“The Future of PlayStation” Might Not Be the PlayStation 4, It Could be Something Bigger

DualShockers writes, "In a couple of days, all eyes will be on the Hamerstein stage in New York City as Sony shows us “the future of PlayStation.” And while all signs point to a PlayStation 4 reveal, there’s another service that will likely steal the show. Sony’s purchase of Gaikai last summer for $380 million dollars may finally begin to bare fruit, and it could turn out to be Sony’s best move since, well… ever."

[darthv72]

Perhaps a PS4 that is both console when hooked to a TV and portable when you want to take it with you.

That would be huge.

It probably wont happen with a PS4 but still a good idea that Sony has the ability to deliver. PS5 maybe will be something like that.

Maybe a bigger reveal than the PS4 would be them saying you can buy it the very next day. No one would ever see that coming.

[Blackdeath_663]

sorry for the dislike when i read this bit of your comment "Perhaps a PS4 that is both console when hooked to a TV and portable when you want to take it with you. " i thought that is overly ambitious and not possible but i thought about it for a second and it finally clicked, imagine if you can stream ps4 games to your psvita via gaikai!!! i was mind blown. come on sony make it happen! that will truly send shockwaves in the gaming industry.

[LOGICWINS]

I think Sony will announce that every title on the PSN store will be playable on Vita...making every game an automatic cross buy :)

[Donnieboi]

@ Blackdeath: You only NOW just thought of that?

[xursz]

I just want better use of remote play. PS4 games on vita is purely wishful thinking.

[Karlnag3]

@Blackdeath_663

It would send shockwaves through the industry because it would be immensely stupid. Why would they announce a new home console, that is likely going to be more expensive than a PSVITA, and then immediately remove any reason to purchase it by allowing you to play all of it's games on a cheaper device?

[memots]

@logicwin

I hope your right. This would be major win win win for all

[haymoza]

The PS5!

[Donnieboi]

It would be cool if they named it PS5. As if to say it's just cool that it skipped a gen. lol.

[subtenko]

Yea, especially after xbox 2nd gen console was named xbox360,lol. So the 4th PS (home console) can be named PS5 with whatever reason. Seems cool to me, I like it.

The PSSssss cause it's *puts on shades* sizzling, oh yeaaaaa. Yea it's late...lol

[xc7x]

PS5 as in PSV? LOL

[NoSuchUserName]

MS went with 360 instead of xbox 2 just to get the number 3 in there. Can't have the xbox 2 compete with ps3, so they skipped a gen name-wise :-)

[danthebios]

Psy,sony style,op op op op sony style,hey sexy console,op op op sony style

[anti-fanboy]

@NoSuchUserName

Or not. The only company to sequentially number their consoles has been Sony.

[Just_The_Truth]

@anti-fanboy: Nosuchusername is right about that. I thought everyone new why they went with 360 and not 2. It's pretty obvious.

[anti-fanboy]

@Just_The_Truth

That is still going on the assumption that when the origanal Xbox was developed they intended to continue a linier number naming. There are many decisions that went into the "360" name, but you or anyone else on here cant say that it was the intent to be called the Xbox 2. Like I said its not the norm to sequentially number consoles from generation to generation.

[kariyanine]

"Maybe a bigger reveal than the PS4 would be them saying you can buy it the very next day. No one would ever see that coming."

That worked out great for Sega with the Dreamcast.

[darthv72]

that was the saturn not the dreamcast.

it was a risky move but one they fely was worth taking because all eyes were on the newly revealed PS from Sony.

this time around, sony is a more established console company than sega. They 'could' pull it off better than sega did back in the day.

[kariyanine]

@darthv72 regardless of system, my point stands. It didn't work out well for Sega.

And more established in what way? The Saturn was Sega's third home console, which followed the fairly successful Genesis.

And exactly how do you feel Sony could pull it off? They haven't been able to pull of much of anything over the last year or so. The Vita has been a bust, software sales for their big exclusive retail games have been nearly non-existent.

