A Digital Foundry analysis has found that PS5 cloud streaming outperforms Microsoft xCloud in a number of aspects. In fact, the only department in which xCloud surpasses PS5 streaming is latency, and that’s because Microsoft’s service is streaming Series S versions of games rather than their superior Series X counterparts.

How PS5 cloud streaming outperforms Microsoft xCloud

Digital Foundry notes that performance wise, games streamed on the PS5 mostly closely represent locally installed games, but that’s not the case when it comes to xCloud. Those streaming games on the Xbox Series X are getting somewhat of a downgraded version that’s more reprentative of the Series S.

Games streamed on the PS5 also offer better resolution and higher bitrate albeit with inferior latency compared to the xCloud. “Between the use of PS5-grade hardware server-side, the higher bitrate and resolution, PlayStation Plus presents its catalogue at a quality level that’s much closer to justifying that Premium label – even if it’s behind Xbox in terms of latency,” Digital Foundry concludes.

Digital Foundry also notes that both PS5 streaming and Microsoft xCloud come with a similar price tag but Sony offers 851 games compared to Microsoft’s 402 games. 201 out of Sony’s 851 games are PS5 titles.

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Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has expressed his satisfaction with PS Plus offering, stressing that cloud streaming is more valuable than “all-you-can-eat” type subscriptions. Yoshida made his remarks in a November 2023 talk with Norges Bank Investment Management, which surfaced online and started making rounds this week.

Kenichiro Yoshida on PS Plus, cloud gaming, and competition

Yoshida said that a large number of players tend to play one game at a time, which is why PS Plus is designed to offer a hybrid solution of sorts where players have a choice between having access to a large back catalog of games as well as purchasing new games.

“People usually play one game at a time,” Yoshida said (via Insider Gaming). “So all-you-can-eat type of many games may not be so valuable compared with video streaming services. So we’ll have a kind of balanced or hybrid service on PlayStation Network: a subscription as well as pay-per-content.”

Elsewhere, Yoshida was quizzed about Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, his response to which was quite a departure from Jim Ryan‘s — the outgoing PlayStation CEO. “Healthy competition is necessary for the game industry to grow and at Sony we believe it is important to provide gamers with different options to play,” Yoshida replied.

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Now that PS5 cloud streaming has rolled out in eligible regions, here’s a list of games that can be streamed right away. Do note that this benefit is only available to PS Plus Premium members. While some of the games may be available to stream for free as part of the PS Plus catalog, others will require a full purchase unless a trial is available.

PS5 cloud streaming compatible games thus far (October 26, 2023)

The list below has been compiled by folks behind the database called Cloud Gaming Catalogue. Sony has confirmed that it’ll continue to add cloud streaming support to more games, so this list is subject to change and may also vary by region. There are also some early reports of Sony pulling a game or two (including The Witcher 3) from its streaming catalog, so there is a possibility that support may be pulled from some games.

