Post: Opinion: Playstation now could face an uphill battle
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06-05-2014, 04:00 PM
#1
Mr Ruffers
Treasure hunter
The inclusion of PlayStation 2 compatibility in the launch model of the PlayStation 3, which essentially amounted to shoving the innards of Sony’s best-selling console right alongside the shiny new HD graphics machine envisioned by Ken Kutaragi, was widely believed to be one of the key factors in the PS3′s astronomical launch price of $599 US dollars. Seven years of hardware iteration later, the Slim and Super Slim models of the PS3 released absent PS2 disc support and brought the device to reasonable retail prices, helping effectively pull even with Microsoft’s box in worldwide sales despite a year’s head start by their competition.
As of this posting, neither the PS4 or the Xbox One have native backwards compatibility. Physical retail, digital download, it doesn’t matter — that content that you invested six or seven years on won’t be coming with you into the console cycle. When the PS4 was announced, and Mark Cerny’s eloquent talk of x86 architecture and a “supercharged PC” engine heralded the end of the Cell processor, it was easy to see that the writing was on the wall. Backwards compatibility was dead.
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But is it really? Cloud-based game streaming is inching ever closer to becoming a mainstream platform, and one of the major console manufacturers is behind the push. PlayStation Now, the result of Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai in 2012, has been in private beta on PS3 since the early part of the year, and the first PS4 beta testers began receiving codes near the end of May. During Kaz Hirai’s CES keynote speech, Andrew House stated that the service would be available this summer, and all indications are that this will happen. By the end of the year, consumers with Bravia TVs or tablets could be playing the likes of Puppeteer and Killzone 3 — for the first time allowing people without a PlayStation console to delve in to their stable of exclusive content. PlayStation Now is an exciting prospect for PS4 owners, especially those who may have switched console allegiance coming into the new generation.
Here’s the problem as I see it: The Last of Us, one of the highest rated games of 2013, was among the earliest titles demoed for PlayStation Now back at CES. Using such a critical and commercial success to drive the launch of what may be the next major innovation in gaming is a no-brainer. But then there’s the little issue of The Last of Us: Remastered Edition. While we’re at it, you could say the same about Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and the recently revealed Metro: Redux and Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. The trend of bringing “HD remakes” of popular games from the previous generation, spawned by the PS3′s removal of native backwards compatibility, has made the leap to this generation, and it poses a number of issues for the adoption of a game streaming service like PlayStation Now.
the last of us remastered two column 01 ps4 us 240x300 Opinion: PlayStation Now could face an uphill battleFirst and foremost, having The Last of Us available as a fully-remastered PS4 title could push away those who might be interested in Now based solely on stability and graphical fidelity. Now requires at least a stable 5mb broadband connection at all times, and even with stronger internet speeds there’s a possibility of controller input lag and drops in framerate. Were Now the only solution for backwards compatibility, this is an issue that could be overlooked in time. But having a lag-free, PS4-optimized, Naughty Dog-developed port of the game out just a year after its release on PS3 diminishes the desire to play an experience that would, possibly, be inferior.
To be fair, I understand the draw of these remastered or deluxe editions from a publisher’s point of view. While The Last of Us is a Sony-owned property, titles like Tomb Raider and Metro are third-party games that publishers Square Enix and Deep Silver would see more profit from as full retail and digital downloads than they would for the rental or subscription fees Sony would be paying to their partners. And even with Naughty Dog’s opus, the ability to put the lives of Joel and Ellie in the hands of anyone who wants it, whatever format they may choose, is certainly better for the studio’s bottom line than had they not decided to re-release the game. Choice in gaming is good, and Now seems to be Sony’s way of giving the player more choice in where and how they consume content.
