Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

PlayStation Now Streaming Service Available On Windows PCs (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the what's-new dept.

Earlier this month, Sony announced PlayStation 3 games would be coming to Windows. Specifically, the company would be bringing its PlayStation Now game-streaming program to Windows PCs. Today, the service has officially launched and is available on Windows PCs. TechCrunch reports: "A 12-month subscription to PlayStation Now will run you $99.99 as part of a limited-time promotion to celebrate the PC launch. Normally, a PS Now subscription will run you more than double that. What does PlayStation Now actually provide? Access to a library of over 50 'Greatest Hits' games, which include popular titles like Mafia II, Tom Raider: GOTY edition, Borderlands and Heavy Rain. There's also over 100 console exclusives available to PC users for the first time, and a total library north of 400 games." If you're interested, you can download the app here. A USB adapter is set to go on sale September 6 that will allow you to use a DualShock 4 wireless controller with your PC.

23 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Any relation to Tom Braider? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Anyone up for a game of Tom Raider?

    No way. His tits aren't as big as Lara Croft's.

    Though I did like him in Doctor Who.

  2. How quickly we forget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sony DRM installs a rootkit
    Revisiting the Infamous Sony BMG Rootkit Scandal 10 Years Later

    1. Re:How quickly we forget by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Since the topic is installing Sony software on your computer, he's right about being paranoid given what they did in the past.

    2. Re:How quickly we forget by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      And Sony has shown no, zero, nada, zip remorse for it. So far not even an apology came out of them and the ... "compromise" they offered to compensate for the damage was offered when their lawyers pretty much told them that they better offer some sort of token because no court is stupid enough to side with them.

      As far as anyone can tell, they still feel that action was well within their rights and justified, so why should I assume otherwise? 11 years ago or 111 years ago, what's the difference when the attitude doesn't change?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. How is this even fesible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There's got to be some lag, right? You want to shoot your gun, you press a button on the gamepad, a packet is sent to a server running the game, the server draws the next frame, then that frame has to be compressed and sent back to you, then decoded and displayed. How could this be done in 16 milliseconds or less? (the time allotted for 1 frame at 60 FPS) Even playing on-line games for the past 15 years, I've never seen latency lower than 30 ms on a server located in the same city. How could anyone enjoy a streamed game? What's the secret here?

    1. Re: How is this even fesible? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      You can't buffer gameplay, the button presses haven't happened yet.

      That's why you're paying $100 per year. Do you think time displacement equipment is cheap?

    2. Re: How is this even fesible? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never played World of Warcraft (at least, not in the last 3 years). WoW buffers gameplay. That makes it jumpy sometimes, but you can do it. Just because you can't think of how, doesn't make it impossible.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
  4. Why? by youngone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a Steam user, why would I want this? Just another epic Sony fail.

    1. Re:Why? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      It's $99 a year! I seriously hope you make those kids gold farm for you to make up for it.

    2. Re:Why? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Because Steam lets them buy games without leaving their mother's basement. Everyone can claim to have high ideals until it actually affects them personally.

    3. Re:Why? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Steam actually found that sweet spot between walling the user in and offering him what he wants. Allow me to elaborate.

      What does NOT work with Steam? Well, I cannot really sensibly resell the game I bought unless I sell the account it is bound to along with the game, which is afaik against the TOS. At least until Steam finds out that they could make a cut of that sale and doesn't fear that studios dump them for basically becoming a way worse version than GameStop (from the Studios' view).

      Aside of this, Steam is quite permissive, going as far as offering me the Linux version of games I bought for Windows where available when I launch it in Linux. Now, could you imagine this in a MS-Shop? Or a Mac-Shop? I somehow doubt that you would get Android versions of programs you bought for iPhone, even if you could install the iShop (or whatever it's called) on an Android phone.

      The permissiveness of Steam even goes so far that you can "share" your game library with friends to some degree. Personally, I can't really say that there is anything I'm missing.

      And this is all the difference. What matters is whether the limitations you're dealing with actually cut into your experience. Steam offers a lot of convenience. No DVDs to hunt down in the mess I call apartment, no hours of patching before playing, double click to install, double click to play. Easy. And yes, there are limitations, mostly concerning the resale of the software. Doesn't affect me, though. But what DOES affect me is that I can return software after playing it for a few minutes and noticing that it's a messy, buggy, unstable piece of junk or simply noticing that I don't like it.

