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[Lionel Richie]

 

[Starcheif]

I would love to see a limited edition Halo themed Duke controller launch along side Halo this Holiday season. It would be some great nostalgia for sure.

 

[tryDEATH]

There going to cram so much stuff into the Xbox eco-system and offer it at a price, where you will look like a fool, if you're not part of it as a gamer. You're getting bombarded from all avenues on how, where, and for how little you will be able to enjoy all games with in its eco-system.

The marketing and PR for the Series X is on a whole other dimension, compared to the disaster that was the Xbox One. Probably best exectuted build up to a new console ever.

 

[yurinka]

Yeah they're so far ahead that with over double the install base of Xbox, PSNow only has one fifth the number (2 million) of subscribers of Game Pass (10 million). I would imagine with the introduction of Xcloud to the what is already the most post popular and best deal in gaming that gap with only continue to grow.

PSNow might have been first but it's WAY behind Game Pass.

Well, if you count non-streaming game subscriptions, then PS Plus is more popular with over 41.5 million subscribers. xCloud is added to Game Pass Ultimate, not to Game Pass, which means not all Game Pass users will have access to streaming from servers. And if you count these $1 users, then you should count too the PS Now free trial period users too.

The comparision doesn't make a lot of sense unless they stop selling separatedly the products under Game Pass Ultimate and they also do the same selling PS Now and PS Plus separatedly into a single service, which I don't know if it makes sense for players, but would help them to pay the bills because would charge people for services they don't use while the currently separate services would get money from users who don't use them.

And well, in their financial reports we see that Sony is making way more money than MS from game subscriptions alone or also when combined to game sold revenue, which makes me think Sony won't want to change too much their business plan because their current strategy works way better for them than the other one for MS.

 

[llien]

#thisisbait

A sensible way to trick people into cloud gaming, though, unlike that google embarrassment.

 

[DrScissorsMD]

Well, if you count non-streaming game subscriptions, then PS Plus is more popular with over 41.5 million subscribers. xCloud is added to Game Pass Ultimate, not to Game Pass, which means not all Game Pass users will have access to streaming from servers. And if you count these $1 users, then you should count too the PS Now free trial period users too.

The comparision doesn't make a lot of sense unless they stop selling separatedly the products under Game Pass Ultimate and they also do the same selling PS Now and PS Plus separatedly into a single service, which I don't know if it makes sense for players, but would help them to pay the bills because would charge people for services they don't use while the currently separate services would get money from users who don't use them.

And well, in their financial reports we see that Sony is making way more money than MS from game subscriptions alone or also when combined to game sold revenue, which makes me think Sony won't want to change too much their business plan because their current strategy works way better for them than the other one for MS.

“Well, if you count this unrelated thing”

The comparison was simply between PSNow and Gamepass, it had nothing to do with PSPlus/LiveGold, revenue, trial users/$1 deals. There is zero amount of spin where having sold over twice as many consoles but having about a fifth as many subs for the compared services is good. For these services, they are behind.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

Video game streaming still has to prove it's quality, it's getting close to being mainstream.

I was in the android beta. I was able to play games using an cheap android tablet, a mount that I 3d printed, and a regular xbox controller at work. It was amazing and I fully expect to use it a lot. Might be how I get back into gaming (haven't been playing much since I've had kids).

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

“Well, if you count this unrelated thing”

The comparison was simply between PSNow and Gamepass, it had nothing to do with PSPlus/LiveGold, revenue, trial users/$1 deals. There is zero amount of spin where having sold over twice as many consoles but having about a fifth as many subs for the compared services is good. For these services, they are behind.

Also if you're counting PS Plus subscriptions you might as well also count XBL subscriptions too, fair is fair after all.

I think if Sony makes some proper adjustments they'll start to close the gap, but I see MS staying extremely focused on this and maintaining the lead in streaming subscriptions for a long while. Their solution also has more scalability across ecosystem of devices, which helps a lot.

 

[SupremeHoodie]

Microsoft revolutionizing like always.

 

[GamerEDM]

great value

 

[ZehDon]

Damn. That’s a massive value add for people who can make use of it. With the XSX, I’m going for Game Pass Ultimate. Now with the cloud gaming thrown in, I’m inclined to give it a go!
They’re crushing it with this service.

 

[12Dannu123]

Sony is already ahead, they released PS Now back in 2014, and I don't remember when but Remote Play too around that time.

