PlayStation Now Will Start Streaming PS4 Games This Year

And if the service drops? If the fees go too high? If not everyone has a good connection? Intereference? latency issues in future? The already needing to be ironed out problems with "Connection lost - too bad start over"?

I like the idea but I feel this isn't something that can be a case of Netflix replaces cable kind of thing, if only because it is a far more intensive two way stream that other industries need to up for as well

Just drop this and adopt the model Microsoft are going for on Xbox One.

Now you can play PS4 games on PC

I detest the emphasis Sony is putting on streaming this gen. I'll tolerate streaming videos, but streaming games is a terrible idea, considering the infrastructure is just not there for it to be successful in so many parts of the world. I hate saying this, but Xbox Game Pass is looking so much more attractive than PS Now.

"It sounds like that will prioritise active subscribers". All 3 of them.

@kyleforrester87 Hey a hoop and stick is the business.

Id say my list is more potential problems and in some cases can break the proposition for many.

It depends how it shapes up, but I do feel Xbox has given a better value for money without needing to stream something, while Sony is looking more long term by a huge margin to see if it sticks based on what other one way entertainment is doing.

And Nintendo just made a console that fits into daily life. Its a weird time to be sure everyone is trying different things to match the modern on the move lifestyle.

@kyleforrester87 People's resistance to change was interesting especially with regards to X1.

I don't think it was the content but how it was presented. MS was upfront with it and front loaded, and Sony kinda pretended it wasn't there but actually is. And which one sold more?

Heres how you share games on PS4. Except now you have an entire game on your system technically there and ready, and the DRM for it is at your mates house. Cool.

Ill give it 20 or so years before streaming games becomes viable, as I said, other industries like ISPs need to evolve first to make it properly feasible as even a serious supplement to a box under a TV. Not to mention infrastructure of networks across even the UK, which is slow as hell in some regions and a mammoth cost.

Maybe I'm not so hot on it, mainly because my streaming experience is called Netflix and no thank you. Or I'm old fashioned. Or I can see the lack of large viability. Sony is taking a risk and if I was in charge Id have said wait maybe a year more for things to improve before sinking more of that money that the movie business is bleeding into something that may or may not work.

@Xaessya you can already play ps4 games on pc

@Ralizah what emphasis - having that 1 streaming service?

@adf86 maybe he's going to GiantBomb

I always liked the idea of PS Now and Remote Play, but hated any kind of lag. I've been having a lot better luck with Remote Play recently so I would give Now another chance, though not on my Vita because they're cutting that service.

@adf86 they say it's because he tweeted a sexist joke.

@get2sammyb I just clicked why people say its their answer to backwards compatibility.

Sony gives users a seperately named service that offered at the time only past generation titles on a current machine and say nothing for ages of any current titles in the service.

This puts it as a named service for older titles. A Virtual Console.

The base concept of past gens via download was done back with Wii, and when old stuff is all that is offered, its compared to the closest thing.

Which is a shame.

@adf86 I couldn't imagine being in a room for more than 10 minutes with Greg Miller, so how he did it for years is baffling. Maybe he's pursuing becoming a monk now, given the amount of patience he has.

I still think they should just drop PS Now and develop a service similar to Xbox Game Pass or just improve PS Now already by cutting their prices, improving the internet connection and add more (and better) games. Seriously, even the hardcorest PS fans admit that PS Now is, as of now, a mistake.

I dont understand why they have started dropping support for Sony Bravia TV's with PlayStation Now.

This would have been a potential seller IMO.

Play PS4 games on your new Sony TV without needing a PS4

@Xaessya where is your profile pic from?

@SoulsBourne128 I've used the 7 day trail and I don't think it's a mistake, and the game selection wasn't bad either when I tried it

@GlynCR PS Now. Using RP to stream games to other devices.

@Ralizah I don't think it's a bad thing. I used it and even with my limited internet speed I had a great gaming experience! Although I would love to see them do the same thing as microsoft is doing and just let us download the games on our machines through a third party program/launcher similar to uplay/steam/origin

PS4 games because 99% of casual gamers give 1% of a crap about 99% of PS3 games. The service now becomes relevant. Without the Xbox One game pass I doubt we'd have seen this.

@Ralizah it's not really an emphasis though is it? 1 service, it's not like they've gone all in and had everything streaming, there not even pushing it that much either it's just there if you wanna try it

@Feldy I can't even get remote play to work well when I'm connected to the PS4's own wifi and am sitting right next to it, let alone trying to stream it from somewhere else. And I have high speed internet. This experience seems typical with many people I know who have tried out remote play, speaking anecdotally.

