Sony streaming gaming service "Playstation Now" announced.

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Godmachine

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http://kotaku.com/sony-announces-game-streaming-service-playstation-now-1496385001

Announced today at the company's CES keynote, PlayStation Now will let users access Sony's catalog of games on any device that connects to the service. PlayStation Now builds on the recent acquisition of the Gaikai game streaming service. Sony exec Andrew House told the CES audience that The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls would be among the first games on the service, which will also offer a subscription-based plan.
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We all knew this was coming and its great that good games will be available day one but we've also seen this song and dance before. Onlive attempted to pull this off and is still considered largely a failure. Lack of of a proper internet infrastructure seems to be the biggest issue and most people simply do not have good enough connections to make the latency worth enduring. When I used Onlive many game types (FPS and Racing games) were unplayable due to latency.

Sony of course has a ton more muscle and money to throw around then Onlive but I think this service will vary greatly customer to customer.

Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Thoughts?
 
I need to see it in action myself. I do love the idea of playing games like Last of Us on the Vita. Makes buying one all the more tempting.
 
Kinsaras said:
I need to see it in action myself. I do love the idea of playing games like Last of Us on the Vita. Makes buying one all the more tempting.
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It will VERY MUCH depend on how aggressively Sony's cloud service gets developed. Its going to be needing quite an infrastructure to achieve even half of its potential. Low latency will be absolutely the key factor but of course your connection will play a very large part in how well it'll work.

I really hope it works out. I'd love to have a library of PS3 games I can play on virtually anything at my finger tips anywhere.
 
If this has a price structure for a sub like Netflix it will sell like hotcakes. The price has to be right.
 
HisSvt76 said:
If this has a price structure for a sub like Netflix it will sell like hotcakes. The price has to be right.
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It'll have a monthly fee , that's been confirmed on the floor but not officially to the media. But it'll also have individual sales , its a carbon copy of Onlive in terms of how it will handle sales which is fine for the most part.

If they can get the connection issues dealt with my next big question is when you buy a game through this cloud service .. will it be secured to you and your library or will it be subject to license agreements and under the possible threat of removal if Sony and whatever publisher can't resolve their contract ? Something similar to what happened to Deadpool on Steam. I won't spend money on full games if they might get removed in the future because of contract disputes.
 
Any word if this will be bundled with PS+ Subscriptions? That'd be a pretty sweet deal, if it was.
 
I'm curious how big of an issue latency is. A lot of games have issues with connectivity without streaming the game content, too.
 
I think it's a great idea. They're ahead of the curve too.

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Godmachine said:
It will VERY MUCH depend on how aggressively Sony's cloud service gets developed. Its going to be needing quite an infrastructure to achieve even half of its potential. Low latency will be absolutely the key factor but of course your connection will play a very large part in how well it'll work.

I really hope it works out. I'd love to have a library of PS3 games I can play on virtually anything at my finger tips anywhere.
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I think it is more about getting more people onboard with PS games in general, and the PS brand, by using Bravia TV sets so they get casual games like Minecraft or less demanding indie titles then get addicted and get a PS console to try the more hardcore games. If you're sensitive to latency you're a hardcore gamer usually, and have the console that will be better for gaming overall in those regards imho. Kinda like a way to take steam away from steambox too.
 
i hope they boost their network... its shitty at best atm
 
arr4ws said:
i hope they boost their network... its shitty at best atm
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You mean stability wise? Because I can download 45GB games on my PS4 inside of an hour. Can't do that on my Xbox One , can't do it on my Wii-U , can't do that on my Xbox 360 or my PS3.

I'm pretty sure this cloud based serviced will be compartmentalized to a degree and that won't be a huge problem.
 
Nettwerk said:
Bandwidth caps haha
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This year is going to suck for any Comcast , TWC and At&t customer. All 3 are going to be pushing capped services again across wider groups of their consumers.

But this service shouldn't impact your cap anymore than Netflix does , it probably streams at around 3-5Mbps. Unless you plan to play a massive amount you should be within your cap.

By the way I fucking HATE caps. They serve no purpose but line the pockets of ISPs.
 
SeymourGore said:
Any word if this will be bundled with PS+ Subscriptions? That'd be a pretty sweet deal, if it was.
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We might get a discount but I seriously doubt its free with the service. It'll probably be 14.99 a month or 12.49 for PS+ users.

