With the announcement of PlayStation Now, Sony has the
entire industry stirring with speculation about just how great the service will
be. In case you didn’t know, PlayStation Now is what Sony is doing with the
Gaikai streaming infrastructure the company bought in the summer of 2012.
Announced at CES yesterday, Sony says the service will allow users to stream
PSOne, PS2 and PS3 games on their PS4, PS Vita, smart phone, tablets and smart
TVs. This will be a subscription based service, so there will be money
involved, but regardless this is Sony future proofing itself on top of opening
up some interesting possibilities for the PlayStation brand.
Bringing Back the Greatness
The PS4 is a great piece of technology and gaming on the
system is so much fun. However, there are plenty of older games that are
absolutely great, and with the PS4 not being backwards compatible, there are a
lot of classics that many players (especially those who are first time
PlayStation adapters with their PS4) who will miss out on these games.
This is Sony’s answer to that complaint, and though it will
cost consumers extra money, the option is there. I love my older games. I still
have my PSOne, PS2 and I plan to keep my PS3 when I buy the PS4, but I don’t
always want to pull these consoles out just to show friends the history of a
franchise or how great an older game is compared to its newer iteration. The
ability to just load up the original Metal Gear Solid to show my roommate
without having to buy the PSOne Classic off the PlayStation Store or pull out my old system is awesome.
Add that to the fact that I can play on the go with my Vita,
and I am sold. But more on that further down…
Trying Out the Classics One at a Time
So the second major selling point of this service is that it
will come in two iterations. The first is subscription based, in which users
can pay a fee to stream unlimited games to their devices. This is probably the
direction that most hard core gamers will go, which is great.
The second, and more interesting tier, is essentially a
digital rental system, in which the user will pay to rent the game for a
specific amount of time. This is genius for Sony, because there are plenty of
people who play games that are not willing to pony up a monthly fee to play (hell,
it’s the number one reason why I don’t play MMO’s). So with this rental system,
it’ll be easy for that casual gamer to just pick a game that he/she heard was
great and play it. Or maybe you want to play a classic game with an old friend
over the weekend but aren’t a user of the service. You can now just rent it for the weekend and
when your friend leaves, so does the game. Sony is making some great strides to
ensure that this particular service will be open to gamers and non-gamers
alike.
Breathing Some Life into PS Vita
I love my PS Vita. It has everything I want in a handheld
and some fantastic games that I can’t seem to put down. As a matter of fact, if
you look at my trophy list, most of my Platinum trophies are from PS Vita games
rather than PS3 games. But anyone who knows anything about PlayStation knows
that the PS Vita is not selling as well as it deserves to be. Between some
confusing marketing and a lack of real compelling games that are must plays
found only on Vita, it’s frustrating to watch the system slowly wither away.
However, PlayStation Now could be another bonus for PS Vita
owners. There are plenty of conversations about having iterations of console
specific franchises on the Vita, such as The Last of Us and Bioshock, but no
one company is willing to step up and prove that it can happen, not even Sony
(please be good Borderlands 2!). But the streaming service could show just how
great these games can play on the go. Now you can play The Last of Us while
drinking a coffee at Starbucks, or kill a bunch of guys in Bioshock Infinite
while waiting for class to start in school. Now when I go home to see my family
for the holidays, I don’t have to worry about lugging my console with me if I’m
in the mood for the games only found on PS3.
Plus, this should help stop the constant porting of console
games on Vita. I love having Ninja Gaiden and Final Fantasy X on the go, but
think of all the resources that could be put towards actually making games for
the Vita rather than simply porting the same games we’ve played already.
PlayStation Now could be the saving grace of the Vita, and I sure hope that’s
the case, because I want it thrive. Handhelds are awesome, especially to
hardcore gamers like me, but without great sales, there may not be another generation…
PlayStation Everywhere, Anytime
Which leads to my last point: playing games on the smart
phone while out. This sounds amazing and terrifying all at once. I hate gaming
on my phone. Most of the games that come out are not interesting to me what so
ever and those that are control oddly enough and are not quite the experiences
I want. I love stories and characters in games, and those are hard to come by
in short, quick bursts that are found on the mobile frontier.
So streaming a PS3 game on my phone sounds awesome. Not only
can I get that great experience of story I want, I can access a backlog of
games I have yet to play that I really want to get to. These games are also
linked to your PSN account, so you can obtain trophies for playing these games.
And if the stream is similar to Netflix, you can stop anywhere and just pick
back up midstream when you jump back on.
This is totally killer, if that’s how it works. Having to
start back at a checkpoint because I lost service for a minute is not going to
be fun. And finding a way to control these games on my 5 inch phone screen is
going to be challenging. But if Sony can make it work, I’d love the ability to
play real PlayStation games when I leave my Vita at home or am stuck somewhere.
Despite all these positives, there are still burning questions
that need to be answered. How well will the stream work, both in house and on
the go? What is the fee? Will it roll into PS Plus? How much do rentals cost
and how long can you keep them? I have a lot of optimism in this program, because
Sony finally seems to get what we the gamers want from the company, but that
doesn’t mean we can forget that it is not infallible. The service is starting its
beta next month and will launch later this year around summer. Don’t forget to
comment below and keep the conversation going…
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