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aLkaLiNE on 03 May 2015
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Dusk said:
aLkaLiNE said:
Please. Dedicated hardware is not going away anytime soon. If anything things might become more integrated, but there is no reason to believe we won't have physical hardware to support the all in one service they want for a very very long time.

PSNow is a legacy replacement - it's a way to cash in on backward compatibility while simultaneously reaching a broader audience. I'd like to see a shred of proof that even indicates they'll exclusively become a service as opposed to a platform driven first and foremost by the modern iteration of hardware.

Well, the PS3 is still for sale and PSNow offers PS3 games. That right there could be a 'shred of proof' if you are willing to see it. It's all conjecture for now.

That just proves that they're capitalizing on backward compatibility. It proves that the service end of PSN is robust enough to offer game streaming. It does not prove, however, that they have any plans to ditch hardware.

 

I think it's a big deal to have a physical presence in the homes of consumers. The moment they become an online only service is the moment they lose a shit ton of relevency. Think of all the most popular or most profitable electronic services in the modern age - iTunes. Amazon. Google Play. All these multimedia storefronts yet they all have hardware to help drive/maintain brand awareness. I think ditching the home media center space would be as suicidal as creating a vita phone, physical buttons and all. It just won't work. Of all people why is amazon gradually dipping their toes into hardware when they started as an online only store? They're expanding their presence. Even if sonys gaming division isn't uber profitable, the name itself helps to sell other devices they have to offer because PlayStation as a brand is synonymous worldwide for Sony. Wanna know what would be a real indicator they wanted to be service only? Other brands start to do the same.

Instead we're seeing more fierce competition then ever among set top boxes. Why is vita TV recently released? 

 

Even PSVue tells me they have no plans to leave. Here's the buy in - purchase a ps4 and you have the ultimate smart device for your home that can stream games movies and music, has a la carte TV services, plays physical media with a simple to navigate interface. Unless the next step is to merge the TV branch with PS to create some freak of nature smart TV I just can't see any good reason to not maintain a physical presence especially when they're the dominant force in that particular industry.