I would like to see varied tiers of plans though.

1 Year - 59.99
6 Months - 29.99
1 Month - 15.99

Or something along those lines, I have 4 years worth of PS+ because of Black Friday so I'd be willing to do the yearly service so long as the games / service is worth it.

I doubt I'd use it much though unless the games had upgrades to the graphics or something which I doubt. Once I make the switch I usually never go back to the older stuff. I have my PS3 coming to me in my household goods shipment but really I only have Nu Ni,and a few others to finish up before the Summer PS4 push.
 
I wish they would have shown it on actual wifi. If you notice the vita only has bluetooth on and the game is probably being funneled in through the port on the bottom. I would expect the monthly to be $10-15. For me personally I'd subscribe a few times a year to get an old school game fix, but probably not have it on all year depending on the pricing.
 
Have fun getting raped by me over and over with your 1/10th of a second lag.


Lol, like 56k quake. How many times are they going to push this worthless shit on us?
 
Verge said:
Have fun getting raped by me over and over with your 1/10th of a second lag.


Lol, like 56k quake. How many times are they going to push this worthless shit on us?
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They can just setup multiplayer to only play with other people using PS Now.
 
ocellaris said:
They can just setup multiplayer to only play with other people using PS Now.
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Is this service for all Sony consoles? Many PS3 and PSP servers have been shut down, most (if not all) PS2 servers have been shut down, and earlier than that Sony online play doesn't exist. The real latency question is more about basic enjoyment than competition.
 
Playstation Now is an awesome idea and I hope Sony can deliver on their promises. A number of gamers want backwards compatibility and I believe Sony has created an interesting solution. I like the fact the gamer has the choice of either streaming or rent games on an individual basis and it will be available to other Sony product lines (Bravia televisions, tablets, smartphones, etc.). This may be a deciding factor when purchasing my next TV. If I can play PS3 games that I missed, why not?

I'm curious to read more on the technical side of how they are able to accomplish Playstation Now with low latency and smooth gameplay. The Verge left Sony's CES booth impressed with the service running from a Bravia television.
 
SeymourGore said:
Any word if this will be bundled with PS+ Subscriptions? That'd be a pretty sweet deal, if it was.
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No chance this will happen at all. They mentioned in the press release about paying money to stream individual games or signing up for a subscription based model to stream a library of games.

At the absolute very best, PS+ subscribers may get a reduced price... don't count on it. Buying GaiKai cost Sony a lot of money. Developing and bolting that technology into Sony infrastructure cost a lot of money. Building out, maintaining, scaling and continuing to support said infrastrucutre will cost even MORE money.

As of today, Nintendo is worth more than Sony (again). Sony isn't doing that well as a whole, they are not in a position nor the market to give shit away for free. Don't let the value of PS+ fool you, Sony HAD to do something like that to compete against Live. Added value to PS+ via Now isn't a feasible business decision. Sony has to be profitable with this. Matter of fact I will go as far to say that the income generated from Now sales/subscriptions will offset the losses they take by giving away good software to PS+ subscribers.

Ultimately I hear a lot of posative praise about Now. But people need to remember, all of this technology has been around for years. OnLive was doing this like 2 years ago, and has been streaming to mobile devices for quite some time. People thought that was cool and awesome for a while too.. then people realized that streaming games, regardless of latency wasn't as enjoyable as playing locally. Bit starvation and data compression ultimately reduces the qualilty and while many people will enjoy Now, I suspect at launch and for the entire first year from launch Sony is going to encounter countless issues.

Still though, this is the way to go. Streaming games will forever be the only way for BC going forward. The tech needs to catch up quite a bit before it will see wide success though.

Mr. Miyagi said:
Playstation Now is an awesome idea and I hope Sony can deliver on their promises. A number of gamers want backwards compatibility and I believe Sony has created an interesting solution. I like the fact the gamer has the choice of either streaming or rent games on an individual basis and it will be available to other Sony product lines (Bravia televisions, tablets, smartphones, etc.). This may be a deciding factor when purchasing my next TV. If I can play PS3 games that I missed, why not?

I'm curious to read more on the technical side of how they are able to accomplish Playstation Now with low latency and smooth gameplay. The Verge left Sony's CES booth impressed with the service running from a Bravia television.
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1. Sony didn't invent anything, they bought GaiKai.
2. GaiKai and OnLive have been doing all of this for over 2 years. The answers to all of your questions are and have been on the internet ages before Sony purchased GaiKai.
 
