Sony's Cloud Gaming Service Is PlayStation Now [UPDATED]

As long as the service runs reasonably well and doesn't cost a bomb, it can't be a bad thing. I'm sure they wouldn't release a service with the same issues we saw with Onlive.

I for one am pretty excited that they may have found a viable way to allow us to utilise backwards compatibility without increasing the price of the core system in any way.

Regardless, at the end of the day, the service will be entirely optional. If you don't like the idea, you won't be forced to take it on.

I'm pretty torn on this. On one hand I don't know if I like the idea of paying to play games that I already owned even though it wasn't much of a catalog. That said I pay for Netflix in order to have access to streaming movies, a lot of which I already own. hmmm . . .

Not sure how i feel about this, OnLive was fine but never lived up to expectations, from what ive heard the UK wont see this service until next year (2015) anyway so not something i need to really concern myself with just now. Not sure i fancy paying another sony sub ontop of PS Plus and Music Unlimited, the shine is starting to wear off a little...

This is pretty cool. On my PS3 I can play PS1, PS2 remasters, PS3, and PSN games. I don't have to make recurring payments for this privilege, just a one-time purchase for each title. Unfortunately I cannot buy my favourite PSX game, Ape Escape.

Not everyone cares about playing old games and I think it's a good decision they have moved these costs off of regular gamers so that the people that do want these old games pay for the privilege.

Might actually pick up a PS4 now, this sounds awesome but I need to know how much I will be paying first and how many games will be included. Been waiting a Spyro 1-3 re-releases and if they are included in this it is a must buy for me.

@brendan: Sorry. I guess my emotional immaturity made me think that they were obviously two incomparable situations. One that would penalize a user and lock them out of playing games if their internet ever happened to go out or was inaccessible for any reason, and another that's an online service which a user can choose to engage in when they can. So no disparity exists. But I was probably just blinded by bias. Thank you for correcting me.

Yeah new things suck! Good job Sony giving me an optional avenue to try games i've been interested in but haven't had a chance to try. And what am I supposed to do with the games I already have...play them on the system I bought?Yeah right.

This is going to be a shitshow, but I'm prepared to pay an extra $50 a year if they have something usable when the dust clears.

@joshwent: Your bias/emotional immaturity clearly prevented you from properly reading my post. If you did you would have seen that I wasn't taking a side in a console war, only noticing the disparity between those complaining about the quality of their internet connection in regards to this feature and Microsofts early plans. I dont plan on buying a One if it makes you feel any better.

I cannot fathom why you think Sony would buy Gaikai and build this infrastructure just to engender some feel-good nonsense about backward compatibility. This isn't some half-assed ROM dump like Gameroom was.

Never mind that the poster you're quoting has it all wrong. You don't pay twice. You either rent or subscribe, not both.

As a PS plus subscriber I think it's totally fair to charge an additional fee for this service given the potential catalogue it could encompass. But ya know, maybe a little discount for us PS plus guys? :-D

From IGN:

"Sony has confirmed that PlayStation Now will be a subscription-based service -- though whether it will tie-in to existing subscriptions like PlayStation Plus remains to be seen -- and will support online multiplayer and Trophies. Players can also opt not to subscribe and rent games on a by-game basis."

It looks like you can subscribe OR rent individual games. It doesn't look like both.

WILL PAY FOR GAMES

Oh, I fully expect this to fail. This is an excellent point you make, but just how much bandwidth do you need for the streaming for it not to lag and/or have poor image quality.

This is feel-good nonsense so they can look like they give a crap about BC for the first year or so. I give it that long to end up like gameroom.

My big American FIOS connection says bring it!

Does anyone know if all games will be available from the PS1 era?

I remember OnLive being a smidge laggy, then going on to play GaiKai's ME2 demo and being smooth as a baby's bottom. I also like the idea of a digital rental service just like Netflix, if it turns out that that. It'll be perfect for me!

@dewar:

I think what they're saying is you can pay the subscription fee or rent. I don't think you'd pay twice. At least I hope not.

Requires 100mbps connection

Not releasing this to other platforms than Sony's own is a missed opportunity imo.
I understand why they aren't, though.

Onlive never did any of that. They failed because of poor management, lack of consumer confidence, poor messaging, and catering to a demographic that barely existed -- the hardcore gamer who couldn't afford consoles or a gaming PC, yet was willing to throw a full $60 at versions of games they didn't actually own and performed worse both graphically and due to latency.

There was always a place for this technology, and Sony is right on. Basically a console version of Gametap. Nintendo has been minting money off of it for years with Virtual Console, but leaving money on the table by not offering some sort of subscription plan with all of the games no one is willing to pay full Mario money for yet would like to try, and sweeten the pot by making some of the premium games available in a retation, like certain F2P titles do (Super Monday Night Combat, etc).