They also mentioned some time ago in an investors conference call about future plans that they were going to double down their bet on PS Now for the next gen by making it a platform agnostic product (PS5/PS4, PC, mobile, tablets etc) and improving the streaming quality (resolution etc), library and so on. They also mentioned something that wasn't clear but looked like in addition to buy a PS5 game physical or digital game you'd be able to buy it for streaming, like in Stadia. Not sure if they meant that it was going to be a different purchase than the digital game or the same.

In any case, Sony said that their stream to show the PS5 games was the first one they had planned to talk about next gen and that they were going to do multiple ones until the launch. So I assume they will do one of them (or multiple ones) relatively soon to talk about next gen PS Now, Remote Play and Backwards Compatibility plans.

Sony was ahead, now they are no longer ahead of the Streaming wars. They are behind MS, all because they failed to grow the service and instead let competitors get ahead of them.

 

[yurinka]

Sony was ahead, now they are no longer ahead of the Streaming wars. They are behind MS, all because they failed to grow the service and instead let competitors get ahead of them.

No game streaming has more users or generates more revenue than PS Now, which until recently has been something very secondary test for a handful countries. Only recently they started to release it in a few countries more, took more care with the titles added and tweaked the pricing. Sony didn't focus on it until now, where they said that plan to bet harder on it on the future with many improvements.

xCloud now has zero subscribers. And it will have the Game Pass Ultimate ones at release, not the Game Pass ones. Stadia was supposed to do a way better job than PS Now and look at it: we don't have Stadia numbers but until now it has been a big failure. We don't know if it's going to be the case of xCloud or not.

 

[Kagey K]

No game streaming has more users or generates more revenue than PS Now, which until recently has been something very secondary test for a handful countries. Only recently they started to release it in a few countries more, took more care with the titles added and tweaked the pricing. Sony didn't focus on it until now, where they said that plan to bet harder on it on the future with many improvements.

xCloud now has zero subscribers. And it will have the Game Pass Ultimate ones at release, not the Game Pass ones. Stadia was supposed to do a way better job than PS Now and look at it: we don't have Stadia numbers but until now it has been a big failure. We don't know if it's going to be the case of xCloud or not.

So basically Sony wins by default until the day XCloud officially launches and then It’s subscriber numbers will be dwarfed, is what you are saying.

 

[Jigsaah]

Yes, but unlike with Netflix, games take three to four tears to make. Imagine a company that's worked on a game for three years and then is told by a streaming company they're not interested in their game, if the traditional model is replaced they're completely fucked.
What would have to happen is the developer would have to pitch a game to the streaming service before it begins production, and agree on a deal before hand, and the streaming company would likely require certain content be added or removed , and the game developer would not be in a position to refuse.

And SONY and Nintendo can't evolve or grow past Windows.


Thank you Scrooge McDumbfuck.

Below is an excerpt from an article from today regarding an anti trust inquiry by the European Union regarding smart assistants from Amazon,Apple and Google; what Microsoft is doing is far more anti-competitive than what these companies are doing.

"European Union regulators are inquiring information from 400 companies to find out if there is a need to start antitrust investigations into Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant.
The reason behind this inquiry is for the EU to understand if the market shares and control of data by these voice assistants are hurting competitors from coming up with alternative solutions. Antitrust investigations take place against popular companies that become huge enough to gain control of the market in such a way that it does not allow competition to thrive.
If any of the companies are fined for antitrust behavior, they are fined 10% of their global revenue, which can be massive in the case of companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google."

https://wccftech.com/eu-launches-antiturst-probe-of-alexa-siri-and-google-assistant/


I love gaming, and it is a great deal and I intend to subscribe to it myself, but I know this is bad for the industry and is going to hurt gaming in the end.



SONY's platform isn't comparable to Windows. They can't possibly compete with that monopoly.


Yes the service is designed to profit,but it can only profit in the end due to Microsoft's monopoly with Windows being able to reach people all over the world, and they're taking a loss undercutting Nintendo and SONY.

Sony had PS Now way before Xcloud was a twinkle in Phil's eye. They could have developed it but sat on it for years. They could have been releasing games on PC and right now they are tiptoeing around the idea. They probably don't want to upset fans, and I get that, but taking a page from Microsoft here will benefit Sony. You don't make a lot of money on consoles, we all know that. Sony's PLATFORM could be even more successful than their precious console if they'd just open their eyes to it and jump in head first. That success would simply fuel other innovations they want to do.

 

[T-Cake]

The cynic in me says Xcloud is the whole reason for this stuff about games being cross-gen and no-one being left behind. If the games weren’t coming out on Xbox One S, then Xcloud would get no new releases until the blades had been upgraded to XSX.

