Latest Windows PC games on PS3 now somehow feasible

Monday 14th January 2008, 09:09:00 AM, written by Farid

Playing the latest DX10 Windows games on PlayStation 3 is now a reality with StreamMyGame. Obviously, there is a catch accompanying this claim.

Announced today, the name of the product makes its nature clear, StreamMyGame is a server/client technology that allows you to stream the video output from a Windows PC game into a Linux client running on a PlayStation 3 or a PC. To PS3/PSP combo owners, this technology should be reminiscent of the PSP remote play functionality the PlayStation 3 offers for some content, such as PlayStation games.

The product comes in the form of a server running on your Windows (XP/Vista) machine and a Linux client running on your PlayStation 3, or any other machine running an adequate Linux distribution. It exists in three different versions, the basic version is free but it is stuck streaming 640x480 video output to the client. To enjoy the HD resolution of 1280x720, StreamMyGame users will have to subscribe a membership for at least a year and for the psychological friendly price of $9.99 USD (€6.72/£5.09) for the “premium” service and $19.99 USD (€13.44/£10.19) for the “unlimited” service. This latter is hardly unlimited since you cannot stream a flux higher than 1280x720.

Unlike the PS3/PSP remote play functionality StreamMyGame does not allow for remote play over the internet yet. We are promised that this feature should be made available into StreamMyGame as early as March 2008.

In fact, the company goes as far as expecting to see game publishers using StreamMyGame to establish Pay-for-Play online services. That would not be a novel idea, but it could be one of the first implementation of the concept. Evidently, it is worth noting that such a remote Pay-for-Play game streaming service would not make a lot of sense any time soon given that such a service would require an incredibly costly server setup, with a dedicated high-end box required for every users. Let us not even mention the heavy latency issues that would come with it, at least on current broadband infrastructure. On the other hand, this product might rapidly find customers on mobile platforms seeing that the server requirements would be much more modest and thus much more economically viable.

  • Registration form and complete information about the software pricing can be found here.
  • Demonstration videos showing Crysis being played on a client running on the PlayStation 3 and a Linux PC are available here.

Discuss on the forums

Tagging

playstation ± streaming, streamygame, client, server


Latest Thread Comments (30 total)
Posted by Nesh on Sunday, 20-Jan-08 01:43:10 UTC
Quoting Nebula
Im not shure though that people would want to pay for such service. And The same wireless KB + mouse can be used for both, with a switch, if even that is needed. :smile:
Oh... I didnt know we have to pay for the service.

Posted by Nebula on Sunday, 20-Jan-08 02:09:09 UTC
Quoting Nesh
Oh... I didnt know we have to pay for the service.
Well if you want higher than 640*480 resolution and probably more functions/better bitrate for streams.

Posted by Fox5 on Wednesday, 23-Jan-08 15:57:03 UTC
I think it's a neat idea. Allows you to tuck away a noisy, hot PC to another room, and then play the games in the living room. It has some use, since DVI cable runs are much shorter than ethernet runs.

I notice the service supports up to 80Mbit/s data rates though. Can the ps3 even decode video fast enough at that rate? Can any device? (it does appear they use variable data rates though as testing it with my laptop yielded smooth gameplay until the scene became more complex)

Posted by Skrying on Wednesday, 23-Jan-08 16:51:45 UTC
Quoting patsu
The value is convenience. Requiring the user to (re)boot PS3 into Linux explicitly for a quick check of my laptop status upstairs is not compelling. Requiring me to leave my PS3 in Linux mode when I go on a trip is also not acceptable (RemotePlay would be unavailable). It needs to be very accessible.

For remote access, since I can access all my home media from my PSP, doing it via RemotePlay makes more sense.


EDIT: RSX is also not accessible in PS3 Linux. So there will be a hit for certain applications.
This streaming "technology" requires the PS3 to be booted to Linux. Both this and RemotePlay are really jokes, nothing beyond "neat." The use for both will be forever low and for good reason.

