PS2 Online Pack

[Rushy]

For me whilst the features of the single sign on are positive, I'd prefer good games, which frankly Live hasn't delivered yet, although with RTCW out today that might be about to change, and in my view what Sony has provided has been much better, but both are thin on the ground. I still wait with interest come November on how many people renew subscriptions to Live.

Can't agree with what u state here. Sony has not produced any decent online content yet, socom is a poor mans CS and TMB possibly the worst online game I've ever had the misfortune to play. I'm not saying that the Xbox L!VE content has been great yet , but I have spent much time online on my Xbox rather than my PS2. Both MotoGP and GhostRecon are excellent online titles and are both superior to Sony's attempts.

[Papercut]

Active Directory is the cornerstone of the authentication and and network based resource management, i.e. a directory, for Windows. It has alot of other features but its prime design was for network based authentication. Passport is based on this, Sony don't have this type of capability without coding it themselves or buying it in. MS have had this type of technology as far back as MS LAN Manager, which came out about 11 years ago and have therefore much more experience in this field.

You don't seem to understand the distinction I'm making between user account directories and authentication mechanisms, as well as my original point regarding them.

Active Directory's main interface is ldap, which is not an authentication mechanism, followed by legacy NT domain support. Yes Active Directory is designed for network resource management, no it was not designed for authentication. None of which I was talking about.

I merely made the observation that MS' new Passport authentication technology, designed primarily to work well over the Internet compared to previous proprietary MS network authentication mechanisms, was already available to MS and would give them an advantage in setting up Live. Which in fact backs up your argument.

I then made the point that this advantage counted for little when Sony were not intending a similar, single-sign on, global directory themselves.