Recent news broke of Sony's filing for the PS Cloud patent. I feel confident in saying that Cloud based gaming is the future. It may not be the immediate future, but it seems like it's where things are eventually going to end up.
It's no secret that Gamestop and Walmart have had critisims of Sony allowing gamers to download full games via PSN (Socom, Warhawk, and the PSN Exclusive Siren). Digital downloads obviously allow more profit for the publishers and would be beneficial to many people in the game industry. Why wouldn't Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft be interested in this?
The PS Cloud has already begun...in some form. LAIR was the first PS3 game (that required the power of the PS3) that you could stream via Remote Play to your PSP. Your PS3 acts as a server for the PSP. This is the same principal as Cloud gaming, and is clearly where things are heading. It seems the only thing holding us back is the infrastructure of our internet providers and bandwidth. The tech is there, but it's just not in place.
PSPhone
What's exciting about all this is that your handheld could run games that are streaming as well, which means running a future Killzone title on your PSP. The next PSP update is supposed to be without UMD, this is most likely going to rely on digital downloads via PSN, and not the PS Cloud. At least not in the beginning. Rumors of the PSPhone have been swirling for a long time, and I think Cloud gaming will give it huge potential. Essentially being able to stream games via 3G (or it's successor), and having a decent controller (with the option to use a bluetooth PS3 controller) and output via HDMI sounds like a dream come true. But, is it possible? I'd say no doubt. Apparently OnLive's "box" is so inexpensive that the plastic holding the components cost more than what's inside. Think about this in relation to battery life. Internet streaming would be the only thing draining the battery. But with all battery tech announcements hitting Engadget each week, and by the time the successor to 3G becomes available, the PSPhone could be the start of something big. That is if Sony is aggressively working on these ideas.
HOME
PS Cloud can obviously be a very important part of Home as well. Sony has said that Home has very big things coming, and this could be it. What's stopping them from allowing you to walk around with your friends, go to your home space or an arcade, and start playing any game you own via the PS Cloud with your friends? It seems as though to me it wouldn't be much different from streaming video within Home. OnLive has shown us how quickly you can jump in and out of games, pause your game and resume it at any time, and watch replays or have thousands of viewers watching you play your game. This could do a whole lot for gaming competitions.
PS4
As far as OnLive and the PS4 goes, if Sony is looking forward to doing this with the PS4, they could easily just boost the specs of the PS3 slightly, offer the system for cheap and then provide the games with the high-end graphics on the back end, and stream them. Sony (and Microsoft if they choose this road) could concentrate on profits, and not worry about loosing money on each console they sell. As an alternative Sony could keep the PS3 as their only system, and while the Next Xbox is being released, drastically drop the price of the PS3 and start advertising the benefits, and the fact that graphics are no longer tied to the owners hardware. Could there be a PS3 without Blu-ray? We all laughed this off when annalist made this prediction, and I would still say it's VERY improbably. I would be say yes, if it weren't for all the money Sony invested in the format, and the money they are making from the Blu-ray royalties.
Advertising
OnLive and PS Cloud could both allow some amazing opportunities in advertising. One could potentially have real commercials, ever changing, in their game. Gaining a constant revenue from advertisers, based on an easily track able play time from users. This could lead to potentially free ad supported games with larger production values. However the scary side of this is game commercials. Imagine walking into the room of the final boss and suddenly the freecreditreport.com commercial starts. This could really destroy an experience. I do think that there is potential with this for more arcade titles or some games that aren't relying on an "experience" (such as waiting for a map to load while playing an online shooter). I'm all for publishers and developers making money, I just hope that this doesn't lead down a dark path.
I could probably write a book on the problems, potential, and the benefits of Cloud gaming. But these are just a few of the things that have crossed my mind since the announcement of the PS Cloud patent and the OnLive service. I know I mention Sony specifically in this article, and that's because of the patent they just filed. I would love to see Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all take this road and we could all start concentrating on the games and not the systems.
