PlayStation Doubles Down on Cloud Gaming Starting ... Now

"I typically prefer doing to talking," says Jim Ryan, "but I think we've been guilty of not talking enough about what we've done." Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, is referring to PlayStation Now, the subscription service Sony launched all the way back in 2014 that allowed PlayStation owners to download older games, or even stream them from the cloud“

[Jin_Sakai]

Finally.

“PS4's cross-play efforts have officially moved out of the beta stage, meaning that the console can support cross-play on any titles that studios provide the functionality for.“

[Kribwalker]

that’s the most exciting part of the article for me. I hope we start seeing it across the board with all MP games.

[gangsta_red]

Good to see the "beta" program worked out. But I'm still skeptical on Sony letting any dev use it. They haven't been very helpful and very reluctant for a lot of third parties who wanted this.

@Septic
Agreed! Sony's subscription services are definitely going to grow now that they're focusing on it more.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

That's strange 2 years ago Jim Ryan was the one who said no to crossplay because of kids safety. Everyone here defended his decision hard. Now hes on board and you are to, now that's a flip flop right there.

[Jin_Sakai]

We better have the ability to opt out of crossplay is all I can say!

So much for a level playing field thanks to Microsoft and Xbox fans who wouldn’t shut up about something they’ll never use!

[NarutoFox]

Can you imagine going against PC gamers in FPS with keyboard and mouse lol. They're going to love this

[darthv72]

Nice to see them embrace cross-play. And nice to see the change of heart there Jin.

[Jin_Sakai]

Funny how all this happed right after Shawn Layden left PlayStation. I have a feeling it was an internal power struggle between Jim Ryan and Layden.

I have to agree with a quote from Jim Ryan.

“The track record of the incumbent platform winning the next time around is not a great one,” he admitted, referring to the fact successful consoles are often followed with flops. “So the major thrust of my executive energy is to avoid complacency.”

[gangsta_red]

I guess you missed the part where Shawn Layden said he was also going to push PSNow too.

https://www.dualshockers.co...

Also here he is talking about doing PSnow, MP and GaaS ....

https://www.gameinformer.co...

Him and Ryan were on the same track with where PSnow was going not to mention this has always been discussed by them.

Even Shu I believe said that their PS4 exclusive games would eventually start to appear on PSnow.

So it's kind of surprising to see some comments being shocked that this is happening. I know I also talked about this too here saying it would happen...of course most of the replies were the standard "you're a troll" but yeah...here we are.

[UltraNova]

God help us all...

[sampsonon]

yup, i wonder what company will come in to fill the void because i am almost ready to stop gaming on all consoles.
i will sub for one AAA game on release and then cancel my sub before it renews. how will they make money off of that? A and AA games with mp and heavy MT'S are coming i feel because there is no other way to sustain that business model and produce single player AAA games.

now we know why Shawn Layden left.

[UltraNova]

Not only that but everyone that signs up for one of these services effectively gives up on true ownership of the product they pay for. All sub services are in the end, is rent. The life expectancy for it is solely reliant on the service provider. And what happens if you decide to change service provider? You can, if you either pay for both or say goodbye to your existing library of games...

Call me old-fashioned, or stubborn but that is not my gaming future.

[Shikoku]

Not just that but now you'll have to have 15 different subscriptions just to play the maybe 4 games you want to play TV is going no different everyone has a damn streaming service now instead of 2 you'll habe to pay for 10, im not doing it gaming is expensive enough as it is all this "cloud gaming" is going to do is push me to pirate stuff or just go back to 8bit.

[darthv72]

To make Now even better, they just need to add more newer games than the 1 they just added (GoW). Infamous and Uncharted are a few years old now but at least GoW is semi newer. They may not be able to add day one games but how about 1st month games??? that seems like a fair trade-off. Most people buy new games in the first few weeks, by the 1st month sales tend to taper off so it makes sense to then add in those games to Now for people who are subbed to that but did not buy the retail product.

[crazyCoconuts]

I've been imagining some kind of cool off policy that requires you wait some period before subbing again. Kinda penal but I guess it would work...

[sampsonon]

@darthv72 but why wouldn't people just wait 1 month to play the game for $10?
i know i would.

[crazyCoconuts]

@ultra, I think they'll keep the purchase option, where you buy digitally, because, well, why not. You're still tied to the service you bought the game from, and you don't even technically own the game. I suspect after one of the big boys go out of business and a bunch of consumers lose their games, governments may legislate some kind of transportable digital rights container that can be used cross service, cross platform, but maybe I'm just dreaming 😁

[sampsonon]

@crazyCoconuts they will lose even more customers if they tried to force a subscription on us.
not going to work. but interesting idea.

they release their AAA games a half yr to a yr apart. so how long would they be stopping someone from spending their money on sony's service? i mean they would lose even more money because all these other companies like Google and MS will take be there waiting for that kind of controversy.

[darthv72]

@sampson, that's what I said. Waiting the 1 month for the game to come to Now is a fair tradeoff for not having day one releases and much better than the year+ releases they just did with GoW, infamous and Uncharted.

1 month is not that long and is in line with other services like netflix and redbox when it comes to new releases. I remember when both used to get new releases the same day as retailers but then distributors slapped a 28 day waiting period on them (but left On-Demand alone) so now the stores have a grace period to sell before the netflix/redbox have their chance. And now I believe the trend is On-demand is getting movies before even retail and then still there is a wait for redbox/netflix.

[rainslacker]

I think a lot of people would be willing to wait a month to just play a game on sub, and not spend $60 on a new game. Not knowing when or if a game will come to a service keeps it's value high, and most games do sell longer than the first month.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Its no coincidence now. The moment Shawn left Jim stepped in and promoting all these changes. Every company has that one suit who ruins it for everyone.

[ShadowWolf712]

Especially since Shawn said they'd be pushing the service more before he even left!

Shocking, I know!

[rainslacker]

Yeah, because marketing campaigns, ,and huge changes to services are just something that you slap together in a day, and it's somehow a coincidence that people higher up than Jim somehow made those people leave because this was his plan all along.

Dastardly.

Oh....and what shadow said. Layden has been talking about expanding services for the past 2-3 years.

[BizarroUltraman]

God help you! These companies helping my pockets.. no more spending $60 for every game. Buy the ones you like and enjoy the rest on these subs like Gamepass and PSNow.

[ShadowWolf712]

Chill, they said they were gonna do this months ago. They also said they're still releasing their games like they always have.

[phoenixwing]

well it's official they're looking to go the services route because shareholders :I Can't say I'm not disappointed but I understand why they did it. Still buying ps5 because it'll take a generation or two to move completely to services and i can't deny the ps4 backwards compatibility.

[nucky64]

agreed. as long as i can buy the ps5 games i want on disc, i'll still be buying the console.

[UltraNova]

Agreed.

[fr0sty]

I haven't bought a disc since Killzone.

[gangsta_red]

The writing was only on the wall in loud neon green 80's style writing.

These companies are all steering this route with services and streaming.

I'm curious to see how Sony will further promote PSnow and make it competitive against Stadia and Xcloud and even Game Pass which is killing it right now.