Engadget: PlayStation Now still isn't good enough

NoUse4AName · Mar 20, 2019

SplitYourInfinities said:
I mean, I'm just using common sense. Google, Azure and AWS are well stablished and successful platforms that already provide dozens of different services. Sony on the other hand....

Sony on the other hand.....has been running their gaming streaming service for a while (2014), has been investing in streaming since what 2012? and well is not the same but...PS VUE is one of the best services in the USA (maybe the best) so......You Know I think that Sony maybe ...just Maybe know a little bit about streaming.

SplitYourInfinities said:
Obviously this is just forum talk, maybe Sony is working in a different solution for the future that we don't know about yet, but that would be getting into speculation territory.

You already get into speculation territory with your assumptions.

SplitYourInfinities · Mar 20, 2019

only_fools_&_horses said:
Of course at the moment PS Now can't compete with Stadia nad xCloud because these two ARE NOT on the market. That's not a speculation, that's a fact. What you saying is complete bullshit.

Nobody knows future plans of PS Now and how it will evolve and that's not a speculation, it's a fact too.

Man, I always have been talking about the infrastructure. Never said that PS Now didn't work, because it obviously does as you already reiterated that multiple times, just that their current approach to game streaming is not scalable compared to the other alternatives.

metalgear89 said:
PS4 and PS5 games is were the money will be for sony in streaming. And those consoles don't need any special hardware, i don't know how they run their ps4 games right now, but i don't see it being difficult to emulate those consoles on generic hardware. Once they get emulation working on generic hardware they can scale up pretty easily and cheaply.

Also they don't need to scale their PS3 infrastructure, they will probably keep it as is and most people won't really care. Eventually those ps3 server farms will be phased out reducing cost. If they can get PS3 emulated and generic hardware that will be another thing they can scale easily.

I said PS3 as an example but they have the same issues with their PS4 servers, they are not elastic.

NoUse4AName said:
Sony on the other hand.....has been running their gaming streaming service for a while (2014), has been investing in streaming since what 2012? and well is not the same but...PS VUE is one of the best services in the USA (maybe the best) so......You Know I think that Sony maybe ...just Maybe know a little bit about streaming.

You already get into speculation territory with your assumptions.

Read my previous posts, never questioned the technology, only the infrastructure and always in comparison to their competitors.

I think I'm done with this topic, I feel I'm ruffling some feathers 🙃

vivftp · Mar 20, 2019

Pryme said:
It'll still be easily the worst of them all once their competitors launch. Plus their availability being limited to windows and PS4 is quite a joke.

This is the biggest problem I see people make in these discussions. They compare a current, working product to the promise of a future product without considering the fact that the current product will evolve as well. PS Now will expand to phones, tablets, PC and whatever too as they expand their network. The overall service that is PS Now will continue to evolve as time goes on. That all might happen before, at the same time, or after xCloud and Stadia launch, but using this sort of logic to claim Sony is doomed is pure nonsense with no thought given.

They'll need a mentality and strategy shift to putting their FP games on their streaming service day 1. Otherwise, it's just a half assed approach.

You do realize that by sticking with their current strategy they're raking in TONS of cash, right? No doubt their strategy will evolve as their network evolves, but I don't think anyone can fault them for their current strategy as it gave them by far the best result

Pryme · Mar 20, 2019

vivftp said:
This is the biggest problem I see people make in these discussions. They compare a current, working product to the promise of a future product without considering the fact that the current product will evolve as well. PS Now will expand to phones, tablets, PC and whatever too as they expand their network. The overall service that is PS Now will continue to evolve as time goes on. That all might happen before, at the same time, or after xCloud and Stadia launch, but using this sort of logic to claim Sony is doomed is pure nonsense with no thought given.

Sony has been going the other direction. They had PS Now clients on many devices and screens before. They've done the opposite of what Google is espousing by cutting down options vs expanding to a bigger audience.
I can only follow the trend here.

And nobody claimed 'Sony is doomed' here. Stop trolling.

vivftp said:
You do realize that by sticking with their current strategy they're raking in TONS of cash, right? No doubt their strategy will evolve as their network evolves, but I don't think anyone can fault them for their current strategy as it gave them by far the best result

Yes, their strategy is very good for raking in money from retail sales, and for selling hardware. I didn't knock that.
That strategy is poor when it comes to growing a streaming business and building it up as a major player.