Additionally what consumer has $400-600 just sitting around ready to be spent on a newly released system. I just don't see how Sony could pull this off any better than Sega did 18 years ago.

[rainslacker]

That's not really how it went down. They announced it several months earlier, but then came out and said it would be available the next day. It left retailers and developers completely unprepared and is considered one of the worst launches in console history because of that. It only had a few games, and was hard to find in stores for several weeks.

Also, that kind of rumor would not be able to be held back. Retailers would already be receiving stock to ship out if they were going to release it anytime in the next few weeks.

[LOOK_AT_THIS_I]

@kari
the same consumers who spend 300 bucks on an "upgraded" iphone or android phone every single year. They can always do the rent to own method that xbox has adopted this gen

Money was different 18 years ago. You probably had a tv that had already been in te family for 10-15 years as well. Times have changed and so have consumers.

I would buy next day if the features are right and games are available

[NobodyImportant]

@kariyanine

"...what consumer has $400-600 just sitting around ready to be spent on a newly released system?"

Me.

[kneon]

I've said before that this will one day be the future of consoles, but we're at least a generation away from that. But at some point a portable will be so powerful and cheap that there will be little point to a traditional console. With wireless HDMI you could just connect to any TV in the room.

But I might be sitting in a rocking chair in the retirement home before we get there :)

[MariaHelFutura]

Sony will release the cure for all diseases.

[josephayal]

Apple was planning to develop a video game console

[fourOeightshark]

Like the failed Apple Pippin in the 90s.

[Mounce]

What's bigger than PS4?! Easy.

Sony comes out and is like: "Our console is so god damn advanced that we're completely skipping PS4 and going STRAIGHT TO PS5! BAM!"

[Blackdeath_663]

gaikai will provide huge support for the playstaion brand specially if it can provide a service similar to that of steam but for consoles. i still think it would take gaikai some time to get there and while it may be the future of playstation the 2/20 will more likely be focused on the ps4.

[JoelT]

Honestly, I don't see them carrying the Gaikai name much longer. If they rebranded it as "PlayStation Now" that would help the service gain momentum quickly because now you're putting the PS brand power behind it.

[Godchild1020]

I was think it would be intragrated into the PlayStation network some how. Not so much replace the current PSN, but improve on it some how.

I don't know how Gaikai works, so it would be nice to find out.

[LOGICWINS]

Why on Earth are people disagreeing with you? Thats a fantastic idea!

[JoelT]

@Logicwins

Maybe, Logic doesn't always win?

(see what just happened there)

[FamilyGuy]

Yeah, unless Sony signed some sort of deal around keeping the name when they purchased the company it's almost a guarantee that the name Gaikai will be changed to something with playstation in it.

[darthv72]

PlayStation X-Stream

The "X" could be representative of whatever platforms they put it on. vita, PS3, PSTV, PS4...?

[Walker]

PS4 inside PS3 with Gaikai !

[subtenko]

Right now I'm thinking of Alien with that other alien tongue coming out of it,lol

[TripC50]

PS5...boom. So big it had to skip a number.

[Genuine-User]

You smashed it. Lol

[Gamer-40]

What could be bigger than a PS4?
I don't understand.

[Conzul]

TWO OF THEM

[MoveTheGlow]

The original Xbox was pretty big. I'm pretty sure it was considered a deadly weapon in 20 nations.

[smashcrashbash]

I seriously can't think what could be bigger then a PS4.And with so many reliable sources leaking information and Sony remaining silent about denying the PS4 I can't see how anyone would think anything could be bigger.I mean if Sony can top that in any way I think people's heads will explode. The only thing I could think of is a box that could beam virtual reality that turns you whole house into a gaming world.And that isn't as far fetched as you think.I watched Sony show off the tech and it exists. They made a lush forest appear right in the place they were showing it off.

