This is simple: Sony needs to include a headset with every single PS3 from now on. Period.

Frankly, the biggest reason PSN multiplayer gets slagged compared to XBox Live doesn't have a damn thing to do with the lack of cross-game chat or any other bullet-point feature like that, it's the absence of a vibrant, active community, even relative to the size of the installed base, and that's because MOST PEOPLE DON'T HAVE HEADSETS.

Multiplayer -- whether competitive or co-op -- is about TALKING. It's SOCIAL. And of course talking isn't merely social, it's tactically and strategically essential to gameplay, too. But on the PSN, multiplayer is mostly silent and asocial, and even people like me with headsets often don't wind up taking any meaningful advantage of them at all, both because it feels really weird to jabber to people who can't say anything back and because even when we do play with people who have headsets, we've gotten used to not talking and so we stay silent.

If Sony really wants to sell consoles and build a good reputation for multiplayer, they just need to bite the bullet and accept that a headset is just as necessary as a controller and include one with every single PS3 sold. It doesn't have to be very good. It can be wired instead of bluetooth, it can have a short cable, whatever they want so that it doesn't totally demolish sales of separate headsets, but it needs to be there, period, end of story, and whatever they lose on separate headset sales they'll more than make up on additional consoles moved, not to mention additional games attached.

And that's not all. They should also offer the same at-least-minimally-adequate headset to everyone who's ever bought a PS3 in the past at a very, very attractive price to help bring the installed base up to speed.

I suppose it's more likely that I'll win the lottery AND get elected the next president of the United States, but that doesn't make it any less necessary. Sony likes to say that the PS3 does everything, but without a headset it's like a marathon runner missing a leg or a cook without a stove.

^ what this guy said.

It's the biggest reason the PS3 doesn't get as much playtime as it deserves.

Heck, half the time I play co-op on PS3, I'm connected to XBL in party chat with those people to communicate.

I think it's more of a opinion basis. As 90% of the time when I'm on xbl with strangers I don't use a headset either. So there are those who most likely have a bluetooth headset thats compatible, but simply don't know how to sync it with the PS3, and there are those who have a headset but don't choose to use it more so than people that just don't have a headset and play a PS3 online.

If I'm joining a game as a random player I will listen to the game for a few moments. If no one is using a headset or players are annoying I set my headset on the coffee table for the match.

I know many players who do this.

I'm not sure what you mean by opinion bias.

You think I'm biased because I think my opinion is correct...? Or you mean that XBL players don't actually use headsets and talk as much as I think they do? If the latter, I can only say that most people seem to agree with me, that it makes sense since MS includes a headset as a pack-in with at least most varieties of XBox 360, and that every time play in or observe an XB360 online multiplayer game there's lots and lots of chatter, which is fairly rare on the PSN in my experience. Obviously I don't mean that every XBL player uses a headset and every XBL session is full of chat, just that there's much, much more of it on XBL than there is on the PSN.

Of course it's also an opinion that more people having and using headsets would be a good thing, but the very best and most fun online games I've ever played (I mean individual sessions, not titles) were ones in which most everyone had a headset and used them well. I'm admittedly mainly thinking of a handful of really awesome R2 co-op games I lucked into by sheer random happenstance, but I think the principle would hold true generally, and indeed the biggest problem I've had trying to get into Warhawk and Fat Princess (and probably other games I'm not thinking of at the moment) is the lack of team coordination and conversation. It's a heck of a lot more fun, IMO, to play with people than it is to play with a bunch of bots which act funny.

And sure, I know there are plenty of ass clowns out there who behave badly and mess up a lot of games on XBL, but I think the price is well worth paying and the benefits far outweigh the costs. And besides, it's not all that hard to avoid the ass clowns as long as there are also good people to play with.

As to the issue of people who do technically possess headsets that could be used with their PS3s, well, sure, that's a fair point, but I really don't think it affects the validity (or lack thereof, if you disagree with me) of my assertion that a packed-in headset would benefit Sony, game publishers and -- most of all -- us gamers. Presumably such a headset would work out of the box just as easily as the packed-in controller, and nobody would have to waste any time wondering where they left their old headset, whether they can really spare it from their cell phone or whatever, whether it'll work, etc. etc. etc. Nor does the fact that Microsoft includes a headset with most XB360s doesn't seem to have harmed the accessory market much. (I'm actually not completely clear on this -- is a headset shipped with every single model, or do the lowest-end ones not come with one?)

I personally probably won't need it since I already have a fancy-shmancy official PS3 bluetooth headset, and maybe one day I'll get an even fancier-shamcier combo headset+headphones, but I really, really, really hope that Sony gets with the program and at least includes a basic headset with every single PS4 they ever sell.

Im one of these guys. I bought the official PS3 bluetooth with the SOCOM pack, but barely use it, simply because most games I join in on when I play online (either online or competitive) are silent. So most times I start a match with the headset, and if no one else is using one I just put it down for the remainder of the match.

Also, most times I play random games there are maybe 2-3 people out of 12 that have a headset in the first place, and even those that have it are silent. The only times I really end up using it is when I play with people I already know...whether they be old friends or people from the site here.