So Sony will do well, but only if they position this correctly.

Fuuuck yesss!

I can't believe this is happening so early! I thought we wouldn't learn what Sony's game streaming plan was even going to be until E3-- instead, it sounds like it'll be up and running by then!

I wonder how they'll handle the availability of games-? Will everything be available day one, or will they be rolling things out on a month-by-month basis to keep interest high and encourage people to stay subscribed?

And what will it cost? Will there be trophies, even if they're the most rudimentary "time logged in game" kind? Will it actually fucking work at all?

SO MANY QUESTIONS I WANT TO KNOW

somebody tell me

@dewar: I think it's an option. Pay the subscription and you get everything, if you don't you have to pay to rent it.

I'm more confident in this system now than I was before Christmas. I did the wifi remote play using my Vita to play my PS4 which was half the country away and had virtually no input lag. I played Assassin's Creed 4, and I took out a couple of enemy ships. I played half a stage of Resogun and that was totally fine(though that tiny of details on that smaller of a screen make it tricky to make things out) So I have faith that this service is going to to have low enough latency.

I want this to be the best thing.

People can be spied on through xbox live. 2013 actually happened and we've come to know that governments are recording and storing every ounce of data that they can. People can be "spied on" by anything at this point. How could the Kinect be impervious when nothing else is?

Sounds good if you want to play ps3 (and later ps4?) games on your vita,not so confident it's going to provide an optimal experience on say my ipad,with it's 4:3 aspect ratio and having to balance it on my lap to use a controller.

Oh, hey! Another awesome service that the infrastructure in this country can in no way handle! Awesome!

If I can stream to the new Sony tv I got then that's pretty cool, if it works without lag of course. Great option me as I've not played any exclusives on the ps3 never mind ps4.

sony continues to steal surnames from google

I don't have the bandwidth to stream games. I'd rather they just put out their entire ps1-3 catalog up for download. Everyone else have fun with this I guess. It unfortunately does nothing for me.

If you want to play old games own that console, otherwise you leave yourself open for exploitation because you are left with no alternative but Sony's monopoly.

Finally, I will play PS3 games the way they were meant to be played. On the Vita, in bed, with no clothes on.

Wait, in addition to the subscription costs, there's a rental fee per title? Am I reading that correctly, that you pay for the subscription AND you pay a fee for each title played?

How I wish for them to make it possible for you to stream PS3 games that you already have without having to pay for them again. Sort of like they make you use the PS3 disc in your PS4 in order to use that $10 upgrade for the PS4 version. Put in the PS3 disc for authentication and then just stream the game on your PS4.

Sadly that will never happen since that wouldn't generate as much profit.

Of course Europe gets left behind...

I really just want my classics backwards compatible on PS4. I suppose 'checking the disc' and then allowing you access to a streamed version of most PS3 / 2 / 1 games is probably too much to hope for?

It's probably just a rotating list of free or discounted digital purchases like PS+, right? :|

Well Depending on how its priced i'm tentatively super excited. I just hope you can stream the gameplay to twitch but thats alot of streaming going on at once.

Well you could always pay to play the games you don't own and keep on playing, for free, the games you do own on the systems you bought them for. I mean you could do that too. Totally an option. You can even just not pay for the service at all! The games you own will still work!

Lots of options, all better than crying like a child and making it look like you can't grasp the very simple explanation of how things like this work.

There should at least be a discount for PS+ members.

Not only that, but a games streaming service is very different than having "always on" authentication. Games streaming is sending inputs to a server where the game is running and the video is sent back - you still have to be online all the time but now you also have a bunch of latency between you and the game. Always on is just a wrapper around the content you have installed locally - doesn't change the game in at all except that if you fail to authenticate (handshake with a server every so often) the wrapper restricts access to the game (though I don't recall the exact specifics for the X1, so that may not have applied to disc based games; just to cloud saves, achievements, and digital titles?).

Granted, this is an optional service and not the whole of the console but it is, to the player, a worse option for playing the game than just authentication.

I'm still hopeful that Microsoft rolls out an always on service that allows for actual game rentals (so I can play locally) and not this streaming games nonsense.

From the playstation blog

"We want to offer you choice when it comes to how you want to access content on PS Now, so you will be able to rent by title for specific games you are interested in. We’ll also offer a subscription that will enable you to explore a range of titles."

Yeah, but you'll still have to pay for the service then pay for the game either/or rent the game. Your basically paying to play the game that you bought/rented, online or single player. Its an always-online system. Its OnLive.

Any idea if this'll be a Netflix-style, everything's available, service?