Posted by Fox5 on Wednesday, 23-Jan-08 21:09:56 UTC
Quoting Skrying
This streaming "technology" requires the PS3 to be booted to Linux. Both this and RemotePlay are really jokes, nothing beyond "neat." The use for both will be forever low and for good reason.
I don't think anyone expected usage to be high.

I don't think it's a bad idea though. Is a home entertainment backend to stream movies a bad idea? Are VNC and RDP bad ideas? Same basic concept, why stream movies/work/Internet/games at all?

Posted by patsu on Thursday, 24-Jan-08 00:37:53 UTC
Quoting Skrying
This streaming "technology" requires the PS3 to be booted to Linux. Both this and RemotePlay are really jokes, nothing beyond "neat." The use for both will be forever low and for good reason.
Never say never. I use RemotePlay extensively for music and photos. Video and gaming obviously requires too much bandwidth.

Posted by Skrying on Thursday, 24-Jan-08 00:43:45 UTC
Quoting patsu
Never say never. I use RemotePlay extensively for music and photos. Video and gaming obviously requires too much bandwidth.
I know, I mean low as in me and you. If I had a PS3 I'd probably give them a go and might even find regular use. It's just we're a really small portion of the population.

Posted by patsu on Thursday, 24-Jan-08 00:52:45 UTC
Quoting Skrying
I know, I mean low as in me and you. If I had a PS3 I'd probably give them a go and might even find regular use. It's just we're a really small portion of the population.
Yes, the impact of RemotePlay and even LocationFree is certainly small compared to mainstream use. But they are no jokes.

In general computing, the Windows, Mac and Linux guys have Citrix, Remote Desktop and VNC. To my knowledge, they are used actively among technical ops, small businesses or even large corporations serving legacy Windows apps to remote sites. It allows them to minimize maintenance overhead of remote clients.

Posted by Brad Grenz on Thursday, 24-Jan-08 03:04:35 UTC
Quoting Fox5
I think it's a neat idea. Allows you to tuck away a noisy, hot PC to another room, and then play the games in the living room. It has some use, since DVI cable runs are much shorter than ethernet runs.

I notice the service supports up to 80Mbit/s data rates though. Can the ps3 even decode video fast enough at that rate? Can any device? (it does appear they use variable data rates though as testing it with my laptop yielded smooth gameplay until the scene became more complex)
It's designed for local networks and I'm sure they are using pretty simple compression to make real time encoding feasible on the host PC. We're not talking about trying to decode an 80mbps AVC stream. The video output would be compressed just enough so that it could work over your LAN. The PS3 wouldn't have any trouble with that. Your biggest bottleneck is the PC being fast enough to run the game and capture and compress the output simultaneously.

Posted by Fox5 on Thursday, 24-Jan-08 03:55:34 UTC
Quoting Brad Grenz
It's designed for local networks and I'm sure they are using pretty simple compression to make real time encoding feasible on the host PC. We're not talking about trying to decode an 80mbps AVC stream. The video output would be compressed just enough so that it could work over your LAN. The PS3 wouldn't have any trouble with that. Your biggest bottleneck is the PC being fast enough to run the game and capture and compress the output simultaneously.
It's MP4 and their scheme supports selectable encoding from perhaps sub 1Mb/s all the way up to 80Mb/s.


Add your comment in the forums

Related playstation News

PS3 Firmware 2.40 Brings In-Game XMB Access, Temporarily Pulled
Firmware 2.30 expands PS3 Blu-ray feature set, introduces new storefront
New PS3 model to hit Europe for 399 EUR
Hon Hai Precision to manufacture low-price PS3?
PlayStation 3 firmware gets updated to 1.92
Sony Ericsson talks PlayStation phone; shows PowerVR demos
Sony PlayStation Portable: 333MHz comes with restrictions
Sony reports strong first quarter earnings
Firmware 1.9 released for PS3
Sony: PlayStation 3 price drop