Playstation Mobile

[Arwin]

PSM as a virtual machine was too heavy / badly performing for the Vita, and it was too heavy for the PS3 as well. And at the same time it wasn't close to competitive on mobile devices for the same reason. As has often unfortunately been the case with initiatives that came from Sony Japan, it didn't have good enough programmers to back it. PS Now has a little better chance of succeeding, imho, and that's partly because a talented group (Gaikai) is behind it. Then the 'only' bottleneck becomes the business teams. But they are in better shape than they have been for a while, I think.

They should have gone for a setup that made the most of the Vita to begin with, and striving after high performance, also support PS3, while also supporting some of the basic standards. Easier said then done perhaps, but SDK development for the PS3 and Vita would have had to go hand in hand in terms of consuming these services.

In that respect, the new Vita focussed SDK and the Unity setup is much, much better. It will give the Vita a shot to actually get somewhere, and it removes the by this point pointless competition with Android and iPhone. They just don't have it in them to compete there - they would have to invest (and buy) way better software development teams for that.

EDIT: the Unity and PS Mobile 2.0 SDKs are actually already out of beta. Didn't even know that ... It goes to show how bad resources were with the original PSM:

Compressed textures are available.
Increased available memory (resource heap memory: 96MiB, graphics memory: 96MiB).

Originally, apparently compressed textures were NOT available, and you only had 96MiB in total iirc. Also, the split is interesting - it seems to suggest that a PS3 version isn't off the cards.

https://en-support.psm.playstation.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/291

And this shows that Unity SDK is quite a step ahead over what was available with PSM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWif2BTqeI#t=22

 

[tuna]

Maybe they started the idea of PSM way back when, and then the likes of Unity came along and rendered their efforts moot?

I really think this is the case.

 

[orangpelupa]

does sony change their payment wall for PSM? long time ago you need to pay sony to be able to develop anything on PS Mobile. But some community alredy asked sony to change it to "pay to publish" (like android) and sony just ignored them.

i think this payment barrier if still there... is a huge wall for indie to try to jump to vita. At least for me, it makes me have zero interest developing for vita.

 

[Arwin]

does sony change their payment wall for PSM? long time ago you need to pay sony to be able to develop anything on PS Mobile. But some community alredy asked sony to change it to "pay to publish" (like android) and sony just ignored them.

i think this payment barrier if still there... is a huge wall for indie to try to jump to vita. At least for me, it makes me have zero interest developing for vita.

You never had to pay, only to publish ($99/y). Now they have an offer where for a limited time you can also publish for free.

 

[rockaman]

PS Now essentially makes this thing redundant I guess. The library of console games will be coming to all their mobile platforms.

 

[tuna]

PS Now essentially makes this thing redundant I guess.

PSNow is something totally different.

 

[rockaman]

Yes, that's true, Watson. Your point being what though? The platforms being used play games is the same. And the vendor is the same. And the goal... play that vendors games on those devices.

PS Mobile on pan-devices has not taken off, so they've cancelled it. Gaming on the same devices is transitioning to PS Now. It's annexing the former PS Mobile platforms into the PS Now service.

Bringing console games to mobile, rather than mobile games to console. The tables have turned, or something.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, that's true, Watson. Your point being what though? The platforms being used play games is the same. And the vendor is the same. And the goal... play that vendors games on those devices.

PS Mobile on pan-devices has not taken off, so they've cancelled it. Gaming on the same devices is transitioning to PS Now. It's annexing the former PS Mobile platforms into the PS Now service.

Bringing console games to mobile, rather than mobile games to console. The tables have turned, or something.

That's what PSM was from an end user POV. From a developer POV, PSM was a middleware platform for easy mobile development. PSNow doesn't solve that, although with other engine options it probably doesn't have to, depending on what it takes to integrate PSNow into games. Conceptually, it needn't take anything at all as the OS should handle that and just pass input to the game and stream the video+audio output to the remote device. If that's the case, PSNow can go everywhere easily enough at no extra effort to devs and little effort to supporting devices.

 

[tuna]

Yes, that's true, Watson. Your point being what though? The platforms being used play games is the same. And the vendor is the same. And the goal... play that vendors games on those devices.

Sony has published one game that I know of on PS Mobile (Tokyo jungle). PSM was a way to get new developers into the PS family (and maybe a way to have a common runtime for SCE).

PSNow is a way to play much crappier streaming versions of old games. You do not want to do that on a mobile phone due to bandwitdh caps and the variable network latency.

 

[rockaman]

That's what PSM was from an end user POV. From a developer POV, PSM was a middleware platform for easy mobile development. PSNow doesn't solve that, although with other engine options it probably doesn't have to, depending on what it takes to integrate PSNow into games. Conceptually, it needn't take anything at all as the OS should handle that and just pass input to the game and stream the video+audio output to the remote device. If that's the case, PSNow can go everywhere easily enough at no extra effort to devs and little effort to supporting devices.

End user and sales point of view

Sony has published one game that I know of on PS Mobile (Tokyo jungle). PSM was a way to get new developers into the PS family (and maybe a way to have a common runtime for SCE).

