Games By James Plafke Jan. 17, 2014 11:41 am
It may turn out that the biggest announcement Sony made over the past couple of years was not the PS4. Instead, it was the announcement of PlayStation Now at CES 2014, a game-streaming service that would have a games library as up-to-date as the PS3, and only require a controller — not a console — to play on smartphones, tablets, game consoles, and even certain TVs.
The service is a way to get a type of backwards compatibility onto modern-day machines, but also a way to get video games into the households of people that don’t purchase consoles. Though we know the structure of the service, Sony has only just revealed how it actually works: with completely reinvented PlayStation 3 consoles.
Reports suggest that the new hardware consists of eight PlayStation 3 consoles shrunk down and stuffed onto a single motherboard, kept inside a single rack server. Originally, Sony attempted to stuff regular PS3 consoles into data centers; however, that not only took up too much space, but *created power efficiency problems.
By creating a new, single motherboard that is the equivalent of eight PS3s, Sony solved both issues. Furthermore, Sony was able to include procedures — which were unfortunately not revealed — that would lessen what may end up being PlayStation Now’s downfall: latency.
Sony has not divulged most specifics regarding the new hardware — other than that eight-PS3-per-motherboard equivalency.*The company cites a 5Mbps minimum required speed in order to enjoy the streaming service, but owners of another streaming box with a minimum required speed — the cable-streamer Slingbox — would quickly point out that those minimum speeds are never ideal. In order for the Slingbox to work, users must have a minimum speed of 3Mbps. The device does “work,” but at a speed that low, it’ll feel like you’re watching a program without your glasses and also a little drunk.
However, a company as savvy and big as Sony would not be launching the service if it didn’t truly believe it was onto something — so there’s a real possibility that Sony could tackle the latency problem this generation, and thus make PlayStation Now a completely viable way to play games. According to the launch timeline slide above, we won’t have to wait very long to find out.
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The service is a way to get a type of backwards compatibility onto modern-day machines, but also a way to get video games into the households of people that don’t purchase consoles. Though we know the structure of the service, Sony has only just revealed how it actually works: with completely reinvented PlayStation 3 consoles.
Reports suggest that the new hardware consists of eight PlayStation 3 consoles shrunk down and stuffed onto a single motherboard, kept inside a single rack server. Originally, Sony attempted to stuff regular PS3 consoles into data centers; however, that not only took up too much space, but *created power efficiency problems.
By creating a new, single motherboard that is the equivalent of eight PS3s, Sony solved both issues. Furthermore, Sony was able to include procedures — which were unfortunately not revealed — that would lessen what may end up being PlayStation Now’s downfall: latency.
Sony has not divulged most specifics regarding the new hardware — other than that eight-PS3-per-motherboard equivalency.*The company cites a 5Mbps minimum required speed in order to enjoy the streaming service, but owners of another streaming box with a minimum required speed — the cable-streamer Slingbox — would quickly point out that those minimum speeds are never ideal. In order for the Slingbox to work, users must have a minimum speed of 3Mbps. The device does “work,” but at a speed that low, it’ll feel like you’re watching a program without your glasses and also a little drunk.
However, a company as savvy and big as Sony would not be launching the service if it didn’t truly believe it was onto something — so there’s a real possibility that Sony could tackle the latency problem this generation, and thus make PlayStation Now a completely viable way to play games. According to the launch timeline slide above, we won’t have to wait very long to find out.
More...
