PlayStation Now Beta Heading to PS4

[StewShearerOld]

PlayStation Now Beta Heading to PS4

Sony has revealed that the private beta for its game streaming service PlayStation Now will be expanding to PS4 on May 20th.

Back in January, Sony <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131766-PlayStation-Now-Beta-Invites-Are-Now-Being-Sent-Out>sent out invitations granting a select group of PlayStation 3 owners access to the private beta for its game streaming service PlayStation Now. In the months since, its participants have amassed more than 50,000 hours of collective play time as they worked to help the company collect data. Now, it would appear that Sony is ready to move onto the next phase of its testing. In an announcement today, it revealed plans to expand its testing population to include PS4 owners.

Hopeful PlayStation fans, in turn, will want to be watching their mailbox for a message from Sony inviting them to join the ongoing beta. The invitations themselves should start arriving at some point after May 20th when the tests are formally expanded. In addition to admitting PS4 players into the fold, Sony has also confirmed that it will be opening the doors to an increased number of PS3 owners whom it intends to invite "on a regular basis."

What all of this adds up to, of course, is another important step toward PlayStation Now's promised summer launch. The addition of PS4 players especially could be seen as an important sign of forward progress for the service. While its success on the PS3 is important, it arguably pales in comparison to its performance on the PS4 which, of course, lacks any sort of backwards compatibility. Just personally, I'm most excited for PlayStation Now to come to Vita. Sadly, Sony's blog post included little in the way of updates as to when the service will start testing on the handheld or, for that matter, on Bravia TVs and other promised devices.

Source: PlayStation Blog


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[Erttheking]

Well, here's to hope that this goes well. If this works out it might be what convinces me to buy a PS4

 

[LobsterFeng]

So what is it exactly? I mean what would I be able to do with it?

 

[faefrost]

So what is it exactly? I mean what would I be able to do with it?

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

 

[unstabLized]

If this goes in a good direction and works out well (along with some good, classic games), I'll be convinced to actually buy a PS4. Do me proud, Sony.

 

[ShakerSilver]

I honestly don't see this taking off. There's a reason why OnLive never took off; the latency between the servers and desktops was far too great for input and feedback. I mean could you imagine playing something like DMC3 on this service? How could it possibly handle all those quick inputs? With a userbase as large as the PS4's (which will continue to grow), you'd need a very powerful infrastructure to run all these games simultaneously.

 

[RicoADF]

So what is it exactly? I mean what would I be able to do with it?

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

It will never take over, XBO has shown that an always online connection is a deal breaker for most players and that didn't have the massive download limit issues that streaming games will have. Personally I have no interest in giving control of my games to publishers, that situation would end badly when they eventually turn off the servers.

 

[Arawn]

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

While it would be ideal to have only one box operating multiple services. I have my doubts that such companies would work in harmony so willingly. If production cost of such a device was high, it's possible. Instead I can see a Sony box, Microsoft box , Steam box, etc. This is a workaround for the lack of backwards compatibility, but I wonder how effective this service will be. Not to mention the cost....

 

[faefrost]

So what is it exactly? I mean what would I be able to do with it?

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

It will never take over, XBO has shown that an always online connection is a deal breaker for most players and that didn't have the massive download limit issues that streaming games will have. Personally I have no interest in giving control of my games to publishers, that situation would end badly when they eventually turn off the servers.

Actually it has a good chance of getting a high degree of adopters. The biggest failure for Microsoft with XBox Live and the XBox Ones original always online model was it was a total requirement, and it was 100% to the benefit of MS and the publishers and offered no appreciable benefit to the consumer or gamer. Contrast this with Steam or iTunes which did not force themselves on consumers. Rather they created the service and left paths to them and they sold themselves on convenience and benefit to the consumer. And that's where this "PS Now" has a good chance of taking off. It isn't a requirement for you to use your console of any generation. It is an option. A service offering. And that service is or theoretically will be to let you play virtually any game from the last 4 console generations on one platform. No hassle, no media, no fuss. That's an iTunes level paradigm shift. That's shifting gaming to a Netflix type model. Heck if they follow the model of Netflix Hulu etc, 2 generations out and the TV's will have a hardware board built in and ship with a gaming controller. No extra hardware needed. Just a good enough CPU and memory to run the client and a GPU good enough to output to the TV's max at a decent frame rate. That idiotic catchphrase of "the cloud" and "cloud gaming" that Microsoft's marketing morons keep throwing at us. THIS is what it really looks like.