You - and Sony - can't have it both ways. Choose one!

vivftp · Mar 20, 2019

Pryme said:
Sony has been going the other direction. They had PS Now clients on many devices and screens before. They've done the opposite of what Google is espousing by cutting down options vs expanding to a bigger audience.
I can only follow the trend here.

And nobody claimed 'Sony is doomed' here. Stop trolling.

Just because they've scaled it back from the original vision doesn't mean they won't expand it in the future. They've recently expanded remote play to iOS devices. We know that they're going to be focusing heavily on their network. It's been discussed many times, but it's obvious they're waiting on PS5 hardware to become available so they can begin larger expansions of PS Now.

And I was speaking in general in addition to addressing your post. More than enough people have proclaimed doom for Sony in the cloud future because they're comparing a current service to the promise of a future service.

Yes, their strategy is very good for raking in money from retail sales, and for selling hardware. I didn't knock that.
That strategy is poor when it comes to growing a streaming business and building it up as a major player.

You - and Sony - can't have it both ways. Choose one!

Well yeah, just because they've been using that strategy doesn't mean they can't evolve into something else. It's about picking and choosing the best time to go from one strategy to another. I'm sure Sony's done plenty of cost/benefit analysis to know when and how they should proceed with offering their better games on this service. In the meantime they've got about 800 titles available and growing, so it's a good start I'd say.

theAllseeingEYE · Mar 20, 2019

The Last One said:
Do people really expect Sony to put their games day one on PS Now?

No way this will ever happen to God of War 2, The Last of Us 2, Death Stranding, Horizon 2, etc.

Edit: If the PS3 games were downloadable then the service would be much better but a lack of an emulador kills It.

If Sony doesn't put first party or third party exclusive games of at least the quality Microsoft privides onto their subscription service day 1, on top of providing the sake quality of download vs streaming choices, it will always be a lesser platform.

To be honest, Sony doesnt have the online games or games as a service type titles that would make as much as sense here as Microsoft has, but they ha e more than enough quality first part titles here to provide. Also, in MS' experience, games are getting better word of mouth, and selling more, while simultanously seeing a far larger userbase for Game Pass titles.

If you do the simple math, it makes sense for Sony to follow suit. If they don't, it will be interesting to see if any of these services ends up truly taking off.

TelluricTokoro · Mar 20, 2019

To be fair to the article, Generations does feel like shit on the service. It was the first game I tried when it was available and I came away from the experience hating my favorite Sonic game.

It absolutely is abysmal for platformers and QTE-heavy games like Wet.

On the other hand, this service isn't really for people who play PS4 games regularly. Sony expects you to pay full price for those or wait until PS +, for good reason.

But the PS3 streaming needs work.

vivftp · Mar 20, 2019

theAllseeingEYE said:
If Sony doesn't put first party or third party exclusive games of at least the quality Microsoft privides onto their subscription service day 1, on top of providing the sake quality of download vs streaming choices, it will always be a lesser platform.

To be honest, Sony doesnt have the online games or games as a service type titles that would make as much as sense here as Microsoft has, but they ha e more than enough quality first part titles here to provide. Also, in MS' experience, games are getting better word of mouth, and selling more, while simultanously seeing a far larger userbase for Game Pass titles.

If you do the simple math, it makes sense for Sony to follow suit. If they don't, it will be interesting to see if any of these services ends up truly taking off.

According to Brad Sams Game Pass has gotten off to a slow start.

(5:20 timestamp)

Microsoft doesn't give us numbers so we have no idea how well Game Pass really is doing. If Brad Sams is reporting it's off to a slow start despite them having multiple deals where they're offering monthly subs for 1 or 2 dollars, then why would Sony want to emulate that with their big titles that cost tens or maybe eve a hundred million dollars to make?

Maybe Sony will do something closer to Game Pass in the future, but I think this indicates there's more to the story.

Betty · Mar 20, 2019

vivftp said:
According to Brad Sams Game Pass has gotten off to a slow start.

(5:20 timestamp)

Microsoft doesn't give us numbers so we have no idea how well Game Pass really is doing. If Brad Sams is reporting it's off to a slow start despite them having multiple deals where they're offering monthly subs for 1 or 2 dollars, then why would Sony want to emulate that with their big titles that cost tens or maybe eve a hundred million dollars to make?

Maybe Sony will do something closer to Game Pass in the future, but I think this indicates there's more to the story.

