profile has your trophies and trophy level on it, the Gamertag has your avatar and gamerscore

@Munkeh: So, it's a tag too. Thanks.

I put my question badly. I was meaning, that if you want to go to the PSN store, you just select PSN store or if you want to send a message to a friend, you just select the message board equivalent or you want to browse the web you just select the web browser, without going to a menu that has PSN/online options available, like you do with the 360 dashboard.

I had the same discussion on a different forum once, but i didn't get an answer to what i was asking.