sony and microsoft join together .... end of physical gaming ?

Lady Fitzgerald · June 14, 2019

Pity. Every time MS buys or tems up with someone, it doesn't end well for either of them. R.I.P Sony.

Donut417 · June 14, 2019

On 6/13/2019 at 5:48 AM, Ertman said:

My take is that the biggest limiting factor is going to be infrastructure. Currently and for the foreseeable future there is too large of a population that will not have the capability to be served by these game streaming services. You will see this roll out during the PS5 era, but unless the infrastructure takes improves significantly they will leave too many customers unserved and therefore too much money on the table to see a switch over by the end of the consoles life cycle. There will likely still be a PS6, but seems likely that there won't be a PS7.

Related, because of digital sales numbers, I think we will see discless versions of PS5 similar to the recent xboxOne S, but there will still be a disc based version. Assuming game streaming isn't widely adopted, the PS6 is unlikely to have any optical disc drive. I could see the XboxTwo being the last major console by Microsoft if they think the stream model is viable enough.

Maybe in Canada. This will never work in the US. Our service providers will find ways to screw us. Half the providers have data caps. The other half have shit networks. Maybe if 5G is the cats meow we might have something, but I doubt it. This is likely will be an extension type of product and not a replacement. For the people who have Fiber and no data caps. Because I know a lot of people wouldn't want this product to begin with, Im one of them. Sony or Microsoft have no way to keep quality for the streams, its up to backbone providers and ISP's. I wonder how much extortion money Comcast is going to get out of these two?

Ertman · June 14, 2019

47 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Maybe in Canada. This will never work in the US. Our service providers will find ways to screw us. Half the providers have data caps. The other half have shit networks. Maybe if 5G is the cats meow we might have something, but I doubt it. This is likely will be an extension type of product and not a replacement. For the people who have Fiber and no data caps. Because I know a lot of people wouldn't want this product to begin with, Im one of them. Sony or Microsoft have no way to keep quality for the streams, its up to backbone providers and ISP's. I wonder how much extortion money Comcast is going to get out of these two?

LOL, maybe in Canada... We actually rank lower than the US. Doesn't help having a larger country and a smaller population. Many/most of us also suffer from data caps. Like I said and you reiterated, the infrastructure isn't there yet to replace the existing system. However, I am being optimistic that in 15+ years time that will change, and if the streaming model is successful and adopted then we might see console makers switch to providing the support for the majority and not everyone. IF the latency issue is never addressed satisfactorily then it would only be a niche market. I wonder if this is one of the reason why console maker are pushing the reduction of latency in controls and displays so hard, not for current gamers but for future services?

I honestly don't game enough to really make use of this service, as I have a back catalogue (console and PC) I'd really like to put a real dent into. However I can see the appeal, its simple for the users. Theres a lot less to worry about but we'd have to see what kind of business model this grows into.

My comment about the XboxTwo possibly being the last system might have more to do with being a service on other platforms such as Playstation and Nintendo, it depends how much drive and risk they want to take.

Your point about Comcast does bring up the thought about net neutrality, and I wonder how the US net Neutrality will play into this streaming model? ISPs already extort companies, even when net neutrality was actually being enforced. It would seem like that would greatly affect both availability and adoption by users. What is ridiculous is that consumers should already be paying that tax as they pay for access at specified speeds.