Pachter: PlayStation Now Has "No Prayer" of Success

[StewShearerOld]

Pachter: PlayStation Now Has "No Prayer" of Success

Industry analyst Michael Pachter says that there's "no meaningful market" for Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service.

PlayStation Now was arguably one of the more interesting things that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131089-PlayStation-Now-Streaming-Service-Unveiled-at-CES-2014>Sony unveiled at its CES presentation last month. Proposed as a service that would allow gamers access to PlayStation software via streaming, its success could potentially spread the PlayStation brand outside of traditional gaming hardware and into new markets including smartphones, tablets and TVs. That being the case, there are some who have their doubts as to whether the service can even hope to be successful. Industry analyst Michael Pachter would be one of them.

"PlayStation Now is a joke," he said in a recent interview. "There is no publisher that is going to license content that's less than two-years old because they would be concerned that they can't sell as many copies if they make it available for subscription or rental. This has no prayer of working. None." Speaking to The Escapist, Pachter affirmed his comments. "There is no meaningful market for the old games Sony is going to get," he said.

Granted, Pachter could have a potential point about the library that future Now subscribers can expect. After all, publishers would probably stand to earn more from retail profits than they would from giving Now users at-launch acces. That said, there is some counterpoint precedence of companies allowing their more recent products to be given away via Sony's services. Just yesterday, for instance, PS Plus subscribers <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131836-PS-Plus-Adding-Metro-Last-Light-PayDay-2-to-Instant-Game-Collection-in-February?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=news>gained access to Outlast, a brand new release for PS4, as well the PS3 version of Metro: Last Light which is less than a year old. If Sony was able to include titles like those in PS Plus, it stands to reason that PS Now might not just be limited to games past their prime. That said, Pachter still doesn't think PS Now is comparable. "Sure, PS Plus is a great deal, and the free games make people more likely to join, but the real reason to join is [PS4] multiplayer," he said. "PS Now doesn't get you multiplayer."

Source: Game Informer via <a href=http://www.videogamer.com/news/playstation_now_is_a_joke_says_pachter.html>Videogamer


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[CrazyBlaze]

What about older games that people still have but want to get rid of their old consoles or similar situation. I think there is a large market for PN. And no the best reason for Playstaion Plus was and is the free games. Now it also includes (hopefully) better online connectivity for multiplayer. So come on Patcher, pull your head of your ass.

 

[Trishbot]

Apparently I am not a "meaningful market".

I didn't have a PS3. I will be buying a Playstation 4 soon.

I'll be all over this.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Ah yes, because nobody ever bought PS Plus before the PS4. :/

And I'd sure as hell pay for Playstation Now (even on top of PS Plus) if I got access to all the old PS1 and PS2 titles. Especially if you could stream them on the Vita as well. And I think plenty of other people would too.

So yeah, yet another swing and a miss from Pachter, I feel.

 

[Irridium]

No market for old games?

He is aware that GoG exists, right?

 

[Tastum]

This guy has no idea what he's talking about. I haven't owned a non-handheld console since the PSX, and this streaming service for PS1/2/3 games is seriously making me consider buying a PS4 or at least a Vita. There are a LOT of gamers who don't necessarily need or want the latest graphics - they want interesting games (and a lot of them) at a low price, which is what PS now might offer.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

How does this guy still have a job? If he's this bad at video game market analysis, I can only imagine how bad he is at anything else he tries to do.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Ha ha. I totally read the title wrong. I thought it said that "Playstaion now has no chance of success," as in, "Playstation has screwed up so bad that they now have no chance of saving themselves." That made me really curious as to what Pachter was talking about this time.
Did anyone else do that?

Anyway, I would love to be able to play my old games. I still have most of them safely in their cases. In fact, the reason I did not go out and buy a PS4 yet is because it's not backward compatible. If they fix that, then I would be more than happy to pick one up and play my old games while I wait for games I want on the PS4.