Second, and perhaps more inconvenient for Sony, is the idea of messaging. Not so much the marketing of the Now platform, but that we don’t have much information on just what PlayStation Now is going to look like once it releases, and how it will add value to consumers. Leaked images of the PlayStation Now beta only show options for 1, 7, and 30 Day rentals currently, with no word on whether you can buy games through Now and keep them linked to your PSN account. Similarly, there’s been no talk of whether games you previously purchased digitally that are available through the Now service will be playable via streaming to your various PlayStation and non-PlayStation devices. Granted, we knew very little about the PS4 in the months after its reveal leading into E3, but we knew the basics: x86 architecture, 8 GB or GDDR5, etc. To this point, we have very little publicly released information about PlayStation Now beyond the devices it may come to and the need for a stable internet connection.
I don’t know how the adoption of PlayStation Now will look one, or two, or five years down the road. Maybe my fears that too many re-releases watering down the content pool will hinder excitement for the service is short-sighted. If you can rent a game on Now on your PS4, take your tablet on the go with a DualShock 4 synced, then continue playing on your friend’s Bravia TV, and if Sony can properly message just how revolutionary a service like that could be, there’s a good chance that the streaming age will begin to take off before our eyes. With Sony’s press conference nearly a week away, we’re bound to learn more, but PlayStation has to convince their faithful, and those who have yet to tune in, why PlayStation Now is the future. So far, that’s a story they’ve barely written. You must login or register to view this content.
06-06-2014, 12:01 PM
#2
Deleted-User0000000012210
Deleted
Originally posted by mr
Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service, which looks to provide the PlayStation library of games across multiple platforms through a streaming service, is one of the most anticipated components of the Sony ecosystem at the moment. In an era when nostalgia sells and seemingly everyone’s buying, several publishers are looking to capitalize in every way possible, but in Sony’s case, could this be over capitalization that will lead to a less successful PlayStation Now?
The inclusion of PlayStation 2 compatibility in the launch model of the PlayStation 3, which essentially amounted to shoving the innards of Sony’s best-selling console right alongside the shiny new HD graphics machine envisioned by Ken Kutaragi, was widely believed to be one of the key factors in the PS3′s astronomical launch price of $599 US dollars. Seven years of hardware iteration later, the Slim and Super Slim models of the PS3 released absent PS2 disc support and brought the device to reasonable retail prices, helping effectively pull even with Microsoft’s box in worldwide sales despite a year’s head start by their competition.
As of this posting, neither the PS4 or the Xbox One have native backwards compatibility. Physical retail, digital download, it doesn’t matter — that content that you invested six or seven years on won’t be coming with you into the console cycle. When the PS4 was announced, and Mark Cerny’s eloquent talk of x86 architecture and a “supercharged PC” engine heralded the end of the Cell processor, it was easy to see that the writing was on the wall. Backwards compatibility was dead.
You must login or register to view this content.
But is it really? Cloud-based game streaming is inching ever closer to becoming a mainstream platform, and one of the major console manufacturers is behind the push. PlayStation Now, the result of Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai in 2012, has been in private beta on PS3 since the early part of the year, and the first PS4 beta testers began receiving codes near the end of May. During Kaz Hirai’s CES keynote speech, Andrew House stated that the service would be available this summer, and all indications are that this will happen. By the end of the year, consumers with Bravia TVs or tablets could be playing the likes of Puppeteer and Killzone 3 — for the first time allowing people without a PlayStation console to delve in to their stable of exclusive content. PlayStation Now is an exciting prospect for PS4 owners, especially those who may have switched console allegiance coming into the new generation.
Here’s the problem as I see it: The Last of Us, one of the highest rated games of 2013, was among the earliest titles demoed for PlayStation Now back at CES. Using such a critical and commercial success to drive the launch of what may be the next major innovation in gaming is a no-brainer. But then there’s the little issue of The Last of Us: Remastered Edition. While we’re at it, you could say the same about Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and the recently revealed Metro: Redux and Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. The trend of bringing “HD remakes” of popular games from the previous generation, spawned by the PS3′s removal of native backwards compatibility, has made the leap to this generation, and it poses a number of issues for the adoption of a game streaming service like PlayStation Now.
the last of us remastered two column 01 ps4 us 240x300 Opinion: PlayStation Now could face an uphill battleFirst and foremost, having The Last of Us available as a fully-remastered PS4 title could push away those who might be interested in Now based solely on stability and graphical fidelity. Now requires at least a stable 5mb broadband connection at all times, and even with stronger internet speeds there’s a possibility of controller input lag and drops in framerate. Were Now the only solution for backwards compatibility, this is an issue that could be overlooked in time. But having a lag-free, PS4-optimized, Naughty Dog-developed port of the game out just a year after its release on PS3 diminishes the desire to play an experience that would, possibly, be inferior.
