• Sony prepares for life after game consoles
    60 replies, posted
[url]http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-11/sony-prepares-for-life-after-game-consoles[/url] [quote]If people can stream games directly onto their TV—or tablet or smartphone—then games with large fan bases don’t really need Sony for much, Toto says. “These companies will try to circumvent the PlayStation … to suck gamers into their own ecosystem,” he says. “There’s nothing content providers hate more than sharing revenue.” Square Enix Holdings (9684:JP), a longtime Sony partner and the publisher of the Final Fantasy games, formed a streaming subsidiary in September that it says will do just that: “Change the game industry ecosystem.” Tsukakoshi wouldn’t comment on the Square Enix announcement.[/quote] Well, a solid two decades was a good run, right?
They still plan on having PlayStation, but as a streaming service. [QUOTE]The company says one of its top priorities in 2014 has been buying servers and expanding its cloud networks to make sure it can reliably stream high-bandwidth games through PlayStation Now, the service it introduced over the summer. Players using PS Now don’t need to own any Sony hardware beyond a game controller or two: The service relays its 200-odd titles directly from a data center to a player’s TV, which doesn’t have to be Sony-made. “If you look at other forms of entertainment and the dramatic impact streaming has had on those, that says to us that there’s clearly a strong consumer satisfaction with the instant gratification that’s provided by streaming experiences,” says Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment. “We think that has a role to play in the future of games, as well.”[/QUOTE]
Since the majority of internet subscribers in the US usually have around ~5-10 megabits of speed in suburban areas, streaming really isn't an option unless you're willing to deal with the massive lag and compression artifacts. I'll stick with my PC, thank you. [QUOTE=Durrsly;46697659]They still plan on having PlayStation, but as a streaming service.[/QUOTE] I have an idea for a PlayStation streaming device! I call it: the PlayStation Portable, abbreviated as the PSP. It can even hook up to your TV so you can play games on the big screen.
Streaming is something every gaming company needs to invest in but there will always be a demand for physical hardware. Even with Nvidia's grid technology, I want my 970 GTXs in SLI
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[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46697661]Since the majority of internet subscribers in the US usually have around ~5-10 megabits of speed in suburban areas, streaming really isn't an option unless you're willing to deal with the massive lag and compression artifacts. I'll stick with my PC, thank you. I have an idea for a PlayStation streaming device! Wait for it... I call it: the PlayStation Portable, abbreviated as the PSP. It can even hook up to your TV so you can play games on the big screen.[/QUOTE] This. I mean, don't get me wrong, streaming everything would be amazing but with the way ISPs are in the USA, good luck with that shit without paying an arm and leg.
Better abandon the sinking ship before its too late and it pulls you down with it.
We are already at the stage where you can play playstation\psp games on your phone. Another 5 years and playstation 2\xbox games will be played on your phone and a further 5 years from that, playstation 3/4 games will be able to be played on your phone. Streaming is not the future, your smartphone is!
[quote]or tablet or smartphone[/quote] Do people honestly like playing games on touchscreens beyond arcade-style puzzle games? I suppose they'd be good for at the very most visual novels, but that's pretty much it, IMO. Maybe gameboy emulators, but I really hate touch screen controls.
I was expecting streaming to be the future a few years ago, but phones are getting better and better and if VR goes well streaming will be even less useful since latency is critical.
Streaming games is a nice idea, but not in the way most companies are doing it, they should be doing more from steaming from your own PC/console than their servers, but, having both is also a good idea.
