New York Times

The Sony Corporation will announce Thursday that it has signed a deal to bring Major League Baseball’s live streaming service to PlayStation3 video game consoles.

By the end of the week, PlayStation owners will be able to sign up with MLB.TV to watch out-of-market baseball games transmitted over the Internet. It is the latest in a series of digital distribution deals recently announced by sports franchises.

The PlayStation deal is MLB’s first with a video game maker, giving Sony a leg up for the time being. Users of the PlayStation Network online service will be able to gain access to the existing MLB.TV package, which includes hundreds of baseball games — excluding local team games and others that are broadcast on TV — for an annual fee. There is a revenue split associated with the deal, but Sony would not specify the terms.

People in the NeoGAF MLB thread have already tested out the MLB app on their PS3s and the responses seem to be a bit mixed. The big problem is the MLB.TV blackouts. Since I actually live in the same area as my favorite (shitty) team, I can’t watch them on MLB.TV. So I couldn’t cut ties from cable if I wanted to, since I want to watch Oliver Perez suck and Jason Bay strike out twice a game.

Nonetheless, it’s really cool to see MLB allowing its fans to watch games in as many ways as possible: internet browsers, iPhone, iPad, now PS3. They should just have an option to be able to pay to watch local games — JUST local games if that’s what the person wants. I guess that would be too utopian, though.

friend: so ive been playing killzone
friend: and it looks great
friend: but fps sucks on a controller im sorry
me: lol
me: hey, you enjoyed COD4
me: greatly
friend: very true
me: COD4 > KZ2 confirmed
friend: well, yes
friend: easily
me: another ps3 exclusive annihilated

In case you don’t know what Tumblr is, it’s a combination of blogging and social networking. It calls itself a micro-blogging service. People post shit like this. It’s a bit more substantial than something like Twitter, but I think less useful. And uglier. I made one just for the fuck of it, and named it accordingly.

If you haven’t heard of Qore, it’s a new gaming show that will be available only on PSN, and a subscription to it will include exclusive content like themes, demos, and betas. And it’s hosted by Veronica Belmont. Here’s a link about it. The fact that it’s hosted by her and I still think it’s garbage should be a warning sign.

It’s $2.99 a show or $24.99 for a year (13 episodes) subscription. Yes, it’s not really that much, but this is only the first step. Yes, it’s half the price of a year subscription to Xbox Live, but the latter is REQUIRED for a 360 owner to play online. You can already play PS3 games online for free. 360 owners are powerless once they own the console. Live is what makes the 360 worth it, but I always hoped free online on the PS3 would help drive the price down, or make MS truly pump up the features of Live somehow (dedicated servers anyone?). Unfortunately, PSN and PS3 haven’t exactly lit up the gaming world, and MS is able to get away with charging $50 a year because Live is vastly superior.

If you subscribe to Qore, you are throwing away your free online forever. Sony will make sure to come up with more online features to put a price tag on. It’s DLC all over again. The only DLC I bought was the COD4 map pack, and I wholeheartedly regret it. Especially now that PC gamers are getting them for free. Learn from my mistake. Do not spend money on Qore. There is plenty of videogame-related content on the internet readily available for free. You can live without those demos and betas. Tell Sony to shove their sly scheme up their ass. All console gamers would reap the benefits. Except Wii-only owners. But they don’t count anyway.