 

[faefrost]

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

While it would be ideal to have only one box operating multiple services. I have my doubts that such companies would work in harmony so willingly. If production cost of such a device was high, it's possible. Instead I can see a Sony box, Microsoft box , Steam box, etc. This is a workaround for the lack of backwards compatibility, but I wonder how effective this service will be. Not to mention the cost....

Yes, exactly, and that's the point. PS Now and its sure to follow MS and Steam cousins are software clients. Note how the core architecture of the XBox One and PS4 are remarkably similar now? All a platform needs is a software client that will run on it. Just as Netflix has versions that run on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Kindle Fire TV, any smart TV, PS3, PS4 XBox360, XBox One, Nintendo Wii, WiiU, etc etc etc. So MS could sell their own box. Sony could sell theirs, Amazon could sell one, whoever. Sony already has a PC client in development for PS Now.

 

[Strazdas]

So what is it exactly? I mean what would I be able to do with it?

It's a game streaming service. Basically games running remotely on their servers being streamed back to your console. So your consoles hardware becomes a non issue. Thus your PS4 can play streamed PS3, PS2 or PS1 games. This by the way is why this will be the last real console gen. This where stuff like the Kindle FireTV is heading. Small Roku like multi client streaming boxes connecting to gaming services. Imagine your choice of boxes that can all stream PSN, XBoxLive, Steam, etc.

the problem is - phyisics dont agree. you can stream video fine because input lag does not matter. playing videogames however the inpug lag caused by streaming the game instead of local processing will cause trouble. not to mention that in order to stream a 1080p video that is uncompressed (which is how you see it rendered on your machine if your console goes native 1080p, or your PC) takes 240+mbps internet speed to transmit. add to that you will ahve to transmit your movements and expect it not to clog up ping because ping will cause terrible input lag. how many people do you think has internet which considers 240mbps not enough to slow down the additional connections?

And even if we live in google fiber 1gbps speed for all future, the input lag does not go away, because you cant beat the speed of light, so local servers will be necessary. that is, a server in your neighboarhood. not enough people in your neighboarhood use it? too bad servers not profitable sucks for you.

we would have to rebuild internet as we know it for streaming to be comparable in gaming quality. This is at best a service that will allow me to play hostage games.

I honestly don't see this taking off. There's a reason why OnLive never took off; the latency between the servers and desktops was far too great for input and feedback.

the reason why OnLive didnt take off was licensing. all they had is crap games in there because no big studio agreed to let their games be streamed on a subscription basis and instead wanted to sell them (like steam).

While it would be ideal to have only one box operating multiple services. I have my doubts that such companies would work in harmony so willingly. If production cost of such a device was high, it's possible. Instead I can see a Sony box, Microsoft box , Steam box, etc. This is a workaround for the lack of backwards compatibility, but I wonder how effective this service will be. Not to mention the cost....

we already have such box. we call it PC.
It can do all your streaming, all your TV, your games, ect. A slow and cheaper than consoles PC can easily be turned into a "universal Streaming box".

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

My friend got the Now Beta and we've been tinkering with it (on PS3) and we have yet to notice ANY latency issues, which was highly surprising. Even the frame rate was high.

The only concern I have is how it will handle more twitchy games like shooters. Currently the available game list is just a bunch of A and AA games. How it will handle latency with AAA shooters could be a different story.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Seeing Onlive way back and PS Now now(thanks for the crappy generic name, Sony) coming out, I'm getting less worried about the publishers pulling old games to get people to rent new games in future streaming services(when the net can handle 1080p video and input without lag even in rural areas, we'll probably have Matrix style mind plugs) and more worried about the price of it since ISPs are never gonna drop their fights against Net Neutrality, even if we get it back and ISPs reclassified.