I had more luck with PS Now and Uncharted 1 streamed decently, but I would never want to play games like that for any extended period of time. Blip in your internet? Oops. There goes the game!

I think Sammy is right that PS Now is more of a long-term play, and maybe it's a good idea in the long run, but in the meantime it's too unreliable for me to be comfortable with.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi I would use it if the price wasn't so high, I still believe that Sony should add 2 30 day trials of any PSNow game to PS plus

@Ralizah I did the PS Now free trial last month and it was so nerve wracking when waiting for a save and worrying about losing the signal. I was playing Ni No Kuni and during boss fights it'd start lagging and I was like "omg PLEASE don't lose connection!" So yeah, I don't like adding that extra bit of stress to playing a game.

Also, on my last day of the trial it wouldn't even let me play anything. The connection wouldn't allow me...

@roe I'd be plenty interested in some unapologetic content.

"looking to a time when consoles become an antiquated concept"

Don't know why I find that so sad!

With only PS3 games Now never appealed to me as i have 2 working PS3's and all of the PS3 gen games i want.

With Now adding PS4 games i am still not interested. What would interest me is streaming demos of PS4 games. With that i will purchase the games i want instead of renting a library where the majority of games offered i will never play or play more than 5 minutes.

@adf86 I think the point of owning ps4 is so you can play the game locally and not depending on your internet connection, not to mention getting game ownership or getting a good discount on games physically and digitally. It's different than xbox one that will have all of it's titles ported to pc, you can just buy a $150ish graphics card for your pc and play all of xbox one titles with better graphics on pc, not to mention cheaper price on pc compared to xbox market place.

I was surprised about colin too, kinda funny games will be less interesting without him around, I think greg and tim is just a "hype" man while colin is more realistic, I like kinda funny because there's mix of both. I think the content that colin make is just too different to greg & tim, now colin is more like a critic like jim sterling compared to greg & tim that just want to play a good game.

@Ralizah
I've been more of a PlayStation guy since the brand was introduced but the simple fact is Xbox has generally been better on the services side of things, period. No reason to hate saying that, if anything, I hope Sony sees this and makes changes to PS Now because that service has been pretty weak sauce since it was introduced and eventhough I'm not enamored with Xbox Game Pass it's obviously better. Sony needs to recognize this and take steps to improve.

@get2sammyb

I agree, Sony will take a sale anywhere it can get one (like any smart business) but haven't you been critical of MS putting Xbox One games on PC? How is this any different from the perspective of getting $?

@Gamer83 Xbox One releases are multi plat. Day-on-day release.
Sony are not going to put out brand new releases on PS Now. They are going to squeeze every last potential sale out before putting it on the service. Much like first-party releases for IGC.
The point remains. If you want to play PS4 exclusives and be part of the conversation, you're going to need a PS4. If you are willing to wait years, for that one release, than you are likely never buying a PS4. Sony will gladly take your money in that case.
Also PSNow is streaming, not download. The games are in a rotation and can disappear in a moments notice. That happened with FFXIII and it caused an uproar a couple of years back.
What MS are doing is incredibly consumer friendly, but they are removing the need of owning an Xbox One with day-on-day releases with PC. I don't think we'll see Sony go 'God of War is out today exclusively on PlayStation 4 and is available to be streamed via PSNow'.
PS Now is clearly designed for the future. They are setting up the infrastructure for when the day comes when consoles become obsolete :sad: .

@adf86 I think it's a good thing. Colin and Gregg on PSILY are great, but he never seemed like he enjoyed being on the other shows (that weren't his topic). I'm a big fan of the guy, but imo the others were dragging him down. The Colin was right stuff was tremendous. Just hope he doesn't leave gaming, but I think he might try and do something in politics.

PS NOW could be a fantastic thing in the future. The internet infrastructure will improve, so it's going to be a more reliable service in about ten years.

Sony has all the right cards on the hand to be the Netflix of the gaming industry, but I am not sure they are playing them right?

This move that gives access to older PS4 games, is one step in the right direction, but dropping PS NOW on Smart TV's and older PS devices, was a step back.

If Sony wan'ts PS NOW to be a success, they have to take some risks. PS NOW should offer much more, and really compete with PS4 about content.

It doesn't matter if people are buying the physical console, or a PS NOW subscription for two years.

If all your​ bought digital content on Playstation Store where accessible through PS NOW, and it gave free access to older content like it does now, the service could be a fantastic alternative.

You could then buy Horizon now, and download it for your PS4 or stream it in another room on a Smart TV through PS NOW. Or you could wait 2-3 years, where it would then be fully available for streaming through your PS NOW subscription fee.

