official PlayStation Now

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

 

Sony announces PlayStation Now, its cloud gaming initative
By Sean Hollister on  

January 7, 2014 12:43 pm

 

The PlayStation 4 won't recognize discs from previous Sony game consoles, but that might not matter for long. Sony has just announced PlayStation Now, a service that will bring streaming PlayStation games to PS4, PS3, PlayStation Vita, and even televisions, tablets, and smartphones.

 

It appears to be the company's public-facing brand for Gaikai, the cloud gaming technology it purchased last June, 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. Sony will launch a closed beta in the United States at the end of the month, and plans to roll out the service to devices by the end of this summer.

 

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

 

Developing...

 

 

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

 

 

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PlayStation Now: PS4 & Gaikai streaming service renamed, detailed

 

PlayStation 4?s Gaikai-enabled streaming technology has been re-branded as ?PlayStation Now.? Sony revealed the newly-titled service at CES 2014, along with details regarding its roll-out across North America this summer.

 

It follows Twitch announcing that PS4 accounted for 20% of the service?s streamed games over the holidays, and Sony?s reveal that it saw 4.2 million PS4 consoles sold since launch.

 

Over on the PlayStation Blog, Sony confirmed that PS Now will enable the streaming of PS3 games on PS4 initially, before moving on to PS Vita.

 

In addition, Sony?s 2014 Bravia TV line will come with the service embedded, and will expend to non-Sony devices with internet connections over time.

 

At CES 2014, Sony?s Andrew House explained that PlayStation Now works similar to TV and movie streaming services like Netflix, with games hosted on the cloud that can be played on any PS4 or PS Vita by entering your Sony Entertainment Network account.

 

Your save data will also transfer across consoles. In more cloud wizardry, you can even pause your game on one console and resume it on another, stop playing on a PS4 and pick up again on PS3, or take the game with you on PS Vita before resuming it on your Bravia TV. Fancy.

 

PS Now will enter beta in North America at the end of January. It will offer games for a monthly subscription fee or on a pay-per-rental basis. Multiplayer and trophy support will be offered as standard.

 

CVG reports that Beyond, God of War Ascension, The Last of Us and Puppeteer were playable using the service on PS Vita handhelds and Bravia TVs.

 

http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/07/playstation-now-ps4-gaikai-streaming-service-renamed-detailed/

[trooper11]

Can't wait for this. If the quality is there, I'm more than willing to pay a subscription fee to get access to what amounts to a huge backwards compatibility feature.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I want Now now!
Sorry, I could not resist, but seriously kick ass.

Hoping the pricing is reasonable, but I am pretty much down for the subscription for my Vita alone as long as it works good.

[timster]

things like this are why uncapped internet connections should be mandatory.

[LOC Veteran]

Man I wish they would do this on PC also. Would love to play some Playstation exclusives.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

all i can say is "WANT WANT WANT ....!!!!!!" :drool:

[_neutrino Veteran]

this could be kind of cool, being able to stream a PS3 game to the Vita would be fantastic. :D I have not used the Gaikai service however, if it is anything like OnLive it will have a bumpy start. i still regret purchasing games for that service as they are always very laggy and difficult to play because of that.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Maybe it'll have a smaller price tag for PS+ users rather than being completely free for them.

 

Would be a nice touch and bound to boost the subscription numbers for both services :yes:

[trooper11]

They could be saving the PS+ discount or even bundled for free announcement for E3.

Think of how that would resonate with people.

I really hope they can pull it off. Its a tough thing to do from a tech perspective since there are parts of the service that Sony cannot control.

[0sit0]

if games lag as they are now which is just sending very little information I wonder how laggy this would be.

[Osiris]

if games lag as they are now which is just sending very little information I wonder how laggy this would be.

Maybe that's what made Gaikai worth buying is their way of streaming was further optimised and had techniques to better compress/buffer the data?  Because yes a standard streaming service is going to prove laggy for many gamers in a few parts of the world.

[trooper11]

if games lag as they are now which is just sending very little information I wonder how laggy this would be.

BIG question mark. Can Sony somehow get around lag issues?

On the surface, it seems near impossible, but Sony must have some plan to attempt to get around that. The beta will be an essential process.

[psionicinversion]

BIG question mark. Can Sony somehow get around lag issues?

On the surface, it seems near impossible, but Sony must have some plan to attempt to get around that. The beta will be an essential process.

 

This is the big question atm you can have laggy connections on internet games, more noticeable on FPS where its sending KB/s so wonder how this will work when itll be sending alot more data down the pipe cus every movement has to be sent processed by the server then sent back so there going to have a massive infrastructure to enable that smoothly.

[Gerowen]

So sticking my PS2 discs into a PS3 or PS4 is still too much to ask for, 7 years after the release of the PS3 which should be able to absolutely eat PS2 games for breakfast, even while emulating a different architecture.

 

I wonder if they'll ever open a program where you can mail in a hard copy of an old game and have the digital copy credited to your PSN account.  I'd rather be able to download a copy to my hard drive and have the graphics actually rendered locally to avoid issues with lag and picture quality that come from having a limited amount of bandwidth.  Around here the standard internet connection only delivers 3 Mbps down and 512 kbps up, so if I wanted to play a game, IF the picture quality didn't get down-graded to accomodate the speed, nobody would be able to do anything else while I played.

[BajiRav]

BIG question mark. Can Sony somehow get around lag issues?