• Alan Wake Remastered
• Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX
• Among Us
• A Plague Tale Innocence
• A Plague Tale Requiem
• Arcadegeddon
• A Space for the Unbound
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Axiom Verge 2
• Back 4 Blood
• Bassmaster Fishing
• Ben 10 Power Trip
• Biomutant
• Bonfire Peaks
• Bugsnax
• Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop
• Call of The Sea
• Can’t Drive This
• Carrion
• Catan
• Century Age of Ashes
• Chicory A Colorful Tale
• Chivalry 2
• Chorus
• Cloudpunk
• Cobra Kai 2 Dojos Rising
• Control
• Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion
• Crisis Wing
• Cris Tales
• Crossout
• Crusader Kings III
• Cult of the Lamb
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Dauntless
• DC’s Justice League Cosmic Chaos
• Dead by Daylight
• Dead Island 2
• Deathloop
• Death’s Door
• Death Stranding
• Deep Rock Galactic
• DE-EXIT – Eternal Matters
• Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Hinokami Chronicles
• Demon’s Souls
• Destiny 2
• Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed
• Devil May Cry 5
• Disco Elysium The Final Cut
• Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Disney Speedstorm
• Divine Knockout
• DNF Duel
• DOOM Eternal
• Dying Light 2 Stay Human
• eFootball 2024
• Elemental War 2
• Elex II
• Endling Extinction is Forever
• Enlisted
• Eternights
• Evil Dead The Game
• Evil Genius 2 World Domination
• Exoprimal
• F1 Manager 2022
• Fairy Fencer F Refrain Chord
• Fall Guys
• Farming Simulator 22
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach
• Football Manager 2023
• Foreclosed
• Forspoken
• Fortnite
• Genshin Impact
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Ghostrunner
• Ghostwire Tokyo
• Goat Simulator 3
• God of War Ragnarok
• Gotham Knights
• Hades
• Haven
• Heavenly Bodies
• Hell Let Loose
• Hitman World of Assassination
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures
• Hot Wheels Unleashed
• Human Fall Flat
• Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator
• Hunting Simulator 2
• I Am Dead
• Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Inscryption
• It Takes Two
• Jett The Far Shore
• Journey To The Savage Planet
• Judgment
• Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Kena Bridge of Spirits
• Lake
• Last Stop
• Lawn Mowing Simulator
• LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga
• Lies of P
• Life is Strange True Colors
• Like a Dragon Ishin!
• Little League World Series Baseball 2022
• Lost Judgment
• Maneater
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
• Marvel’s Spider-Man
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales
• Meet Your Maker
• Metro Exodus
• My Friend Peppa Pig
• Miraculous Rise of the Sphinx
• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
• Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 5
• Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 6
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Monster Truck Championship
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Mortal Shell
• MotoGP 22
• Moving Out 2
• MX vs ATV Legends
• NHRA Championship Drag Racing Speed For All
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
• Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 Slime Speedway
• Nioh 2
• No Man’s Sky
• Observer System Redux
• Octopath Traveler II
• Oddworld: Soulstorm
• Outer Wilds
• Outriders Worldslayer
• Overcooked! All You Can Eat
• Paradise Killer
• PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
• Persona 5 Royal
• Phoenix Point
• Planet Coaster
• Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
• Redout 2
• Relayer
• Resident Evil 2 Remake
• Resident Evil 3 Remake
• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
• Resident Evil Village
• Ride 4
• Riders Republic
• Rims Racing
• Rogue Company
• Rogue Explorer
• Rogue Legacy 2
• Sackboy A Big Adventure
• Saints Row The Third Remastered
• Scarlet Nexus
• Sea of Stars
• Sifu
• Sniper Elite 5
• Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2
• Sonic Frontiers
• Soul Hackers 2
• Soulstice
• Soundfall
• Spirit of the North
• Star Ocean The Divine Force
• Steelrising
• Stray
• Street Fighter 6
• Subnautica
• Super Animal Royale
• Tactics Ogre Reborn
• Tails Noir
• Tails of Iron
• Tchia
• Tennis World Tour 2
• The Artful Escape
• The Callisto Protocol
• The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
• The Forgotten City
• The Gardens Between
• The King of Fighters XV
• The Last of Us Part I
• The Medium
• The Pedestrian
• This War of Mine
• Thymesia
• TOEM
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Trek to Yomi
• Tribes of Midgard
• Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Unpacking
• Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodhunt
• Vampire the Masquerade – Swansong
• Warframe
• Warhammer: Chaosbane
• Warlander
• War Thunder
• Watch Dogs Legion
• Weird West
• Werewolf The Apocalypse – Earthblood
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Wo Long Fallen Dynasty
• World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing
• World of Tanks
• World of Warships
• World War Z Aftermath
• WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship
• Wreckfest
• Yakuza Like a Dragon
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
• Zero Strain

The post List of PS5 Games Compatible With Cloud Streaming appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has said that he believes cloud gaming will become “meaningful” between 2025 and 2035. As part of his deposition in the ongoing Microsoft Activision vs. FTC legal battle, Ryan was quizzed about cloud gaming, in response to which he said that it’ll eventually become an important way for players to access games.

PlayStation making “significant” investments in cloud gaming

Ryan also revealed during his testimony that Sony is making “significant investments in cloud in anticipation of it becoming a very meaningful way of how gamers access game content.” For context, both the EU and UK previously expressed concerns about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard because regulators were of the view that Microsoft would get an unfair advantage in a nascent market, with the ability to foreclose rivals.

Last month, Sony admitted that cloud gaming comes with a lot of challenges but said that the company is willing to work on overcoming those challenges. Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida specifically mentioned latency and response times in cloud gaming, two of the most common player complaints.

“There will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges,” Yoshida said.

FTC’s legal challenge to the Microsoft Activision deal will enter its fourth day today.

