PS Cloud – Online Sony Gaming?
Ah, so this is the top secret Sony PlayStation announcement? Right? Hello? Article written by nofi in PS3 News, on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 7:12.Sony must have read our minds: the recent shock announcement of OnLive at GDC, with which gamers stream the videogames rather than having to have a computer or console powerful enough to play them, has certainly got the attention of Sony. There’s not a great deal of information about the newly registered PS Cloud, but it’s a) from Sony Computer Entertainment, and b) about gaming over the internet. The capital letters typical of an application like this hurt our eyes, so here’s the juicy stuff:
PS Cloud will be, from what we can gather, a central hub for communicating with computers and consoles, pushing out publication of video games, movies and music to our PlayStation consoles present and future. It’s clear that the service will work with the PSP as well as any TV-based PlayStations. The document goes on to mention the usual stuff that the current PS Store manages, but the main meat of the specification is in the third paragraph, where it talks about providing an on-line video game that users may access through the internet, presumably in a similar fashion to OnLive.
It’s all legal-speak, really, so until Sony publish a press release a lot of this is conjecture, but it’s interesting all the same. We know the PS3 is a capable machine, but why bother producing a PS4 if you can just stream next-gen games to your current gen console? We’d love to know what you think about PS Cloud – is it a good idea, will it revolutionalise gaming, or is this just Sony desperate to get a piece of the pie?
Tip: CaptainMurdo
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Vandix | 31/03/2009 07:22
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I guess it’s the future, but I can see a lot of legal issues here. In the Netherlands we don’t get PlayTV due to broadcasting laws. Since this is sort of the same thing, I can see some countries not getting this because of these laws. But that would be the same for OnLive.
C_S15 | 31/03/2009 07:24
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Does this then confirm that Sony doesn’t want anything to do with OnLive if they want to make their own service?
Revolution | 31/03/2009 07:31
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If so, that means Sony hasn’t lost their minds after all. I love the idea of still having a console that takes disc-based games as much as I hate the idea of streaming games online. I’d rather download the game than stream it really. Besides, I love my PS3, I’m not letting it go that easy, and an application like this might even keep me up-to-day with future technology
C_S15 | 31/03/2009 07:39
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The PS3 is a “10 year plan” apparently. So I’d hope it fulfills that promise at *least* before going towards something like this.
If it was a download system, I think that’d be preferable, so agreed.
Pixl1983 | 31/03/2009 09:32
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OnLive won’t be the only service. There was already another developer at GDC who announced his venture into cloud gaming. He’ll make a propper announcement at E3 but OnLive forced his hand. I’ll try and find the link…
Anyway, this means that OnLive may be the first to the table but they won’t have a monopoly. There will be many different services all offering a similar thing but in different ways, just like there is at the moment with consoles and PC.
I’m sort of thinking about this as this in the same way as the rise of cable TV, but different….
cc_star | 31/03/2009 12:16
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It’s David Perry from Acclaim
He wants to sell it to ISP’s though not consumers
Hicko | 31/03/2009 07:36
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On the face of it, seems a good idea. Can’t see how it can be that stable though. Imagine getting through a chunk of game and then server issues or just wanting a quick 10 minutes of gameplay and it crashes. I know it happens with disc based games but in my experience not half as much as online (eg home). Can they make it robust enough?
Jumping Monks | 31/03/2009 07:55
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i dont think i like the sound of this, personally id prefer a ps4 or other such gaming console
GamerRiley | 31/03/2009 08:03
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This OnLive and PS Cloud look set to change the way we play games in the future, I’m not totally sold yet though. First thing that worries me is the speed of my internet connection, it goes from fair to shit in the evening. Secondly I like to physically own a game, ie a disc in a box. And thirdly does this mean that BluRay is also going to be phased out if this takes off? We seem to be living in the age of the download.
gazzagb | 31/03/2009 08:05
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I doubt that the servers will be able to cope with the ammount of data being sent, especially as normal blueray disks can hold upto 40gb of data. But if you could use your old console, sony would be makin huge losses and so would have to have a scrubscription fee to keep the servers up.
cc_star | 31/03/2009 08:19
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It’s because of the limitation of Blu-ray that it needs to hold so much data, because of various factors it needs to have the same data repeated multiple times so it can be accessed quickly.
Also developers no longer bother compressing data (and uncompressing on the fly) As far as I know nearly all PS3 games so far would have been possible on a DVD (except for MGS cut-scenes, & LBP tutorials) through the fact that textures wouldn’t have to be repeated multiple times, and developer could always use compression techniques.
djhsecondnature | 31/03/2009 11:29
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Whilst I know what you mean, it’s not a fault with Blu-ray, just the Blu-ray player in the PS3 running at only a 2x speed. There are already Blu-ray players on the market with much faster read speeds that wouldn’t suffer from this problem.
xvLIAMvx | 31/03/2009 15:47
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“Nearly all Ps3 games so far”, is indeed too true. And the cause isn’t blu-ray’s fault, it’s xbox hampering the development. GTA 4 would have been so much bigger and better were they to use blu-ray’s full capacity, or even half of it. 9gb’s just isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s also not DVD’s fault. As PC gaming has always enabled the installation of more than one disc.