But PS NOW needs to be accessible on all possible devices, like Netflix, if it's going to be a success. PC and PS4 is not enough.

If Sony doesn't dare to make PS NOW compete against their own console, something else will come along and do it.

Sony is a hardware company, and has never really had the great success with their previous content sevices. I also think they a missing a proper cloud infrastructure like what MS or Google has.

Time will tell, if Sony have the right vision for the future of game streaming, or they are to conservative and something else will come along?

@ArkhamKnerd Yeah. Uncharted wasn't as big of a deal because of the way it autosaves, but I still wasn't looking forward to a connection dip, and I can only imagine the frustration during a crucial moment in a JRPG.

PS NOW was always a Trojan Horse of sorts, this is the future and a few years from now this will be seen as a very shrewd move. Others will be playing catch up whilst Sony will already have one very big foot in the door. What Xbox is currently doing is a half step towards the same end goal when all games will be streamed. This model from Sony is better as there are no downloads and no storage issues.

Backwards compatibility has never been the issue many try to claim it is and PS NOW was never intended to answer that call, this isn't a reaction to Xbox, this is what Sony have been building towards for some time and whether we like it or not, ultimately the future

Great news, I regularly play PS1 and PS2 games on PC along with streaming PS3 games.
Now I'll be able to play PS4 too without a console, PC really is the home of exclusive games

@Fight_Teza_Fight
Well, it's definitely going to damage PS4 sales, imo. There is a lot of talk already out there now that PS4 'no longer has exclusives' and considering people were constantly saying that crap about Xbox, this isn't going to be good for PS4's image regardless of how different the strategies are or not. If people know they don't need a PS4 to play PS4 games, that's a problem. Sony should've waited to do this until PS5 was out.

@solocapers I think they cut it for TV's exactly because they were bringing PS4 games to it.

Who is going to buy a console when they can stream on their tv?

@Rudy_Manchego

But think about it. How much profit is Sony actually getting from each sold console? The consoles do also have a production cost, and previous with the PS3, Sony was selling their consoles at a loss.

Sony real profit from Playstation is coming from sold games and content. And if all that content was available through PS NOW ( You still had to pay for new stuff, but old stuff could be streamed for "free" on all kind of devices ) , a subscription service like PS NOW could probably generate more profit in the long run, than each sold console?

How much do you think, that Sony gains from each sold ps4 console? 50-80$ ? A subscription service pr. user would easily match that in no time.

If PS NOW is going to be successful, it needs to offer much more than it does now. It needs to be a real alternative to a physical console, and give streaming access to all you bought content on Playstation Store + "Free" streaming of all older games. And then the Service has to be accessible on all kind of platforms like Netflix is.

If Sony is not ready to provide that, someone else will offer that down the line. Perhaps MS? They have a much better cloud infrastructure than Sony right now.

Sony needs to take some risks with PS NOW.

@dres I agree on some points but, from a profit pov, they will, for some time, make more on consoles and associated sales then they could hope to make on PS Now.

The physical hardware might not have much of a margin on it, but then when you add accessories, and the cash they make on PS Plus, licensing on games and their own first party content, you can see that having an actual console in the room generates more revenue then PS Now.

They want to sell PS Now to existing PS4 owners and PC Gamers (who are not going to buy a PS4). A PS4 owner is more likely to have this service and buy games then only have this service so they win on both counts there. I would guess the number of TV users was neglible because you still have to buy controllers and setup.

In my opinion, PS Now is an investment for the future and a way of squeezing a little money from Sony customers and non Sony gamers. It is probably a loss maker. Globally, the amount of people with the network capability to use Now reliably is less than those who can run a console in their home.

I agree that they could do loads better with content but at the moment, not enough consumers are interested (probably because the service offers very little to most gamers) but they can only get more users by investing in the service, until the point that it becomes realistic for most users to stream. I think Sony are positioning themselves to be Netlix because they actually have a lot of good content ready to go and an infrastructure.

@Rudy_Manchego Who is going to buy a PS4 when they can stream to their PC?

It makes as much sense.

The PC Master Race(and Xbox owners who own a PC) will have some brilliant games to play now then + I am not sure about this move by SONY really. The only way you should be able to play PS4 games should be by buying a PS4(until the PS5 comes out then make PS4 games available on PS NOW) Oh well.

@solocapers From my experience with PC gamers (my entire office are pretty much PC gamers, I work in I.T!!), they would never both with a PS4 anyway, but they do wish they could play some Sony first party games.

@Captainslug
From here~
http://i.imgur.com/IBsaUOW.png