I've heard that too, honestly surprising considering how beloved Game Pass is around here but maybe when MS get a better exclusive line-up it'll flourish.

Definitely isn't time for Sony to dump their 1st party in a similar service.

poklane · Mar 20, 2019

Betty said:
I've heard that too, honestly surprising considering how beloved Game Pass is around here but maybe when MS get a better exclusive line-up it'll flourish.

Definitely isn't time for Sony to dump their 1st party in a similar service.

Never take the general opinion of one website and apply it to the entire industry.

Kage Maru · Mar 20, 2019

BradGrenz said:
I expect PS Now will leapfrog Stadia when the hardware and featureset are refreshed for PS5.

I can see it helping PS Now improve but how would it leapfrog Stadia? I don't see xcloud matching Stadia's list of features and MS is better equipped than Sony to match up with Google in this sense. I don't think we should be underestimating Stadia and I'm saying that as someone who isn't a fan of Google entering the gaming industry.

Abdel said:
This generation there is a major difference between Microsoft and Sony when allowing first party games day one on such service, both in type, quantity and quality (= investment). For example often single player experience vs the Microsoft's often mentioned "games as a service", where said game is released and regularly receiving updates (I think that is also the goal with Halo's "infinite" name) in the hope people become attached to the game so they will remain subscribed to the service.

The question Sony must answer is if they would see their huge investments returned (more so then selling the game full price) when allowing these often single player GOTY material day one on PS Now. Since it will also allow for gamers to subscribe for 1 month and when done unsubscribe + it will allow people to play those games outside of the hardware ecosystem.

To me there are still way too many advantages for Sony to not allow this.

I don't think looking at this generation's output is an accurate way to look at the situation going forward. The Xbox division imploded due to the early failings, effecting game output, investments, etc. Terry Myerson really wasn't good for the division and gave it a lower priority than their windows division. This is why the division has seen some pretty big changes since Phil has been promoted and only answers to Satya now. Ever since this has happened, they are investing in 1st party again, not pushing any kind of initiatives like GAAS, and are giving their studios more freedom. They explicitly said if their studios want to make SP story driven games without MP, they can do that. The games we'll see next gen will be different than we've seen this gen but will still be on GamePass day one. So I'm not sure sure what you're saying is relevant.

Also GP has helped with game sales, so there's always a chance that Sony's games could sell better if put on PS Now day one. We'll never know though since we can't compare the two scenarios.

vivftp said:
According to Brad Sams Game Pass has gotten off to a slow start.

(5:20 timestamp)

Microsoft doesn't give us numbers so we have no idea how well Game Pass really is doing. If Brad Sams is reporting it's off to a slow start despite them having multiple deals where they're offering monthly subs for 1 or 2 dollars, then why would Sony want to emulate that with their big titles that cost tens or maybe eve a hundred million dollars to make?

Maybe Sony will do something closer to Game Pass in the future, but I think this indicates there's more to the story.

Wouldn't surprise me if the service wasn't taking off yet. It's a new concept on the least popular platform. If MS output improves next gen, it'll be interesting to see if that drives growth for the service.

theAllseeingEYE · Mar 20, 2019

vivftp said:
According to Brad Sams Game Pass has gotten off to a slow start.

(5:20 timestamp)

Microsoft doesn't give us numbers so we have no idea how well Game Pass really is doing. If Brad Sams is reporting it's off to a slow start despite them having multiple deals where they're offering monthly subs for 1 or 2 dollars, then why would Sony want to emulate that with their big titles that cost tens or maybe eve a hundred million dollars to make?

Maybe Sony will do something closer to Game Pass in the future, but I think this indicates there's more to the story.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out. Also, I'm not sure why we should take Brad Sam's word that Game Pass is off to a slow start. It's an interesting point, but he could easily be referencing the initial launch instead of the current situation. All I know is that MS seems to be putting all their faith and muscle behind it, and that speaks volumes.

If Game Pass doesn't pan out, and I would honestly be baffled if it doesn't, or a similar idea doesn't take off (I assume MS has a lot of data on how EA Access was performing), then Sony could be playing a smart game here. If it does pan out though, I can see it being very disruptive, and think it already is.

vivftp · Mar 20, 2019

theAllseeingEYE said:
It will be interesting to see how things pan out. Also, I'm not sure why we should take Brad Sam's word that Game Pass is off to a slow start. It's an interesting point, but he could easily be referencing the initial launch instead of the current situation. All I know is that MS seems to be putting all their faith and muscle behind it, and that speaks volumes.

