It's too bad they won't say how many Game Pass subscribers there are.
I think if Game Pass was doing as well as they keep saying it is, we wouldn't have been seeing all those $1 for 3 months for new subscribers or $30 for 6 months deals.
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Kotaku: Playstation Now Will Offer Downloads Later This Year
- Thread starter VirtuaRacer
- Start date
I think if Game Pass was doing as well as they keep saying it is, we wouldn't have been seeing all those $1 for 3 months for new subscribers or $30 for 6 months deals.
Yeah I'm as cynical as you are about how they refuse to give raw numbers about anything.
And I think that's totally true, and irrelevant for the likes of Spider-Man and Days Gone.
Of course more people playing co-op games increases the player count of co-op games. That's my entire issue with Game Pass really. That you will inherently start to lean your games in a direction that plays best to the financial model of Game Pass. I.E. no barrier to entry, high retention, low value transactions.
Regardless of what Matt Booty or Phil claim, I don't believe they will ever publish a game like God of War, or Spider-Man, etc. A huge budget, AAA, super polished single player only title, because it completely contradicts their new business model.
I can be really cynical though, so maybe it'll be roses, I really hope I'm wrong.
Fingers crossed this means Australia can finally get in on the fun - a shame that, years on, we still have no access to the service. Being able to download, at least PS4 titles, would eliminate latency altogether. Hopefully that was one of the very few reasons as to why the service hadn't been launched down under yet.
Is this the first indication that the $380 million Gaikai purchase hasn't worked out as they had hoped?
Netflix's market cap is also more than Disney's. So you can't blame all the business people wanting to chase that gold rush.
And as Phil Spencer has said, people subscribing to Game Pass don't stop buy games. The 2 day one Game Pass exclusives so far are doing better than expected individual sales wise.
As for the problem of one publisher one subscription concerns, I bet that Microsoft gets cut for each EA Access subscription so I doubt Microsoft is too worried on that front. No matter which subscription service wins at the end, Microsoft will be the one reaping the benefit.
We don't know expectations and we don't have numbers, so I'm curious how you came to this conclusion.
I think it's just as simple as the majority of people are not ready for streaming and neither is the technology. Sony tends to rush into new technology like streaming and VR. Which is good if it takes off, but I think they just wanted to be ahead of the curve more than anything.
It only has online because critics and fans demand so. It's still mainly a single player experience.
Plus, if I see every one of my friends are playing Witcher 3, I'll be interested in buying that game as well. Doesn't matter if it's single player or not.
So I don't think your cynicism is warranted.
I don't know why we can't at least make educated guesses from physical game sales of SoT and SoD2 and words of Phil Spencer.
It's highly likely Xbox Game Pass doesn't impact individual game sales. Sure we don't know the numbers of Xbox Game Pass. But I thought we are discussing "if subscription will eat away individual game sales," not "is Xbox Game Pass successful?"
Great baby step but the reason I would ever use PS Now is to play PS3 games.
More like realization that in 2018 people still have capped crappy internet.
More like realization that in 2018 people still have capped crappy internet.
Why would Sony get rid of PSNow in a time when competitors are actively exploring the streaming business model?
A rumour recently did the rounds suggesting that Sony's PlayStation Now service, which is basically an on-demand games library that can be streamed, would be getting offline functionality. An industry source was able to confirm to Kotaku UK that downloads are coming to Playstation Now, and add some detail.
The functionality is due to roll out in late September this year, but will be limited to PlayStation 4 games (at least initially).
So clearly they're working on a PS3 emulator.
The functionality is due to roll out in late September this year, but will be limited to PlayStation 4 games (at least initially).
So clearly they're working on a PS3 emulator.
Or a PS1 emulator. Or will offer actual PS2 games on the existing emulator.
Yeah, I actually never thought of that. I guess it's because the service currently caters mainly to PS3 games.
I can picture a future in video games where we treat it like the music industry now and where the movie industry is soon headed, which is measuring success in the amount of streams and downloads of a title.
It's hard to judge them the same way when music doesn't cost 100 million dollars to make.
Movies do, though they also heavily rely on theater sales. I think something like that is probably the most likely business model, buy the game full price to play it day 1, or wait for it to hit subscription services 6 months or so down the line.
What if they do offer PS3 downloads for PC? You would have to obviously meet the minimum requirements.
What if the minimum requirements fall within the range of PS5 specs...
I expect Sony to try for more drop the mic moments for PS5 reveal, launch.
Those saying no PS4 games on PC then why bother? Sony isn't MS. MS has actual first party games on PC right now.
And I love seeing the posts bringing up IGC. Kept saying for months it was already Game Pass lite, lol. Didn't realize how much it was like it when it launched.
What if the minimum requirements fall within the range of PS5 specs...
I expect Sony to try for more drop the mic moments for PS5 reveal, launch.
Those saying no PS4 games on PC then why bother? Sony isn't MS. MS has actual first party games on PC right now.
And I love seeing the posts bringing up IGC. Kept saying for months it was already Game Pass lite, lol. Didn't realize how much it was like it when it launched.
I don't see why this is even something to talk about? I already said that the fact that MS is also looking into streaming doesn't mean it is something Sony should not quit PSNow, to be honest. If it doesn't make sense for your company, get rid of it. We also still don't know how MS will try to circumvent the problem with speed of light, although they are way better equipped to ensure to have more data centers near potential customers than Sony is but that doesn't mean you should just keep it as a service just because MS is also looking into it.
