Sony Exercising Its Acquisition of GaiKai, Plans To Stream Games To PS4 129
dmfinn writes "With less than 5 days until the reported PS4 launch event, new details are emerging regarding some of the console's next-gen capabilities. Since last June, Sony has been quietly sitting on its $380 million dollar acquisition of Gaikai, a cloud based gaming company. The Wall Street Journal, among other sources, is now reporting that the PS4 will have GaiKai's cloud-based gaming technology directly integrated, thought it is unclear exactly what types of games will be available for streaming. Back in June, a rumor circulated that Sony was planning to use the technology to support backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games, though no further details have arisen regarding whether or not the new console will be able to play previous generation games. It appears that Sony will most likely be using the service to stream PS3 and indie games to the console, as the current technology only supports 720p, not high enough quality for blockbuster games. Constantly streaming interactive graphics, even if only at 720p, will still require a fast internet connection. Services like OnLive have struggled in the past due to the large amount of bandwidth they require, and many consumers complained of laggy connections and horrendous graphics. There is no word yet regarding the features of the games being streamed, including whether or not they will support online or local multiplayer."
Re:Sony: you are idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
So basically console gamers are in a e-penis contest with pc gamers.
Who said that? You know very well that it's simply fun to have a new machine with better game graphics.
Ironic considering that if you stream games all that superior e-penis power goes to waste.
Nobody said PS4 would be stream-only, as far as I can tell.
Design for lag (Score:5, Insightful)
None of those old single player games were designed for lag
Games with a slower pace, such as anything that's not a bunny-hopping FPS or clickfest RTS, could probably be adapted to 100 ms control lag. In fact, rhythm games have had explicit lag settings in one form or another since Dance Dance Revolution Konamix on the original PlayStation to account for upscaler lag in the monitor.
I'm serious (Score:2, Insightful)
Serious question, am I the only one that sees the end coming for these big name Consoles? I don't know much about what Nintendo is doing, but Sony and Microsoft seem to be trying to, almost Rape people.
No used games, Massive DRM, Streaming, Lock-ins, Insane prices etc. These types of things are Bad, if they continue adding things that are Consumer unfriendly, I just can't see a future for these Companies.
You got these Mini-Consoles popping up now, almost as if they are the next evolution in Consoles and alternatives for people tired of the Big Boys behavior. You guys can't see all of this happening? It's quite clear to me.
Re:Sony: you are idiots (Score:2, Insightful)
Considering Sony's past history of screwing over paying customers with the XCP trojan, the OtherOs removal, and other evils, my guess is the extra horsepower is for DRM, spying, or other consumer-hostile purpose.
With their history, I don't understand why anybody would buy anything from Sony.
Re:Then why not just buy a PC? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because
- too expensive
- it's no fun using keyboard and mouse on the sofa
- PCs have noisy fans and ugly cases
- you can't play Sony's exclusive games
- you also can't play other console-only games like Red Dead
- installing drivers and OS updates sucks
- PCs need to be replaced with a new model every 3-4 years. Game console cycles last 5-7 years.
- windows 8