If Game Pass doesn't pan out, and I would honestly be baffled if it doesn't, or a similar idea doesn't take off (I assume MS has a lot of data on how EA Access was performing), then Sony could be playing a smart game here. If it does pan out though, I can see it being very disruptive, and think it already is.

I'm not personally familiar with Brad Sams, but a lot of people here seem to feel he's a reliable source of information when it comes to Microsoft related matters. Since the video is from just 12 days ago I think it's a very safe bet that he's talking about the status of Game Pass as it's performed more recently than its launch.

NoKisum · Mar 20, 2019

Didn't PSNow recently enable you to optionally download the games to your system so you don't have to stream them?

poklane · Mar 20, 2019

NoKisum said:
Didn't PSNow recently enable you to optionally download the games to your system so you don't have to stream them?

PS2 and PS4 games on PS4 only.

Deleted member 54674 · Mar 20, 2019

Kage Maru said:
Also GP has helped with game sales, so there's always a chance that Sony's games could sell better if put on PS Now day one. We'll never know though since we can't compare the two scenarios.

Microsoft is well known with handpicking positive data in their statements while leaving out others when the overall picture is not as positive at all. (imo) GP will not help with game sales that are provided in that service, unless the people unsubscribe and still want to play that game because they enjoyed it. You also need to look at the wording being used: "10 percent increase in franchise sales".

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1095747187194163212

This means to my understanding when (lets say) F1 2018 being offered by gamepass, it will lead to a 10% increase in sales of F1 2019. Which is very understandable when for example people unfamiliar with the franchise finding that they enjoy it and would like to buy and pre order the new version as well.

Also, with the EA's example given by ZhugeEX from EA, the comparison is not fair at all, while I am sure it will cause a growth since people may get attached to the previous iterations of the title and would like to buy the new version. They are comparing the "enthusiastic gamers" who are willing to subscribe to EA Access, of which some are motivated to do so by taking advantage of the discounts for their new titles. Compared to people who are unsubscribed and on average do not invest as much time and money in EA games to the more enthusiastic gamer audience who is willing to make use of the subscription.

BradGrenz · Mar 20, 2019

Kage Maru said:
I can see it helping PS Now improve but how would it leapfrog Stadia? I don't see xcloud matching Stadia's list of features and MS is better equipped than Sony to match up with Google in this sense. I don't think we should be underestimating Stadia and I'm saying that as someone who isn't a fan of Google entering the gaming industry.

There is basically no feature presented by Google for Stadia that can't be pretty easily replicated by any streaming platform. Half of them were pretty much a repeat of what Sony outlined as possible when they announced PS Now in 2014. I expect the PS4 GPU to be more powerful than what they've quoted for Stadia, and the CPU to be much more powerful. I think it will also have a RAM speed and capacity advantage.

In addition, Sony has been thinking about game streaming going back to the introduction of RemotePlay on the PS3 to PSP back in 2007. They've pioneered new use cases like SharePlay. They have 5 years of data from running their own streaming service. I fully expect their second generation streaming solution to offer a number of features the first gen platforms from Google and Microsoft never anticipated.

Liliana · Mar 20, 2019

BradGrenz said:
There is basically no feature presented by Google for Stadia that can't be pretty easily replicated by any streaming platform. Half of them were pretty much a repeat of what Sony outlined as possible when they announced PS Now in 2014. I expect the PS4 GPU to be more powerful than what they've quoted for Stadia, and the CPU to be much more powerful. I think it will also have a RAM speed and capacity advantage.

In addition, Sony has been thinking about game streaming going back to the introduction of RemotePlay on the PS3 to PSP back in 2007. They've pioneered new use cases like SharePlay. They have 5 years of data from running their own streaming service. I fully expect their second generation streaming solution to offer a number of features the first gen platforms from Google and Microsoft never anticipated.

You're in for a surprise. Bookmarked for later.

Kage Maru · Mar 20, 2019

Abdel said:
Microsoft is well known with handpicking positive data in their statements while leaving out others when the overall picture is not as positive at all. (imo) GP will not help with game sales that are provided in that service, unless the people unsubscribe and still want to play that game because they enjoyed it. You also need to look at the wording being used: "10 percent increase in franchise sales".

