Sony Wants To Put Your Game Saves In the Cloud

itwbennett writes "Sony may be planning to have three platforms (Android devices, NGP, PS3) running PlayStation Suite content and needing access to the same saved data stored in the cloud, says blogger Peter Smith. At last week's PlayStation Meeting, game developer Hideo Kojima said his 'dream' was to offer the same game on the PS3 and the new PlayStation Portable with saves in the cloud. If Kotaku has it right, that dream may be coming in firmware version 3.6. Also, in an interview with Engadget, Sony's Jack Tretton first said that PlayStation Suite games would work on the PS3. He then retracted that comment, but it's sounding a lot like Sony just isn't ready to talk officially about plans to bring Suite content to the PS3, says Smith."

Comments

Good idea

[Hatta]

Storing game saves in on the network is a great idea. As long as they are also saved offline and are available for manual backups too. Network storage is not a substitute for offline backups.

Hopefully

[Grapplebeam]

Saves aren't automatically forced to the cloud if you're someone who will be without internet access for a time. Also, they hopefully won't use this to deter piracy by holding people's save games hostage.

Re:Hopefully

[halcyon1234]

I will actually detest this, because I know their copyright fears will get in the way of my legal enjoyment.

Just this week, I tried to play a game I purchased from the PSN. It has no online interactions. Yet, because I haven't installed the latest firmware, it refuses to let me play. Same would happen if my internet was down.

Next I finally got around to remembering to backup my saved games. I tried to do Guitar Hero first. I've put several dozen hours into creating custom avatars for friends and family. Guess what-- due to "copyright concerns" or some crap like that, the playstation refuses to backup the file to a USB device.

All that because I refuse to beta-test Sony's latest firmware, or because they're afraid I'll-- do something?-- with my Guitar Hero saved games.

If my saved games end up "in the cloud", I can 100% guarantee that at some point, they will be lost, or I will be denied access to them, and will not be allowed to back them up locally.

Moving Forward or Raising Stakes on Jailbreaking?

[grimsweep]

Although there's plenty that can go wrong, 'cloud' storage is a cool concept for my save data. It's not fun having to scrounge up a compatible device to backup my PS3's saves when I've upgraded the drive, and I'd hate to have to restart a game on my portable just because I lost my save on a Tiny-Micro-Whatever SD card no bigger than my pinky-nail.

That said, it raises the stakes on what happens if I decide to jailbreak my devices. Is there always going to be a hard copy, or do I get a nastygram message at startup saying "Your account (and all of those saves) have been locked out due to unlicensed use of your hardware"? Let's not forget that many manufacturers (Sony and Nintendo included) are moving towards digital delivery systems.

Could be good!

[LoudMusic]

That could be really good! So long as I wasn't required to be connected to the internet in order to play my games. If there was some kind of consolecloud replication and games could function in a completely offline state it would be pretty great. It sucks balls when Blizzard is offline and I can't get my StarCraft 2 injection.

Re:Hm

[mark72005]

They want everyone keeping all their devices connected to the online hub. This way they can control licensing, require updates, etc., more effectively than they do today.

You might like jailbreaking your console, but will you like it as much if your saved games are inaccessible? (maniacal laughter)