Of course there are some people who abuse it. For instance, one time when playing a random R2 match some jerk kept blasting some rap music through his mic the entire match, and it was pretty annoying.

Anywho, I think I agree with you Mac. There is clearly a lack of people who own headsets, and Im sure that has an impact on the community. I also will blame the lack of cross-game chat, simply because that is just one other way to hamper communication. If I could chat with friends while playing a single player game, then you build up more friends, and look forward to playing with that person more. The text chat is ok, but its a pain to constantly have to stop your game to access the screen and chat.

I said "opinion basis", I didn't say you were biased. I've played a Ton of Resistance 2, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, CoD:WaW, Burnout Paradise, among other games on the PS3, and I don't remember alot of quiet games.

I just think that alot of people who own a PS3 don't know how to hook up their headsets (not the official one), but it also comes down to if you are one of those who talk to strangers in games.

Now for another opinion, I think that most people who Want to talk in games will figure out about chatting in the game, if they don't own a headset they won't just sit home and say "Fooey, I can't voice chat on the PS3", they'll go get a headset or look up how-to setup your bluetooth online. Maybe its for the best that alot of the 13 year olds that you hear screaming in XBL arent able to afford a headset on the PS3, or dont know how to hook up one?

Halo 3 had a solution (wrong platform for this thread, I know). It took about three-quarters of a second-- you could practically do it between gunshots-- to mute the buzzing mosquito of your choice. I'm surprised that isn't universal.

Speaking of 360 exclusives, I recently got Gears 2, and although I enjoy Horde, I'm disappointed in how few people use their headsets. There's no point in playing with other people if you can't communicate with them. I suppose most of them are a little more intelligent than the AI, but you can't coordinate your tactics. I've also seen the flip side of the argument; idiots blasting music and/or constantly blowing on their mics just to make noise. You name a good thing, griefers can ruin it. But see above.

In short: yeah, PS3 should come with a mic. You can buy a nice mic for the price of a year of XBL, so don't tell me it would drive up the price.

Bob-



You're probably right about cross-game chat -- I can see where it would have a big effect, and I shouldn't have been so dismissive of it -- but I still think it's secondary to the root problem of there being enough of a community of people ready and able to chat in the first place. IOW, I think the fact that we still don't have the feature is a casualty of Sony's basic lack of understanding of the importance of voice chat in the first place. If they grokked it enough to pack in a headset with every PS3, I can't imagine they wouldn't have built cross-game chat in from the beginning.

Shazoo-



LOL! That's the funniest misreading I've been guilty of in a long time! Sorry about that!

Anyway, WRT your other points, I think the answer to all of them is the same: XBL and the XBox community don't have the same problem, so either the difference is that far more XBox gamers have headsets (and therefore use them) because of the pack-in and because Microsoft really gets the whole social/community/chat thing, or there's something demographically different about PS3 gamers such that, on the whole, they're just much less interested in chatting. That strikes me as being much, much less likely. Microsoft makes chat extremely frictionless while Sony makes it a (relatively) expensive pain in the ass, so I don't think it's any surprise that there's a lot more talking going on on XBL.

As to the obnoxious 13-year-olds, well, sure, but I don't think they're generally fun to play with even if they don't have a mic, and if they do, you can always just mute them. But playing anything tactical or strategic without the ability to actually coordinate and plan with your teammates? It's just not nearly as fun (or effective!) as it should be!

The first statement is so true, it's sad. I would play my Playstation 3 so much more often if I could talk to my friends in the process, instead of waving my Sackboy around trying to get their attention...

As far as the Turning off xbox headsets conversation goes; In all versus matches I leave my headset off. Otherwise, I stay in party chat with my friends so I can just ignore the majority of Xbox Live that make obscene requests because I'm a girl, or harass one another for any other reason.

Party chat + Headset + friends = perfection - or as close as you're going to get while still dealing with the internet.

But look at who the majority of PS3 owners probably are (speculating here...), ---PS2 owners who upgraded, and of the millions of PS3 owners I'd be willing to bet alot of them just owned the 2 consoles. We all know what online was like on the PS2 before the Socom headset came along.

Shazoo-



That's an interesting thought, and maybe there's some truth to it, but in general, I think the vast majority of PS2 owners have actually held off on upgrading -- at least until recently, PS3 purchasers have been more cutting/bleeding-edge tech geek types. Maybe now with the price cut that's starting to change, but regardless, it's not like XBL and voice chat is a secret or anything. But maybe there is some kind of cultural inertia at work too, though even if there is, I think Sony could have easily overcome it by including a headset and promoting the heck out of voice chat.

I still say, all the Mature gamers that have friends on the PS3 and want to communicate and play games on the PS3 will get headsets, where as alot of the kiddies gamers will stick to the ease of xbox live for voice chat since it's included.

You may be right about mature gamers who always and only game with the same handful of people (though "included" is always going to cover more people than "extra") but what about non-ass-clown gamers who at least sometimes want to just pick up and play with a bunch of people using the game's and platform's matchmaking service? I mean, that's what matchmaking is there for in the first place! And it's a type of good fortune I bet relatively few people enjoy to always be interested in and able to play the same game as their usual friends at the exact same time. Heck, how long have I been a member here, and how many games have I played with other members? A fair while, and not very many at all.