 

[FranXico]

So, adding streaming to GamePass. More like PSNow then.

REVOLUTIONARY

 

[Deleted member 775630]

So, adding streaming to GamePass. More like PSNow then.

REVOLUTIONARY

True. I think the only difference between the two services is that in case of PS Now you can't download every game, in case of xCloud you can't stream every game (that is on GP), and pricing? Although PSNow dropped in pricing so they might be the same.

Not sure how xCloud and PSNow compare in terms of stream quality. Resolution, latency, etc.

 

[prinz_valium]

So basically Sony wins by default until the day XCloud officially launches and then It’s subscriber numbers will be dwarfed, is what you are saying.

Exactly. Because both PS NOW and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate have streaming and downloading

 

[Tulipanzo]

I'm still far from confident streaming is viable, but this is probably the way to do it. What worries me is they might try and increase GP monetization to make up for it.

Which regions will this work in?

 

[Tulipanzo]

True. I think the only difference between the two services is that in case of PS Now you can't download every game, in case of xCloud you can't stream every game (that is on GP), and pricing? Although PSNow dropped in pricing so they might be the same.

Not sure how xCloud and PSNow compare in terms of stream quality. Resolution, latency, etc.

It's kind of neat how both are converging on a similar service model, even with similar pricing.

I remember DF was rather impressed with both, but it's obviously going to depend on your internet connection, which is the major limiting factor. I only get good results on fiber networks, which I have at home, so why not use my home console?
You can bet on phones, but good luck monetizing anything on there lol

Still, XCloud is the least bad option for something I dont' think it's worth much.

 

[Deleted member 775630]

It's kind of neat how both are converging on a similar service model, even with similar pricing.

I remember DF was rather impressed with both, but it's obviously going to depend on your internet connection, which is the major limiting factor. I only get good results on fiber networks, which I have at home, so why not use my home console?
You can bet on phones, but good luck monetizing anything on there lol

Still, XCloud is the least bad option for something I dont' think it's worth much.

Haven't been able to try it out yet. I can only imagine it using on my phone, but probably only single player games and most of the time over mobile network. 5G can't come quick enough.

 

[Tulipanzo]

Haven't been able to try it out yet. I can only imagine it using on my phone, but probably only single player games and most of the time over mobile network. 5G can't come quick enough.

Yeah, no idea with 5G here, not even supported on my phone lol.
I just can't see myself using it much, but I guess it works as an unintrusive option.

 

[CatLady]

No game streaming has more users or generates more revenue than PS Now, which until recently has been something very secondary test for a handful countries. Only recently they started to release it in a few countries more, took more care with the titles added and tweaked the pricing. Sony didn't focus on it until now, where they said that plan to bet harder on it on the future with many improvements.

xCloud now has zero subscribers. And it will have the Game Pass Ultimate ones at release, not the Game Pass ones. Stadia was supposed to do a way better job than PS Now and look at it: we don't have Stadia numbers but until now it has been a big failure. We don't know if it's going to be the case of xCloud or not.

Is this like the 10tfs is actually > than 12tfs some Sony fans like to try to somehow claim. Now 2M is > 10M???? Some Sony fans are not only delusional but also really bad at math

 

[yurinka]

Is this like the 10tfs is actually > than 12tfs some Sony fans like to try to somehow claim. Now 2M is > 10M???? Some Sony fans are not only delusional but also really bad at math

No, 2M is not bigger than 10M. It's true, like it's also true that only a portion of these 10M will have access to the streaming because xCloud is for Game Pass Ultimate and not Game Pass, and that an important portion of these 10M should be people who only did check the $1 offer. And well, it's true that PS Now and Game Pass are different services since one offers streaming and download of mostly previous gen games, while the other is more focused on current gen games and offers downloads only.

 

[wolywood]

Not sure how xCloud and PSNow compare in terms of stream quality. Resolution, latency, etc.

Both xCloud and PS Now streams are currently limited to 720p/stereo sound., though MS claims they'll be upgrading their stream quality at some point in the near future. In my experience PS Now games tend to run slightly better in terms of latency and are more stable (there is constant screen tearing on xCloud games).

It's too bad Google has fucked up Stadia's launch so badly as from a technical standpoint their streaming technology absolutely blows Microsoft and Sony's efforts out of the water. They're the only service to offer 4K/HDR and 5.1 options, and latency is almost non existent when using a Stadia controller with a direct wifi connnection to Google's servers.

 

[Goalus]

So, adding streaming to GamePass. More like PSNow then.