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1095747187194163212

This means to my understanding when (lets say) F1 2018 being offered by gamepass, it will lead to a 10% increase in sales of F1 2019. Which is very understandable when for example people unfamiliar with the franchise finding that they enjoy it and would like to buy and pre order the new version as well.

Also, with the EA's example given by ZhugeEX from EA, the comparison is not fair at all, while I am sure it will cause a growth since people may get attached to the previous iterations of the title and would like to buy the new version. They are comparing the "enthusiastic gamers" who are willing to subscribe to EA Access, of which some are motivated to do so by taking advantage of the discounts for their new titles. Compared to people who are unsubscribed and on average do not invest as much time and money in EA games to the more enthusiastic gamer audience who is willing to make use of the subscription.

Every company picks positive data to highlight something, it's business 101, so it's disingenuous to say that's a MS only thing. While I agree that's how you can read their 10% increase in sales, it doesn't really make sense for games like FH4 when it was the first FH game on the service. While I'm sure playing a previous version on GP can help drive interest into a sequel, I'm not sure that's what MS means exactly. Besides that's not the only time they mentioned sales. They have stated that SoT, SoD2, and FH4 have exceeded sales expectations.

I'm not sure what you're saying about "enthusiastic gamers". ZhugeEX's tweet pretty much supports what I was saying.

BradGrenz said:
There is basically no feature presented by Google for Stadia that can't be pretty easily replicated by any streaming platform. Half of them were pretty much a repeat of what Sony outlined as possible when they announced PS Now in 2014. I expect the PS4 GPU to be more powerful than what they've quoted for Stadia, and the CPU to be much more powerful. I think it will also have a RAM speed and capacity advantage.

In addition, Sony has been thinking about game streaming going back to the introduction of RemotePlay on the PS3 to PSP back in 2007. They've pioneered new use cases like SharePlay. They have 5 years of data from running their own streaming service. I fully expect their second generation streaming solution to offer a number of features the first gen platforms from Google and Microsoft never anticipated.

Yeah I can see both the next PS5 and Xbox to be more powerful than a single Stadia stack, but they can double that power. I'm sure that's not as easy as they made it out to be but my point is debating specs is kind of pointless since there are so many variables. Also assuming that Google makes good on their promise, I'm not sure we'll see 8K120 from these next gen consoles.

Regarding the features, it's not encouraging that they outlined possible features in 2014 but we haven't seen them yet. Yes, they started streaming before the competition but they haven't really done much with it until the competition started gearing up for it.

I'm sorry, I think Sony will do fine with their streaming service, but I think it's laughable to think that they would be a generation ahead of three monster companies, each with their own worldwide server infrastructure. Like I said before, I'll be surprised if MS or Sony matches Google's features with Stadia. I'm not even sure how Sony would integrate clicking on a trailer and playing a game instantly or joining a streamer that someone is watching. They don't have a service to fit that need. I don't care about game streaming, outside of the technology, but I don't see how the last part of your comment is at all possible.

BradGrenz · Mar 20, 2019

Regret said:
You're in for a surprise. Bookmarked for later.

Very insightful.

Deleted member 54674 · Mar 20, 2019

Kage Maru said:
I'm not sure what you're saying about "enthusiastic gamers". ZhugeEX's tweet pretty much supports what I was saying.

It does not support what you are saying, EA does not even do this, instead they release older games on their service and allow their new games to be bought at a discount by those who are subscribed. With enthusiastic gamer (I probably used the wrong wording), I mean the more hardcore gamer who most likely already are interested in EA games compared to the more casual gamers.

Kage Maru · Mar 20, 2019

Abdel said:
It does not support what you are saying, EA does not even do this, instead they release older games on their service and allow their new games to be bought at a discount by those who are subscribed. With enthusiastic gamer (I probably used the wrong wording), I mean the more hardcore gamer who most likely already are interested in EA games compared to the more casual gamers.

In that scenario neither EA or MS would get a sale at all from the casual gamer, so that still wouldn't lead to a lost sale in the end. The 3x more spending statistic is very telling and it's what MS and EA care about.

Sangetsu-II · Mar 20, 2019

One thing I do appreciate PS Now does right is it doesn't remove titles as often as GamePass, the service has 750+ titles and has only removed a few dozen.

TheGhost · Mar 20, 2019

BradGrenz said:
There is basically no feature presented by Google for Stadia that can't be pretty easily replicated by any streaming platform. Half of them were pretty much a repeat of what Sony outlined as possible when they announced PS Now in 2014. I expect the PS4 GPU to be more powerful than what they've quoted for Stadia, and the CPU to be much more powerful. I think it will also have a RAM speed and capacity advantage.