      Try that with your local game retailer.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Why? by meerling · · Score: 1

      "...mediocre competition to Steam..." ?
      Do you mean like Arc, GoG-Galaxy, Origin, or any of the many others I've heard of but haven't tried?

      Hate to disagree with you, but "... anything that brings even mediocre competition to Steam is a good thing" isn't actually true, just look at Origin or Arc for that example.

    5. Re:Why? by cyberfunkr · · Score: 1

      Some of us are against walled gardens that are "hardware locked." An example of this is buying into an ecosystem that only works on one vendor's mobile device selection. STEAM works on my PCs...

      Which this article points out is not a factor. You can play PlayStation Now in the walled garden of a PS3, a PS4, a PS Vita, *or your PC*. Guess it's not as hardware locked as you are trying to rally against.

      As for Steam's services being "essentially" free... PlayStation Now is $99 a year. That's less than $10 a month giving you access to 100's of games, making each one of them "essentially" free too

  5. SCP Toolkit for PS3/PS4 Controllers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://github.com/nefarius/ScpToolkit

    Why buy the proprietary Bluetooth® adapter, when you can just use almost any regular adapter, and pair up multiple PS3 and PS4 controllers?

  6. Streamed Games = Next Level DRM by Kunedog · · Score: 3, Informative

    Since Onlive was in the news, I repost this every time streamed games come up because it's the best way I know to explain this kind of DRM:

    Imagine if the Ubisoft always-on DRM had been an inherent, unremoveable aspect of the game system rather than just something tacked on to a few individual games after the fact, such that Ubisoft couldn't even begrudgingly neuter it in a patch. Well, streamed games are even worse than that would be.

    The game doesn't even run locally. All you get is streaming video/audio and all the lag you'd expect (including controller lag), which is a recipe for disaster in North America.

    Let's say you're lucky enough to have a 30mb/s connection. Why would you want to use it to transfer your game's video instead of, uh, a DVI cable, which is capable of 4 Gb/s? The people who developed DVI apparently understood that that 1920 x 1200 pixels w/ 24 bits/pixels @ 60Hz results in bandwidth well over 3 Gb/s. The people who push streamed gaming seem very, very confused (at best).

    Some people consider IPS monitors unsuitable for games requiring fast reflexes (i.e. FPSes) due to their double-digit response times. Internet latency is often worse and certainly more unpredictable than LCD monitor response time, and with streamed games it applies to audio and keyboard/controller/etc input too.

    Those of us who know anything about bandwidth and compression and (especially) latency can see the enormous technical obstacles facing a service like this, and I've never heard anyone explain how they intend to solve them. Onlive (for example) did everything they could to lock out independent reviewers with NDAs and closed demonstrations. A friend of mine described it as the gaming equivalent of the perpetual motion scam, and IMO that's spot on (except that streaming would still have the draconian DRM issues even if it worked perfectly).

    Streamed gaming appears designed from the ground up to benefit the game publishers and fuck the customers, exactly as you'd expect from any DRM system.

    1. Re:Streamed Games = Next Level DRM by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      So you're saying the game is running in the cloud and not on the PC? I didn't catch that when I read the story and it sounds like a nightmare.

    2. Re:Streamed Games = Next Level DRM by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Some games could work that way. But it cuts out the adrenaline junky twitch FPS games. It also cuts out the modern style Quick-Time-Event games (like Dragon's Lair but dumber). But it could work for exactly the sorts of games you will never see on a dumbed down console: turn based RPG, strategy, adventure, etc.

  7. Other Summary is Better by Kunedog · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, the previous article summary (linked in TFS) mentions the streaming limitation no less than five times. IMO this second /. article would be unnecessary even if it didn't read like an advertisement.

  8. I'll bite by DogDude · · Score: 1

    I'll give it a shot. Sounds like a really good deal. Lots of good games in the package.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  9. Re:Can't wait! by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    (Score: 5, Sarcastic)

  10. Re:pay? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    For certain games, yes. For others, they're about as great an input device as a keyboard is for a flight sim.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. Tom Raider by adam.jimenez · · Score: 1

    Never heard of him.

  12. Region-locked by ACDChook · · Score: 1

    As usual, "Service not available in your country/region"