There can be several reasons to keep it, though. But saying the competition is also looking into it is, at least to me, not a valid reason to keep a service that is not widely adopted, although it's been on the market for several years.
Valid point, overall.
I guess the key thing is that - for Sony,at least in the inception of when they first bought Gaikai, they said that while they're monetising it - it's also a technology play to get their hat in the ring early, as they see streaming something that will be key in the further future of the gaming business. It's also why PSNow is seemingly always 'low-key' and only in very limited countries with no intention to expand in a big way, because Sony doesn't actually think it's a short-term thing. That being said, assuming PSNow is sustainable enough as it is now, it's better to keep it and iterate on it than shelf it until it somehow becomes visible
It's the same logic Sony has for keeping its deadweight mobile phone division. Sony outright says their Xperia division is just a living corpse at this point, but leaving mobile space altogether means they don't even have the R&D talent for the next step in 5G technology, and having the talent and resources there matter, even if everything else about that division is a dead-weight.
I know they won't drop PSNow - my colleague got a job offer from Sony a few months ago and he told me the details and it was obvious it was for PSNow (he is a network engineer).
And I see your point of not dropping it completely, of course. My reply was to DieH@rd who said "If people download more, cost of running PSNow servers will be reduced." so it was only half serious in this case. I also think there is still a lot space for R&D in this case as streaming not only has the problem with latency but also video encoding and decoding which adds time additionally to the perceived image to a user so you want to minimize both to the absolute lowest time possible while you can't change speed of light.
Either way, I think the possibility to download games is a good choice to improve the image ( :D ) of PSNow. I am just wondering what they will do with countries where they don't have PSNow yet. The downloads will not rely on PSNow infrastructure and thus they could offer the downloads part of PSNow even where the streaming is not available.
The reason PS Now hasn't expanded is probably because it would require an absolutely massive capital investment in a network of soon-to-be-obsolete hardware. Spending billions of dollars to put racks of PS3 hardware in every country just isn't going to generate a return.
Downloads can of course be offered worldwide without any significant investment.
If they develop a PS3 emulator it will allow streaming from standard x86 hardware. That's when the service can really expand properly. I'm pretty sure Microsoft's streaming solution will also be based on virtualised hardware and emulation.
Downloads can of course be offered worldwide without any significant investment.
If they develop a PS3 emulator it will allow streaming from standard x86 hardware. That's when the service can really expand properly. I'm pretty sure Microsoft's streaming solution will also be based on virtualised hardware and emulation.
I don't think we can expect all the current ps4 games will be downloadable right? Seems like Sony will have to renegotiate the games to their publisher/developers and not all may want to sign in on this.
I mean, Game Pass offers new games on its release day so...
What's with all the people calling for Now to be removed from PC? Absolutely ridiculous. I even think it was a very big mistake to discontinue Now on Vita, PS3 and SmartTV. You can bet your ass on the fact that MS will push their streaming solution hard onto every platform available to mankind. Because that's the whole purpose of having streaming, games being available on other platforms instantly.
I believe they'll eventually kill the Now app and add it directly to the OS level. Them adding downloads is probably a good indicator that it's happening with FW6.0. May Gaben have mercy on us if they decide to introduce a 3rd game installation type... because as it stands you can't run a digital license from a disk based install (although they are virtually identical apart of the license tied to it). If they pull that stunt again and require you to redownload a Now install after buying the game then it's DoA for me.
I believe they'll eventually kill the Now app and add it directly to the OS level. Them adding downloads is probably a good indicator that it's happening with FW6.0. May Gaben have mercy on us if they decide to introduce a 3rd game installation type... because as it stands you can't run a digital license from a disk based install (although they are virtually identical apart of the license tied to it). If they pull that stunt again and require you to redownload a Now install after buying the game then it's DoA for me.
Now I'm interested!! I hope they figure out a way for PS3 BC so they can have the same feature for those games.
I think Sony might actually offer a different plan, download only or download and streaming.
The big problem with PS Now is basically the crappy connections most people in the world have, that don't make it a viable solution for most users, at the moment.
If 5G delivers though, all the shitty internet connections problem will be solved and streaming will become the next big thing.
For now, allowing users to choose a 10$ "download only" plan makes a lot of sense.
The big problem with PS Now is basically the crappy connections most people in the world have, that don't make it a viable solution for most users, at the moment.
If 5G delivers though, all the shitty internet connections problem will be solved and streaming will become the next big thing.
For now, allowing users to choose a 10$ "download only" plan makes a lot of sense.
you mean new 'Quality' games like sea of thieves and state of decay? Welp..sign me up! /S
:P
I like the line where it says PS4 games for now. Did it mean ps5 would be backwards compatible?
They have most, if not all, current gen exclusive games on the list, including Gears, Halo, Sunset Overdrive, etc. In 2019, you'll get Forza and Crackdown.
If you think it's comparable to PS Now that doesn't even offer any exclusive from the earlier years of PS4 and PS3 remasters, you're kidding yourself.
Yep, I've been saying that also before. They have to get rid of the shitty PS3 solution where custom tailored servers have to be build with Cell hardware to provide access to PS3 hardware. This is where tech is evolving, Cell won't get new node sizes and everything, it's just old crappy hardware by today's standards. Of course emulating the PS3 is still taking a lot of resources and developing the emulator itself is also not easy to do but this solution will only get better with time while old Cell hardware will never evolve, will not get better or more efficient.