[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;46697830]Also my bad, after a recent update the Tegra K1 already runs some gamecube games [I]beyond [/I]vsync speed [video=youtube;2ZUPiyM5jfw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUPiyM5jfw[/video][/QUOTE] How the fuck does anyone get dolphin to work that well. I always gets just below 100% framerate and audio clips like fuck
[QUOTE=Sam Za Nemesis;46697830]Also my bad, after a recent update the Tegra K1 already runs some gamecube games [I]beyond [/I]vsync speed [video=youtube;2ZUPiyM5jfw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUPiyM5jfw[/video][/QUOTE] Well then, now I want to see how that runs on my Nvidia Shield tablet, It does have a K1, probably not going to be as good as that, but I must see it. [editline]12th December 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=proboardslol;46697856]How the fuck does anyone get dolphin to work that well. I always gets just below 100% framerate and audio clips like fuck[/QUOTE] Its a dev kit for Terga K1 basically [URL="https://developer.nvidia.com/jetson-tk1"]https://developer.nvidia.com/jetson-tk1[/URL]
I don't think consoles will die out. Too much of a cash cow.
Even as a PC gamer, i understand the influence of playstation on the gaming market (not the 4th one, but overall)
[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46697661]Since the majority of internet subscribers in the US usually have around ~5-10 megabits of speed in suburban areas, streaming really isn't an option unless you're willing to deal with the massive lag and compression artifacts. I'll stick with my PC, thank you. [/QUOTE] Don't forget about the lovely datacaps we have in some areas.
When you stream games are you just getting a video feed through the internet? Isn't there significant lag between your inputs at home and the computers on the other side of the network? Does the game look hd or compressed video? I've never tried streaming, but it sounds like a gimmick to me more than anything.
After making the fatal mistake of trying to play games on my ps3, I'm convinced it should have been called the update simulator
[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46697661]Since the majority of internet subscribers in the US usually have around ~5-10 megabits of speed in suburban areas, streaming really isn't an option unless you're willing to deal with the massive lag and compression artifacts. I'll stick with my PC, thank you. I have an idea for a PlayStation streaming device! I call it: the PlayStation Portable, abbreviated as the PSP. It can even hook up to your TV so you can play games on the big screen.[/QUOTE] This isn't going to be something that happens overnight. Five years down the road you might find people in those areas with 70 Megabit connections. That might be considered slow compared to what other areas have at the time but it will be enough for streaming things like this. One of the big problems with this isn't the bandwidth needed for it, it's the latency between the client and server.
[QUOTE=ThePanther;46698058]When you stream games are you just getting a video feed through the internet? Isn't there significant lag between your inputs at home and the computers on the other side of the network? Does the game look hd or compressed video? I've never tried streaming, but it sounds like a gimmick to me more than anything.[/QUOTE] It works better than you might think, but local play is still obviously better. You can try it right now - open steam up, and then stream to a laptop in your living room. Your results doing that are pretty close to what you get out of streaming services on consoles. There is very (slight) input lag, that for some games isn't too noticable. The picture quality tends to be pretty good but not as crisp as it is if it was natively running on a console. Usually the games themselves are running at slightly lower settings than what the console itself pushes out. I can totally see stream-only games being the next stage in gaming. Imagine a world where you can basically have a netflix-style subscription and an unlimited catalog of games to play, with certain huge releases being separate purchases (like how the movie/dvd industry works right now) - that's where we are heading. It just makes logical sense, the technology is already here. The infrastructure is not. We won't see this IMO for at least another 10 years or so, but what if you could get AAA quality looking games with no perceivable input lag and no visual downgrade streaming directly to your TV without needing a console and without having to install anything? Everyone would use that. Its a strictly better way for most people to play games. Once the infrastructure catches up (gigabit internet being available everywhere) this becomes possible. Once we get to the point where this is technologically possible, this will become a thing. What is better is a game made to run on a super computer that gets streamed to you could look vastly better and play vastly more expansive than any other game otherwise would on consoles of that current generation, though it remains to be seen if any company actually wants to foot any kind of bill towards hardware like that. The only thing that might throw a wrench into it is VR - because VR is finicky enough that I doubt a streaming service would suffice even in the best case scenario. If VR truly goes big, then we have to stay to local consoles along side streaming, especially if the cost to sell/produce such consoles continues to become more and more affordable.
Didn't we already try streaming video games to set top boxes already and between the cost, latency and the fact that north american internet connections are shit compared to other first world countries?