[mechlord]

we as gamers are evidently focused on the real meat grinder here, the console. But SONY has been trying to unufy their media/entertainment/electronic s business, so the "bigger than PS4" to me is in scope. Im thinking they have a OS thats streamlined, that makes sense, a OS and therefore a console that fits nicely with everything else MS does...which is something i like about Apple and helps them succeed and SONY has failed miserably at

[smashcrashbash]

If it was something like that they wouldn't make a whole big production out of it.Obviously unifying everything into one big thing would be important as well but they could have easily have just talked about that online. I am not saying they won't talk about anything else but the main meat of this will be the PS4. Anything else will be just gravy. I am sure they would gather everyone together to say 'We have a new OS and that's it and oh yeah we are using Gaikai and we have some games here and a price cut'. Now don't tell me that sounds exciting to you.They could have easily just as well told us that online and save the money to do something else,Anything else below PS4 didn't have to be told on stage.It could have easily have waited for E3 or be tod to us online. They obviously want to make a big production about whatever they reveal and revealing a new OS won't make that happen.I am sure no one will be on the edge of their seats waiting to hear about a price cut, Gaikai or a new OS.

[MestreRothN4G]

Cloud gaming = permanent lag.
Cloud gaming = no buy.

[TransientDreamer]

That's what worries me. There seem to be too many variables that may work in Sony's favor but not necessarily the consumer's if this is the model they go with.

How do they justify charging me to stream a whole library of games when I'm content with the games I already own? You've also got the issue of internet speeds and the poor saps out there who don't even have internet.

I'm excited and full of bewilderment at the same time. I've never felt this way about an upcoming console.

[mechlord]

I would be more worried if this was Microsoft...they just dont seem to think there are times internet does down and all the shenanigans it comes with it.
SONY has stated repeatedly that while they believe full digital is coming, their one main concern is internet speed and availability;

So my guess is they have something tweaked in that respect inside SEN-Gaikai.

I dont think (wishful thinking :) ) they will charge for games you already own;
Maybe, ps3 game stream on ps4 will be a plus service and you just have to register the games you own and be able to stream them. That way you wouldnt have to pay them for every game you already own and they would make some cash off PS+.

[nukeitall]

"Cloud gaming" will likely not catch on with multiplayer games, that require ms precision. The fact that one packet lag can cause terrible experience, how do you think the experience is when your entire input and output is dependent on this bottleneck?

Right now, top of the line internet connection can get you 720p at 30fps streaming. Even then the experience is poor, now imagine gazillion people doing this...

The internet doesn't guarantee a timely arrively of data, nor does it even guarantee arrival at all.

I don't think even 10-years from now we will get any close to being able to have enough people with good enough connection to go all "cloud gaming".

Great in theory, terrible in practice!

[jmc8888]

On top of this, who gets the money?

Now if you don't buy the game, but pay for a buffet style suite of games, who gets your money?

Right now each disc lands Sony and MS $10.

But with a service they can charge what they want and take a different, bigger cut. When they raise the price of the service, and they will, they can use that to alter again how much the devs get and how much Sony/MS gets. Say they give 80 percent to devs and charge $20 a month. That would mean devs get $16 a month and Sony/MS $4. Now what happens when it's raised to $25? They could say, well we're giving them $16 still, or maybe 18, but now we'll be getting $7-9. See how this goes? How every price increase can alter the % of money going to devs away from them and into the pocket of Sony/MS.

Also of that amount they pay out, how do they determine who gets paid?

If they do it 'equally', then Aliens Colonial Marines will get the same amount as say Halo or CoD or Uncharted or Killzone.

Is that fair?

Oh well what if they decide to do it by 'time played'. Well then that STILL isn't fair. Because there are many games which I purchase for $60 and play 1/5th as much as other games, but I feel satisfied by the experience. Thus if you go by 'time played' then games where people are always online, say like multiplayer games....CoD, Battlefield, etc....those games would get the lion share. So you might end up paying $200 for CoD instead of 60, whereas for say Two Souls you might be paying the devs $10-$15 because you played through it once or twice.

