PSN = Xbox Live?

The latest edition of Gametrailers’ Bonus Round features an interview with director of PlayStation Network operations Eric Lempel. Lempel discusses the inevitable comparison with Xbox Live;

“Microsoft had a year jump on us for the launch and essentially we’re offering a lot of the same stuff. I don’t think there’s a big difference in exactly what we’re offering when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of what’s actually there for the consumer… We’re not charging money for our service. That’s a key differentiating factor.”

“I like how their marketplace is integrated directly into their user interface….Talking across games is fantastic. That definitely builds momentum for games and actually migrate users to other games and keeps you in touch with your gaming community.

"We’re working on an achievements system... I can’t say if it’s definitely tied to a gamerscore or something like Xbox does but that is an important feature."

“We’re continuing to build on this. We’re definitely going to have all of those features at some point. We know that they (consumers) want it and we’re building to get there… It’s not in the next firmware update but it’s something we’re working on."

Good to know that Sony appear to be listening to their customers. The achievement system will, I suspect, be tied to Home - that's something that Sony have already talked about. I think that most people want 2 things on PSN though - cross game comms and cross game invites. Then Sony can really say that they are on the same page as Microsoft.