In addition, Sony has been thinking about game streaming going back to the introduction of RemotePlay on the PS3 to PSP back in 2007. They've pioneered new use cases like SharePlay. They have 5 years of data from running their own streaming service. I fully expect their second generation streaming solution to offer a number of features the first gen platforms from Google and Microsoft never anticipated.

I just don't see that happening because PS Now has felt like a after thought and is kind of being forced back into the picture because of Google and Microsoft. They should never have let it come to this, where other companies are doing or planning something similiar when they were the first to do it really.

Of course all speculation until they stop being so shy about the future.

Sangetsu-II · Mar 20, 2019

SplitYourInfinities said:
You missing the point. I will reiterate: they don't have the infrastructure to compete against Google or Microsoft. Their infrastructure is not scalable. The service has now around 10K Playstation 3 servers for their cloud in Europe. If they are not being used, they are just taking up space and power, which costs lots of money. Google servers and Azure servers are elastic, which means that they can be used for different things (running a large data analysis, or running a compute model for the weather, or virtualising a spreadsheet... you name it). In a race to outplay your competitors in such market you have to provide servers close to the players. With Sony's current approach adding more servers will make costs grow exponentially but, unlikely their competition, it doesn't ensure benefits will. Yes, Playstation Now is on the market, but that means nothing.

Trust me they are all being used have you seen the queue lines on PS Now all have minimum 5 minute wait time.

El-Pistolero · Mar 20, 2019

zedox said:
Eventually...it will be like that as an option. Traditional models will still exist and can be successful...but the subscription model is probably going to be the "main way" in the future for these companies and rising costs of game development. I don't think it's happening now for Sony and they will take their time before doing it, but it will happen.

Hopefully they will be successful enough and able to resist for a long a they can...

Sangetsu-II · Mar 20, 2019

vivftp said:
According to Brad Sams Game Pass has gotten off to a slow start.

(5:20 timestamp)

Microsoft doesn't give us numbers so we have no idea how well Game Pass really is doing. If Brad Sams is reporting it's off to a slow start despite them having multiple deals where they're offering monthly subs for 1 or 2 dollars, then why would Sony want to emulate that with their big titles that cost tens or maybe eve a hundred million dollars to make?

Maybe Sony will do something closer to Game Pass in the future, but I think this indicates there's more to the story.

That's more indicative of GamePass not having worldwide attraction as other services IMO. I do believe GamePass has more attraction in NA and that's why it's off to a slow start worldwide.

Agent X · Mar 21, 2019

Kage Maru said:
Like I said before, I'll be surprised if MS or Sony matches Google's features with Stadia. I'm not even sure how Sony would integrate clicking on a trailer and playing a game instantly or joining a streamer that someone is watching. They don't have a service to fit that need. I don't care about game streaming, outside of the technology, but I don't see how the last part of your comment is at all possible.

OnLive had similar features several years ago. You could spectate other people's games, and in some instances you could even jump into their game as a participant.

Sony now owns many of the technology and patents associated with OnLive. Sony does not currently offer these features within PlayStation Now, but they already have variations of these features in the PS4 user interface. The main issue here is that Sony keeps PS Now (as a service) segregated from the PS4 UI and PS Store. For example, you can't watch a trailer for a game in the PS Store and then jump into a PS Now session for that game. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for them to integrate PS Now into the PS4 UI, if there was demand for it.

phant0m · Mar 21, 2019

They need to just make PSNow a part of PS+ since they're ditching the pa3/vita games.

BradGrenz · Mar 21, 2019

Agent X said:
For example, you can't watch a trailer for a game in the PS Store and then jump into a PS Now session for that game. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for them to integrate PS Now into the PS4 UI, if there was demand for it.

Have you used PS Now, because I'm pretty sure subscribers can do exactly that for games in the catalog.

dom · Mar 21, 2019

Sangetsu-II said:
One thing I do appreciate PS Now does right is it doesn't remove titles as often as GamePass, the service has 750+ titles and has only removed a few dozen.

They also have to be working on a PS3 emulator. Whether for PS5 or more capable CPU, it is important for them cost wise to get off PS3 hardware and keep the huge game catalog. Also a reason why a lot of the PS3 games that have ports for PS4 have switched.

