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[5taquitos]

Should have just invested in actual backwards compatibility.

Short of bolting an actual PS3 into the PS4, that wouldn't be possible.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

I didn't know it was even on other devices. Why discontinue on Vita?

 

[breakfuss]

LOL

I never used it on my TV but it was cool knowing it was always an option. What gives?

 

[Loudninja]

The OP could add a little more detail.

 

[Oneself]

Popcorn.gif, right?

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

The only reason they gave on the blog is this:

So older hardware holding them back? Or they're too disjointed to support all platforms at once? You decide.

 

[Caayn]

What could be the reason, outside of doom and gloom, that they make the service available on less devices? Wouldn't that only shrink the addressable market without providing something in return?

 

[flipswitch]

I was always sceptical about PS NOW. Didn't think it was a great direction they were heading in.

 

[Vegetable Lasagna]

How? These devices should tap into the same servers that the PS4 and PC clients do. The main cost would be the app, which Sony already developed.

Already developed? You don't get how this works do you? You don't just develop something and it's done... Especially with an online service like PSNow. They would still have to dump resources into development for all of those clients. Money they probably are never going to make back from those users.

Honestly, PSNow sounded like a money losing venture from the beginning. I'm surprised it's even still around.

 

[Withnail]

Rather than being the end of the service it sounds more like they want to make changes that would have been difficult on legacy devices.

But this is a shame in terms of the reach of the service.

 

[dr_p0p7ar7_]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1344335

 

[bomblord1]

What could be the reason, outside of doom and gloom, that they make the service available on less devices? Wouldn't that only shrink the addressable market without providing something in return?

Probably costly to maintain the infrastructure with too few people actually using it to justify its continued existence.

 

[xabbott]

The service probably isn't reaching expectations and dropping client support on most devices might just be a good cost cutting measure. I still think its weird they never used this tech for demos or some other creative uses. (making ps+ tiers, etc.)

 

[moltonasty]

Sucks for those who used it but IMO it was never really worth it. I tried it for a month and even with FIOS the performance wasn't great, and the price was too high. If you want to play PS3 games just get a PS3.

 

[Unknown?]

What could be the reason, outside of doom and gloom, that they make the service available on less devices? Wouldn't that only shrink the addressable market without providing something in return?

They probably have data on what devices they get interest in. I doubt PS3 gets many subscribers nor Vita. TVs probably not either. PS4 and PC are likely their biggest audience. Might as well focus on making those better.

 

[BennyBlanco]

The OP could add a little more detail.

what details?

PS Now is probably flopping. I never see anyone talking about it.

 

[ArtHands]

They are shifting focus and resource to improve the service where it matter, I dont think thats surprising.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

#4theplayers indeed

 

[perfectsil]

Wow even PS3 and vita

 

[Alex_Mexico]

So it'll be PS THEN for those platforms amirite?

 

[UpUpDownDown]

Very strange to remove it from TVs. I thought it was a clever way to get people hooked on it who don't otherwise have a games console.

PS3 is strange too. Wonder if more PS3 services will go offline this year? It's in its 10th year now.

Fawk. 10 years.

It's hard to let go these days lol.

That would have been two console gens back in the day.

 

[Acquiescence]

I take it the number of people using PS Now on the PS3 and Vita are piss poor.

 

[brownfedora]

What could be the reason, outside of doom and gloom, that they make the service available on less devices? Wouldn't that only shrink the addressable market without providing something in return?

It takes resources to support each platform. They probably looked at usage, saw that no one on Vita was using PS Now, and decided to reallocate engineering.

 

[yyr]

PlayStation Not Now

 

[Vashetti]

Honestly, PSNow sounded like a money losing venture from the beginning. I'm surprised it's even still around.

The pricing is all wrong IMO.

I still have my PS3 around so no real reason to use it, but I'd try a few games on my PS4 every now and then for convenience if the price was significantly lower.

 

[rrs]

PS Mortem

 

[breakfuss]

I'd be pisssssed if I had bought a year of this only for it be cut off from my device of choice. This is so freaking weird and abrupt lol.

 

[Withnail]

Sucks for those who used it but IMO it was never really worth it. I tried it for a month and even with FIOS the performance wasn't great, and the price was too high. If you want to play PS3 games just get a PS3.