To be fair, I understand the draw of these remastered or deluxe editions from a publisher’s point of view. While The Last of Us is a Sony-owned property, titles like Tomb Raider and Metro are third-party games that publishers Square Enix and Deep Silver would see more profit from as full retail and digital downloads than they would for the rental or subscription fees Sony would be paying to their partners. And even with Naughty Dog’s opus, the ability to put the lives of Joel and Ellie in the hands of anyone who wants it, whatever format they may choose, is certainly better for the studio’s bottom line than had they not decided to re-release the game. Choice in gaming is good, and Now seems to be Sony’s way of giving the player more choice in where and how they consume content.
Second, and perhaps more inconvenient for Sony, is the idea of messaging. Not so much the marketing of the Now platform, but that we don’t have much information on just what PlayStation Now is going to look like once it releases, and how it will add value to consumers. Leaked images of the PlayStation Now beta only show options for 1, 7, and 30 Day rentals currently, with no word on whether you can buy games through Now and keep them linked to your PSN account. Similarly, there’s been no talk of whether games you previously purchased digitally that are available through the Now service will be playable via streaming to your various PlayStation and non-PlayStation devices. Granted, we knew very little about the PS4 in the months after its reveal leading into E3, but we knew the basics: x86 architecture, 8 GB or GDDR5, etc. To this point, we have very little publicly released information about PlayStation Now beyond the devices it may come to and the need for a stable internet connection.
I don’t know how the adoption of PlayStation Now will look one, or two, or five years down the road. Maybe my fears that too many re-releases watering down the content pool will hinder excitement for the service is short-sighted. If you can rent a game on Now on your PS4, take your tablet on the go with a DualShock 4 synced, then continue playing on your friend’s Bravia TV, and if Sony can properly message just how revolutionary a service like that could be, there’s a good chance that the streaming age will begin to take off before our eyes. With Sony’s press conference nearly a week away, we’re bound to learn more, but PlayStation has to convince their faithful, and those who have yet to tune in, why PlayStation Now is the future. So far, that’s a story they’ve barely written. You must login or register to view this content.
The inclusion of PlayStation 2 compatibility in the launch model of the PlayStation 3, which essentially amounted to shoving the innards of Sony’s best-selling console right alongside the shiny new HD graphics machine envisioned by Ken Kutaragi, was widely believed to be one of the key factors in the PS3′s astronomical launch price of $599 US dollars. Seven years of hardware iteration later, the Slim and Super Slim models of the PS3 released absent PS2 disc support and brought the device to reasonable retail prices, helping effectively pull even with Microsoft’s box in worldwide sales despite a year’s head start by their competition.
As of this posting, neither the PS4 or the Xbox One have native backwards compatibility. Physical retail, digital download, it doesn’t matter — that content that you invested six or seven years on won’t be coming with you into the console cycle. When the PS4 was announced, and Mark Cerny’s eloquent talk of x86 architecture and a “supercharged PC” engine heralded the end of the Cell processor, it was easy to see that the writing was on the wall. Backwards compatibility was dead.
You must login or register to view this content.
But is it really? Cloud-based game streaming is inching ever closer to becoming a mainstream platform, and one of the major console manufacturers is behind the push. PlayStation Now, the result of Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai in 2012, has been in private beta on PS3 since the early part of the year, and the first PS4 beta testers began receiving codes near the end of May. During Kaz Hirai’s CES keynote speech, Andrew House stated that the service would be available this summer, and all indications are that this will happen. By the end of the year, consumers with Bravia TVs or tablets could be playing the likes of Puppeteer and Killzone 3 — for the first time allowing people without a PlayStation console to delve in to their stable of exclusive content. PlayStation Now is an exciting prospect for PS4 owners, especially those who may have switched console allegiance coming into the new generation.