Certain genres like multiplayer shooters would have advantages over say a regular single player game like Two Souls or fighting games. RPG's like Skyrim would probably be in the middle.

Thus you might make a situation where simply the genre of the game alters the amount of money a dev gets.

Thus you'll get situations where devs will do ANYTHING to increase the amount of time you play the game. Say hello to mountains of text that you can't fast forward through. Things like this would have huge ramifications in terms of unintended consequences.

Who chooses what games get on, and what games drop off? Who knows how fast the games 'depreciate' and get less. Afterall what will CoD MW3 bring in when CoD Blops 2 comes out type situation?

It would have to be something like that, because else how to you pay devs for 1000 games like the 360 has roughly compared to say when the system launches and only 20 games are there. As time goes on more hands would be pulling from the pie, even if they decrease over time, however they set such a thing up (which can be problematic itself). So whether you do or don't problems exist. Simply by STARTING a service such as this. That's where the problem BEGINS because it's needlessly INSERTED where it DOESN"T NEED TO BE.

Right now you have situations where you the consumer can send the signal and the money to the devs by BUYING the game. You add an unnecessary, wholly arbitrary middleman who can not only siphon off a larger and larger chunk at will, but also can set the whole thing up that favors certain games and genres over others. This would effectively narrow the gaming choice we have and close down a ton of devs as if Beyond: Two Souls only gets $10 per person and CoD gets $200, well you can guess what games will be made, and what games WON'T be made.

There's many more aspects then just this, and even on this, this is just one person thinking for a short period of time the flaws. There will be many more if such a service becomes a reality.

[jmc8888]

Not every invention is progress. Not everything new is good. Were derivatives progress? Were they needed for banking? Nope. They brought us the new and ongoing greatest depression.

Nuclear bombs? We're they necessary for anything? No. They didn't end WWII.

So why do we need game streaming service? Do you really think you benefit from such a setup, or harmed? Well when your game choice narrows, you have irritating factors such as lag-hammered servers for new games-games you want to play dropped from the list-fewer devs making games-outages effecting single player including your game saves instead of just multiplayer, less control over your gaming, and increased costs, among many other things, you might feel a bit differently about such 'progress'.

[brave27heart]

Seriously jmc8888 you're going to compare recession and nuclear weapons to cloud gaming? Really?

Heres the thing, its almost certainly an optional experience. You choose if you want to use the service. No ones forcing you.

And as for how they work out how much to pay each developer you do it on a "hits" basis. The more people that play your game the more you get paid. Games that are good will get more people streaming them, multiple times in ordrr to complete the game or enjoy multiplayer, poor games people may try once and not go back to again.

[LOOK_AT_THIS_I]

Have any of you guys ever even tried the gaikai service before spouting off about how bad it is? I had a crappy 3mb connecgion and was able tonstream alan wake on a budget best buy 279.00 computer with no issues.

I wont disagree with the online part as it would be a nightmare playing against all the bandwith leeching d bags and torrent downloadersnwho purposely lag to up their k/d ratio. The single player aspect worked fine.

As far as those without highspeed net if they choose to upgrade to a new system then chances are they will play the new ga.es and keep their old systems like most in that situation. You guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill

[smashcrashbash]

No they prefer to complain about everything before they even know how well it works.Thinking sensibly and keeping an open mind is not a gamer's strong point these days.Better to make wild assumptions and panic before thinking rationally.Sony gamers can be the most irrational people in the bunch.Don't bother to find out how well Gaikai works on the system or how it will be used. Just panic and spout off as much ignorance as you can think of.

[Half-Mafia]

Something I have not heard from any of the news site rumors is a TV service. There were rumors about it around CES this year but was not announced. So maybe 1 of the big features is this all in 1 TV service?

[Blackdeath_663]

ps4 is a games console not a tv-tuner/receiver or whatever. i think it would work better in sony's favour if they don't venture too far from core gaming the reason why i prefer the sony. sony has the best netfelix service so it it is an app like netfelix then maybe

[Zoron007]

What the hell is netfelix?

