When Onlive came out, it was met with widespread criticism and pessimism. The service has failed to gain significant ground in the market.

Playstation Now, despite being pretty much the exact same service, is being hailed and praised.

What's going on here? What makes Playstation Now different?

In my view, there's nothing different. It's just that people are fans of Sony and are really eager to help them succeed.

The games.

The games and the fact no one has touched it yet. I bet you once lag complaints start coming in, it won't be pretty.

I have the same question but on another level. Why is everybody going crazy when this was actually kind of announced at the PS4 reveal almost one year ago? And it is exactly the same as I was thinking of back then.

Being able to play console games on a tablet/ smartphone / Vita -- without the need for a console doesn't sound cool? 

People will start complaining if the input lag is bad. People are already complaining because they want an emulator for the PS3 - like that was actually ever going to happen from Sony.

And this is backwards compatibility- something that people have been bitching about since PS4 was revealed.

I think the idea behind it is amazing and when it comes out I will get it day 1.
I would love to play some old games on my ps4 without switching consoles!

After seeing how well the Remore play feature works between the PS4 and the PSVita even on an average connection, people are expecting the same kind of experience. Sony know how to stream things.

The games.

A company like Sony backing this one is a huge plus. But just like OnLive it will have its problems. Its too early for something like this to work for everyone but in 5 years it should be much improved and in 10-15 years I cant see why many people wont be able to use this service to play all Playstation games (1st and 3rd party) without owning a console, or if needed a cheap $50 PS TV box which can connect to the net for you if you dont have a smart TV/Tablet/Smartphone etc.. Making gaming so accessible will ultimately expand its audience bringing in more money to the industry which after all is what Sony is there to do, make money.

Ah, I forgot about OnLive