REVOLUTIONARY

So you're saying I can use PS Now via phone? Is there an app?

 

[CrustyBritches]

fundamentally PSnow and Gamepass is the same however what Gamepass has over PSnow is better 3rd party support and first party support in terms of launch date.

Both are decent services and sort of the reverse of each other. PSNow is a streaming service that allows some downloads, while Game Pass is a download service that will allow all games to stream(Currently has "100s of thousand of users" in the Preview). PSNow is PC/PS4 only, xCloud is phone/tablet only.

The biggest difference is the 1st-party support. PSNow doesn't come close in that regard when it comes to modern games, and most of them are timed for only about 3-months. We'll see how both companies handle next-gen games. From what I've read, any next-gen game that comes to Game Pass will be on xCloud, and they've even mentioned something along the lines of any game you buy digitally. We'll see how certain 3rd-party publishers will handle that.

This was from Inside Xbox XO19(credit to SoloKingRobert for the find):

In 2020 we're going to give you the ability to play the games that you own from the cloud, or the games that you will purchase in the future.
And...
We all know that Xbox Game Pass is the best place to discover and play your next favorite game, and I'm delighted to announce that next year we will bring game streaming to Xbox Game Pass so that you are free to discover and play anywhere and everywhere.

This sounds a lot like they intend to allow you to play any digital game you own on xCloud. That would be crazy, but they've also said something before along the lines of "when a developer makes a game for XSX, they make it for xCloud." I'm excited to see how that plays out.

 

[Team Andromeda]

If I were Nintendo or SONY I would bring a suit against Microsoft with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and worldwide equivalent agencies, for anti-competitive monopolization.
Microsoft is taking financial losses by undercutting the market with a strategy that can only be financially viable, by leveraging the monopoly they have with Windows.

Microsoft isn't making losses, not even on the Xbox side and that's to overlook the massive losses SONY was making on the PS3, when trying to crush the HD DVD format and help to make Blu-ray dominant.

 

[reksveks]

Both are decent services and sort of the reverse of each other. PSNow is a streaming service that allows some downloads, while Game Pass is a download service that will allow all games to stream(Currently has "100s of thousand of users" in the Preview). PSNow is PC/PS4 only, xCloud is phone/tablet only.

The biggest difference is the 1st-party support. PSNow doesn't come close in that regard when it comes to modern games, and most of them are timed for only about 3-months. We'll see how both companies handle next-gen games. From what I've read, any next-gen game that comes to Game Pass will be on xCloud, and they've even mentioned something along the lines of any game you buy digitally. We'll see how certain 3rd-party publishers will handle that.

This was from Inside Xbox XO19(credit to SoloKingRobert for the find):

This sounds a lot like they intend to allow you to play any digital game you own on xCloud. That would be crazy, but they've also said something before along the lines of "when a developer makes a game for XSX, they make it for xCloud." I'm excited to see how that plays out.

i do hope/predict that the September launch of xcloud will include the pc release of that app. I mean the combined xcloud/gamepass proposition is going to be same as psnow (at least on PS4). I do wonder when Sony are going to expand psnow on mobile again (used to be Xperia exclusive right?)

 

[CrustyBritches]

i do hope/predict that the September launch of xcloud will include the pc release of that app. I mean the combined xcloud/gamepass proposition is going to be same as psnow (at least on PS4). I do wonder when Sony are going to expand psnow on mobile again (used to be Xperia exclusive right?)

I'm surprised they haven't expanded the xCloud beta to include PC already. Should be just another tab in the existing Xbox App currently used for Game Pass PC.

You're correct it was Xperia exclusive on mobile. Curiously, during their original announcement they had plans to bring it to pretty much everything but PC.

Sony has a huge customer base, and I think given their recent deal with MS to leverage Azure services, they were struggling with capacity. Being able to run 720p streams on PC/PS4 with existing Gaikai and OnLive tech is one thing, but bringing that to scale with 10s of millions of users and 1080p/60fps or even 4K res is a whole different story. It's a win-win situation for both companies.

I enjoy trying out different services. I don't have PS4, but I've been able to play games like UC4, Bloodborne, HZD, and Spider-Man on my PC with decent quality. It's cool to be able to play xCloud for free for so long, and last time I counted the game selection was up to around 100. Many people make the same comment, and I've experienced it too, that the immediacy of streaming is a great way to find your next favorite games without waiting for install and balancing free space. I've been playing with a Moga gamepad, but I should be getting my X1S controller mount tomorrow and that will help with hand cramping. Looking forward to trying a couple of the ipega side clamp controllers soon, too.