Slashdot Mirror
Sony To Expand Commercial Uses of PS3
Sony is considering proposals from commercial distributed computing concerns, mulling over rolling out more Folding@Home-like clients to their PlayStation 3 consoles. Gamasutra reports on a Financial Times article, discussing the future of the system. Because they would be commercial and not charitable organizations, the company is considering some form of compensation for users who would participate. "Sony Computer Entertainment CTO Masa Chatani indicated in an interview that Sony had already received numerous inquiries. 'A start-up or a pharmaceutical company that lacks a super-computer could utilize this kind of infrastructure. We are discussing various options with companies and exploring commercial applications', he said."
Do they mean trying to get people to play with the demo units in commercial locations like Best Buy? Haven't seen one yet... maybe if they paid people.
If such a system would allow me to get credit for the work my PS3 does for these corporations, and if I could use said credit to buy downloads, then I can see how this could be a very attractive proposition for gamers and corporations.
I'd sign up.
Better yet...free console. $600 is a bit steep.
Hmm...I wonder if someone could make it work that you could get a free console that would only work so long as it was able to process and transmit work units for a commercial application.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Given the trememdous (and somewhat underutilized) processing power of the PS3, I'm not surprised. I'd also say that this is a way they can recoup some of the losses they are taking on the console while the Wii appears to outsell them.
You know, Custer had a plan.
If Sony really wants to push it though, they'll just include the functionality in a firmware update and claim that the money's going to subsidize new game development. Their online entertainment arm has been pulling that sort of thing with Planetside and Matrix Online for ages now.
Digital signage. a simple ps3 game that simply acts as a mpeg/mpg/bmp/ppt player with playlists and timings with net connectivity will make them rich overnight. most digital signage boxes start at $999.00 and are pretty crappy and can not do HD, you gotta go way higher in price for HD.
make a $199.00 disc you insert in the cheapie ps3 and can upload content via the ethernet and you have a winner that will overtake the resto f the big names in digital signage overnight.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If you look at The Xbox360 and it's Live service. You have to pay for it. They should have something like this, where MS gets the money from it, and users who contribute cycles can earn money off their Live services fees! (Probably capped to the cost of the Live service) That seems like it would make the most sense to me.
Of course, if Playstation 3 isn't charging for online access, then maybe it can be used to earn credits to purchasing stuff.
And for the Nintendo camp, how about earning those Wii points with contributing cycles! That'd be awesome!
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
I was just talking to someone (in the ECE dept) who had bought a slew of these things for numerical computation last weekend. Its the cell part which apparantly acts as (i think) 128 SIMD processors .. which if you have code that parallelizes well gives you crazy numbers. At this time all he's managed to do is get Linux running and he knows the compiler works.. The math is 32 bit so I am not sure if/how it bleeds over to real numerical work.. Anyway, Its not sony who should be exploiting this, its IBM. IBM knows how to write compilers and IBM knows a lot about scientific/high performance computing. IBM does not know how to sell things cheaply :) However if they can sell these things to Sony for a profit, surely they can figure out how to sell these at a proper price point to poor scientists, who otherwise put PS3s on their grants :)
They seem to like to ignore the fact that it costs money to run the console. Anyone that has bought their own car understands that it costs money not only for the Gas to make it run (electricity for the console), but there's maintenance as well. The car needs new tires, brakes, and other parts that are in use. The console is not designed to run at 100% CPU 24/7 and will wear out quicker.
I would guess you could wear out a PS3 in a year by running it 24/7 on this, so that's $600/yr cost right there. I seriously doubt they plan to pay that much.
Even assuming the console would last forever, the electricity to run constantly it is apparently about $150/yr. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/776/776347p1.html This charts says the national average to run Folding@PS3 is $12.23/month, which is about $150/yr.
I don't think that they would even pay the $150 in straight cost you incur, let alone for the wear and tear on the console.
This is a great opportunity to contribute to a cause, but it's an awful idea as a way to make money in your home.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
not that i own one, but if and when a good game ever gets released for it, i'm sure i'll buy it.
if Sony is going to actually ask me leave on my ridiculously power hungry "super-computer" while i'm not playing Socom4, they better at least agree to eat the cost and replace my machine if it fails. not fix, REPLACE. otherwise, why would i want to help "Joe's Rx" use my PS3, broadband connection, and precious power? to make some drug that they're going to charge, if not over-charge, me for when they release it?
This is a sorry attempt and positive PR. Sony, how about you concentrate on making some games for your VIDEO GAME SYSTEM!!!
Just like people will give away their passwords in exchange for free chocolate. They should tie their number-crunching into a hot game like GTA IV and people will give away free PS3 cycles, electricity, etc.
I can throw as many stones as I wish; my house is made of transparent aluminum.
"Hmm...I wonder if someone could make it work that you could get a free console that would only work so long as it was able to process and transmit work units for a commercial application."
Hmmm...I wonder how many people will find a way around that so they can get a free console without the obligation?
[1]Since they're selling them at a loss I can't quite justify putting "profit" here. Yet.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
"Well, duh. If someone's making money at my expense (bandwidth costs, electricity, wear on components...), as negligible as those expenses might be, I'd want to see some sort of return."
You mean like when someone P2Ps "for profit" content?
> mulling over rolling out more Folding@Home-like clients to their PlayStation 3 consoles
And I hear you can play games on the thing too! Seriously, if Sony wants to market it as a cheap 'supercomputer' they need to offer another form factor. Perhaps a rack-mounted version pre-configured with Linux clustering.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Ha! Wii is having month long shortages because, while the PS3 sales rate were so overestimated that they now are trying to use that surplus for other things. If the PS3 was kicking as much ass, they would be telling everybody else to go pound sand; because they have so much consumer interest they couldn't chain their supply chain so early in the product's lifespan.
Because the PS3 is kicking so little ass compared to Sony's expectations they have a glut and are now looking for unusual ways to reduce stocks outside of consumer gaming. It's positive sign when you do that for a mature product that has limited growth potential in it's current markets, it's a bad sign when you do that for a product early in it's lifetime when it's primary market is supposed to be growing quickly.
Translation:
We got this mountain of PS3s that aren't selling to save our lives, and if someone in management notices, me might get fired from our cushy jobs. It is now time to blow them out the door somehow or set the warehouse on fire.
-Charlie
Typical Sony thinking.
"We can't lower the price, so let's figure out a way to raise it."
"They seem to like to ignore the fact that it costs money to run the console."
No different than the "information wants to be free" crowd ignores the fact that it costs money to create content. Everyone has a different blind spot, but always present were money is concerned.
Read the Financial Times article you stupid son of a bitch, users joining in this program are compensated by Sony.
Check to make sure your broadband EULA covers the commercial use to which you'd be putting your PS3 before signing up.
Because we all read and abide by our EULAs, right? RIGHT?
Oh.... they didn't? Looks like he wasn't the one who was a "stupid son of a bitch" around here then.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).