Ben-DutkaNot everyone thinks PlayStation Now is a good idea.
Industry analyst Michael Pachter has flat-out slammed Sony's freshly announced subscription service, saying that it's a "joke" and that no publisher will be interested in participating. As he told Game Informer and reported by VideoGamer :
" PlayStation Now is a joke. There is no publisher that is going to license content that's less than two-years old because they would be concerned that they can't sell as many copies if they make it available for subscription or rental.
This has no prayer of working. None."
SCEA vice president of marketing John Koller disagrees with that assessment, saying that "publishers are being exceedingly bullish" about the idea of Now. That being said, Sony hasn't revealed any third-party partners that have signed on to utilize the streaming service. A Netflix-style service, Now will let users stream older PlayStation titles to the PS4 as well as other devices; tablets, smartphones, and Bravia TVs included.
The service is currently in a beta test and is scheduled to roll out this summer in the US. Do you consider it a "joke?" Does Pachter have a point?
There's a reason Pachter doesn't live in Vegas. It's amazing how often this guy is wrong yet he still keeps his job. Just one giant mistake example:
'"In September 2005, Pachter made his worst prediction to date — one that, had anyone listened to, cost them the opportunity of a lifetime. While speaking about the rise of MMOs, he said: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month…. eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers."'
And that's just one of many.
Last edited by Norrin Radd on 2/5/2014 10:34:51 PM
Ben just posted an article today about how it will have early access to Second Son.
Pachter is already wrong and it's been a day.
It seems I've confused GAME with NOW.
How many times does a person get to be wrong before he's no longer heard?
No joke dude, eventually it will be like movies where you have the option to buy them or rent them or subscribe to a streaming service. Sony is just getting into it a little early for the infrastructure, but that doesn't mean it won't grow over the years.
Overall it's more beneficial to the companies to offer their product in more formats, making it more available. You're just going to get more people interested in a $15/month scrip versus a $60 a game price.
I hope it fails. They are trying to stop all retail sails for everything they are worth and go all digital.
No thanks.
I wasn't aware Netflix killed the movie industry…
I hate you
You don't buy the movies available on Netflix, though.
I mean you pay to be allowed to see TV/movies on there. But you don't get to hang on to them either, since you don't really own anything on Netflix. If you want to keep watching those TV shows and movies, you have to keep paying. There is no other way around that.
And this business model didn't "kill" the movie industry, because both Netflix and the studios are making a huge profit from it. It's really like Youtube. But a version of Youtube where you pay to watch the videos.
So I understand where ethird1 is coming from. Because once everything goes digital, we won't really own anything either. Not really. It will be like "owning" songs on iTunes. Where its illegal to hand them over to your kids after you die. Once you die, the songs go back to the service.
"So I understand where ethird1 is coming from."
And where is that? He's making a ridiculous point that's been proven wrong by countless other areas of media. Just like Netflix didn't kill the movie industry digital gaming wont kill the gaming industry. You'll still be able to pick up the latest Superman Blu-ray and crappy PS4 movie tie-in game.
"You don't buy the movies available on Netflix, though."
And your point? Why do you believe this format is okay with movies but not gaming?
"And this business model didn't "kill" the movie industry, because both Netflix and the studios are making a huge profit from it."
But it will kill the gaming industry?! WTF kind of logic is that…seriously WTF are you smoking?
Last edited by LimitedVertigo on 2/6/2014 12:53:26 AM
Netflix didn't kill the movie industry. Hollywood did.
Nothing killed the movie industry…great movies are still being made but everyone chooses to focus on the bad, and the industry is still going strong.
But to the point of all digital, I don't see how Now is going to replace physical media since it won't be featuring brand new releases.
Last edited by matt99 on 2/6/2014 11:44:48 AM
Video killed the radio star
This is the unfortunate future of video games.
Hi guys, I've been a fan of psxextreme.com since ps1 times. I've never commented before but this guy just gets me angry. I think he is the "joke". Isn't the main point of playstation now so that ps4 is ps3 backward compatible? I know they plan to use it on other devices as well but from what I understand it was never meant for brand new games.
Hi! What took you so long to sign up? 😉
Agreed, and welcome to the comments section. Beware, it can be addictive.
It took this guy to get you posting?!?!?
I figured the blank guy would have made you post a long time ago.
Welcome to the love
Let LV shower you with his love.
LV's love is a very amazing and wonderful thing, indeed. ;3
Welcome in!
Not really sure why it took me so long to sign up and comment. I always stopped by here to read the articles and the comments. I must admit, for a site that's all about playstation, this site is the most fair when it comes to other consoles. I very rarely see anything bad about other consoles from the articles or the comments. I think that's why this site has always been my favorite.
It can be a bit sticky, though…..
OMG you guys are gross…and incredibly accurate!
AngryPolak: That's because even though we exclusively cover the PlayStation brand, we're still gamers. No reason to bash other systems when you just love the industry, right? 🙂
I wonder if we looked up some interviews from 10-12 years ago if we could find some reports of him saying the same thing about netflix. 😉
pfft… sales of 98% of games out there slip off well before the 3 month mark… not 2 years. That's you're first red flag he's full of bull-hucky.
