pbroy said: Well I'm glad Sony doesn't require always on for PS Now for their Cloud solution. Ohhh wait... You need to be always online to read the Cloud. Silly me, but it's ok if Sony does it. Boooo M$ always online Cloud.

That's because that is how PS Now works.  It is entirely run off of servers and it is also entirly optional.  Pretty big differences there buddy...

It isn't required.

I don't know if you are serious or if you are just being funny.

PSnow is a service in and of itself. Kinda like how netflix or hulu is a service. PSnow has servers doing one thing and one thing alone. Running games. You do not own the games on that service, you do not download them or install them. They are somewhere else. You need an internet connection for PSnow in the very same way you need an internet service for netflix. The internet you have is there so you can recieve the video stream either to your console/PSvita connected to a TV or  directly to supported TVs without the need of a console. So you can use and play games with PSnow even if you don't own a playstation console. Kinda like how you can watch netflix on different devices as long as you have an internet connection.

What MS was trying to do, and why everyone gets worried when they keep talking about cloud services and always connected, is that with the XB1, if the always connected thing takes effect, they are not running a service that runs the games for you and sends yu a stream. They are locking down your console at home. So even if you buy physical copies of a game or you have downloaded your games, you cannot play them unless you are connected to the internet. 

To put it simply, with PSnow (note NOT PS4), if you have a TV that supports it, a $100 PSvita, a PS3 or a PS4, you can sign up for the service the very same way you sign up for netflix and play games that you have not physically bought or owned over the internet. With "XB1", you can go out and buy a game from the store, come back home, put it in your console and if for any reason your internet isn't working, you will be unable to play that $60 game you just bought. If you still don't see the difference then I don't know what else to tell you. 

Once upon a time, there were telephones. Then, one day, there were wireless phones. Eventually, there were cell phones. People were terrified out of fear that everything would change. Well, things did change......but it wasn't so bad.

pbroy said: Well I'm glad Sony doesn't require always on for PS Now for their Cloud solution. Ohhh wait... You need to be always online to read the Cloud. Silly me, but it's ok if Sony does it. Boooo M$ always online Cloud.

PB try not to go too far in being "objective".

The fact is, PSNow is a completely seperate entity from playstation. It's a new platform, installed in tvs, and phones, etc that uses cloud to stream games to subscribers. Kind of like a cable tv service but for games.

The Microsoft Cloud for xbox is a bit different. It uses the cloud to bolster the game itself, interacting with it during a single player experience. It's kind of like what happened with the new simcity. Processing was being offloaded to the servers, and because of that, it was required to be always online. There was major major backlash because it meant that the game couldn't be played without being online. A game, that you owned (not subscribed to) could not be played whenever you wanted. You had to abide by rules. Simcity was a disaster. EA apologized but maintained it's stance. A user later found out that you could process the data yourself with a little hack. EA said solidly "the game could not function without online". They were proven wrong. 

MS is choosing to implement this within the very console that they did a 180 on...not a seperate platform (and least not that we know of, which they should clarify as soon as possible if it's not because this is bad press). Originally, sales were abyssmal and the 180 changed all that. How do you think people are going to react when MS go back on the 180 and reinstitute always online features? It's going to be simcity all over again

EDIT: Not to forget that if you buy a physical game, once the servers are gone for the game, you will no longer be able to play your game. (that is, unless they come out with a patch that no longer necessitates the online requirement...which will again, then lead gamers to say "wtf, i thought online was necessary")

What is wrong with you people? 

First to gergroy; People don't complain about having to be online to play multiplayer cause its called online multiplayer. Its a gameplay component of your game and if you want to play with other people across the world the only way to do that is to have a connected console. People complaining about this would be like saying people complain about having to put gas in their car for it to move.

and to phaedruss: First off, the games you mentioned doesn't require that you are online to play them. Being online adds to the experience but you can completely play the game in its entirity even if you don't sign in once to the internet.

What poeple are afraid of and complaining about is if you can't play ALL your games or they just won't work unless you are connected to the internet. And anything MS says about the cloud somehow making games better is bullshit if you know anything about how games are made or game engines run. The industry has ran games just fine for generations without the games itself having to offload processing duties to some mythical cloud. If you know anything about game design you would know how silly that even sounds.

TIL Going into a store and buying a game and not being able to play it because you need to be connected to play said game is the same thing as renting a game from an online game streaming service and not being able to play the streamed game if you have no internet. (cuz ya know, ignore the option of being able to play the physical copy of the same game without the internet.) These spin masters and their smear campaigns are getting ridiculous.O_O

I'm sorry but they already demonstrated what kind of benefits the cloud can have. Obviously not just anything can be offloaded, but some things can be. The online part of the Souls series is a pretty big part of the game, but no one complains that you need an internet connection to use it. No one said anything about ALL games or anything like that.

Because in the future if you need to play any game you will need to be online even if your playing alone just for the cloud computing is just an excuse. Always online is the same as always drm. To ply with parity with the ps4 you will need the cloud there for you will need xbox live. 

I like how you mention forza like an old game has any relevance in a conversation about the fuure of gaming. Why didnt you mentioned titanfall then. With all their brag about cloud and the AI and the graphics where crap.

And you know why i pretend like I know? Because everybody knows, at least anybone who saw last years E3 and the x1 reveal where they said it to everybody that it was exactly their plan. Even if they whent 180 on all thouse policies they still have claimed that thouse ideas are not dead. Like it was said before not by me, it will start with cloud power so it has the same power as the ps4 and then you will not be able to play any game offline so the only choise in playing will be online or get a ps4 and acording to the reaction from last year guess wich will be the popular option.

WHo demonstrated what now?

Because I haven't seen that in a single game yet, but ok sure whatever, not like facts matter.

The online component in Souls is a big part of the game in the same way that multiplayer is a big part of the game in call of duty. Nobody complains about that part because it isn't REQUIRED to play the full game. You miss out on invasions, and seeing ghosts. That's it. It doesn't affect the gameplay a single bit.

Sure you miss out on some really cool features, but you can still play it, still beat it, still get all the items and rewards. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the demon's souls servers were taken down a while ago. I can go home right now and play it without needing a server.

Also, right in the OP it says "every game".