PlayStation Now: the bright and dark sides of Sony’s platform

Posted by Noemi Gutierrez

PlayStation Now: the bright and dark sides of Sony’s platform

English, Entertainment

PlayStation Now (PS Now) is a streaming video game platform created by Sony which allows players to access a lengthy catalogue of games from the different PlayStation consoles and play them directly on a computer or on the PlayStation 4 and even download some games.

The service has been in operation since 2014, although it has not been until March 2019 that it has been launched in countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark or Norway.

The platform has received constant criticism since its launch, mainly due to the poor quality of image transmission, far removed from the high resolution to which PlayStation 4 users are used to; or because of the lag that some games suffer during streaming, something that can be sometimes frustrate for some players.

The truth is that despite the criticism, PlayStation Now has not stopped growing since its launch, and Sony has already announced that the platform exceeds 700,000 users, with an annual growth of 40%.

Currently, the PS Now service is active in 19 countries, and its catalogue of games has not stopped increasing since launch, releasing new games every month and having accumulated more than 780 titles up until this point.

Videogame streaming has become one of the biggest digital entertainment markets in recent years, and it seems to be the future of the gaming industry.

Although the competition is fierce, especially with the future arrival of Google Stadia, Google’s take on the videogame streaming market, Sony’s room for improvement of PS NOW is still quite wide, so if Sony continues to invest in its platform and improves servers as gamers have requested, it will be one step ahead of the competition, perhaps becoming a reference of the standard of service that gamers expect.

Amazon shows interest in buying Boost Mobile

Posted by Noemi Gutierrez

Amazon shows interest in buying Boost Mobile

English, Social media

According to Reuters, the e-commerce technology giant Amazon is considering buying Boost Mobile, the prepaid mobile phone service belonging to T-Mobile US and Sprint.

This operation would allow Amazon to use the T-Mobile wireless network for at least six years and thus enter the wireless phone market.

T-Mobile and Sprint agreed to sell the prepaid mobile phone brand to reduce market share as part of their planned $26 billion merger and according to Reuters, Amazon could be the buyer.

None of the companies involved have made any official comments on this hypothetical purchase, although analysts have already reacted to the news, calling it a “bad idea.”

Companies like AT&T and Verizon have spent more than $100 billion in the last decade creating their own networks, and their economic viability is based on the fact that the networks are open. Analysts admitted that Amazon could have its own wireless networks to facilitate its other objectives, such as operating drones and driverless vehicles, but commented that buying a network for this purpose would be “economically insane.”