[QUOTE=pentium;46698392]Didn't we already try streaming video games to set top boxes already and between the cost, latency and the fact that north american internet connections are shit compared to other first world countries?[/QUOTE] Yeah, it was called OnLive, [del]and I'm pretty sure the company went down the shitter hard.[/del] [editline]12th December 2014[/editline] Oh wait, nvm. It was just acquired by IBM.
[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46697661]Since the majority of internet subscribers in the US usually have around ~5-10 megabits of speed in suburban areas, streaming really isn't an option unless you're willing to deal with the massive lag and compression artifacts. I'll stick with my PC, thank you.[/QUOTE] There's this crazy thing called the future where technology improves and more things become possible, and it's smart for tech companies to be looking in that direction. They aren't just going to turn off all the playstations tomorrow...
Consoles are nearly dead in Japan at the moment, so I could see why Sony would want to move on from consoles as a Japanese-based company. For perspective, the Wii U has sold nearly three times as much in Japan as the PS4's pitiful sub-million there. It's a PC, smartphone and handheld (though that itself is dwindling as well, which is probably going to force Nintendo and Sony to integrate phone features in their future handhelds) market there and I suspect that the same will happen here in the west within a few years, especially as game developers keep ignoring one of the more common uses of consoles: local multiplayer.
[QUOTE=pentium;46698392]Didn't we already try streaming video games to set top boxes already and between the cost, latency and the fact that north american internet connections are shit compared to other first world countries?[/QUOTE] No, what ended up happening was the CEO of it (Onlive) fucked up really bad. Imo if OnLive just came a year or two later, and added the ability to co-stream things to twitch; it would have gained significant market control from people just getting into livestreaming who didn't have the horsepower, or internet bandwidth to run their own streams. I also like the concept of allowing your friends to hop right in and watch, etc. Cloud [i]has[/i] the potential to be more than a gimmick. [editline]12th December 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Solo Wing;46697677]This. I mean, don't get me wrong, streaming everything would be amazing but with the way ISPs are in the USA, good luck with that shit without paying an arm and leg.[/QUOTE] This is the unfortunate truth, unless you have FTTP/H, then you aren't going to get very reasonable ping times for streaming games, it takes on my Comcast connection, 20-30 ms to get from my router, out to the nearest peering switch. If we had fiber that can be brought down to around 8~ms. It's an extremely uphill battle, but municipally owned fiber really is the way, there's only a few states that have tried; and many are still locked in legal or financial troubles because of it (Look at UTOPIA, in my state Utah), it's going to be the only way to the future.
Nah, there'll always be a place for offline gaming. Until we all have free or excessively cheap and really good wifi that covers the world, consoles are safe.
[QUOTE=proboardslol;46697791]Do people honestly like playing games on touchscreens beyond arcade-style puzzle games? I suppose they'd be good for at the very most visual novels, but that's pretty much it, IMO. Maybe gameboy emulators, but I really hate touch screen controls.[/QUOTE] I can't even stand playing pokemon without physical buttons
[QUOTE=pentium;46698392]Didn't we already try streaming video games to set top boxes already and between the cost, latency and the fact that north american internet connections are shit compared to other first world countries?[/QUOTE] There was a service back in the late 90s in some hotel chains where you could stream Megadrive, NES, SNES, Saturn, PS1 and N64 games to your hotel room for an hourly fee and it worked pretty well. I traveled a lot back then so I got to play the crap out of that service and I never had any problems with lag or picture quality. I guess my only complaint was the controller was inadequate for playing such a wide variety of games. It worked alright on everything except the N64 which was the odd man out with the Z trigger.
[QUOTE=Tmaxx;46698147]After making the fatal mistake of trying to play games on my ps3, I'm convinced it should have been called the update simulator[/QUOTE] yeah waiting years after games come out to spin them up on your console is generally going to result in updates you don't turn on your PC after two years of not using it at all and expect zero updates, do you?
once greedy fucking publishing companies decide not only what type of games come out, but how and what we play them on, gaming as we know it is dead.
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