Xbox Live done for free to the consumer. Featuring a lot of stuff XBOX live has.

Sony Online, publisher of massively multiplayer online time-sinks such as EverQuest series, Star Wars Galaxies, and the recently unleashed Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has announced a new service designed to help you keep track of all those online worlds many of us find so much more engrossing than the real thing.

Dubbed Station Launcher, the planned offering boasts features similar to those of publisher Valve's Steam content delivery system or Microsoft's ridiculously popular Xbox Live network. In other words, it will enable you to download games and goodies more efficiently. No word on any achievements scoring system or trophy rooms, but it does add in several other features, including some cribbed from Instant Messenger and iTunes.

Station Launcher will keep tabs on all your Sony Online products, and automatically ensure you're locked and loaded with any patches and (should you wish it) expansion packs that might strike your fancy. It will be able to import your friends lists from all SOE products, so you can keep track of your buddy's progress in PlanetSide (yep - it still exists) even as you explore the newly-announcedRise of Kunark expansion in EverQuest II. It can also port external friends lists from instant messenger clients like ICQ and AIM. Sony Online hopes to cooperate with other MMO publishers (Blizzard and NCSoft come to mind) to incorporate their products into the system as well.

Sayyed via gamesradar.com »