Deader2818 · Mar 21, 2019

BradGrenz said:
Have you used PS Now, because I'm pretty sure subscribers can do exactly that for games in the catalog.

Yeah if you have now games on psn don't even show a price. It let's you start the game right from psn.

Kage Maru · Mar 21, 2019

Agent X said:
OnLive had similar features several years ago. You could spectate other people's games, and in some instances you could even jump into their game as a participant.

Sony now owns many of the technology and patents associated with OnLive. Sony does not currently offer these features within PlayStation Now, but they already have variations of these features in the PS4 user interface. The main issue here is that Sony keeps PS Now (as a service) segregated from the PS4 UI and PS Store. For example, you can't watch a trailer for a game in the PS Store and then jump into a PS Now session for that game. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for them to integrate PS Now into the PS4 UI, if there was demand for it.

Agreed, they can do more, which is why it's telling that they haven't done more. I think they'll do fine, I just don't agree that there will be a generational gap.

Gerwant · Mar 21, 2019

phant0m said:
They need to just make PSNow a part of PS+ since they're ditching the pa3/vita games.

You did not think it through before writing it, right?

amstradcpc · Mar 21, 2019

Agent X said:
OnLive had similar features several years ago. You could spectate other people's games, and in some instances you could even jump into their game as a participant.

Sony now owns many of the technology and patents associated with OnLive. Sony does not currently offer these features within PlayStation Now, but they already have variations of these features in the PS4 user interface. The main issue here is that Sony keeps PS Now (as a service) segregated from the PS4 UI and PS Store. For example, you can't watch a trailer for a game in the PS Store and then jump into a PS Now session for that game. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for them to integrate PS Now into the PS4 UI, if there was demand for it.

Didnt Sony buy Gaikai and MS OnLive?.

vivftp · Mar 21, 2019

amstradcpc said:
Didnt Sony buy Gaikai and MS OnLive?.

Sony bought both Gaikai and Onlive

pswii60 · Mar 21, 2019

amstradcpc said:
Didnt Sony buy Gaikai and MS OnLive?.

Yes. They bought OnLive (presumably for tech/patents) and shut it down the next day.

UnNamed · Mar 21, 2019

PSNOW is a decent service with some flaws.
Streaming is only 720p, not that bad but at the same time not enough, they must introduce 1080p option as well.
PC app is a mess, some games still don't work, more stuttering, windows that lost focus, ect. Also, where is the mobile app, since there is IOS app for remote play?
But the major flaw is the lineup, they want to fight Microsoft and Google with a service lacking of Uncharted 4, a two year old game? And Horizon?

Deleted member 9857 · Mar 21, 2019

pswii60 said:
Yes. They bought OnLive (presumably for tech/patents) and shut it down the next day.

IIRC they didn't actually buy all of OnLive, OnLive was shutting down already so they sold tech & patents to Sony; Sony didn't buy the company only to shut it down

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015...-sells-patents-to-sony-embargoed-7pm-eastern/

Agent X · Mar 21, 2019

BradGrenz said:
Have you used PS Now, because I'm pretty sure subscribers can do exactly that for games in the catalog.

Yes, I've been a subscriber for a few years now.

I just checked in PlayStation Store on the PS4, and as Deader2818 pointed out above, it does in fact show a "Play on PS Now" button. That's good to know!

It would be clever if they could bring this ability to the PC as well, especially since I tend to use PS Store on the PC more frequently than on the systems themselves.

Deader2818 said:
Yeah if you have now games on psn don't even show a price. It let's you start the game right from psn.

For the few example that I checked, in addition to the "Play on PS Now" button, it does also give you the option to purchase the game (and shows the price), if you don't own it already.

jroc74 · Mar 21, 2019

Ppl keep saying games need to be on these services day and date haven't explained how streaming movie services are thriving along with box office sales.

Some orig content is one thing, but Black Panther, Infinity War, Civil War still had big box office sales and were most watched on Netflix and Amazon Prime, despite coming months later.

Sony doesn't need to put all games on its service day and date.

Agent X said:
Yes, I've been a subscriber for a few years now.

I just checked in PlayStation Store on the PS4, and as Deader2818 pointed out above, it does in fact show a "Play on PS Now" button. That's good to know!

It would be clever if they could bring this ability to the PC as well, especially since I tend to use PS Store on the PC more frequently than on the systems themselves.