[sorceror171]

@Zoron007: It's this: http://www.penny-arcade.com...

[m2stech]

My guess is that PS5 and XBOX4 will be cloud based by 2022

[Conzul]

Too soon, game sales would plumment since great patches of the globe are mostly offline.

[jay2]

Well, my net speeds a lot of poo, so I'll be keeping my ps3.

[sprinterboy]

i would love the ps4 to be revealed along side Gaikai service with a september 2013 ps4 release date but 21st feb Gaikai service was up and running on ps3 with streaming ps4 game demos which were shown at the event, mind blown.

[Gamer-40]

Man, maybe ps4 integrate tv for Gaikai?

[riverstars86]

I like the idea of Gaikai, but I pose a question to anybody who was complaining about the PS4 or Xbox 720 requiring to always be online. Doesn't it bother you that you can only play the games when online and with input lag during single player games? I have fast Internet, but I just don't like the idea of playing single player games with lag.

[sprinterboy]

on tried metro full game trial on onlive with my 120mb fibre optic broadband and it still had alittle lag, i know what your saying but hopefully sony have done there homework.

[riverstars86]

Yea, I also hope that big companies like Sony and Microsoft can persuade ISP's to increase connection speeds. In a perfect world, Google Fiber would be available to all consumers. Lol

[smashcrashbash]

Who said the PS4 will always have to be online?

[Heisenburger]

*slowly looks up from computer*

....My...God....

[TripC50]

..... Becky... Look at her butt..

[Heisenburger]

Swing and a miss.

:P

[outsider1624]

Playstation V..?

[Ripsta7th]

A Ps4 that included that VR Sony has been working on! That would make thinkgs interesting. Day 1

[hardcorehippiez]

thats the only news i would consider bigger than ps4 . if ps4 comes with a vr headpiece then yes i would be totally blown away. tried vr in the arcades years ago and while the graphics were crap the experience in itself was unlike anything else before or since .

[Pillsbury1]

What could be bigger than ps4? The playstation brand. Announcing all the new features like gakai streaming and new ps vita features and a new console: the glorious ps4. Making the playstation brAnd even better would be its biggest news.

[-Gespenst-]

Gaikai is a big thing, but nowhere near as big as Ps4. If Sony have actually started believing that all these services that they churn out every couple of months are what we care about, then all hope is lost. Games please. That's all I care about. You have enough extraneous stuff now.

[jmc8888]

No, Sony wishes you to THINK Gaikai is a big thing.

It's actually an unnecessary forced on the customer to accept a poorer quality product that costs more, introduces tons of needless problems, and will narrow what games you can play, and reduce the quality of those games. Among other problems.

But Sony and MS will make more, and so they want you to BELIEVE that dog crap is caviar.

This is why the world is toast. Because everyone plays the perception game, instead of being focused on reality. Sony/MS are trying to peddle the perception that a game streaming service is for your betterment, and is 'the future'.

Wrong. It's what THEY want YOUR future to be, because it makes them more money at your expense.

Your experience suffers, they gain money. So far, people are buying into it. Why? Because people are easily fooled.

Which isn't hard to know. At one time 90 percent of the people favored the Iraq war, a war crime.

What people believe and the decisions based off such misperceptions have nothing to do with reality.

How many people believe Obama isn't a wall street whore and war criminal? Well he IS. I'm a dem, so he's in my political party. He IS a wall street whore, and a war criminal.

So if you all believe a game streaming service will be great and pay for it, you'll get game streaming, but then you'll notice it sucks, and well, too late. All knowable early on.

Like how anyone in 1999 knew a great depression was coming when they repealed Glass-Steagall. In 2008 it started. In 2013, we're still at the beginning stages.

So when it comes to Gaikai, be careful what you wish for, you may just get it....and it won't be anything like you expect it to be.

