<p dir="ltr">The Consumer Electronics Show has always been a minor blip on the video game radar, mostly offering up the latest in gadget technology, pertaining to video games only by proxy. TVs, phones, and other personal tech is what the show is really all about. It is because of the show’s smaller caliber that one of Sony’s biggest announcements went almost under the radar.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">PlayStation Now is Sony’s answer to backward compatibility and adds to a future where the majority, if not all, of your video gaming is done in a digital form. Starting with PlayStation 3 titles, PlayStation Now is a streaming service, where people can rent games individually or pay for a subscription service to play older games. The core of the idea is something similar to Netflix or other online streaming services for film and TV. If the service can work&#8211;which is a big, “if”&#8211;Sony has one of the most brilliant ideas in their pocket.</p>
<p dir="ltr">TV used to be a difficult way to take in a story. During the 90’s shows like Law and Order, The Practice, and ER thrived on being dramas that told a one-hour story that needed no prior knowledge of plot or character. There were serials like Buffy the Vampire, but these shows were the exception to the rule because there was no easy way to catch up. One would have to rely on reruns or personally recorded collections if they missed an episode or season. In the early 2000’s, people were able to purchase their favorite shows by season on DVD, allowing people to better follow serialized TV. But by the late 2000’s, people could start streaming, instantly getting access to their old favorite shows, or classics they had missed. Now serialized TV is in its prime with shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead paving the way for long stories being told over hundreds of hours.</p>
<p dir="ltr">People often believe that the length of time involved in a video game, the hundreds of hours is what stops people from playing certain games. That is true to a point, but the larger issue is that getting consumers into their car, to the local Best Buy with the intent to spend $60 is difficult in the age of instant gratification. Digital sales are a step in the right direction, but still require a significant financial commitment from players. Financial commitments hamstring the video game industry like it once did to TV. Try finding people who have the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, 30 Rock, Firefly, and Family Guy. You might know someone who has the entirety of one of those series, but all of them? Buying those series individually would cost somewhere around $1,000, but Netflix gives it to you for $8 a month.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">What if players no longer had to pay $60 at a time for the biggest releases? What if someone who wanted all the highest profile games didn’t shell out nearly $200 a month? What if, for $25, you could have access to an expansive library of games, from PSOne and PS2 classics like Final Fantasy VII or Resident Evil 2? What if you didn’t have to rely on collector editions and HD Remixes to play your favorite games? Imagine if you simply had to pull up your PlayStation Now account, select a classic or release from the previous year, wait a few minutes to start streaming and away you go.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Taking that a step further, Sony has stated that players will be able to use PlayStation Now on non-Sony devices. That means players with certain TVs or, possibly, certain smart phones would still be able to use the service. The idea of taking titles on the go, even titles like The Last of Us or Borderlands 2, is a whole new ballgame. Teasing the idea that people might someday be playing Fallout 4 in their spare time instead of Candy Crush is mind boggling, or the concept that video games may no longer require a $400 console, but simply an everyday phone or TV. The requirement of playing video games, the investment of nearly $500 before players can even start a gaming habit has long hindered people from buying games or hardware. As players get older, the money becomes harder to justify, the time harder to find. Being able to take the console experience anywhere and eliminate the console would open up video games in a way they have never been before.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Is it going to be that easy? Not a chance. Sony demoed the PlayStation Now service at CES for those interested and the response was positive. Games like The Last of Us appeared to run well, even with their technical requirements. It leads to questions about how fast Sony’s servers can send information to a device and receive a player’s input. While it is nice to think about a world like that, we do not currently live in that world. It still takes hours to download games, so color me skeptical when streaming massive games to a smartphone is pitched to me. The internet connection required also seems like a new barrier of entry, smartphone data plans would have to be insane to run a game like Uncharted in the line at the supermarket. When Sony launches the PlayStation Now beta in July, I believe it will be a complete shit-show. Even when the service is running in prime form, I expected button latency issues, frame rate drops, and playable&#8211;but far from ideal&#8211;experience. In the end, it would seem that Sony has announced PlayStation Now with the dream of what it can be, not what it will be at first.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Pandora’s box that the PlayStation Now opens is something to be excited about. Even if Sony simply builds an idea that another company can steal and improve, this is the idea that is so good, people don’t even realize they need it. If the technology can improve, if the idea can be developed in the long term, PlayStation Now could change the way that people think about video games, how people play video games. One day you might not have to fight ebay bidding wars over expensive collector discs in mint condition, or scour gamestops to introduce your kids to your favorite games. Maybe, in the not too distant future, you simply boot up your tv, search “Crash Bandicoot” and hand the controller to your kid.</p>
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