This works well with the Nvidia shield. I have been using grid streaming pc games from their servers and its awsome. Whatever lag is caused by isnt enough for me to dominate poeple in Street Fighter 4 Arcade edition. Works well for shield. Devices without dedicated controllers probably not so much without third party accessories.
 
relapse808 said:
This works well with the Nvidia shield. I have been using grid streaming pc games from their servers and its awsome. Whatever lag is caused by isnt enough for me to dominate poeple in Street Fighter 4 Arcade edition. Works well for shield. Devices without dedicated controllers probably not so much without third party accessories.
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This is quite different beast of local streaming. This is streaming to millions of consumers at once across the net.

Local streaming is easy.
 
Godmachine said:
This is quite different beast of local streaming. This is streaming to millions of consumers at once across the net.

Local streaming is easy.
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learn to read my post bro.....im not local streaming....my pc is turned OFF. I said grid in my previous post....if you dont know what it is research it.
 
relapse808 said:
learn to read my post bro.....im not local streaming....my pc is turned OFF. I said grid in my previous post....if you dont know what it is research it.
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I thought PC streaming on the Shield was restricted to Steam only?

Bro.
 
Godmachine said:
I thought PC streaming on the Shield was restricted to Steam only?

Bro.
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Please oblviously you have no damn clue what you are talking about. Yeah thats right Nvidia already has a cloud streaming service out and guess what I can play all the games they offer at no cost.
 
relapse808 said:
Please oblviously you have no damn clue what you are talking about. Yeah thats right Nvidia already has a cloud streaming service out and guess what I can play all the games they offer at no cost.
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So instead of informing you would rather insult? Good communication skills.. bro.
 
Godmachine said:
So instead of informing you would rather insult? Good communication skills.. bro.
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not really, i was informing people of my experiences with cloud gaming to mobile devices. Then you come along, dont even read my post at all and then post that im local streaming. Kinda annoying.
 
relapse808 said:
not really, i was informing people of my experiences with cloud gaming to mobile devices. Then you come along, dont even read my post at all and then post that im local streaming. Kinda annoying.
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Again I obviously didn't get the gist of your post and instead of actually explaining thus informing me you act the way you are currently acting.

Anyway not worth a continued discussion. Also since Nvidia Shield is PC only it doesn't really matter how streaming is on it. I doubt there are even a million Shield's out in the wild and by the time the summer rolls around there will be 5-6 million PS4's and there are 80 million PS3's and probably 5+ million PS Vita's and potentially hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets.

So that's streaming to less than a million Shields (probably not even half a million) versus streaming to hundreds of millions of devices.
 
Godmachine said:
So instead of informing you would rather insult? Good communication skills.. bro.
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LOL says the person that started with a insult, albeit passive aggressive.

I don't see Sony being able to improve it over Onlive very much in this short timespan, doubting it'll be any good until I see it.
 
Samson4EiT said:
LOL says the person that started with a insult, albeit passive aggressive.

I don't see Sony being able to improve it over Onlive very much in this short timespan, doubting it'll be any good until I see it.
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It wasn't an insult it was a statement and believe me if it wasn't I wouldn't be passive aggressive about it.

Seems however that my "internet" tone is being taken the wrong way.

I also doubt Sony can serve hundreds of millions of devices with any kind of consistency. The amount of bandwidth and the issues of latency will be just impossible to ignore.
 
theNoid said:
1. Sony didn't invent anything, they bought GaiKai.
2. GaiKai and OnLive have been doing all of this for over 2 years. The answers to all of your questions are and have been on the internet ages before Sony purchased GaiKai.
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1. I can how my post is a little confusing, but where did I say Sony invented anything? By purchasing GaiKai and using their game streaming service, Sony came up with an interesting solution (Playstation Now) to play older games (instead of using software emulation on the local device).

2. Yes, you are correct, and I have used OnLive to play PC games on my MacBook. Sure, the answer to "how game streaming works" is online, but not to the scale that Playstation Now will be. OnLive only has 1600 concurrent users and still has problems with latency. I just wanted to know what Sony is doing to help fight this. I'm sure partnering with Rackspace will help though.
 
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