[-Gespenst-]

You're not wrong. People are pretty much enthralled by consumerism these days. Not only that, but nobody even recognises how grave the situation is. Nothing is serious, everything's a meme. It's apathy and docility instilled in people by consumer culture. Everything's about being trendy on the side of the consumer, and monetisation / the market on the side of corporations and companies. Critical value is nullified by this- seriousness and sincerity gets jettisoned in favour of trendy irony and distance from seriousness, which enables the market to become the focus- for relative monetary value to govern all values. Critical thought is a threat to this, so it has to be neutralised, and from what I can tell, that has been a success. Television and the internet are only serving to perpetuate this.

It's all about surface and simulation in this day and age, and people have become completely mesmerised by these.

Unless people get a serious reality check, the world might indeed be, like you say, toast.

[die_fiend]

Gespenst your babble is laughable. If you think the world is toast, go curl up somewhere

[theDECAY]

@jmc888

You need to chill out. Cloud gaming could, and probably will, be cool...when the time is right. I'm a fan. Discs and disc cases eventually become obsolete leaving behind millions of pounds of consumer waste. It's a progressive step. Calm down. It'll be fine. By the way, who cares who gets the money as long as all parties are happy and people still get to game.

[LOOK_AT_THIS_I]

Fear mongering. Didnt know i landedon infowars lemme get my tinfoil hat.
Evil xbox and playstation consoles are the new dhs weapon of choice. Its a conspiracy. The terrorists win if they add optional use features to enhance a product.

Back to the yard gotta start burying my gold :/

[brave27heart]

Cheers for relating a gaming console to war crimes. Im guessing you dont get out much do you?

Until we know more about pricing and structure how can you assume cloud gaming is worse for the consumer?

Seriously mate, lighten up.

[Neo-Axl]

Take a chill pill dude, this is gaming afterall.
your looking into this far to deeply.

[llMurcielagoll]

Considering the amount of hype Sony generated from their teaser and a look back at the previous Playstations, I will be very upset if the successor to the playstation 3 wasn't announced.

Pretty sure everyone will.

[sprinterboy]

whens the next video being uploaded, is psp supposed to be today

[FrencFri]

They will introduce the playstation cloud gaming serves. Playcloud

[GribbleGrunger]

mmmmmm

I wrote an article called: 'Playstation 4 not the biggest announcement at Playstation meeting' saying exactly the same as this article :(

[TheOneEyedHound]

You are an abomination.

[GribbleGrunger]

Gee, thanks. Doesn't make what I said any less true though now does it:

http://n4g.com/news/1174876...

[NameRemoved0017]

They will a new playstation but it won't be the playstation 4.

[mt]

noting bigger than PS4 except for sony announcing we will stop making playstation console. and that won't happen.

[EliteDave93]

Could also be gaikai. But i doubt it.

[BDSE]

I'll never buy a console that is cloud only- I want physical media.

[jmc8888]

It's not even physical media. Steam is not a cloud service. It allows you to have a BACKUP of game saves to ones saved on your hard drive. That's a good model.

You have the games on your hard drive. Has advantages and disadvantages over having a DVD. I believe there should be both.

But with cloud only game streaming, there are NO benefits. Only drawbacks. You don't even have a copy of the data on your own HD.

So in a sense digital distribution is still sort of physical, because you have the data on your physical hard drive. With access to redownloading it on another computer when you upgrade.

Cloud gaming is a completely different beast than digital distribution. You are wholly dependent on someone else sending you that info every time you want to play it, as none of it is stored on anything physical, not even the saves.

What people also don't understand is that digital distribution will always undercut the cost of cloud, simply put you'll never have a situation where sending someone the same game dozens perhaps even hundreds of times over the internet using their bandwidth can compete $$$ wise against Steam which only needs to send it to you once, and only needs to again when you change computers are reinstall your OS, something like that.

[BDSE]

I don't even want a console that is digital distribution only. I want physical media for my games, for my movies and for my main copy of my music.

[TheOneEyedHound]

You bought the Psp go, so what's the differnce.

