Sony’s shock PlayStation Now announcement may have been received more positively than a peck on the cheek from Katy Perry, but one question that’s remained unclear since the online service’s unveiling is just how fast your Internet connection will need to be in order for it to operate. Fortunately, the platform holder has provided clarification courtesy of the PlayStation Blog.
“We recommend a 5Mbps plus connection,” wrote community manager Matthew Harper. “In our internal tests, users with this bandwidth or greater have been enjoying a low latency, high-quality gaming experience.” As of April last year, the average North American connection speed sat at 7.4Mbps, so chances are you’ll be able to use the service effectively.
If you’re confident that your connection’s actually better than the national average, then the service will automatically adjust, too. “PlayStation Now tests your connection for each game and optimises for quality if you are above the minimum requirements,” the spokesperson continued. “We strive to make the gameplay experience feel as if the game is being played locally on your device.”
Of course, it’s important to remember that the just announced innovation hasn’t even reached open beta yet, and the company will be monitoring the experiences of those that sign up to sample the platform closely. “Our developers will be working diligently to optimise the service based upon the feedback that we receive from the community,” Harper concluded.
For those of you who have been living under a rock more robust than Mount Everest, the cloud-based network discussed above will allow you to stream legacy PlayStation software to your PS4, Vita, and, in the future, television, smartphone, and tablet. The most amazing thing is that it actually works, as evidenced by these off-screen videos of The Last of Us and God of War: Ascension.
[source blog.us.playstation.com]
Comments 29
100mb/ps but ofcourse i live in Europe and we are always after America.
I'm set, just a matter now of seeing how this all pans out. By the way, does anybody think playing a game like The Last of Us would be anything but a chore on a phone? To me it's one of those games where you absolutely need a DualShock.
@Gamer83 Yeah, I actually think in a lot of cases this is something where the "concept" seems cooler than the "reality". I struggle playing Killzone on the Vita because of the lack of shoulder buttons - I can't imagine how much fun a game like The Last of Us would be without any at all.
Then again, I reckon something like Everybody's Golf would play just fine on a phone, so I guess it's just going to be a case of finding what works.
@get2sammyb
The Runner-type games will work fine but if I end up signing up for this I can't imagine using anything other than PS4 and for games that don't require too much shoulder button use the Vita.
@get2sammyb Have they announced how we can sign up for the beta? I'd like to try it when they open it up
@Cowboysfan-22: I was going to ask the same thing. Is it random or is there somewhere to sign up at?
@get2sammyb they have stated a dual shock 3 is required for PS Now on every touch screen device. Sorry I cant remember where i read it for a link.
@eLarkos
Considering there's no other legitimate ways to play certain games, that move would make sense.
Ive got 15mbps. Sign me up
My connection is generally minimum of 75 Mbps so yes please. If this was launched now then vita would take off like a rocket, there ain't much to play on ps4 so the chance to play you ps3/2/1 PSP n vita on the go would be far too appealing to ignore for most gamers.
I'm I the only one around here that doesn't even meet those requirements? T_T
I'm signing up for the 25 or 35Mbps AT&T, so this is just perfect. Hopefully Kinetica gets added early, I'd love to play it on Vita.
@Gamer83 Isn't there a grip that simulates triggers?
Only a 5Mbps connection needed for this? lol What is this 2006!? I had a faster connection than that nearly 10 year's ago With 'infrastructure' being the main reason Sony keep giving for a delayed rollout in Europe, I was obviously expecting more than that to be required. My 120Mb will be getting upgraded to 200Mb by the end of the year so I'm hoping this comes sooner rather than later in Europe so I can see what quality the stream would be with the abundance of bandwidth I have
Whew. Wasn't sure how high the requirements would be. I'm paying for 50 Mbps, but my actual amount is more like 20.
A Sony rep said you'd need a Dualshock 3 in order to stream on phones or the TV.
5mbps ? That's not too bad.
I'm pretty sure it is impossible to get a home connection that is that fast in New Zealand.
Which is pretty appalling, really.
@get2sammyb Shadow Fall got an update for remote play controls, it's not perfect but feels much better just using 2 of the back touchpad spots instead of all 4.
I have about 5-7 mb/s left after all the crap in my house takes it up, so that's perfect for me. I was really worried it would be prohibitively needy. I still have nightmares about PSP's "remote play" feature
More good news Wow Sony has just been Kicking ass none stop
I moved to the Caribbean recently and ill have to pay double what im paying now to get 5- 10mps. Would have been no sweat when I lived in the states. Oh well. :/
@Gamer83 They already told you need a dualshocker if you play on phone/ tablet
@Sanquine thats what I thought, would be pointless otherwise.
My phone and tablet both support Dualshock3's. While it sounds silly, there are many times where I'm on call for work (but not actually working) where this would be awesome.
Unfortunately I live in an outer suburb with an internet black hole. I get 3-4MB/s. Would happily pay for more, but nothing better is available. If I lived a few kms down the road, 100MB/s would be available. Grrrrrr.
My current Sky connection is trash, moving soon7mbs tops. Moving soon, hoping to convince the gf that she doesn't really need Sky Atlantic and switch to Virgin. Never had any issues with them and had great speeds in my old place.
My EE Z1 gets a good 35mbs connection in in a lot of places though.
I tried killzone RP last night, OK against a bit, but I'm not sure I'd do well in a match. Also found that turning the games gamma up to 90% makes it look much nicer.
that's ok for north america and big city's here in the uk, but what about us who live in the countryside and only get about 3mb max on our internet, how will we use the service?
for me personally as i stil have my ps3 (and ps1 & ps2) it's not a problem but i know a lot of people it will be a problem for (all my friends who didn't have ps3 and had a 360 instead)
My phone picks up a minimum of about 5mbps without 3g. Not sure what it is with 3g but it should soon be switching over to 4g (hurry up three) and that should be about a minimum of 12 Mbps as I'm apparently in an excellent 3g/4g service coverage area. I don't feel sorry for the country bumpkins because I have to live in a smelly city.
@FullbringIchigo I think that's largely the point. Most 'muricans have a stable connection of at least 5 mbps, and the number normally doesn't fluctuate too much. I can just imagine in Europe, though, where one person will have 50+mbps and another guy just a small drive down the street may have 5 mbps as his maximum. I think the push to homogenize internet connectability was stronger in the US (or at least more plausible).
But is it 5 rated or actual? I get pretty good speeds most of the time (I think, I don't really know the speeds, about 1GB per 10 minutes, which seems really fast as my first PC had a 14.4 modem), but not between 8 - 10PM when I coudln't even stream anything HD on Netflix or Vuduu. I don't even bother DLing anythnig from PSN on Tuesday nights after the update, I just put it in my cart and DL it the next day. But it's their servers I think, not my all my bandwidth issues.
PSN was down for abut 36 hours BF, so the question becomes how well does this actually work, not in theory, but in practice. Nintendo can't even operate a cloud save program for Pokemon.
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