not true...

Hands-on with PlayStation Now: It works!

By Michael McWhertor on Jan 07, 2014 at 3:33p

Sony's game-streaming service, PlayStation Now, is here, bringing with it a massive library of the PlayStation's back catalog to devices never designed to play them.

With the subscription and rental-based PlayStation Now, PlayStation Vita owners will be able to play games like The Last of Us on a handheld. Bravia TV owners won't even need a dedicated console. The service could boost the PlayStation 4's library with thousands of new and old titles, essentially bringing much-needed backwards compatibility to the new console.

Even better, based on our hands-on time with PlayStation Now, it works.

Performance in games like The Last of Us and God of War: Ascension was impressive. Lag input was noticeable, seemingly more so on Vita when moving The Last of Us' Joel and waiting a beat for him to respond, but more than playable. Even the higher frame rate, faster paced action of Ascension was playable, though compression artifacts and more muted colors were present.

But the technology is striking, to say the least; these are capable, playable versions of PS3 games without the need for a dedicated console. Despite the small amount of latency, PlayStation Now already feels like a viable game-streaming option.

At CES, Sony showed PlayStation Now working on a Bravia TV and PlayStation Vita, with a handful of PlayStation 3 games playable: The Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, Puppeteer and Beyond: Two Souls. Sony reps said those games aren't necessarily indicative of what titles PlayStation Now will launch with later this year, but confirmed that the focus, at least initially, is on bringing PS3 games to the service.

Jack Buser, senior director of PlayStation Digital Platforms, told Polygon that a wide variety of titles are planned for PlayStation Now, but he wouldn't confirm whether both first-party and third-party titles would be available at launch — though it certainly sounded like they would be.

Buser also couldn't offer details on how the Gaikai-powered streaming technology would work, declining to say whether Now users would be playing on dedicated, remote PS3 hardware or virtual machines that emulate PS3 hardware. Also unclear is just how rentals and subscriptions will work, or whether they'll be part of Sony's PlayStation Plus service. Reps declined to comment when asked.

Reps could confirm that people who play multiplayer games on PlayStation Now would be able to play with others using more traditional means. A PlayStation Now subscriber playing The Last of Us multiplayer, for example, can be matched with others playing the same game on a PS3 Blu-ray disc, a Sony rep said.

PlayStation Now on non-PlayStation hardware, like the Bravia TV on display at CES, will work with DualShock 3 controllers. They'll require a one-time sync over USB, but should connect via Bluetooth for further play. On PlayStation Vita, a graphical overlay displayed at the top of the screen shows that the handheld's back touch panel will be split into four quadrants to compensate for the fewer number of buttons.

Expect to see PlayStation Now for yourself starting later this month, when Sony plans to roll out a limited, external beta. The service is slated to release sometime this summer.

PlayStation Now is targeting PlayStation devices (PS3, PS4, Vita) first, then other Sony devices, like Bravia TVs and tablets. Support for non-Sony devices will come afterward.

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All under controlled conditions. I rather wait till normal people get a hold of this. Rather then Sony have things all setup at optium upload and download rates. It be like compairing people who live 1 mile from your ISP main building. VS people 50+ miles away. My ISP offers grabage upload rate (1Mbps, Down 20, used to be .5Mbps) which hampers Skype. Ofcourse I'm gonna be worried about game input lag.

There's no point in even trying this service if your internet connection is subpar.  If you're having problems with even Skype, you're probably not even able to stream HD movies from Netflix without lag.  Complaints are going to come even if the service is great, because there will be people who try the service whose broadband speed doesn't meet the minimum requirements.  It's like someone who buys Crysis 3, tries to run it on a crappy PC, then complains about it.  What're you supposed to do with people like that?  

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.

Dude, that's local streaming. That isn't dealing with all the limitations through the Internet.

All under controlled conditions. I rather wait till normal people get a hold of this. Rather then Sony have things all setup at optium upload and download rates. It be like compairing people who live 1 mile from your ISP main building. VS people 50+ miles away. My ISP offers grabage upload rate (1Mbps, Down 20, used to be .5Mbps) which hampers Skype. Ofcourse I'm gonna be worried about game input lag.

1. Assumption - You don't even know what games and how many will be offered.

2. Assumption - Sony has failed with gadgets and features in the past.

3. Assumption - Sony is using Blu-ray in PS4, which is at least 7 years old.

4. Assumption - Which compression and decoding technology are you talking about?

All of your reasons are assumptions and none are based on facts. The only fact in this whole case is that Onlive and Playstation Now are identical services. That's it.