Here’s the problem as I see it: The Last of Us, one of the highest rated games of 2013, was among the earliest titles demoed for PlayStation Now back at CES. Using such a critical and commercial success to drive the launch of what may be the next major innovation in gaming is a no-brainer. But then there’s the little issue of The Last of Us: Remastered Edition. While we’re at it, you could say the same about Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and the recently revealed Metro: Redux and Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. The trend of bringing “HD remakes” of popular games from the previous generation, spawned by the PS3′s removal of native backwards compatibility, has made the leap to this generation, and it poses a number of issues for the adoption of a game streaming service like PlayStation Now.
the last of us remastered two column 01 ps4 us 240x300 Opinion: PlayStation Now could face an uphill battleFirst and foremost, having The Last of Us available as a fully-remastered PS4 title could push away those who might be interested in Now based solely on stability and graphical fidelity. Now requires at least a stable 5mb broadband connection at all times, and even with stronger internet speeds there’s a possibility of controller input lag and drops in framerate. Were Now the only solution for backwards compatibility, this is an issue that could be overlooked in time. But having a lag-free, PS4-optimized, Naughty Dog-developed port of the game out just a year after its release on PS3 diminishes the desire to play an experience that would, possibly, be inferior.
To be fair, I understand the draw of these remastered or deluxe editions from a publisher’s point of view. While The Last of Us is a Sony-owned property, titles like Tomb Raider and Metro are third-party games that publishers Square Enix and Deep Silver would see more profit from as full retail and digital downloads than they would for the rental or subscription fees Sony would be paying to their partners. And even with Naughty Dog’s opus, the ability to put the lives of Joel and Ellie in the hands of anyone who wants it, whatever format they may choose, is certainly better for the studio’s bottom line than had they not decided to re-release the game. Choice in gaming is good, and Now seems to be Sony’s way of giving the player more choice in where and how they consume content.
Second, and perhaps more inconvenient for Sony, is the idea of messaging. Not so much the marketing of the Now platform, but that we don’t have much information on just what PlayStation Now is going to look like once it releases, and how it will add value to consumers. Leaked images of the PlayStation Now beta only show options for 1, 7, and 30 Day rentals currently, with no word on whether you can buy games through Now and keep them linked to your PSN account. Similarly, there’s been no talk of whether games you previously purchased digitally that are available through the Now service will be playable via streaming to your various PlayStation and non-PlayStation devices. Granted, we knew very little about the PS4 in the months after its reveal leading into E3, but we knew the basics: x86 architecture, 8 GB or GDDR5, etc. To this point, we have very little publicly released information about PlayStation Now beyond the devices it may come to and the need for a stable internet connection.
I don’t know how the adoption of PlayStation Now will look one, or two, or five years down the road. Maybe my fears that too many re-releases watering down the content pool will hinder excitement for the service is short-sighted. If you can rent a game on Now on your PS4, take your tablet on the go with a DualShock 4 synced, then continue playing on your friend’s Bravia TV, and if Sony can properly message just how revolutionary a service like that could be, there’s a good chance that the streaming age will begin to take off before our eyes. With Sony’s press conference nearly a week away, we’re bound to learn more, but PlayStation has to convince their faithful, and those who have yet to tune in, why PlayStation Now is the future. So far, that’s a story they’ve barely written. You must login or register to view this content.
I won't be using this service much when it comes out, unless I can get new internet.
06-06-2014, 07:38 PM
#3
Fapping Machine
Brute
06-06-2014, 08:58 PM
#4
xShadow
Pr0n ftw
I have PS NOW beta, I can confirm it's terrible even if you have a good LAN connection because you must plug the cable from your modem to your PS4 so basically if your wifi is average and not high end $100+ router, PS Now will suck for you or you could use wired plugged in straight to your modem instead of a router losing internet connection everywhere as you play but I'm sure 90% of all homes use wireless devices and this is especially not good if there are other devices in your house.
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