Sony announces PlayStation Now, its cloud gaming service for TVs, consoles, and phones

[TheSLSAMG]

Interesting, cloud service for the PS4.

 

 

The PlayStation 4 may not be the most important part of Sony's gaming strategy anymore. At CES 2014, Sony has just announced PlayStation Now, a service that will bring streaming PlayStation games not only to PS4, but also PS3, PlayStation Vita, and even televisions, tablets, and smartphones.

It's the company's public-facing brand for Gaikai, the cloud gaming technology it purchased in June of 2012, which the company previously said would bring PS3 games to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita later this year. Sony says the technology is already working here at CES, with attendees able to try critically acclaimed action title The Last of Us here in Vegas. The full service will let users rent games or pay for a subscription that will let them "explore a range of titles." Sony will launch a closed beta in the United States at the end of the month, and plans to roll out the service more broadly by the end of this summer.

"The tethers that have constrained consumption for decades... soon dissolve," said Sony CEO Kaz Hirai.

GAMES IN THE CLOUD

Gaikai works on practically any device — even smartphones — because the games don't actually run locally at all. Cloud gaming services work more like a YouTube video, where powerful servers in remote data centers actually run the games, and stream compressed video frames of that game running to your local devices. They send the input from your touchscreen or game controller to the cloud. It doesn't necessarily require an extremely fast internet connection, but it does require one with very low latency, so that the time between you pressing a button, and the time you see the reaction, is as short as possible.

Originally, Gaikai only streamed PC games to the web and to televisions, racking up deals with Samsung and LG to bring games like The Witcher 2 to their devices, but when Sony nabbed the technology it apparently figured out a way to have those servers emulate legacy PlayStation 3 titles as well. We haven't yet heard how, but it's one way to run PS3 games on PS4. Right now, games from previous PlayStation systems don't work if you stick them in the PS4's disc drive.

In addition to games, Sony also announced a cloud service aimed at television, which will offer live TV, video on demand, and even DVR recording functionality.

So, PS3 games on PS4 through the cloud? Awesome, but latency makes cloud gaming less feasible than say, hardware emulation. This is what killed the OnLive, and hopefully it is a success for Sony.

 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5284294/sony-announces-playstation-now-cloud-gaming/in/5042993

[cjeffcoatjr]

As long as it doesn't get as screwed as Skydrive, this could be nice. 

[brownninja97]

Me likie. I like sony, some people hate them but i dont.

[MatheusSanzo]

I still think that it's too early for this to really works.

[technovore]

great, now I have have shitty graphics and low framerates on my other devices....noty!

[Limebaish]

I won't be buying a PS4 but I was heavily into Onlive when it became available in the UK.  The fact was I had 120 Mbps broadband on a pretty solid LAN connection.  To add to it, this connection was a test bed for about 500 Virgin Media subscribers so you can imagine that there certainly weren't any contention problems on my end.  Onlive gave me an experience that I could only call "muddy".  Anyone with a half decent graphics would have found it a big step backwards.  It was nice to play Windows titles on a Macbook etc but it really wasn't worth the loss of quality.

 

Gaikai was strikingly different in that there was much less lag and the quality was less muddy but more of a blurred experience.  Colours were bright and vibrant but it was still difficult to appreciate a service that provided such low quality. 

 

I've been frustrated enough by my experiences, and losses, with these cloud computing implementations that my attention is firmly on Steam home-streaming.  The idea of having your games available on any device is an exciting prospect that I really enjoyed with Onlive but I'm sure the experience of local streaming will far surpass anything that cloud computing can offer within the very near future.     

[BernardoSLR]

Uncharted 3 on my Phone? Or possibly my PC via emulation (emulating android maybe)? YES PLEASE!

[ObeseWalrus]

meh

[alchemist11]

Uncharted 3 on my Phone? Or possibly my PC via emulation (emulating android maybe)? YES PLEASE!

Why emulate when you can use the Intel-Android hybrid PC?

[BernardoSLR]

Why emulate when you can use the Intel-Android hybrid PC?

 

Why would I want that? Just emulate it on a virtual machine on my PC or something. As long as it streams the games at native res. I could even assign just one core to the VM!

[Kuzma]

@Vitalius @BoxPossum

Console exclusives you say?

[Vitalius]

@Vitalius @BoxPossum

Console exclusives you say?

Not sure what you mean. I don't see "PC" in that list (I know tablets and phones are basically tiny PCs). 

But yeah, I'm pretty sure they are going to be able to stream to PC. Which is nice and all, but the games I like to play on consoles are meant for controllers. JRPG's specifically.

Yeah, I might change my mind. If I can just play them all on my PC, I will just do that. I can buy a controller if I want one.

Edit: I just want to point out that the odds of all Playstation console games being on Gaikai are next to zero. 

The actual library will be sparse for a while.

Oh, and this isn't news. They announced this WAAAAAAY back at E3. Except it didn't have a name back then. That's literally the only difference.

[Kuzma]

Not sure what you mean. I don't see "PC" in that list (I know tablets and phones are basically tiny PCs). 

But yeah, I'm pretty sure they are going to be able to stream to PC. Which is nice and all, but the games I like to play on consoles are meant for controllers. JRPG's specifically.

Yeah, I might change my mind. If I can just play them all on my PC, I will just do that. I can buy a controller if I want one.

Edit: I just want to point out that the odds of all Playstation console games being on Gaikai are next to zero. 

The actual library will be sparse for a while.

Oh, and this isn't news. They announced this WAAAAAAY back at E3. Except it didn't have a name back then. That's literally the only difference.

As someone mentioned above there are a variety of different ways this would allow us to use it on PC. Like Android emulators etc. this could get very interesting & yes it's true there was a huge thread about Sony and Gaikai a while back, hopefully Square Enix give us access to KH1.5/2.5? and/or some of the other exclusives.

[Askew]

Cloud game = Latency.

[alchemist11]

Why would I want that? Just emulate it on a virtual machine on my PC or something. As long as it streams the games at native res. I could even assign just one core to the VM!

Because emulation is not exactly legal. Especially for the latest games. However, it will be later added. I suspect sometime in 2015 or early 2016 after all the other (non-Microsoft) devices are supported.

 

Eventually the service will expand beyond PlayStation platforms and Sony devices, allowing you to stream PlayStation games across a broad range of Internet-connected devices.

[Kamina]

Finally I can play the Last of Us without buying a PS3.

[James_AJ]

F*** YEAH! Playing all dem PS1 PS2 games with PS4 controller!

[James_AJ]

Finally I can play the Last of Us without buying a PS3.

it's amazing. You'll have some fun with it and cry your guts out.

[James_AJ]

Also, a testimonial from a person who've actually used the thing:

http://www.destructoid.com/playstation-now-really-works--268582.phtml

 

 

It took me several minutes to wrap my head around that I was playing a perfect copy of The Last of Us on the Vita on the CES show floor. It was exactly like a Remote Play experience, complete with triggers being mapped to the rear pad. Gameplay was very responsive and completely lag free.

[Gunzkewl]

Don't forget this will only work for the people who have a really good interned speed so about 10% of the PS4 owners.

[Vitalius]

Don't forget this will only work for the people who have a really good interned speed so about 10% of the PS4 owners.

... No? 

1080p streaming is the norm now (a lot of people can do it). I have 675 KB/s down (or 8 Mb/s down, it's rounded). I can stream 1080p fine in my house. That's literally all I need for this service aside from a good Ping (mines always 60-100ms). 

I think I'm gonna be fine for this, and I consider myself to be pretty low on the Internet speed totem pole. 

I would guess that the number of PS4 owners would be 50%.