Unification.
Xbox Live is a centralized service with physical infrastructure that is run and maintained by Microsoft. PSN is more like PC's - Each game runs on it's own infrastructure.
What that means is that when you log into Live you have a single account and friends list that's available in all games all the time. Not only that, it allows cross game messaging and voice chat (If your mate is playing something else you can still talk to them) That also extends to cross game invites. Live also integrates with MSN/Live Messenger for PC, so you can message someone in a game from a PC and vice versa. There's also Xbox.com, which extends a lot of that functionality onto the web.
That's the basics, then there's the less technical stuff.
Xbox Live Arcade is huge compared to PSN with games ranging from Arcade classics to Indy hits like N+ and Alien Hominid. All games come with free trial versions, which are basically the full game but locked, so no double downloads. Highlights for this year so far look to be Pirates versus ninjas - Dodge ball, Castle Crashers, Happy Tree Friends, and Penny Arcade Adventures. There's usually 1 or 2 released every Wednesday for about $10 each.
Demo's and Beta's. PSN has caught up on getting game demo's, but not beta's. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Battlefield: Bad Company, were all released in beta on the 360 for early playtesting. It's part of the 360 development platform, not so with PSN.
In 4 regions there's also "
Video Marketplace" - basically the ability to download movies and TV series directly to your 360. We may never get it here, but at least it remains a possibility. We can hope
Then there's
achievements.
This ones a double edged sword. They're little points noddy badges you get accomplishing something in a game. (Finishing a level on a cetain difficulty, killing 3 guys with one grenade etc etc) Each 360 gamer has a 'gamerscore' which is the accumulated score of all achievements attained. They sound odd, out they get addictive! What they do do is incentivize you to explore parts of a game that you may otherwise overlook. A game like Crackdown is a good example of how Achievements add to a game.
The final matter is community. The ZA live community looks to be at least 4 times the size of the PSN community. (based on forum userstats) Current guestimate is around 3000 guys in SA on live. With the unified system, it means finding running games at any time is a cinch. You pull up you friends list see who's playing what and join a game in progress. No searching for populated servers, no trying to find your mates. Tack "Friends of Friends" onto that, where you can also look at your friends friends list and join their games. And you've got a system built specifically for online play.
O.
And how could I forget!
Community Arcade! Is the ultimate in user generated content. Think about it, using tools that are absolutely free, anyone can write games and publish them on the 360. The mind boggles! All those awesome flash games, Line Rider, Crayon physics, Desktop tower defence, all those games could come to Live. I've played the 7 which were released for free and they're great. "Dishwasher the last samurai" and "Jelly car" were awesome! If you're dubious, we're not talking actual flash here, it's all based on XNA / .NET which is good stuff that can do full 3D, physics, dynamic lighting, the works (but obviously not up to the level of a full 360 game)
Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiVAtkQ6a8s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgChURF5fQE&feature=related
Community Arcade should launch around mid year.
EDIT: :blush: that was way longer than I though ...