Having FIOS is pretty much irrelevant, the important thing here is latency and that's mostly determined by the distance to your nearest data centre.

 

[Yankee Ruin X]

It's a shame as this had so much potential but the pricing is all wrong. Could have easily been Netflix for games and help get people into games who usually wouldn't bother buying a dedicated machine for it.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

How succesful has PS Now been anyway, overall?

Really curious about this. I feel like this is the first time I've heard it even mentioned for like 2 years outside of comparisons in threads for Xbox BC.

 

[ElFly]

streaming games was a mistake

 

[DarkestHour]

Another silly move just like removing all the Viacom channels from Vue.

 

[5taquitos]

I'd be pisssssed if I had bought a year of this only for it be cut off from my device of choice. This is so freaking weird and abrupt lol.

It's not that abrupt, a 6 month warning is pretty decent as far as stopping services go. Still sucks for anyone that got a year subscription within the last 6 months on one of these devices.

 

[pretty done]

I'm sure there's about 8 angry people right now that actually used this.

Maybe with PSNow sinking they might add proper PS1 support.

 

[Verelios]

Welp, we had a great run

 

[Curufinwe]

The cost of supporting those devices is probably higher than the money they make out of them...

But as a government sponsored charity, surely they need to look at more than that?

 

[inner-G]

Will your PS+ library on those games be gone?

(D'oh! I thought this was about PS+, not PSnow)

 

[ShowDog]

Sounds like absolute bullshit. Only somewhat-justifiable reasoning would be to move to a higher profile video encoding that those devices didn't support. But a 2017 Bravia supports h.265 and hevc for Netflix/YouTube 4K so we know that's not the case.

I tried the service on PS3 and it sucked anyways, I really wanted to like it but the latency is only acceptable for a select few genres.

But as a government sponsored charity, surely they need to look at more than that?

Have fun with the damage control, not sure what your point is. Sure Sony has every right to do this, but why bother buying a product of theirs with these "selling point" features that they remove after they've got your money up front? This is a big middle finger to people who paid for these features.

 

[Kresnik258]

I honestly forgot this was a thing until this blog post.

Oh well. Not like I'm not used to the morsels of Sony support left on Vita being pulled. PS+ next.

 

[Melkezadek]

Dammit. I loved PS Now on the Vita. Playing Asura's Wrath on that OLED screen was amazing.

 

[sechsterangriff]

Honestly PS3 and Vita don't surprise me, but also TVs and players? I mean, wasn't PSNow Sony's effort to make PlayStation available everywhere and future proofing?

 

[jetsetnickradio]

They should be trying to get this service in the hands of as many people as possible. That means making it available on more devices, not less.

They must be bleeding money on this service pretty badly. They'll probably pull the plug in a year or two. Which is crazy considering they acquired Gaikai and OnLive for this.

 

[sturgboski]

Weirdly enough I was somewhat thinking of this service recently. Now, nope. Keep twisting that blade in the Vita...

 

[Bits N Pieces]

This might sound a bit daft but is PS Now like an app? Like the Netflix app on my phone or console and you browse the game library available and pick the games you want to play?

 

[____]

I'm usually always down with Sony's business decisions, provided they have solid reasoning.

But this is fucking ridiculous. As someone who does not and will never use the service. TVs are no longer compatible? The fuck?

They'd better have some -nice- expansion details planned.

 

[jmaine_ph]

Now either make the service free, cheaper or add it to PS Plus.

 

[Neuromancer]

Weird.

Will your PS+ library on those games be gone?

I don't see why they would be, they're entirely unrelated to PS Now.

 

[kurahador]

streaming games was a mistake

Seriously. Sony should just cancel PSNow and double down on PSVue.
And then greenlit The Tester season 3!!

 

[Graphics Horse]

Weird. Would understand if they removed the free trial cos that must be pricey, I completed a couple of games on it and have no it intention of using it again.
I assume if they're not abandoning it entirely, they might be upgrading to ps4 support.

 

[funkystudent]

Not exactly filling me with confidence for the future of the service.

But then again the glacier pace of the rollout outside the US and Sony being kind of a mess when it comes to what platforms it supports for it are nails in the coffin more then anything.