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PlayStation Now Announced (PS1/2/3 streaming)

Kelthaz

Kelthaz

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Rear Admiral
Sony's streaming game service is PlayStation Now

Destructoid said:
Through this service, PS1, PS2, and PS3 games will be playable over the internet on PS3, PS4, PS Vita, and also on devices like tablets, smartphones, and televisions. Even non-PlayStation devices will eventually support PS Now.
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Playstation Now is a subscription service where you pay a monthly/annual fee to have access to an emulated library of Playstation games over the past two decades. Or you can pay a rental fee for each individual title. It's the Netflix of Video games.

This is a very promising idea, but I would like more details regarding pricing and available content before I get too excited. PS Now is launching this summer, so the details should start trickling out soon.
 
Interesting. So this would be the Gakai we've been hearing about. I'd be more interested if there could be a combined deal for PS+ users, or maybe combine the services together, but I understand if they want to make more money.
 
I'm curious to see how they've addressed the streaming issues that have plagued similar services. Latency's nasty, especially in fast-action games.
 
^Ye cannae change the laws o' physics. Heck, even the 40 or so milliseconds of lag on my HDTV bugs me. Been playing my games more and more on a low lag PC monitor partly for that reason.

I'll stick with hunting down discs of old PlayStation games. I'll see how well it works if they let you check it out for free, but I'm not expecting much, and I'm certainly not going to pay a subscription for this.
 
Maybe he means 'stream' as in the kind of disc streaming an open world game like GTA5 does. Swapping assets in and out of memory as you move around the game world to avoid loading screens. Or maybe something along the lines of the way next-gen games install, but allow you to play after a certain point while the game is still installing.

I don't know why he would think that either of those things, since it's pretty clear that the technology in question is processing the game in the cloud, streaming video to the client, and the client is sending controller input back to the cloud.
 
It all depends on the latency.. both of your internet connection and the Sony machine that processes the game and sends the signal to you.

For some games a small lag is not that big of a problem but games like action shooters or beat em ups live and die by lag so for some they may become unplayable as a streaming game.

Personally i'm very interested in this service and apart from the PS4 itself was one of the other major factors that decided which console i'd buy. It's a genius move by Sony to establish such a service since the machine can't be backwards compatible for hardware reasons. The PS4 will have its shiny, graphics intense modern games but some PS3 or even older games live by the story they tell or their unique gameplay and that is mostly not related to state of the art graphics.

Now the only thing that would sour that deal is if Sony decides to rip off its customers.
 
Yoda said:
Maybe he means 'stream' as in the kind of disc streaming an open world game like GTA5 does. Swapping assets in and out of memory as you move around the game world to avoid loading screens. Or maybe something along the lines of the way next-gen games install, but allow you to play after a certain point while the game is still installing.
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Yes, that's what I meant.


I don't know why he would think that either of those things, since it's pretty clear that the technology in question is processing the game in the cloud, streaming video to the client, and the client is sending controller input back to the cloud.
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That wouldn't work either, since my connection in my region isn't fast enough for HD video streaming.
 
You might be able to get by without HD for PS1 and PS2 games at least. But yeah, the tech is hampered by the fact that many people don't have good enough Internet for it to really work, and there are limitations as to how well it can ever work.

In-home streaming works pretty well for the Wii U Gamepad Controller... But IMO using PS Vita for PS4 streaming just isn't good enough, even on my local network with a pretty solid Wireless N router (and PS4 wired). Can feel the lag, and the 30FPS limitations. Yes it works fine for some games. Lag isn't going to bother anyone playing Final Fantasy. But I like playing a lot of action fast twitch stuff. My PS3 is an original model that handles all PS1 and PS2 games as well, so right now I'm good with two consoles for all my PlayStation brand stuff, which works for me.

I'll admit that similar tech, OnLive, does work better than I would have expected, but I really hope that cloud processing for games never takes off in that way. I'll take a console rendering my game with me at home any day of the week.
 
There's apparently a minimum internet speed requirement needed for this. But what I'm real worried about is the data caps. Not every country is equal in terms of data available to the user. Some say data caps are on the verge of disappearing, but I can't see that happening anytime soon in Canada. In fact, it's likely to become even more of a problem going forward.
 
I wasn't taking the word streaming quite so literally. I assumed that you would be allowed to download these games to your hard drive, but you would be required to be online in order to play them.
 
Kelthaz said:
I wasn't taking the word streaming quite so literally. I assumed that you would be allowed to download these games to your hard drive, but you would be required to be online in order to play them.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work like that because the PS4 hardware architecture is very different to prior Playstations and they can't play these games for technical reasons and not because Sony has included a special chip or patch that prevents it.

PS3 and older games will be processed on Sony servers and you will just receive the video feed that is calculated based on your controller actions. As i said the main problem will be stable connections and lag. May not be an issue if you play a game that's not decided in milliseconds such as adventure or roleplaying games (especially japanese Rpgs with their turn based combat system) where such lag may decide if you hit or you will get hit.

People with good connections may obviously get more out of PS Now, the rest may be hosed but do you want to fault Sony for that if you live in an area with mediocre or bad internet availability?
 
FPAlpha said:
Kelthaz said:
I wasn't taking the word streaming quite so literally. I assumed that you would be allowed to download these games to your hard drive, but you would be required to be online in order to play them.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work like that because the PS4 hardware architecture is very different to prior Playstations and they can't play these games for technical reasons and not because Sony has included a special chip or patch that prevents it.
Click to expand...
Well that's what Sony likes you to think. ;)
 
Yes, that makes sense. My original thoughts were that this was an emulation service similar to Nintendo's Virtual Console, but that clearly isn't the case. I wasn't thinking.
 
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