Before Cloud-Gaming, we need Cloud-Saving.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Written by: Jed

This year we were introduced to the idea of server-based gaming with services like OnLive (now in-beta). It’s been met with a lot of scepticism: questions of latency-issues; to how a bandwidth-heavy service could be rolled out in a bandwidth-constricting environment. OnLive is the dream, but few can argue against the fact that DLC (downloadable content) is the reality. From the micro-transaction of an additional Rock Band track, to the bigger purchases of episodic game content, and now, even full-game downloads. The video game industry is slowly making the digital-online transition, and I’m all for it. (Who needs discs?) I just ask that they don’t forget hosting the other part of the equation – user content.

This idea was inspired by my recent PS3 troubles, which left me with the potential of losing all of my save files. Fortunately the PS3 provides a nifty backup utility, to ensure just that… or at least I thought. After receiving a newly-refurbished console, I went through the (marathon) backup and restore process, and found that it restored almost all of my game content. Apparently Rock Band save files are copy-protected, which left me without my playlist of purchased tracks, and more importantly the save-file, of the year I invested playing the game. Luckily, Sony has a generous policy of allowing me to re-download anything from my history of purchases up to a handful of times, but as for my game save, I was S.O.L. (Urban Dictionary definition).

I accepted is as a means of copy protection. It made sense. DRM prevents users from simply sharing paid-content with others. Then I thought about the PSN Store re-download policy. If a group of 5 or less friends really wanted to share (or split) Rock Band tracks, it’s an easy thing to do. You can log into your PSN account from any console, and download away. (iTunes works similarly.) Granted, it’s a hack, and may cost you a critical re-download in the future, but it works. (I’m also uncertain about how strict Sony is about this rule.) If Sony (and Harmonix) wanted to prevent this sort of file-sharing they would make it harder for users to re-download previous purchases. And I’m sure they would have gone that route if there weren’t legitimate reasons for such a policy: it allows users to painlessly replace/upgrade their hard drives; allows the two people who own multiple PS3s to share content between them; and most importantly, it keeps Sony from having to support the phone calls that may escalate in the instance where this policy wasn’t in-place. So how should Sony tackle this problem? Simple, look at Steam.

Steam’s been on the forefront of online-digital video game distribution on the PC. It’s easy to use; a seamless experience; and oh yeah, it’s naturally protected against file-sharing. You have one Steam account with all your purchased titles linked to it. You can download and install these games to your heart’s desire, but only do so legitimately, solely because it is tied down to that one account. I guess you and your friends could similarly split the costs of games on one Steam account, but that would entail you taking turns to play – not to mention deprive you of those so important personal achievements.  Steam also syncs these stats, game settings and yes, even (specific) game progress to their servers, so that you can theoretically pick-up and play a game on your laptop from where you left-off on your desktop PC. The ecosystem is naturally DRM’d, but few complain because of the solid experience the service provides.

The interesting part is, the PS3 somewhat does this now. Even though I wasn’t able to restore any Rock Band content, my accumulated Rock Band trophies (as well as every other games’) showed up just fine. Trophies, much like your friends-list live on the Playstation Network (not locally) and are directly tied to your PSN ID.It would be a great addition if save-files were synced similarly. And much like Steam, this could act as a natural DRM. Problem solved. I’m not expecting Sony to host game-install data (that go into GBs), but I don’t think that hosting a user’s 5 megabyte save-files are too much to ask. (Especially when full-retail games are available for download.)

Now to the answer the question of why they should do this? Believe it or not, other than saving me from having to play through Rock Band 2 a second-time for that elusive platinum trophy (which I’ve just given up on), there may be a more important reason. The upcoming Mass Effect sequel is doing something quite revolutionary, in recognizing how you played the original via its save file. If this feature is delivered and received well, it could motivate other sequels to do the same (there are a lot of them). Having the save live on the cloud makes file management not only simpler, but even more reliable. And like Steam, it would make for a great seamless (yet closed) experience.

Of course, given the current price tag of the Playstation Network, it’s unlikely that they add one more more bullet-point feature to a free service, but this sort of online-integration seems to be inevitable.  And until then, maybe the folks over at Harmonix and Sony can lighten up a bit? You just cost this customer, his only shot at a platinum.