Game Streaming on PS4

The former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, made some interesting comments about the next generation of consoles. The biggest one: game streaming.

Streaming has become a huge source of video entertainment for everyone. We watch movies from Amazon Netflix on our game consoles, computers, and TV. It’s everywhere.

Harrison believes that next-gen consoles, like PlayStation 4, will steer away from the current generation of consoles in a multitude of ways, one of which is game media. Instead of spending fifty-bucks for a disc, you’ll charge a credit card or use points to purchase rights to stream a game, just like we do for Netflix.

Why? He thinks it will be a more service-based model than a retail one, since companies like Sony learned a lesson when they overspent during the development of the PS3.

He said:

“The new business model is going to become a combination of retail and services, and it’s going to be an interesting decision for the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, is the next console race about chips and CPU, clock speed and graphics, or is it about business models and monetization and discovery, and I think it’s probably going to be about the latter.”

But is that smart? Probably not. What if your router crashes for a day? How are you going to play your favorite game without being connected to the internet? That’s a major flaw, which is why this just seems silly as the only form of game media. It needs to be something on your harddrive or in your room, that you can access even when offline.

I mean, it would be nifty if some games were streamed, if it were cheap. More casual games, not directly geared towards dedicated gamers.

That may make PS more social, as well. Maybe if the PS4 can have a balance, it will be perfect.

PlayStation 4 Games List

With an expected PlayStation 4 release date for 2013-2014, it is most likely that PlayStation 4 games will start developing very soon. But what kind of games can we expect, and what can we hope to see?

We can safely assume that 3D gaming will be available, since the announcement of the PlayStation 3D Monitor. Sony confirmed that 100 titles will release over the next few years that will be compatible to 3D gaming and the split-screen to full-screen possibilities of the 3D display.

The SCEE VP James Armstrong also said that, in the future, he expects the games to be more accessible, and include women in their target audience. Consoles like Wii already consider women in their target audience, and Facebook apps have proven that women are coming over to the video gaming world.

While it’s true some women like shooters (like me), the ratio of men and women playing PS3 video games is far, far apart. But does this mean games will be like Sims, or like “makeovers”? Personally, it’d be a great idea for Sony to start using more central female characters for games, especially multi-player online ones, as well as the “girly-girl” games.

Another obvious conclusion is that the PS Move will be involved in many more games, with more capabilities and accuracy then over before.

What do you expect to see for PlayStation 4 games?

PlayStation Expanding Target Audience with PS4

There used to be a social stigma about being a dedicated gamer. Now, with consoles like the Wii targeting women, children, and entire families, traditional console developers such as Sony and Microsoft realized that there is a potentially larger market than the one they’ve always geared towards.

They realized this a few years ago after the launch of the Wii. They both introduced motion-sensor technology, the Xbox Kinect and PS Move, in order to offer the same experience. Now?

SCEE VP James Armstrong was asked about the PlayStation 4 recently:

“It’s hard to say right now. I do not think we’ll have a console with a lot better graphics than the PS3 currently offered. I believe the future will be to offer consumers better and more accessible experience .The aim will be to make more people enter the world of video games and try to design titles for women.”

Women are no longer cut off from the target audience for game developers, and it seems Sony PlayStation is going to emphasize that appeal. Already Facebook is packed with apps targeted for women.

It’s true the PS3 offers graphics that will be hard to beat, as long as they update the hardware. By the time the PS3 released after years in development, the hardware was already old compared to the market.

But the PS3 did beat every other console if you consider graphics. But with the Wiii U to launch next year, how can we be sure that it won’t become obsolete? And with the newest additions to the PlayStation family, the PS Vita and PlayStation 3D Monitor, it seems likely it won’t only just be a hardware update.

Gearing more games towards women sounds brilliant to me, but maybe I’m biased. As long as it doesn’t affect the quality of other games, what is the harm?

What do you think?

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