[BDSE]

Yeah and doing so change my mind completely. I could trade those games in, I couldn't lend those games to anyone and apart from the portability factor (that is the biggest driver for digital music sales) I can't think of a single tangible benefit over physical media and that's why digital games and digital movies will remain niche.

[TheOneEyedHound]

If it's the Ps4, I'll shoot hot loads all day.

[NaiNaiNai]

Big announcement is the downsizing of everything they have to make up for the loss of a terrible console.

Also 10k TV market release.

[Sarcasm]

Jesus christ people let's just wait until wednesday

[SpadeX]

It would be cooler if they call it PlayStation IV, or PSIV. :D

[BrianG]

Advertising Slogan: "PlayStation IV, it's in your blood"

[ziggurcat]

"And while all signs point to a PlayStation 4 reveal"

actually, there aren't any signs, people just jumped to that conclusion the moment the initial cryptic video surfaced about the 20th of february.

[tigertron]

Well what else could it be? Wonderbook 2? Why would Sony invite all the media and investors and shareholders if not to announce a new Playstation?

All the signs point to the PS4. Next-gen consoles have been in development for a while, we've known that for a while. We've had developers talking about it, we've even had EA's boss claim to have seen the consoles in person. We've had next-gen developer job listings, all of which got changed when they realised they shouldn't have put 'next-gen'. Not only that we've had a leaked picture of the controller, and every insider telling us that it is the PS4. Not to mention Sony's videos of the PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP and the Vita.

Trust me, the PS4 will make an appearance tomorrow night. The time is right.

[V0LT]

They are skipping to Playstation 5.

[Big_Boss91]

shit just got serious

[HeroReborn]

Streaming old games is cool but looking backwards is no way to move forward to the future

[Big_Boss91]

...

[NastyLeftHook0]

thats funny

[NeoTribe]

Ps4 cures aids.

[xc7x]

PS4+

[jakmckratos]

Still looking forward to the PS9..which you should be able to teleport to you. ANy one else remember that commercial?

[tweet75]

the ps4 will be completly free you only have to pay for games and apps

[brave27heart]

Said it the other day on an article almost identical to this (so much for variety in the gaming media) and I'll say it again...

Gaikai may be big news. PS4 is still bigger. Much much bigger.

The reality is the sort of games that will be streamed through cloud gaming are already playable on that shiny black box that most of you have called a PS3. You're not going to be playing PS4 games on your tablet or phone. So while cloud gaming has its uses, and backwards compatability without the expensive tech is a good one, its not going to take over the world anytime soon.

[xAlmostPro]

I think bigger still means the PS4 will be announced.

However announced along side the intended use of gaikai, which i'm hoping comes loaded with all(or around 80%) of PS1/PS2/PS3 titles.

Meaning it has backwards compatibility and allows all 'Sony' devices to stream these games, so the vita has them.. your sony laptop has them etc. Which would give them a great advantage over the nextbox and also a new source of income, PS+ people coul get it free and they could offer an annual fee for none console PS+ members.

I also see a big refinement in the PSN and user interface coming. Such as cross game/platform chat. Maybe this is why they have been slow with the Vita so far, waiting for the updated PSN to launch with the PS4?..

There's so many things that CAN happen, we just need to wait and see what they run with :)

[Wesley85]

The only thing possibly bigger than the PS4 is the PS4 with an amazing games line up. Eye watering good graphics/physics/AI and gameplay. As a games machine that is all I want. If it can stream games to a vita then great, but wouldn't be bigger than the PS4 itself.

[black911]

4G built in. To allow players to stay connected at all times. Did I mention it's Free.

[memots]

i hope they have poncho and elephant

[ShutUpDonny]

I think that the PS4 will be your personal «Gaikai» server, like remote play. Sony would need to much power to stream all that HD content. They will have a lot more costumers than Onlive. That way, you still need to buy a PS4, but after that, you can play all your games on all your PS compatible devices, mainly the PS Vita.