February 27^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Looking to appeal more to the online gamers, Sony recently announced they were setting up an online network, similiar to what Microsoft has with XBox Live. The company building the network is a startup company called Butterfly.net Inc. Some people might remember them from their deal last year with IBM to build an online gaming network capable of supporting over 1 million gamers at once.

No details have been given regarding pricing, release dates or features, but I expect Sony to be very competitive with Microsoft on this one. Sony said they’ll not only waive any royalty fees for games with online content, but they’ll also help developers and provide them with the tools needed to support Butterfly.net. It all means more online games for PS2. If the huge userbase wasn’t enough to entice developers, no royalties and network support from Sony surely will.