Will Sony's PS4 Be The 'Netflix' For Video Games?

Early last year Sony announced that it was acquiring the game streaming company Gaikai for a reported $380 Million. Many speculated what this meant for the Playstation brand in the future; would the streaming service somehow be a a part of the PS4? Some even speculated that the PS4 may be streaming only, getting rid of physical media altogether. In Friday's edition of the Wall Street Journal it was reported that the Playstation 4 will stream Playstation 3 games as a way to provide backwards compatibility.

[Trenta27]

Clever title. Approved.

[Y_5150]

Ditto.

Clever indeed.

[subtenko]

OnLive tried it but PS has a bigger brand association.

The standard internet speeds I say for US at least is 50/25 (Verizon fios) then you have 75/35 is what more people are starting to get. So you people telling me you need more speed than that?

[miyamoto]

yes. been saying this for ps+ for a while
and gaikai will reinforce this for ps1 ps2 ps3 psp ps vita and ps4 games

as the ps3 is the no.1 used netflix device worldwide

[haymoza]

It's clever concept but worded wrong in my opinion. A better title would have been, "Will PS4 be to games what Netflix is for movies?"

[Kamikaze135]

If it works as well as Netflix then that would be great. If it works as badly as OnLive...then I will steer clear from it.

[Kratos_Kills]

Well I almost guarentee it will be a pretty rough start but it will improve all the time and get better and better. So I want soley judge the very beginning.

[riverstars86]

Sony needs to persuade ISP's to increase internet speeds to consumers at a reasonable price. Until then, Gaikai will have a slow start, but it's a future proof service when internet speeds better support it.

[joab777]

Good news is that if they are at the forefront with this, it could become that which fills the ultimate used games gap. There are many ppl who cannot afford to pay $60 fora game. Imagine a servuce that sells older games for reasonable price and imagine if they let u play whatever u want for a monthly fee. Playstation could become everything onlive wasnt. This is obviously because it also does everything else. Streaming may not be perfect right now but couple high end console gaming with the ability to buy cheap games (ps + or world or whatever) and u have the perfect machine for all types of gamers. They wont have to stop used game sales because eventually they wont be needed.

[Tapioca Cold]

I bet their will be complaints of streaming issues.

What is the 'Netflix' for movies?

I get all mine free.

[MikeMyers]

This will be key for Sony and turning profits quickly, by putting their library on as many devices as possible and perhaps charging a premium model.

[EliteDave93]

If thats the case, We gonna need one hell of a internet connection.

[matrixman92]

if they really do put up an entire library of older games, that would be amazing. It really sucks for people who bought a ps3 after the backwards capatablity stopped. I wanted to play a bunch of ps2 games, that there are sequels to for ps3...but was never able to. If they do something like that, im on board

[BABYLEG]

I'm sure the Xbox will be. Imagine Sony trying to do dash voice commands.. They're starting a battle they've already lost

[Kratos_Kills]

Sony trying to do dash voice commands? Lol yelling at the console to do things is do great isn't it? Also Sony has the games Xbox has the entertainment and... Oh yea that's right nothing more!

[NegativeCreepWA]

Streaming a game while playing MP, sounds like a laggy nightmare to me. That goes for any device.

[riverstars86]

Streaming while playing a fast paced single player game can also be a nightmare. It took 10 minutes of playing OnLive for me to go back to the PS3.

[EverydayDigitals]

From my understanding Gaikai's technology was a lot better than OnLive's. They have more servers located closer to players to reduce latency.

[riverstars86]

Oh didn't know that, thanks for elaborating EverydayDigitals. That helps immensely, I hope they have a server near where I live, I'll have to give it a try.

[EverydayDigitals]

I'd easily pay $10/mo to access a sizable list of PS3 games over the cloud. I really hope Sony doesn't blow this opportunity.

[Ju]

There won't be any streaming of games. I'm placing a bet here :) I think it'll be used in different ways. There is no point for Sony to do that. Their business is the endpoint, that's why they release a physical console. Streaming would kill the console. Simple. But I agree with what Kotaku reported. It will be used in quite some interesting applications within the PlayStation family, I'm certain of it. I think most people simply lack the imagination what such a tech could actually do; and while I'd claim I have quite some ideas, I am sure Sony will surprise me. I am surprised how many of you think a PlayStation and streaming PC games is a good idea. Please tell me why? Why don't you just get a PC to do that? Much cheaper. It'll never run PS3 games anyway, if those would be PC ports. Happy disagreeing. I will be laughing tomorrow ;)

[ufo8mycat]

Wait what? PS4 streaming PC games? What PC Games - there are none. Oh wait Diablo 3 and WOW. WHy would core gamers want to play that?

[Ju]

Typical response from someone who can't comprehend what I just said. I leave it at that.

[landog]

no intrested personally, just as netflix movies look like crap compared to a bluray, gaikai gaming will look like crap, have lag, and essentially be only appropriate for demos imo

game streaming is crappy on a pc with 10x the power and network capabilities of the ps4, it will be useless on ps4 to me

some people may be fine with the latency and bad graphics that it will surely produce, myself, i'll stick with dedicated ps4 games, and when i want to play a ps3 game, i'll play it on my ps3

[ufo8mycat]

Streaming a Single Player game? In other words lag in SP. Sounds like a step backwards. If I want to play a PS3 game, I'll power-on my PS3

[sway_z]

It's my understanding these new consoles will be multitasking beasts...

It's not impossible for Sony to include a download whilst you play system so that the games levels are cached before you reach them...

..example

Imagine playing the 1st level of the streamed (ps3) game, whilst the 2nd level is (background) downloaded to eliminate latency issues?

Seemes to be within the realms of possibility IMO