On the surface, it seems near impossible, but Sony must have some plan to attempt to get around that. The beta will be an essential process.

People doubted Microsoft's claim to use cloud for supporting XBO games. Let's see how they react to Sony rendering the entire thing in the cloud and stream it to them.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

People doubted Microsoft's claim to use cloud for supporting XBO games. Let's see how they react to Sony rendering the entire thing in the cloud and stream it to them.

 

But there's a big difference. X1 cloud service as you say is to support a retail game. That means it requires both to get the most out of it, both the disc you pay for and a connection to calculate whatever features, be it AI in Forza 5 or whatever.

 

Sony are making an optional service to provide access to their back catalogue. Without a doubt it requires a lot more data to be streamed, but very different services we're talking about.

[BajiRav]

But there's a big difference. X1 cloud service as you say is to support a retail game. That means it requires both to get the most out of it, botht the disc you pay for and a connection to calculate whatever features, be it AI in Forza 5 or whatever.

 

Sony are making an optional service to provide access to their back catalogue. Without a doubt it requires a lot more data to be streamed, but very different services we're talking about.

 

There is no difference in how games will work in both cases, you are just splitting hairs. I am referring purely to technological challenges and not referring to mandatory/option features/services.

 

Going by my memory, this service is DOA in Europe and for people with bandwidth caps in other places (based on how many people said "why digital downloads don't work" in various threads).

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

There is no difference in how games will work in both cases, you are just splitting hairs. I am referring purely to technological challenges and not referring to mandatory/option features/services.

 

I disagree. Playstation Now will obviously be 2 way communication so as I say, undoubtedly more involved and requiring more data / time sensitivity.

 

Whereas X1 cloud is almost always going to be 1 way to add features to a game. I'm sure it can evolve into more than that once developers get to grips with it though. That is a very big difference of adding additional data to boost a feature rather than "remote play" on a very large scale.

[trooper11]

But there's a big difference. X1 cloud service as you say is to support a retail game. That means it requires both to get the most out of it, both the disc you pay for and a connection to calculate whatever features, be it AI in Forza 5 or whatever.

The internet back end services that MS are offering apply to all games, digital or retail. So it doesn't require a disc.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

The internet back end services that MS are offering apply to all games, digital or retail. So it doesn't require a disc.

 

Yeah I was just simplifying it :P

[LaP]

People doubted Microsoft's claim to use cloud for supporting XBO games. Let's see how they react to Sony rendering the entire thing in the cloud and stream it to them.

 

Apple versus Orange.

 

PS Now is an online service to play old games. Like with all online service there will be lag. People realise and accept that. Also nobody claims it will improve the games.

 

The Cloud is supposed to substantially improve offline gaming without any lag. Call me skeptical about this claim.

[trooper11]

Yeah I was just simplifying it :p

I appreciate a good simplification, but sometimes it can be taken too far :laugh:

[Gerowen]

People doubted Microsoft's claim to use cloud for supporting XBO games. Let's see how they react to Sony rendering the entire thing in the cloud and stream it to them.

I'm a Playstation fan, and I doubt this will be very popular.  Lag, picture quality, etc. will be huge problems unless you live in a huge city like Seattle or NYC where 15+ Mbps download speed is not uncommon.

[notuptome2004]

So sticking my PS2 discs into a PS3 or PS4 is still too much to ask for, 7 years after the release of the PS3 which should be able to absolutely eat PS2 games for breakfast, even while emulating a different architecture.

 

I wonder if they'll ever open a program where you can mail in a hard copy of an old game and have the digital copy credited to your PSN account.  I'd rather be able to download a copy to my hard drive and have the graphics actually rendered locally to avoid issues with lag and picture quality that come from having a limited amount of bandwidth.  Around here the standard internet connection only delivers 3 Mbps down and 512 kbps up, so if I wanted to play a game, IF the picture quality didn't get down-graded to accomodate the speed, nobody would be able to do anything else while I played.

 

 

 

you dont realize how much power you need to emulate  another platform do you.   the dolphin emulator to run Wii  games  in HD on your PC  you need a  core i5 to i7 recommended  just  so it runs good   so being able to insert a PS2  game in a Ps3  is asking allot   being able to  put  a PS3 game disk in a PS4 and have it run is  really asking allot  and could not be done  not without considerable performance loss . Yes the orginal PS3 played PS2s  but that is only cause  it also had PS2 hardware inside  

 

 

 

 If you want to play games at full speed make sure you have a good CPU. It's the most important component! For good results it's recommended to use Intel i5 Sandy or Ivy Bridge CPUs or higher (i7).    

[trooper11]

Apple versus Orange.

 

PS Now is an online service to play old games. Like with all online service there will be lag. People realise and accept that. Also nobody claims it will improve the games.

 

The Cloud is supposed to substantially improve offline gaming without any lag. Call me skeptical about this claim.

People do not accept the lag in a service like PS Now. If they did, services like OnLive would be much more popular. Its the fact that many people do not accept the lag that keeps such services from being big hits.

Still, this case is a little different because its offering a back catalog of games that may not be available to most people. It could be the content that wins people over more than excellent performance.

As far as 'The Cloud' improving offline gaming...where did you hear that. And please don't say forum posters. :laugh:

Let's remember please that 'the cloud' is simply a series of back end services for game developers to leverage as they see fit. For MS and Sony, these services amount to server hardware and an in depth software layer to interact with it.