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

Yes because Sony is literally going to force you to sign up for this.

People are such whiny little bitches over completely optional stuff

This is likely the way they'll go with the service, it gives them options to price it separately for those that do not have ps+ or require a ps+ subscription. Either way, I believe they'll position the service as an added benefit at no extra cost to existing ps+ members (free games every month like they do now, or have an amazon instant style library) and upsell rentals and purchases. At least, that's how I'd do it... let's just hope the service works as advertised.

Yeah! Fuck $ony. Obviously, if they cared about consumers at all, they'd have it set up to mail us physical copies of all these PS1 and PS2 games so we can all have access to this fundamentally necessary feature that the console won't work without.

If you can't see the difference between a console needing to check up on you over the internet every day to make sure you're not stealing or it won't work, and an optional service that lets you stream old games, you need to look again.

The whole Big Brother is Watching cliche is just as tired and ridiculous as the initial comparison between this service and having a constant internet connection. I agree that it's not the same thing as XBO's original online policies but I was really hoping these assumptions that Microsoft was going to be constantly checking up and spying on you through Kinect were a thing we left in the horrible pre-console launch days.

It is true though that all the people with spotty online connections aren't going to be able to use this - nor the people who have stringent bandwidth caps. For everyone else it's an ok deal, except for the part where you'll probably have to buy all those games, again.

Putting "Now" at the end of any product just makes it sound so corporate. I can vividly picture the people from the advertising department in the meetings. I bet they popped their hand every time they said Now. The words "Synergy" and "Brand" probably came up a lot.

Not sure if I'm misunderstanding you, or you're misunderstanding me, but I was only referring to the fact that a main reason for the now canceled daily check in from the XOne's always online requirement was to make sure that a player had all of the proper rights for the games they were playing. And how that could have been something to be upset about, whereas offering a service to stream old games is obviously not.

I said and meant to imply nothing at all about Kinect spying on anyone.

@joshwent: That's fine then because I was scared people were still seriously talking about getting spied on by Kinect. Although those same license checks happen every day, on Steam, except without you knowing it so that's not really a huge deal. Suspending the console in activity due to an inability to perform the check was a pretty bad decision.

Yeah it kinda sucks. Their argument is your paying to play it on a different device. Its like having to buy cd's after you owned the vinyls/tapes (something that Slash from G'n'R has mentioned in interviews), bluray after you owned the dvd/tape.

The plus side is that the games are cheaper than when you bought them when they first came out. As an example: Streets of Rage (Aus & NZ prices here)

Megadrive: $160.00

Xbox 360: $15 (as part of the SoR bundle)

3DS: $8.00 < I still think even thats too much but Nintendo VC has always been expensive.

Yah it's crappy cause they just came out with this Metal Gear Collection at the end of this console generation - and you can bet they will make another collection for the PS4 including the new game, and people will still buy it because sometimes you just want to be able to play MGS2 (the best one of course, not like that garbage that was MGS3)

Yeah that's what it sounded like to me. Either you pay to get access to probably most stuff (I'd imagine there might be high-profile stuff not included in the subscription, sort of the way that there are some albums I would have to buy even though I have a Google Play Music All-Access subscription, but I don't know for sure) or you just rent on a game-by-game basis and not worry about a subscription at all.

Also, OnLive failed for a lot of other reasons. I was on the service a fair amount, but not to play games. It was fun to play random demos occasionally, but mostly I just wanted to see how other people play Just Cause 2. If I wanted to play it myself, I'd just boot up my PS3 for a latency-free experience.

Patrick, don't be a jerk, "it's unclear if PlayStation Plus subscribers will have to pay an additional fee", of course they will, or did you, or any one ells, expect Sony to give away there library of older games for $5 a month?

To me this sounds great, Sony has a fantastic backlog of games, and hopefully this service wont be that expensive, how about another fiver a month, that would be a steal. Lets just hope they don't put region blocks in there service, cause it would be so nice to get access to all the old, goofy Japanese PS1, and PS2 games ^_^

I'm skeptical about it working well, but it would be enough to push me towards a PS4 instead of worrying about going back to buy a PS3 to play certain games.

I'll look at it when they have the payment model in place. There are not a ton of games I'd like to play, but there are a few.

Forbes already reported that if you own PS1 or 2 or 3 games on PSN you do not get them for free on PSNow, you have to pay again.

I'm imagining the lag on a game streaming service is going to make some action games unplayable.

WHY CAN'T NINTENDO DO THIS?

Here's the quote from the Forbes article: "Update: Sony has responded to my question. According to Sony, gamers who own disc or digital-based games will not have access to those games via PS Now free of charge."

Which is basically bullshit.

Mind you, I'm keeping my PS3 hooked up in my bedroom on a smaller TV, so that's not as much of an issue to me (it'd be cool to play that stuff on my phone or Vita though) but for people who sold their old systems or something, that just sucks extra.

Wait. So we would have to pay a subscription fee just to have the service and then pay again to rent the game? That doesn't make sense to me.

I'm gonna go against everything the internet stands for, and wait until it's out and usable to draw conclusions. Crossing my fingers.

According to the update on this article, even if you own a game digitally you won't have access to it free or charge, which is pretty much the only reason I cared about this service. Since it's not the backwards compatibility/digital rights scenario I was looking for I have no interest in it. Just make a PS1 emulator for PS4 and let me keep the games I already paid for instead please.

But will Gaikai support 4K audio ? :D

@benmo316: I think it's pay for a subscription or pay per title.

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

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.

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."

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.

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

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.

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.

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? :|

Of course Europe gets left behind...

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

sony continues to steal surnames from google

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.

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

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.

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?

I want this to be the best thing.

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.

@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.

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

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.

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

Requires 100mbps connection