 

[Splitzi]

Ahh yes Pachter, ignore the thousands of people switching from 360 to the PS4, of which I am one. It's not like I have a burning desire to play the PS3 games I missed out on like Uncharted, The Last of Us, or any of the other great exclusives. This guy is the Fox News of game "journalism."

 

[Slash2x]

Riiiiight The fact they are STILL selling out at stores and I am STILL seeing Xbones sitting, waiting, hoping, praying that someone would buy them, has NOTHING to do with the bottom line for the PS4......

EDIT for clarity, and for the market the PS Now will run on. To clarify I am equating the sales of PS4 systems to people getting PS Now... Because why would you not.

 

[Toadfish1]

I think there's a simpler reason why Sony couldn't offer day and date brand new games for the service - their servers would just overload. If 3 million people all want to play the same game at the same time,

Right, no-ones gonna want to experience a library of titles that are older than 6 months. Thats why Netflix regularly purges its old content and never makes any money from it. Or why libraries burn old books, because no-one wants them.

 

[debtcollector]

Ha ha. I totally read the title wrong. I thought it said that "Playstaion now has no chance of success," as in, "Playstation has screwed up so bad that they now have no chance of saving themselves." That made me really curious as to what Pachter was talking about this time.
Did anyone else do that?

Heh. Heheheh. Well, now that I've seen that, that's how I'll interpret any and all headlines relating to Playstation Now.

OT: Man, Pachter sure says some wacky shit. I'd really like someone to write some Pachter fanfiction that takes place in a world where everything he said came true. That would be pretty crazy.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

This is why people think you are a ignorant moron Mr Pachter.

Access to past Sony titles is something myself would be interested in and I don't even have a Sony console nor did I have one in the past.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Pachter is actually a bit of a genius. He makes these predictions about the way the market will be in 6-8 months and then never brings them up again so that when the results are in, nobody remembers his predictions and we all go on our merry ways being none the wiser the guy's a hack.

Don't get me wrong, he wouldn't be in the position he's in if he didn't give decent advice to investors, but I'm sure his professional analyses are a lot different than his public analyses.

That being said, the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Sony paid him to say this so that people who don't like him would subscribe to Playstation Now. Because I certainly can't think of any *logical* reason to have this stance. As pointed out, the biggest "WTF" part of that is his comment about PS+. For $50 a year (and starting long before it was required for multiplayer), you're given access to about $300-500 in savings, but apparently the biggest appeal of PS+ is PS4 multiplayer!? Also, he implies that any game over TWO YEARS OLD is no longer relevant. I have no response to that.

The only other explanation I can think of for him saying any of this is that he just completely ignored the Playstation 3, and is only now acknowledging Sony exists because they're taking the piss out of Microsoft and he kind of has to in order to still have legs to stand on.

 

[Hoplon]

Yes because you all jumped gai kai and on live! no wait. it's not local network steaming it's over the internet, it will suck as hard as they did.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Ha ha. I totally read the title wrong. I thought it said that "Playstaion now has no chance of success," as in, "Playstation has screwed up so bad that they now have no chance of saving themselves." That made me really curious as to what Pachter was talking about this time.
Did anyone else do that?

Sure did. The only reason I clicked on it was just to see how much further Pachter would rise up the ignorance meter. I mean, his comments are still really ignorant, but I was hoping for a little more.

Right, no-ones gonna want to experience a library of titles that are older than 6 months. Thats why Netflix regularly purges its old content and never makes any money from it. Or why libraries burn old books, because no-one wants them.

So what about all the people in this thread that are looking forward to playing older Sony games? Or what about the massive success GOG has had with a library consisting mostly of games that are multiple years old?

 

[whycantijustdeletemyaccount]

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[FalloutJack]

Jack Thompson effect. Because some uneducated dick said it wouldn't work, now it will for certain. This is, therefore, a good day for Sony.