For the few example that I checked, in addition to the "Play on PS Now" button, it does also give you the option to purchase the game (and shows the price), if you don't own it already.

This is an example of when ppl say Sony, PSNow can't compete, they don't really know much about the service.

Because this feature was one many called a game changer with the YouTube integration. I agree, they need to bring this to the PC web site.

Carolina Reaper · Mar 21, 2019

They're right. It isn't. It's never been good enough. Hopefully Sony has something better up their sleeves for next gen, because what they currently offer is pretty terrible.

Agent X · Mar 21, 2019

jroc74 said:
Ppl keep saying games need to be on these services day and date haven't explained how streaming movie services are thriving along with box office sales.

Some orig content is one thing, but Black Panther, Infinity War, Civil War still had big box office sales and were most watched on Netflix and Amazon Prime, despite coming months later.

Sony doesn't need to put all games on its service day and date.

I agree. While it would be "nice" to have newly released games made available immediately on the PS Now subscription, it isn't necessary at this time.

I do think Sony should be quicker about getting games on the service, though. I've said before that I'm surprised that games like Uncharted 4 and Horizon: Zero Dawn still aren't on PS Now, despite being more than two years old. Those games, along with stuff like Gravity Rush 2, Wipeout Omega Collection, and Everybody's Golf, would make great additions to PS Now. I feel that 6-12 months is a good window to allow the games to sell at retail, and then get a second wind through PS Now.

jroc74 said:
This is an example of when ppl say Sony, PSNow can't compete, they don't really know much about the service.

Because this feature was one many called a game changer with the YouTube integration.

To Google's credit, this could be a "game changer", because of the ubiquity of YouTube. The issue, though, is while we can imagine how this would work in an ideal hypothetical scenario where everyone is equally equipped to access Stadia, we don't know how this will actually work in the real world. We still don't know if Stadia is going to "sell" or "rent" games individually (like OnLive or early PS Now), or whether user get access to a large catalog (like OnLive PlayPack or the current PS Now). Such a feature would be great for instant access to free playable demos, which could then give the user the opportunity to convert into a full game purchase.

jroc74 said:
I agree, they need to bring this to the PC web site.

Yeah, I've been thinking about how some of these "innovative" features were actually implemented years ago by OnLive and Gaikai...and are not in Sony's current implementation of PS Now.

It shouldn't be too difficult for Sony to add this feature to their Web site. Since the PS Store on PS4 can detect that I'm a PS Now subscriber (through my account information), then the PS Store on PC should be able to do so as well. Then, they just present a "Play on PS Now" button, which goes to a URL that can launch the PS Now client on the PC, or maybe even a lean browser plugin to play within the Web browser itself.

Rosol · Mar 21, 2019

SplitYourInfinities said:
You missing the point. I will reiterate: they don't have the infrastructure to compete against Google or Microsoft. Their infrastructure is not scalable. The service has now around 10K Playstation 3 servers for their cloud in Europe. If they are not being used, they are just taking up space and power, which costs lots of money. Google servers and Azure servers are elastic, which means that they can be used for different things (running a large data analysis, or running a compute model for the weather, or virtualising a spreadsheet... you name it). In a race to outplay your competitors in such market you have to provide servers close to the players. With Sony's current approach adding more servers will make costs grow exponentially but, unlikely their competition, it doesn't ensure benefits will. Yes, Playstation Now is on the market, but that means nothing.

We don't really know how scalable googles new servers to run games are and MS is using custom blades that are just xboxs for the most part. They can't just use the massive server farms they already have for this - they have to put in new racks with GPUs just like Sony would would be adding game hardware to play games. I don't think there's any proof they can easily reporpose the new game servers for anything else either.

BradGrenz · Mar 21, 2019

Agent X said:
I do think Sony should be quicker about getting games on the service, though. I've said before that I'm surprised that games like Uncharted 4 and Horizon: Zero Dawn still aren't on PS Now, despite being more than two years old. Those games, along with stuff like Gravity Rush 2, Wipeout Omega Collection, and Everybody's Golf, would make great additions to PS Now. I feel that 6-12 months is a good window to allow the games to sell at retail, and then get a second wind through PS Now.

Sony's hits this gen have had pretty long tails, so I don't know if 6-12 months makes sense, but I definitely think they should codify the period of time between when a 1st party game releases and when it is added to PS Now. Even if it was like 2 year, you'd know for sure what to look forward to.

Engadget: PlayStation Now still isn't good enough

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