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Weeks after PlayStation boss Jim Ryan announced an “aggressive” push into cloud gaming, Sony Group CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has acknowledged that the model comes with a lot of “technical difficulties.” Speaking to Financial Times, Yoshida said that Sony’s looking into “various options” for streaming games.

Sony prepared to take on cloud gaming challenges

Yoshida’s statement to FT spurred numerous headlines because he apparently downplayed the threat to console gaming from the cloud business at a time when the U.K. blocked Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard over perceived threats to the nascent cloud market. Sony, a vocal critic of the merger, is thought to have handed Microsoft a win.

However, Yoshida made it clear that Sony is prepared to tackle the challenges posed by cloud gaming, and called it an “amazing” business model. Yoshida’s concerns aren’t unfounded as he brought up an oft-cited complaint with streaming: latency and response times. “There will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges,” he added.

Yoshida also expressed concerns about the cost efficiency of cloud gaming, stating that servers remain idle for much of the day before being hammered by high levels of traffic during the evening. But he revealed that Sony has been utilizing the quieter times for AI learning via GT Sophy.

The post Cloud Gaming Has Lots of Technical Challenges, Sony Admits appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony may be preparing for a major push into cloud gaming following the demise of Google Stadia. The company is currently hiring for more than 20 positions related to cloud game streaming at PlayStation as Sony aims to put their console games on any device.

Sony has created the Future Technology Group for cloud gaming

Sony is recruiting for 22 roles to “develop and deliver the strategic vision for cloud game streaming at PlayStation” at the Future Technology Group (FTG) according to job listings spotted by The Verge. The main aim of FTG is to “lead the charge in the cloud gaming revolution” and put “console-quality video games on any device”.

The job listings also suggest that Sony is no longer working with Microsoft to develop its cloud technology. Instead, the company seems to be creating a new hybrid cloud infrastructure with Amazon Web Services.

Sony has been working with cloud technology for a while. A cloud gaming patent from Sony was discovered at the start of this year, while PlayStation’s Haven Studios has been looking to create a new cloud-based game development system. There may even be a new PlayStation cloud gaming handheld device in the works if recent rumors are to be believed, but it will likely be a while before we see the fruits of this latest cloud gaming push.

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Haven Studios hopes to revolutionize the way games are made. As one of the newest acquisitions by Sony, the developer is working to create a server-based approach to game development that will take advantage of the cloud. In theory, this will allow designers to change, say, a level in a game and have it be visible in real-time without needing them to download a different game build for every iteration.

Cloud-based game development will be like altering a Google Doc

PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny, who is working with Haven Studios, explains in an interview with Axios that this new cloud-based system is akin to making a Google Doc, but instead of “a document, it’s a level in your game.” Typically, game developers need to corral themselves around a single monitor to compare notes, spending a lot of extra time on coordination and communication. While this new cloud-based system is not yet ready, it will effectively allow collaborators to see each other’s changes with more immediacy. When it’s done, the hope is that this won’t just help Haven Studios, but the entire PlayStation ecosystem and the games industry at large.

About a third of the developers at Haven Studios are dedicated to cloud-based development tools or innovations with artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to co-founder Jade Raymond. They are looking into AI-generated assets and cloud-based telemetry checks that will analyze performance with each playtest, streamlining development so that a creator can implement new ideas at a much faster pace.

Over the last two console generations, we’ve seen AAA games move to the live-service model in part due to how long it takes for a game to be feature-complete. Haven Studios itself is working on a multiplayer, live-service project. So anything that cuts down development time will hopefully help games come out faster and be less of a buggy mess at launch.

The post PlayStation’s Haven Studios Wants to Push Game Development to the Cloud appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

When Stadia launched, Google was rumored to be working with several prestigious game devs, including Hideo Kojima to produce exclusive content. Allegedly, the project Kojima pitched was a horror game that was initially approved. However, it ended up getting canceled because Stadia General Manager Phil Harrison didn’t believe there was a market for solo experiences in gaming anymore.

Google canceled Kojima’s Stadia-exclusive horror game because it was single-player

As far back as 2009, Harrison was making statements that he thought single-player gaming was over. Sources told 9to5Google that he allegedly brought that incorrect bias to Stadia, leading him to scrap the partnership with Kojima to make a Death Stranding follow-up. While this is a story that had been hinted at before, Google denied Kojima had made it past the pitch process with the game. However, this new report indicates that it was in the early stages of development when the plug was pulled.

