Cross-Play Your Way to Hell with Helldivers

Four player bug squashing goodness comes to the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita. Helldivers is a top-down squad based shooter that allows anyone with a PS4, PS3, and PS Vita to play together regardless of what platform they own. You have a PS4 and a friend doesn't, but has a PS3? No problem. Another friend only has a PS Vita? No problem. Cross-Play and all can join in on the fun. This is a feature that more and more titles need to implement.

From a developers point of view they still have to make 3 builds of the same game and those 3 builds need to inter-operate. It's a tremendous challenge. I believe as services like PlayStation Now mature the ability develop a title once and play from any device becomes an asset to developers and a pleasure to consumers. The speed of development increases and the cost of developing for multiple platforms evaporates. I'm hoping to see more cross-play titles in the coming years and write once play anywhere becoming a possibility in the future.

Helldivers has no firm launch date but is slated for release in 2014.

From the Devs:

HELLDIVERS™ is a top-down squad shooter set in a dystopian future where mankind is ruled by a managed democracy. As part of the elite unit called the HELLDIVERS, players must work together to protect Super Earth and defeat the enemies of mankind in an intense intergalactic war. Coming exclusively to PS4™, PS3™, and PS Vita systems in 2014, HELLDIVERS™ features cross-play and cross-save.

Trailer:

Sony’s Big Ambitions For It’s Little Service

Update[1]: PS Now is in Open Beta as of 7/31/2014.

Sony's PlayStation Now service streams highly interactive, console quality games to any device at any time. At least that's the goal, to be the Netflix of gaming. The service is entering Open Beta on July 31st on the PS4 console in the US and Canada before moving on to the PS3, PS Vita, PlayStation TV, and Bravia TV. Plans to expand further beyond the US and beyond the listed devices have been suggested.

With this move Sony looks to expand console gaming to the masses like never before. Are you a big Walking Dead TV Show fan and want to experience the critically acclaimed Telltale Walking Dead game, but don't own a console? No problem play it right off your TV. Heard your friends talking about the latest multiplayer game and want to jump in with them for a session? No problem jump in from your PC while they are on a PS4, Set-top Box, or TV. When we get to that point the device no longer matters the service is everything and for everyone.

Of course these possibilities are a bit off into the future. Before everyone is jumping in Sony needs to get a few thing right. The service needs to work, pricing needs to be right, the games need to be there, and the device list needs to grow and grow and grow.

For now lets assume the service works and skip that factor and focus on price. The revenue model that Sony has selected to start the service is 100% rental. You buy a block of time for a particular title and you get 100% of the game for that allotted time. The blocks at the moment are as follows: 4 Hours, 7 Days, 30 Days, 90 Days. Pricing for the blocks for most titles will range from $2.99 to $19.99.

While at first glance the pricing looks a bit steep, but if you take into account that 80% of games are never completed by players that buy the title the 4 hour or 7 day lower priced options start to look good. Why buy a title that I’m not going to finish when I can just instantly rent it at a much lower cost and have fun with it for a week. I think anything higher than the $3 - $20 price range is going to be a really really hard sell. The service is new and prices will be adjusted over time. I think more importantly Sony needs to lower their costs for running the service as soon as possible without sacrificing performance or scale. If they can succeed in doing so they will have to worry less about pricing and more about what engages the public the most, and that’s games.

The service will start with 100 games. That is not a lot. It’s less than 7% of the PS3’s current catalog of 1485 titles. In order for the PlayStation Now service to succeed consumers need choices. They need to be able to find something they want to pay to play. The complete existing catalog really needs to be there and new title need to be there as well.

With publishers focusing on the PS4 for new titles and the PS Now service locked for PS3 hardware driven games, will PS Now be a graveyard where games go to die or will it be a viable service with new exciting and unique experiences? Netflix pushes for original content to keep it’s customers coming back. Will we see original content specifically for the PS Now service? If there’s one part of the PS Now service that I feel seems a bit worrisome it’s the content. Lets see how the platform grows and addresses these concerns.

I believe PlayStation Now is Sony’s most ambitious product in gaming since they released the PS1. It could revolutionize everything and get the whole world to play. To accomplish this the service needs to expand outside the PlayStation family of products. If it can get the pricing, content, and devices right it could be a winner, but like Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios says the service needs to walk before it runs. Here’s looking forward to July 31st.

PlayStation Now Promo:

PlayStation Now Open Beta Walk Thru:

A Tale of Two Clouds

It’s no secret that computing is going to the cloud and Microsoft and Sony are both betting on the cloud to usher in the future of gaming.  While both have a cloud strategy each company is going about it in completely different ways.

Sony’s PlayStation Now

Sony is looking to use cloud computing technology on a business to consumer front. They are creating a rental solution that will allow you the consumer to play PS3 games on your Sony TV or any Sony Gaming Consoles without the need to own a PS3 or any software. The service is called PlayStation Now and you can rent a game for a day, 7 days, or 30 Days. The games themselves run on Sony’s servers and are displayed on your TV/Vita.

Introducing PlayStation Now: http://youtu.be/GSWX30kUamA

Sony benefits two fold here. They take advantage of their extensive back catalog and turn all of its living room hardware products into potential gaming systems. Every Sony Blu-ray Player and every Sony TV now becomes a PlayStation. The rental service then becomes the Netflix’s of gaming and Sony Hardware becomes all the more tempting to consumers. While the potential is there it all depends on how well the games run and how much content Sony can push to the service.

PlayStation Now is set to be introduced this Summer first coming to Sony’s new Bravia TV line up and on the PS3 console. The service will expand from there.

Microsoft’s Power of the Cloud

Microsoft’s cloud computing strategy is more on the business to business side of things. The concept is that businesses running online games require an astonishing amount of servers to run those games. Why not pay Microsoft to run those systems on their extensive server farm so that Publishers and Developers only have to worry about making and publishing the best games possible. 

In conjunction Microsoft also developed a technology that allows certain processes of a game to run on its server farm even if that game is installed in your computer or console. What that means is that games can potentially run better and smoother when they are developed to take advantage of all of Microsoft’s cloud offerings. It’s what Microsoft has coined as “The Power of the Cloud”.

Microsoft Cloud Gaming Prototype: http://youtu.be/QxHdUDhOMyw

Microsoft’s strategy is a bit less tangible to consumers as it all runs in the background. If a game runs better because it offshoots processes to the cloud it just means that hey this game runs smooth and looks great when my internet is up but looks terrible or stutters when my internet is down. It will take years until experiences are built with this technology in mind. One genre I can see jumping over is the MMO space. Imagine playing a 1000 player PvP Battle instance where there's no lag and you could actually see all players not just a select few. Microsoft’s cloud could make that happen.

The End Goal

Sony’s Strategy looks to use the cloud for games that exist while Microsoft is looking to use the cloud to create potentially new experiences. Both are geared to increasing revenue in their gaming divisions and hopefully both find success in that endeavor. 

What are some of your thoughts on where cloud computing is taking gaming and which Strategy makes the most sense to you?