Home Gaming Abandon all hope of local PlayStation Now support

Abandon all hope of local PlayStation Now support

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PSnever

Sony’s PlayStation Now is a neat service. Using their Gaikai acquisition, they’re able to let players stream games from the cloud, and have them actually be playable. In its current beta phase, it supports the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Later, it’ll support TV’s and tablets, making just about any connected device a console. It works…just don’t expect it to work in South Africa, ever.

YouTube user Cry0spa7t3 (via Dualshockers) uploaded lengthy video showing everything you need to know about the service. Games take about 50 seconds to load up which is amazing. Games can be purchased or rented, and then show up on the PlayStation 4’s menu like a regular game.

The games load and work, though there is quite a bit of visible, noticeable lag. That can be easily overlooked though save for one thing: he has a 100Mb internet connection, and actually resides near a Gaikai datacentre.

Obviously  the service will mature. This is still very much the first beta testing phase, but the chances of there ever being a PlayStation Now server in South Africa are slim indeed. So few of our internet connected gamers even possess the minimum required 5Mb line for game streaming and even if they did, it would congest our already filled-to-capacity exchanges.

PlayStation Now seems like a glimpse in to the future, but it’s not a future that’s coming to South Africa any time soon.

Last Updated: May 23, 2014

24 Comments

  1. Hammersteyn

    May 23, 2014 at 15:40

    Can’t we maybe just download the rental and when time expires we can renew or delete it? Like FF14? Do we really need to stream games. FFS is it that hard to think of alternatives? Sure it will take days to download a big game but give us the option at least.

    Reply

    • Duffman! Formerly_known as_the

      May 23, 2014 at 15:43

      It’s about the processing power… So PS3 games will only work on the PS3 and PS4 on PS4. PS3 games on PS4 or anygames on a TV will not work…

      But I really like your idea.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 23, 2014 at 15:52

        Sure I can understand that, so only make it available to specific consoles and bugger the TVs. There are few enough that owns smart tvs to begin with

        Reply

        • Double-O-Six and a half

          May 23, 2014 at 16:20

          It’s actually even easier than you think… How’s this grab you… As part of the initial sign up for the service you download an emulator that is installed to your console – PS2 emulator for PS3 console, PS2 & PS3 emulator for PS4 console etc. When one wants to play a specific game download it with a time-bombed digital certificate (yes, DRM) that loads and plays within your specific pre-downloaded emulator which throttles and runs your console with the correct settings, capabilities etc… voila, backwards compatibility on demand…

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            May 23, 2014 at 16:33

            Genius, absolutely brilliant. So why can’t we have this FFS.

          • Double-O-Six and a half

            May 23, 2014 at 16:37

            Actually can’t think of any reason why we couldn’t have it… or why it wouldn’t work… Anybody have a direct line to Sony? I’ll happily “donate” the idea…

          • Hammersteyn

            May 23, 2014 at 17:14

            Ditto

    • MichaelMatusowsky

      May 23, 2014 at 18:46

      That’s not how gaikai works.. Gaikai is literally streaming the game to your house. No processing power needed. It’s all done on their end of things. You stream the downloaded deliciousness. I’m thinking what Sony is doing is starting with the idea of not needing a console to game. All you need is a remote and a fast line.

      Reply

      • Brian Murphy

        May 23, 2014 at 18:52

        Aye, the only reason they’re releasing it on console imo, is to stress test the servers for the broader launch of supporting hardware among TV’s, Phones, Tablets, Laptops etc…. Not a bad idea really, though, country infrastructure will limit their reach for awhile.

        Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 25, 2014 at 12:36

        Fantastic idea, although not very practical yet if you take the requirements into consideration.

        Reply

        • MichaelMatusowsky

          May 26, 2014 at 16:07

          Well if you consider the servers Google requires to process all the search requests on a daily basis without crashing on top of youtube… May actually be quite practical after all ;).

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            May 26, 2014 at 16:27

            Yeah but our bandwidth can’t meet with the requirements. Not that they care I think.

          • MichaelMatusowsky

            May 26, 2014 at 16:54

            in which case I think what you meant was “not practical for South Africa”. South Korea, Japan, US of Ass. Those places. It’s normal for them. What with 1080p netflix streaming and all.

  2. MakeItLegal

    May 23, 2014 at 15:41

    Called it two days ago within a random argument with te ” internet ”

    We just don’t have the infrastructure

    BEE is a lot more than oppression , it also means that people at top mangment levels making decsions shouldn’t be their , they don’t have the for sight to plan ahead , it’s always , oh they hav that let’s play catch up

    Same with Eskom , Telkom all state owned entiies are fucked up and holdin is back

    Thanks ANC and BEE

    Reply

  3. CAE9872

    May 23, 2014 at 15:44

    I get Now to some degree, but why not allow renting i..e download the game for a limited time, play it over that time and then it gets automatically deleted from harddrive when time limit expires.

    That way = no lag! And everyone, everywhere can participate.

    Or am I being too simple about this.

    Reply

  4. RinceofFuturePast

    May 23, 2014 at 15:46

    You say that, but if you look at where our internet was last year and where it is now, I have hope, and not that fucker from FF…

    Reply

  5. Kromas

    May 23, 2014 at 15:47

    Wanna stream a game and not worry about crap?
    Buy a mega pc and a rasberry pi (one with lan and hdmi out) Replace crappy Pi OS with SteamOS and boom R300 console that can play all your PC games at 1080p/60FPS. 😛

    Reply

  6. fred

    May 23, 2014 at 16:09

    I will not use this unless i’m on a 100mbps connection straight to the server.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      May 23, 2014 at 16:34

      Said anyone who’s everyone

      Reply

  7. Sk3tz0

    May 23, 2014 at 16:15

    MEh.. Streaming Games are a novel idea.. but Give me the Hard Disc.. Tomorrow i’m streaming a game and the server fucks out.. oh look i cant play my Game i payed R800 for because the server i stream it off is belly up..

    Reply

    • PsyKo

      May 28, 2014 at 18:36

      Or my extremely reliable Telkom internet does what it does best and konks out. I’ve paid for 3 days rental and I get an hour. Can’t wait to waste my money on this novelty!

      Reply

  8. JayDiCee

    May 23, 2014 at 17:26

    So I guess I will never be able to stream tetris to my PS4 because of how bad the internet is in South Africa… Balls

    Reply

  9. Zubayr Bhyat

    May 26, 2014 at 10:45

    What’s the moral of the story? Keep your PS3.

    Reply

  10. Johan du Preez

    May 28, 2014 at 19:07

    Its already being done with Steam in Home Streaming and the Nvidia Shield …. the input latency will be insane on this esp sending it through unreliable ISP networks.

    This is going to fail …

    Reply

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