PSN purchases 'could' transfer to PlayStation 4
PlayStation Network purchases could transfer to the PlayStation 4, but Sony is undecided.
Last night's PlayStation 4 event packed plenty of reason for optimism, with a few causes for reservation. Dave Perry, CEO of the now Sony-owned Gaikai, revealed that PlayStation 3 games aren't natively playable on the PS4, and announced that it could rely on streaming for backwards compatibility. But that doesn't mean all titles will work from day one, and now we've learned that your current PlayStation Network purchase history won't necessarily transfer over.
Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told Polygon that PlayStation 3 games, including PSN games, could be made available via cloud services or emulation, even without the native support. But he was more cautious when talking about whether your current purchase history would be recognized on the new platform. "We could do so if we choose to," he said. "We know who purchased what as a record. But we are working on service plans and we haven't decided."
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, PSN purchases 'could' transfer to PlayStation 4.
PlayStation Network purchases could transfer to the PlayStation 4, but Sony is undecided.-
Basically "We'll make this work somehow if enough people throw a fit and/or Durango is backwards compatible somehow".
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because it's software developed on the cell architecture that now has to run on x86 / x64. it's non-trivial to port. it's no different than porting PS3 games to the PS4 architecture (after all, all PSN games are are smaller PS3 titles).
it might as well be software from an entirely different company at that point. it's like why commodore64 titles won't work on an Apple II C.-
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I'm sure they're still trying to work out what the ongoing operating costs of Gakai will be, what they'll have to charge for it/PSN+ to make it profitable, and whether repurchasing PSN/PS3 titles is a necessary step to a) add additional revenue from those who really care about back compat b) reduce load/infrastructure (ie operating costs) of the streaming service to those who really want it. There's no good model for them to base things on. OnLive got buried under the ongoing costs of this kind of service, Sony has to make sure the pricing is structured right, they already have a significant initial investment to recoup.
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well you look at what happened with the conversion from UMDs to digital downloads with their portable systems...
They didn't acquire Gakai that long ago and it's an unproven model. There're a lot of variables to work out and no need to announce a solution for a number of months by which time some things may have changed or be clearer. -
I would normally agree with you regarding the benefits of backwards compatibility. I just wonder if those benefits are as big of a deal with this particular hardware cycle.
Developers such as Rockstar have said that they will continue to develop games for current gen simply because the user base is huge. Given that, I think many gamers might opt to keep their 360s and PS3s to play those new games. Those who dump their consoles were probably more interested in new HARDWARE to begin with. I've heard more muttering in the past 18 months about a hardware refresh than I remember hearing during any hardware cycle before. People just want NEW stuff. (To digress, that actually bothers me. People blow through AAA releases in hours or a few days, then toss them aside to marathon the next big thing. No looking back.)
Personally, I think new consoles should offer backwards compatibility if possible. People rag on the Wii U, but at least I know I can play all my WiiWare, Virtual Console, and Wii disc games when I do make the jump to (Nintendo's) next-gen hardware. That's awesome, and the perfect answer to the current lull in new U games. At the same time, backwards compatibility just isn't always possible depending on hardware architecture changes, as you and others have discussed in this thread. The question is, will the masses be okay with that? Will they be so eager to get their hands on new hardware that they'll dump all their current-gen discs and digital purchases? Or will they raise a stink?
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I think you're making a mistake by thinking that Gaikai is going to really pan out. At least at first.
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that may be the case but Sony is betting big on it just based on the acquisition price alone
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I want it to do well but I just can't see how it can overcome the major technical problems that they have zero control or influence over.
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well if it's still limited to ~720p given our current bandwidth situations it may be the case that you could stream a PS4 game but the relative loss in fidelity compared to a PS3 game streamed is enough of a differentiator to want local powerful hardware. But then on a Vita it's good enough to sell PS4 games to Vita/Experia Play owners to play in WiFi enabled spots.
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If you have used a good game-streaming service before (OnLive), then you know how well it works. And, it works "well." By "working well," I mean that the better your network connection is, the better it works. And when it works as well as possible, you don't notice the lag, although it is still there. Actually, I lied. If you play a 2D game (Sonic the Hedgehog [Genesis version], Street Fighter 2, etc.) then you immediately notice the lag, small as it is, making precision impossible. I couldn't manage some very simple jumps properly or reliably in the very first stage of Sonic with a 30/5 megabit connection on comcast with a very low ping, gave up playing after 10 minutes and switched to Bioshock. I didn't play competitive 3D games on the service, but I don't think I want to try, either. That whole avenue of gaming from the back catalogue of Playstation titles, is really out even if Gaikai works well.
And that does not even take into account how they can legally manage to stream these titles. Sony is not the only game publisher for this platform. What if you really want to play game X Y Z from your Playstation past and Sony hasn't procured the rights to stream those titles from those publishers? It's totally smart of Sony to look at increasing their business model into a service area such as this, but the biggest draw of the Playstation platform, a vast library of games, I think is going to shrink immediately for PS4 users (who don't want to have older boxes sitting on the same shelf).
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Funny enough, if they had PC ports that would probably run just fine :o
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for pretty good technical reasons, same as when Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel, they just had the luxury of being able to create a workable emulation layer for old software that needed relatively little processing power and could handle the overhead of emulation (and probably simpler emulation than the Cell requires too)
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eventually they abandoned that, though.
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right, that's generally what Apple does more than other PC vendors anyway.
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I can't believe I'm saying this but who the fuck cares? It's different architecture? Pixel Junk Monsters, Journey, Flower - they are coded for the Sony Playstation 3 why should we expect them to work?
Are we talking movies/music? Fuck yes if you bought those it should work - but games? Who cares?
I'd LOVE all my PS3 shit to just work on the PS4. 100% the lot, all the PS1 stuff, all the PSN games, all the PS3 games but I'm not paying the extra god knows how much it would cost to do it.
I whined my motherfucking ass off for backwards compatibility last time and I never used it or it was too expensive or they remade the good games in HD anyhow. Fuckit - I'm just running PS3 parallel to PS4 for a year or two before I retire her.
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