Blu-ray doesn’t really have much limitation in comparison to DVD. Killzone would not fit on DVD. And it’s a stella game. As far as i’m concerned one of the best FPS games out there got done on a BR disc (PS3 2X BR @ consistent 9mb/s) without the need for an install. Hence i’m unconvinced PS3’s Blu-ray is at any disadvantage.
BioEye | 31/03/2009 08:06
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I like the sound of this
cc_star | 31/03/2009 08:14
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The PS3 will be capable of receiving and playing anything streamed to it, therefore the PS3 could be the last console you ever need to buy
One problem though is SCEE are that shit at uploading even a demo to the PSN Store, what sort of service are we to expect in Europe, because if the same shower of shit are in charge when anything like this lands, it will be enough to tempt me to buy a 360, and use their rival cloud service.
masoke | 31/03/2009 08:48
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Isn’t this, and hasn’t this always been, what Home is building towards?
If I was more certain that I’d posted it somewhere I’d bother looking, but I’ve always thought something like this is the next step.
gazo69 | 31/03/2009 08:54
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I’m not keen on the idea of onlive at all, PS cloud does sound more inviting, i wouldn’t want the option to go out and buy a disc to not be there.
Also just to echo what everyone else is mentioning, could sony provide a seamless service, we all know what there track record is like!
xvLIAMvx | 31/03/2009 10:04
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This is depressing!!!!!! I want to purchase a physical piece of technology to play my games and movies. I want to have a choice as to which brand/product I purchase. I want to be able to game with or without an internet connection. I want to be in control of my own hobby and not reliant on some distant server. I want to be able to go to the stores and see/read/hold the game i’m interested in purchasing.
The thought of my gaming hobby being under the mercy of the interenet and distant hardware really makes no sense. What about system link? Split screen? Gaming with friends at home? If the cloud goes down, you have to wait before playing again! If PSN goes down, i just contnue playing.
IMO, this stinks! And it’s jumping too far ahead. I can honestly say that if cloud gaming becomes the norm, i’ll abandon gaming and pursue a new hobby! (Look out for FRUITofDOOM over taking Hamilton at Monaco)
cc_star | 31/03/2009 12:20
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This could be viewed another way as the ultimate liberation, you will have a choice of brands like never before.
And I didn’t know you were FruitofDoom
xvLIAMvx | 31/03/2009 14:54
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It just seems like handing over too much control to other people. Guess I’m getting old when I say; I want physical representation of my purchases. I will state that it’s a good way of ridding the 2nd hand market.
On another note, the servers are going to have to be top notch if this is to take off.
And yes, I’m FRUITofDOOM. Wish could change my account name, but hey ho.
KittDJW | 31/03/2009 10:21
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something doesn’t feel right, any of you tried streaming remote-play from PSP to PS3.. because there is always an annoying lag which is either through internet or directly connected with private network. I just don’t see how you can get around this especially if you are with an ISP that traffic shapes.
But we’ll see.
cc_star | 31/03/2009 12:18
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But a purpose built infrastructure just might work
Paragonknight | 31/03/2009 10:31
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I wouldn’t mind this if Sony would deliver the instructional manual to my door.
gazo69 | 31/03/2009 10:39
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I never look at the instruction manual!
KittDJW | 31/03/2009 11:15
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always last resort
shields_t | 31/03/2009 10:46
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Does that mean that in the future when the evil robots take over the internet we’ll no longer be able to play our Playstations?
KittDJW | 31/03/2009 11:16
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yeah off-line.
Radboud | 31/03/2009 13:24
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I really don’t like where this is going to.
- Playing games with a price per minute?
- Paying a monthly fee to play games?
- Server crashes
- Everything you do open to the world via Internet
- etc.
I for one would love to be able to indeed buy the physical evidence of my purchase. Perhaps this is just me being old-fashioned, but still…
If I put in a disc I bought like three years ago, I can play my old games for free (well kind of).
Will all games always be available at any time? (Sorry guys, we deleted that and that game, because we had a new one and our memory capacity is to small….)
Furthermore I hate monthly fees for playing games. I want to play games when I want and for how long I want. Somehow this OnLive gaming is not something I am looking forward to, but PS Cloud as an addon to the services of Sony would be very welcome.
SirGregThorn | 31/03/2009 16:09
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Same here, hate hate hate paying monthly fees
cc_star | 31/03/2009 08:07
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Technically this could make the PS3 last an unlimited amount of time, so you can throw the 10 year plan out the window
C_S15 | 31/03/2009 08:28
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Thats if we ever get it/it works.
If Sony already has this plan, whats to stop them streaming movies too? Then what is the point of the Blu-ray drive?
ii3illy | 31/03/2009 11:11
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Blu Rays can kick out info at well over 100 mbits a second so peeps will need big old pipes to stream blu ray quality films effectively.
cc_star | 31/03/2009 12:14
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You can stream 720p, and that’s more than enough for the overwhelming majority of people.
Pixl1983 | 31/03/2009 12:26
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Ah right. Cheers.
But still, I see lots of people getting on board this in a few years. When the internet pipes can take it this is going to be brill!