WiiLoaded.com - Wii Forum and News

Why on Earth somebody wants to text scrawny little messages on their consoles, when they can voice-chat screams of hate I don't know? But it seems everybody on the Interweb is getting excited about the Xbox 360s further integration with Windows via the new Xbox LIVE MSN Messenger feature. Is this really something that will make PlayStation owners green with envy?

Well if Sony felt their users wanted a similar PC instant messaging service then they might look at Yahoo Messenger which already allows limited inter-connectivity with MSN Messenger. Yahoo Messenger would provide a far more user friendly service than Xfire, which Sony have previously assessed for use with the PS3. Previously the Yahoo and Microsoft did not allow any contact across their programmes, but on the 12th July 2006 they allowed their respective instant messaging programmes to have limited inter-connectivity. This means users of Yahoo Messenger can 'text' users of Windows Messenger & vice-versa; although voice-chat across the programmes is still not possible. So, and this is pure speculation here, if Sony did adopt Yahoo Messenger on to the PlayStation 3 then cross console messaging is a real possibility -providing Microsoft choose not to block it. Xbox 360 owners would be able to send abuse to their PS3 owner friends whilst playing Halo 3. This actually sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

read the rest here/source

Wow that's off the boat, I see no reason why sony would ditch Xfire, it's a solid enough system.

Yahoo messenger would make the entire Playstation community groan "Oh Noes" and the 360 community ROFL.

Nah. I might be being too hard on Yahoo messenger. I don't know about anyone else, but Yahoo! seems so.... 1998.

But it would be kinda fun to harass the PS3 owners right now, when the 360 has a slight edge over it in terms of games, etc.

I like Yahoo Messanger

Well, my bias is one part preference and one part "I don't know anyone who uses Yahoo! Messenger".

Although, I assume it has to be a good service if it's lasted this long.

I really prefer yahoo messenger, and I wish the Wii would use them. My reason is simply because it's very easy to tap into people's computers using MSN/Live messenger, and many firewall programs actually give you the option to totally disable the program and/or uninstall it for that reason.

I'm big on security, so I stay away from MSN/Live

I don't even understand how that would work. I mean it SOUNDS plausible for like a... top-of-my-head kind of idea, but even if it does work, I don't see the point.

If you download Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, you can talk to people on each network, so you don't have to be on an exclusive instant messengers, but they have now "teamed up" so that you can talk to friends on both messengers. In theory someone using a version of Windows Live Messenger could talk to someone using a version of Yahoo messenger if Sony uses that for the PS3.

Yeah, I just don't get how it would translate to consoles. I mean... it seems easy for PC's but consoles don't use the same OS as PC's. I'm pretty sure that if it's possible something will be done about it, MS and Sony are lame like that.

Think of it this way. Some people on this forum might use Opera web browser to access the site. Nintendo decided to use Opera for the Wii to access the internet. Technically both the PC and Wii version is Opera, but as you can image, the Wii version had to be tweaked for the system. Those people on their Wii's can still access this site and post. I think it could be the same way with instant messengers.

Well according to you, compatibility shouldn't be an issue so we don't have to worry about that. However, there's still the issue of MS blocking it, and Sony even letting Yahoo make an instant messenger for their console.

I think your thoughts are pretty obvious. All this is speculation at this point, and since I don't work for Microsoft anymore, I can't tell you what their plans are.

You worked for MS? That's pretty cool... anyway, my thoughts are (you already know) that this is an interesting idea, but it seems unlikely and pointless. It'd just make cross-console flaming easier.

I was joking about the MS thing. Even if Sony and Microsoft (if sony even uses yahoo) didn't want people to talk, there are plenty of talented individuals who could do a little sumthin' sumthin' to possibly make it happen