The next Playstation

[xune]

You May Already Own a PlayStation 4: The Sci-Fi Implications of Last Night's Big Sony-Gaikai News



With Sony's continued refusal to say anything about the PS4 (psst. Codename Orbis!), the world of PlayStation has become all too much in the present. This is not what we demand from Sony. We demand sci-fi from Sony. Last night, we got that.

It's time to think about the future of PlayStation in crazy ways again, now that they spent about a third of a billion dollars on an outfit called Gaikai.

Gaikai is a cloud gaming service, which is not as boring as it sounds. It's a technology, similar to OnLive, that zaps video game graphics and sound into your home from servers faraway while you zap inputs from your game controller back up to those same servers.

This tech is what enables Gaikai to let you play Alan Wake on a web browser or Mass Effect 3 on Facebook. All of the processing that a console would do is happening far, far away, well outside your living room or home. When Gaikai works, you're essentially able to play video games with an extremely long controller cord that might be stretching halfway across your state or country.

http://kotaku.com/5922812/you-may-already-own-a-playstation-4-the-sci+fi-reality-of-last-nights-big-sony+gaikai-news

[Randallflagg]

As great as cloud is, with large streaming things like movies and games, you would need a fairly large monthly download limit. Not sure what its like in the states, but in Canada I would say the average household has a 60 gig monthly limit, and those with the higher speed internet, like myself will have 150 gig, maybe 200 gigs. Monthly I almost reach my limit with netflix in HD and a few downloads here and there. If my gaming was to all go online, I would need a much larger limit, which throws up the monthly bill. I like discs, you buy it, you play it, nothing depending on being online, it just works when you want.

[TristanN47]

Would be useless here with Australian Internet.
The best in my area is ADSL1 100GB limit. Speed is 3mbps but actual downloading is 300kbps.
If we go over 100gb the speed drops to 64kbps.

Government is rolling out faster net but the prices are still a mystery.

I'm a PC gamer but have an xbox for those few console exclusives.
I buy the disc, then keep it forever, not until whoever im streaming it with stops hosting it.

[Randallflagg]

Would be useless here with Australian Internet.
The best in my area is ADSL1 100GB limit. Speed is 3mbps but actual downloading is 300kbps.
If we go over 100gb the speed drops to 64kbps.

Government is rolling out faster net but the prices are still a mystery.

I'm a PC gamer but have an xbox for those few console exclusives.
I buy the disc, then keep it forever, not until whoever im streaming it with stops hosting it.

Exactly. I think if Sony goes this route, they will have a significantly smaller marketshare as not everyone has the speed, or the monthly bandwidth to support such a thing. Especially if they are streaming games in HD. Imagine playing for an hour or 2 at 1080p, thats some serious bandwidth usage right there.