PS3 to use one login

PS3's entire online service will use just one sign-in name or "gamertag" for every game, regardless of which game you are playing.

The clarification comes from a member of one of Sony's own studios after a recent flurry of rumors had indicated that every title would demand its own login passwords rather than relying on a central gamertag, much like the ones used by Xbox Live.

Dan Brooke, producer on PS3 title Resistance: Fall of Man, revealed the news to GamesIndustry.biz when he admitted that he "wishes to be clear that Resistance uses the PlayStation online ID to sign into the game. There is no separate login for Resistance and the online ID you create will be the same you use for all titles."

Gossip has been rife that each game would demand its own online ID system after Brooke's boss and Insomniac Games' own Ted Price had revealed that Resistance wouldn't use the central buddy list offered by PS3. Instead the man behind the Ratchet and Clank series said that his first next-gen game would allow gamers to build their own lists of chums. And with that nugget of info, two was quickly added to two and five hundred stories appeared on the net claiming that PS3 would demand a whole host of passwords and names.

But now that rumor can be driven tothebridgeand fitted with cement shoes. Because we know that a single ID will allow gamers to identify gamers on any title and system. Developers will have the choice, however, to use Sony's online extras or, alternatively, create their own systems for friend lists, clans and match-making functions, just as the fellas behind Resistance: Fall of Man have done.

We'll have much more on PS3 and its online capabilities as its launch date of November 17 draws nearer.

November 9, 2006