Support NeoGAF

[EmptySpace]

What about the ownership and archival aspect?

ever heard of netflix? or the million other streaming/rental services?

you can even rent ebooks now. rent movies off of youtube.

in fact, i'd say renting games and streaming them is yosp's master plan. streaming will be the norm...powerful local machine will cease to exist just like you can stream crysis on a shitty laptop. in the future there will be no perceived differences between playing games locally or over the internets. these naysayers are ignorant of tech, the same way some people thought 56k dialup speeds can't get any better and faster.

i say there will be a ps5, but majority of the games will probably be digital copies and that's where streaming games adoption will skyrocket. or if google fiber forces shit companies like comcast/time warner to catch up to the likes of japan and korea internet speeds then we might not see ps5 anymore.

as for archival, it'd be way better since software lasts as long as there's a digital copy stored somewhere. physical copies cost money to manufacture, ship, distribute, etc. companies will charge 60 bucks but will get way bigger profits because 1) no retailer middleman, retail copies are actually bought by gamestop at 45-50 bucks from publishers then they shoulder the shipping/diatribution. by cutting off retail the profit margin is bigger. 2) more environment friendly, no need to manufacture anything, less contractual liabilities, less headaches.

and again, this further eliminates 2nd hand market. in the end, we can only hope that rental prices are reasonable and game prices are lower (except for ea. ha).

games will become a service. much like tv shoes, books, music, and movies now.

 

[gutter_trash]

Netflix, you are paying a monthly fee for an available library = not expensive.

PSNow, you are renting individual games per use = expensive

 

[Glass Shark]

No one likes always-online DRM, but everyone's cool with the potential future of all games being delivered by streaming.

Got it.

 

[pantsmith]

The reaction to an "always on" Xbox One is proof enough that it will be a good long while before people willingly give up their alternative.

In the meant time, I don't know how a convenient alternative hurts anyone.

 

[Emulated Hype]

No one likes always-online DRM, but everyone's cool with the potential future of all games being delivered by streaming.

Got it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

 

[Glass Shark]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

I love that this article has an image.

 

[down 2 orth]

I get both sides of the argument, but I'm kind of leaning toward this one. If games can be offered for cheaper and in a more convenient way, then I don't care who has ownership. If it was something other than entertainment, then maybe I would.

I would be more concerned with data mining, which companies can easily do with or without streaming.

 

[neogaffer1]

Netflix, you are paying a monthly fee for an available library = not expensive.

PSNow, you are renting individual games per use = expensive

Paying a set monthly fee and being able to watch anything you want out of hundreds of titles has a lot of perceived value. On the other hand, paying a smaller amount for one item at a time leads to the user paying more often (even if it's a similar or even smaller total sum of money) and seems like less value.

 

[kinoki]

PS Now wants consumers. If the prices are too high the consumers won't be there. This is basicly the first step in a very long series of steps. Netflix is also just the beginning. The videogame industry is just starting to explore alternate monitisation methods. We're not there yet. Let the market sort these things out, no need to be overly skeptical. We're worse off not having it.

 

[gutter_trash]

Paying a set monthly fee and being able to watch anything you want out of hundreds of titles has a lot of perceived value. On the other hand, paying a smaller amount for one item at a time leads to the user paying more often (even if it's a similar or even smaller total sum of money) and seems like less value.

but you are not paying a smaller amount. The amount is still huge, I checked the price for my beloved Bionic Commando ReArmed. It's insanely expensive for a rental of a game that cost consumers originally only between $12 or $15 on PSN for the PS3.

The price for the rental of this game doesn't stack up, doesn't added up when you weigh in the rental cost for the time alloted on PSNow vs the permant download ownership off PSN for the PS3 downloadable game that will always sit in your PS3's HDD

 

[neogaffer1]

but you are not paying a smaller amount. The amount is still huge, I checked the price for my beloved Bionic Commando ReArmed. It's insanely expensive for a rental of a game that cost consumer originally between $12 or $15 on PSN for the PS3.

The price for the rental of this game doesn't stack up to the the PSN Sore price for the Full game for PS3 off PSN

Oh, I agree. I thought you were being sarcastic and I wanted to make a counterpoint.

 

[AmyS]

I also think there will be a PS5.

The the infrastructure limitations of internet in the United States presents such an overwhelmingly massive problem, that it rules out PlayStation becoming a streaming-only service anytime in the foreseeable future. Things won't change dramatically in the next 5+ years.

It may take something like a decade or more if U.S. ISPs / telecoms started huge scale improvements right now, and that is not happening. That's why there will definitely be traditional consoles next-gen (2018-2019) meaning more powerful hardware.

 

[gutter_trash]

Oh, I agree. I thought you were being sarcastic and I wanted to make a counterpoint.

LOL, I'm terrible at being sarcastic online. When I try, I come off as an asshat, so I avoid using sarcasm online. I'm not good at it

 

[Valnen]

Do you hate streaming music/movies?

To some extent with movies, yes. Image quality takes a hit and I'm not cool with that.

Not much of an audiophile though, I'm pretty satisfied with Spotify HQ streaming whenever I have a subscription.