Details are scarce as to what Kojima’s plans for the game were other than it had a focus on horror and would have seen an episodic release. If it was another game in the Death Stranding series, we can only guess at what aspects of the universe it would have covered. (We would have loved to see the first voidout.)

Fortunately, Kojima Productions is working on a full-sized sequel to Death Stranding, so things might have worked out for the best. Obviously, Stadia was mismanaged, which is proven by the fact that Elden Ring is likely to outsell Call of Duty this year.

The post Google Allegedly Canceled a Stadia-exclusive Horror Game From Kojima appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

For several years, cloud gaming has lingered in the shadows, patiently waiting for technology to take a step in the right direction. It took quite the leap this gen, securing a place on many a platform thanks to the likes of PlayStation Now, Google Stadia, and the newly released xCloud. Cloud gaming still isn’t as prevalent as many may have expected, though. And by Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s estimation, the technology won’t likely transform the industry at all.

Zelnick shared his thoughts in a recent interview with Protocol, likening the technology to VR. He told the publication, “…there was all this hype for years about VR, and I wasn’t very compelled by that. Thankfully, as a result, we didn’t waste any money on it.” (It’s worth noting that L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files is something Take-Two invested in; the studio behind the project also claims it’s working on another VR game for Rockstar.)

According to Zelnick, this same level of excitement continues to boost discourse surrounding cloud gaming. In the interview, he argues that theories about the tech’s potential hardly make sense. For one, the idea that billions of PC and mobile owners are more likely to enjoy console gaming if consoles are removed from the equation isn’t sound.

There were some parties who were saying there are 130 [million] to 140 million current-gen consoles out there. There are billions of PCs out there. You know, if you can make in a frictionless way console video games available to everyone who has a PC or a tablet or a phone, then your market size automatically would be 20x just mathematically.

Of course that doesn’t make any sense at all. Because the implication is you are super interested in video games but you were just unwilling to buy a console. I mean, I’m sure there were people like that, but if they are so interested that they want to pay $60 or $70 for a front-line title, it’s hard for me to believe they were unwilling to spend $250 on a console to be able to do it ever in their life.

Zelnick later notes that not everyone is ready for cloud gaming, which further suggests the technology won’t be as transformative as most seem to think.

The second problem is you still have to get into the hands of the consumer. They’re beholden to whatever technology exists wherever they live. You may be out on the cloud, but if they’re on a phone line, they won’t be able to avail themselves of what you’re distributing.

So I suspect it will not be transformative. I’m speaking against my own interests, right? We’re supposed to paint this picture of nirvana; however, I just don’t think it’s nirvana. Nirvana is making great hits, and then people will find them.

Though the Take-Two CEO clearly isn’t cloud gaming’s biggest fan, the company did launch Red Dead Redemption 2 on Google Stadia. There’s no word on how well the title is performing on that particular platform, so perhaps such a release merely serves as a one time thing for now.

[Source: Protocol via GamesIndustry.biz]

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In its annual new year’s letter, Square Enix has revealed that it’s “making steady progress” on development of next-gen console video games and it has a keen interest in developing games that are built exclusively for cloud gaming.

President and Representative Director Yosuke Matsuda said that the competitive landscape is set to change going forward. He expressed his optimism about cloud gaming as 5G takes off in markets where traditional consoles failed to make a significant impact.

Matsuda wrote:

We are not only making steady progress on developing next-generation console titles, but also actively readying ourselves to support cloud gaming, which we expect to take off with the advent of 5G. The arrival of streaming as a new distribution platform will not only further accelerate the transition from the traditional disk-based sales model to digital sales, but could also drive significant change in business models themselves via the adoption of subscription models, for example.

We are especially hopeful about the major potential cloud streaming services possess to expand markets in growing regions such as India and South America, where there has not been significant adoption of traditional game consoles. As telecommunications infrastructure improves, cloud streaming will directly provide customers in such markets with playing environments that eliminate the need for traditional consoles or PCs. From a game development perspective as well, we will strive to create gaming experiences only possible in the cloud, meaning developing cloud-native or cloud-centric games.

Matsuda is of the view that for cloud gaming to gain mass appeal, there needs to be a focus on exclusive gaming experiences alongside better infrastructure and distribution systems. He revealed that Square Enix is already making an effort to develop games exclusively for cloud environment but didn’t reveal any further details.

[Source: Square Enix via Twinfinite]

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