Gaikai founder and CEO Dave Perry took to the stage of Sony's PlayStation Meeting event today to reveal extensive PlayStation cloud features for the next-generation PlayStation 4.
[PS4: All the news | All the facts | Every video of all the games | Official pictures | PS4 Specs]
Spectating players will not only be able to post comments to your screen, but will also - should you so wish - be able to take over control of your game to help you through a tough spot.
'Multi-casting' features will allow you to set a broadcast time and stream gameplay live to several spectators at once.
Perry said Gaikai's tech enables special spectating tools for developers, who can 'insert command buttons for levels' that let friends drop in items for you such as health while you play.
Perry also described a system which will allow players to instantly play almost any PS4 game they're interested in, without having to pre-download a 'demo' to their hard drive.
While browsing the new PlayStation Store, he said, players will apparently be able to simply 'hit X' and instantly try out a game.
Perry said he believes players should be allowed to "instantly experience anything that you want", and "try for free, and pay only for games you fall in love with".
"What we're creating is the fastest, most powerful gaming network in the world," said Perry.
Speaking briefly of backwards compatibility, Perry went on to say that Sony is "exploring" the possibility of making PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS Mobile games ubiquitous to any platform, including PS4.
'Everything everywhere' is the ultimate aim, he said.
Perry said Sony will be "rolling out PlayStation cloud services in phases", hinting that backwards compatibility may not be available at launch.
Comments
14 comments so far...
nologo on 21 Feb '13 said:
a little disappointed in all honesty. graphics dont really look next gen at all
goggy on 21 Feb '13 said:
I'm glad you said that and not me.
(Totally agree though).
shev on 21 Feb '13 said:
Well, it's not as if such video can be fairly represented on a 480p stream. I thought it looked good enough and I'm probably more excited for the possibility of increased customization, larger maps, increased amount of limit for player-numbers in multiplayer games so on. The only thing I am really worried about is all this social stuff. I did however hear them say that anonymous player IDs would remain and that player anonymity was important to them also so I'm gonna cautiously await further details before I pass my judgment.
But overall I'm really excited!
toaplan on 21 Feb '13 said:
"Everything everywhere" sounds quite ambitious - I'd be happy with "just" everything on the PS4, as much of the PS1 / PS2 / PS3 catalogue as possible. And thanks to Dave Perry and Gaikai, looks like that's what PS4 gamers may be getting
Windowlicker79 on 21 Feb '13 said:
The "instant demo" idea sounds really good. Although it could be seen as part of the (still just a rumour) pre-owned lock out option. If every game is available for demo then there would be less worry of buying a rubbish game and not being able to trade it.
The Bossman on 21 Feb '13 said:
They're an incredible step up actually. There'll be no signs of screen tearing or jerkiness from now on, I guess it's more about refinement than advancement at this stage, but what I have seen looks very promising. And besides it was hardly going to be the leap that PS2 to PS3 was, was it?
Windowlicker79 on 21 Feb '13 said:
And now to patiently wait for Microsoft's reaction...
richomack360 on 21 Feb '13 said:
Still looks a million miles ahead of the Wii U, but in saying that the crayon drawing my 5 month old daughter attempted to do looks better
arf arf
Old Skool Gamer on 21 Feb '13 said:
I think the same, the only way people will accept pre owned games being blocked is to be able to try the game out before purchase, should be already the case but the developers are too scared to allow this as most games are crap and sales would plummet.
I hope MS also does this for the next Xbox as well, if not then Sony might get my money this time around.
MRHONGKONGDAVE on 21 Feb '13 said:
Hi Randy Beaver, I'm stuck with this dance can you help me!!!
MRHONGKONGDAVE on 21 Feb '13 said:
You haven't seen them in 1080p yet!?!? Look at the screen shots on Guerillas Facebook page then imagine that moving, looks sweet.
Killermancarro on 21 Feb '13 said:
I'm concerned with how all this connectivity will actually be delivered to the consumer. Does anyone remember OnLive? I tried that on a standard broadband connection and it was tragically poor quality.
These things will appeal more to countries that can actually handle streaming at high quality. Sorry continuous streaming at a high quality.
As it stands I could barely stream the conference last night at 240p
shev on 21 Feb '13 said:
I'm also a bit worried but I think the fact that half a million people won't be trying to stream from my console will help a lot.
stealth on 21 Feb '13 said:
graphics are mid level pc, which is fine. It isnt a giant leap this time