PSNow is a way to play much crappier streaming versions of old games. You do not want to do that on a mobile phone due to bandwitdh caps and the variable network latency.

Again... what is your point? Why is this relevant from a sales perspective to Sony?

They had one failing business model, and they will be bringing a new business model to the same devices. They have done much more work to attract developers with ease-of-development onto PS4 indie development. It's clear where their commitments stand now.

I guess you've never connected a device to Wifi before? The thing is going to work on TVs and is starting on the PS4 too, remember.

And was that a self-determination of the quality of service PS Now will over now or ever? I've seen people report on average connections that Twisted Metal PS3 works extremely well with PS Now.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Again... what is your point? Why is this relevant from a sales perspective to Sony?

PSM brought native games to Vita and phone that could be played offline.

PSNow provides games that need streaming.

 

[rockaman]

And...? You are describing the technical difference again. Come on guys this is silly lol... The responses at least have to have the same ballpark topic lol.

PSM was not wildly successful on these mobile or console platforms. PS Now is just trying to bring sell a different library of games to the same mobile users. The end goal is the same, to sell products through the SCE environment to mobile users.

Yes, the service and product is different, I didn't say any differently before. The purpose, to deliver PlayStation library games onto these mobile and non-mobile platforms, is the same. PS Now is effectively targeting the same users on those platforms with a different games library.

If the purpose is delivering games from PlayStation libraries to users of these platforms then the goals are the same.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And...? You are describing the technical difference again.

it's a usability difference. PSN needs a high BW connection, either at cost or wifi where it's not always available, and with laggier controls.

If the purpose is delivering games from PlayStation libraries to users of these platforms then the goals are the same.

From that perspective, yes, I agree. But PSNow doesn't make PSM or similar cross-platform engines redundant. PSNow can't provide the same experience. It also is provide with a subscription model. PSM or similar still has relevance in providing games that run on the local hardware. Ergo, PSNow does not make PSM redundant. PSM's lack of relevance makes it redundant, while the likes of Unity and UE4 serve the job of cross-platform mobile game development.

 

[tuna]

Yes, the service and product is different, I didn't say any differently before. The purpose, to deliver PlayStation library games onto these mobile and non-mobile platforms, is the same. PS Now is effectively targeting the same users on those platforms with a different games library.

You do not get it. PSM did not deliver the "PlayStation library", it delivered new indie games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You do not get it. PSM did not deliver the "PlayStation library", it delivered new indie games.

Didn't it also deliver a load of old PS1 titles?

 

[tuna]

Didn't it also deliver a load of old PS1 titles?

Not to my knowledge. Maybe your confusing it with the PS1 emulator on the Xperia Play phone?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Okay, it used to but it got dropped.

http://www.xperiablog.net/2012/08/1...ystation-mobile-third-party-support-revealed/

 

[tuna]

According to that article they planned to have PS1 emulation but dropped it before the launch.

But I remember my co-worker showing Crash 1 on his Sony tablet, I was mildly impressed (and that was not PS Mobile).....

 

[rockaman]

You do not get it. PSM did not deliver the "PlayStation library", it delivered new indie games.

I'm going to just attribute this to poor forum communication, but.... I know. Lol.

They were still games curated by Sony to be on the platform. Sony dealt with them with every intention of making it a mobile PlayStation library. Hence the name... PlayStation Mobile.

Why did they abandon it? Because it wasn't doing well.

Do they have another games library where they can offer games on the same platforms now? Yes they do.

Didn't it also deliver a load of old PS1 titles?

I think there is something like this but it wasn't through PSM. It was another phone application. I think they got one game, like Crash Bandicoot working with it, or some other very select few games.

Again though, the function of "having games sold through Sony platforms" onto these platforms is annexed by PS Now. PS Mobile is not going to stand up to the Play Store or Apple whatever it's called, it's not a worthwhile investment, especially when indie games can be delivered and sell better natively on their consoles or on Vita.

 

[rockaman]

P.S. I should probably qualify that "sell better on consoles and Vita" in the sense of games sold through Sony services.

And another point about moving away from the development of Mobile titles in a PlayStation setting. Yea, the development environment was standardized for several platforms.

For the future, the delivery of PS4 games offers the same standardized development environment and also playable on several devices. It's different, especially in how it's delivered, but there's common goals there. That standard game made for one system is an experience that is transferable between multiple devices.

Sony wasn't just mincing words when they said they wanted the PS4 to be an easy standard to develop on, and those games will be mobile and TV compatible without any added effort on the part of developers. Just like how PS Mobile was meant to bring mobile games to the handheld consoles in the reverse direction.

The only difference from Sony's perspective and the consumer's is PS Now can now offers a much different and probably more attractive library of games never seen before on mobile platforms, where PS Mobile could only offer mobile-designed games on mobile platforms. And this is why I say it's attacking the same users that they once tried to attract with PS Mobile. The innards are different, but the goals are all the same in bringing the mobile and home platforms closer together with common game experiences.