@CritAnime

If UAE can use JIT translation from one CPU arch to another, why can't Sony use normal translation ahead of time and just distribute the translated binaries? This would be very good for everyone.

On Steam they now let me register Diablo II plus the expansion (I have two copies of each), so I no longer need the original, scratched CD for installation and playing. I don't see any technical reason why translation from PS3 to PS4 and distribution online would be impossible.

Streaming pre-generated content is not likely as long as some of us have a cap on monthly use, above which we have to pay extra (I live only 1km from town, but my phone line comes from the wrong direction, we're at the end of the line from another town. So no ADSL for me, only WWAN)).

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This weeks pet peeve:
Using "voltage" instead of "potential", which leads to inventing new words like "amperage" instead of "current" (I, measured in A) or possible "charge" (amperehours, Ah or Coulomb, C). Sometimes I don't even know what people mean.

Quote:

CritAnime wrote: It doesn't really matter how fast the virtualisation hardware is if the end users internet connection is rubbish. Thats why I won't buy into cloud gaming. If I have to rely on a internet connection in order to play games then it's not worth it. And to be honest if anything happened to the service it means you lose your catalogue of games.

That's why I won't buy into cloud anything.

The modern game industry's insistence on requiring internet connection for even starting up single player games is some special kind of stupid. Your ISP is having some hiccups? Too bad, filthy pirate - no games for you! (Meanwhile, actual pirates, filthy or otherwise, have fun with their cracked versions without a hitch. What was the mandatory connection trying to achieve, again..?) If they can't get even that working reliably, what hope do they have trying to implement even more complex usage models crap?

For some incomprehensible reason the Internet is treated like luminiferous aether, just bearing data instead of light. It shouldn't be too difficult to understand that a reliable, fast, affordable connection is not available to everyone - but somehow this just doesn't get through. And it's not just the game industry buying into this delusion, this is starting to permeate the whole society (i.e. any society with sufficient resources to get high on technology).

Here, have a few links to some entertaining commentary (moreso than anything I could come up with) by Mr Young:
Steam: Illustrated
BioWare and EA: Dumbass Effect
Authorization Servers
THIS IS WHAT IRONY TASTES LIKE

@CritAnime
Quote:

It's essentially another version of the OnLive thing. You pay for a game that runs on a virtual server somewhere and you get the stream sent to you via a box that decodes that stream. It works in theory but as people found with OnLive it suffers when it comes to a little dynamic thing called a WAN connection. I saw friends buy into it and then become frustrated when their net connections decided to not play fair. While they got the downstream well enough getting the commands back to the server proved to be difficult and resulted in games been unplayable. It doesn't really matter how fast the virtualisation hardware is if the end users internet connection is rubbish.

Sony is relying on a virtual server to run PS3 and prior games. One should ask why both with the PS4 at all then? Just make the PS4 a virtual server and sell some inexpensive hardware for connectivity OR a app for your favorite ecosystem. Though I think why not is in your answer. Which also demonstrates why their backwards compatibility will be problematic. Sony has switched CPU architectures each generation. And it appears they haven't figured out a good quality software emulation layer. .

This is where Microsoft should have an advantage. The Xbox was an x86 system. Assuming the Xbox3 is an x86 system those original Xbox games should work without too much work. Microsoft has 200+ x86 games that work on the PowerPC Xbox360. And we know PowerPC emulators exist. I'd have to guess Microsoft won't need to rely on the Cloud and could emulate on the console. This could be it's advantage.

One thing to note... Look at the original x86 Xbox. Seems like Sony's PS4 has gone the Xbox way. This time I have a PS3 and a Xbox360. If the next gen is so close and so similar I might just end up picking 1 console. ..