Netflix doesn't normally have the best of the best new releases in the first couple months of a movie's release either… but that company has done extremely well.
Someone should compile an article on all of Pachter's dumbass predictions. I hope it goes viral!
Someone should make a site and collect them, all neatly lined up in a table and then mark them as either "fail" or "fact" as time passes by.
Call it "FactCheck.org"……
BRILLIANT!!!
Last edited by wackazoa on 2/6/2014 11:06:45 AM
well if he says so we can all be relaxed,after all he is almost Always wrong 🙂
I didn't even think Now was going to focus on newer games to begin with so the two years old thing doesn't really seem like an issue unless they start trying to put PS4 games on it.
Don't agree with the non-ownership clause inherent in PS Now and other streaming services, but if Pachter thinks that it's going to be DOA, he's dead wrong. It may fall on Sony's shoulders to prove it viable to third-party publishers, but as long as there are enough people playing via the service, they will come.
Pachter, along with 99.9% of his comments =
"Exiled Court jester in training"
Last edited by BikerSaint on 2/6/2014 5:57:09 AM
seriously, how the &^%$ did this moron get his job?
and more importantly, how the ^%$# does he still have it!
cloud streaming, rental services, ARE the future, like it or not!
Duh! didn't we already got Metal gear Rising and DMC who are barely one year old on PS+? I'm starting to think this Patches person doesn't even own a PS3, I was not surprised with what this service gonna offer, it was obvious.
Last edited by Oxvial on 2/6/2014 6:35:41 AM
Uh Pachter, I think YOU are the joke. I can't believe this guy still has a job.
Michael Pachter reminds me of those home-schooled, Fundamentalist Protestant reared celebrities whose view of the world is very narrow due to only a few people teaching them their dated views on our society. Neither of them should be allowed to comment on anything, for different reasons.
"Fundamentalist Protestant reared celebrities"
I thought all celebrities were Scientologists.
"I thought all celebrities were Scientologists."
It only seems that way as many celebs say stuff and do stuff their handlers dictate to them. Hollywood wants easy to manipulate people for the most part.
This kind of reminds me of gametap. Using that I got to play some classics I missed, and some I had never heard of. It was pretty good. I loved that service until I was too poor to keep it, and then my computer wasn't able to run the programs, and then I forgot all about it when I finally did get enough money. Ah, good ol game tap. They helped bring us sam and max you know.
I would gladly pay a subscription for PS Now only to contribute to proving this guy wrong.
I feel kinda the same way
Maybe you've latched on to why he said that in the first place..? Looks like he's an opinionated BS'er but maybe it's in certain companies' best interests for him to say these things masquerading as being genuine. Could he be getting back handers to annoy people who just want to prove him wrong and benefit the companies giving back handers? 😉
Nothing beats PHYSICAL backwards compatibility.
Patcher is clueless and doesn't always know what he talking about and as for Sony the playstation now will be awesome and Sony fans will like it .
@LimitedVertigo, I like your response to ethird's comment about PS Now. Touche lol.
Does anyone here not subscribe to GameFly? I love that service. Why? Because I have somewhere around 50+ PS3 games sitting by my console that I never play anymore and maybe visit on the rare occasion. That is around $2450 of my money sitting there. And don't tell me about trade in's, I still get ripped off if I sell a used game. GameFly allows me to send the game back and get a new one when I want, and if I want to keep the game I can buy the used game from them at a discount.
As far as passing my old games onto my kids or in my case grandkids, they have no real desire for those old outdated games, and when they do they might play them once and then it would sit on the shelf.
I have been a gamer since pinball, not the video game, the actual machine. So that gives me 35+ years of gaming experience, been through a lot of systems, and I can tell you nostalgia is great, but I am always looking to the future of gaming.
I was reluctant about not having a hard copy of a game sitting around, but GameFly changed that for me. It was like when I got rid of my land line and went only cell. I was reluctant at first, but once I did it I never looked back and didn't miss it. I like the idea of digital streaming. The only area that concerns me would be multi player. I still play BF3 multi player on occasion, but I have really moved on to BF4. So maybe some issues there. But how many of us go back and play, on a regular basis, multi player games that are substantially older?
One other thing, I have a movie collection that is 900+ movies, and most of the time all they do is take up space. Sure I watch them on occasion, but the amount I spent on them does not justify the limited times I watch them.
My point, I suppose, is that digital streaming is a great idea. Having the hard copy might give some comfort because you can own something, but we don't share those games with many people and they just sit around after we are done. So if I can get my games or movies at a cheaper price through digital streaming and they play as smoothly as a hard copy, I am all for it. I have enough things lying around my house that I don't use anymore.
"Pachter says this, Pachter says that"
I thought this site was better than this. internet journalism…
Last edited by oldguy on 2/10/2014 3:07:34 PM
I won't do anything more to eat into my monthly data cap. I don't live in an unlimited data world, so why would I be interested in gouging it with NOW, too? No Netflix, no Music Unlimited (unlimited, right…), no NOW. No interest. No time. No thanks.