As a step on from Folding@Home (of which Three Speech’s involvement with will be confirmed shortly), it’s being reported that Sony is considering making computing power available to other companies
www.dailytech.com says Sony is interested in offering discounts and other incentives to have PlayStation 3 owners create a type of supercomputer grid that can be utilised by businesses. Various companies - particularly those working in the medical and pharmaceutical industries - are apparently interested in harnessing the power from PS3s, instead of paying outright for a supercomputer. Sony would probably have to pay users to keep the PS3 running all the time for the benefit of paying businesses.
Seems this is all at the research stage with Sony not yet certain how many PS3 owners would be into signing up for such a scheme. Discounts on products, free downloads, exclusive content, and points are all possible incentives for participating PS3 owners. Let us know your thoughts on this one.
I’d be down if there were some good rewards (depending on whom I’d be assisting with computing), but I’d also want a nice shiny trophy for my Home for doing X Work Units (or whatever they go by).
Cheers!
Comment by Matthew — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:28 am
Some real cash would be nice, but I imagine it would only come in the form of incentives (vouchers) to buy the company’s product or, most likely, ‘money’ paid directly into your PlayStation Store wallet so you can buy games and other DLC.
Comment by Rikki — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:37 am
Free Playstation 3 when my current one dies from over use would be nice.
It a MINIMUM I would want the products that we receive to the value of $30 (New Zealand dollars) a month. This is because it will cost me that much in electricity to run my PS3 24/7.
You COULD get me to do it for free for a few months IF you improved back compatibility and made it so ALL PS2 and PS1 game work 100%. Non of this saying they will work but then having them crasj in the middle of it so you cant get past that point in the game.
Caps, t-shirts with my favorite gaming characters on them would be nice. Also the chance to win $1,000 a month would be fantastic.
Or free downloadable HD porn would be fantasic. Maybe Movies as well?
Comment by Carl — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:47 am
Also I dont want my PS3 to be used to create biological weapons, we dont want resident evil happening for real!!!
Comment by Carl — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:48 am
I’d defineately be interested although it would have to be worth more than the price of me leaving my PS3 on. That’s gonna cost…
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:55 am
How about making a game where you play as the “folding” takes place?
Comment by Fred — Apr 13, 2007 @ 11:08 am
I’d like some creds for the PlayStation Store and the ability to choose what project to support. BTW could you make this site more PS3 browser friendly?
Comment by Chris — Apr 13, 2007 @ 11:44 am
Free downloadable content, a trophy as said, maybe some promo-style stuff (cups,hats,t-shirts etc.) also as said.
Maybe even some kind of contest/lottery for more serious prizes.
AND of cource full acknowledgement of what they are using my PS3 for (alright not the exact patent :P), might sound as silly pacifist but don’t want no weapons made with my help (unless there is an alien invasion and they give me some exoskeleton armor….ooops too many videogames, reality check needed).
Comment by dzotos — Apr 13, 2007 @ 11:56 am
Yeah, I’d do it as long as the rewards were worth it.
Comment by Tom Eccles — Apr 13, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
Remember, any cost benefit has to cover the cost of electricity + depreciation (i.e. at least 1/2 of the entire cost of the PS3 over 3 years …) + at least 50% on top (other tax benefits they get + your return).
Any company gets significant tax benefits for running costs and depreciation of their assets that consumers don’t have access to.
So in AUS that’s at *least* $50/month (500/36 = $8ish for depreciation + $20 for electricity(?) + $15ish - the tax benefit you’d have if it was you paying their bills + something for your time and floor space). Then scale that for ‘time in use’ (i.e. down).
If it is just a way for companies to shift their ‘carbon burden’ and ‘tax burden’ to consumers, it has to fail merely on moral grounds.
Helping a good cause is one thing - the PS3 is far more energy efficient than any other system running Folding@Home, however, helping *very*well*off* companies benefit financially is another. If they were really paying the consumer their costs they will at best, barely break even - because and only because of the lower active cooling requirements. We just don’t get any of the ‘corporate welfare’ that they have access to.
(calculations are a bit rough, but in the general ball park I think)
(I still think it has potential - because the PS3 really is so efficient compared to other hardware, but they really have to pay what it costs you)
Comment by mpz — Apr 13, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
If the incentives become real then maybe, but they won’t…
Look at in game advertising (something MS is exploiting in a more shameful way than sony granted)…if you’re playing a game with Massive, Doublefusion or IGA code in the SDK do you get a discount - nope!
I’d suspect this would be the same, give a few meaningless trinkets to gamers and use the power of their connected consoles to make lots of doller..
it is a genius idea..
Comment by Basil Brush — Apr 13, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
it would be uber cool helping sony developing new games etc, and as “payment” u get say 0,5€ for each workunit u compleat.. that you can buy online games for .. (and a workunit takes about 10h) or something .. that would be uber sweet!
Comment by wondR — Apr 13, 2007 @ 2:26 pm
If the incentives are good enough to justify me spending that amount of money on electricity on it then sure i would do it but somehow i can see that happening..
Comment by Ricky — Apr 13, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
Sounds great. Any incentive to do work for others is fine by me if we all win.
Comment by Neil — Apr 13, 2007 @ 10:48 pm
Add to my psn wallet over what the electricity will cost and make it significantly worth my while and you, sir, have a deal
Comment by ben — Apr 14, 2007 @ 4:53 am
If you got money to download stuff in the store, i would be glad to do this. http://BlueHedgehog.Blogspot.com/
Comment by Chad28 — Apr 14, 2007 @ 7:35 am
Oh I’m so down for that if the incentives are atractive enough.
Comment by Jonathan — Apr 14, 2007 @ 4:55 pm
Free games would be nice, wouldn’t mind leaving my PS3 on then
Comment by Jimmy — Apr 14, 2007 @ 7:25 pm
mpz that is about $75 of energy per year, it’s 200 watts not 2000.
Comment by mark — Apr 15, 2007 @ 1:07 am
just add money to my wallet and i’d be happy
Comment by foshizzle — Apr 15, 2007 @ 3:58 am
I”d go for it in a minute. As far as compensation, I think the items listed in the artcle are about righ. Howwever, these would have to be written so that once you turn them on they are a “very well behaved” application. Getting out of the way when I want to do anything else. Taking over when the system is idel. That’s one problem with F@H, you have to start it each time in order for it to run.
Comment by Torrid — Apr 15, 2007 @ 10:17 pm
Sounds great and if a free game download or a credit to the PlayStation Network wallet was given in return that would no doubt pull in a lot of people prepared to do it.
However- I would be concerned that this would effect things like Folding At Home which is something that I think is well worth taking in part in. It would be a shame if people stopped helping that project because they were being paid to take part in another more commercial one.
Comment by Gareth (GaF) — Apr 16, 2007 @ 12:19 am
I’m fine with it, as long as I’m using my computing power for a good cause, like the Folding @ Home project.
Comment by Brian — Apr 16, 2007 @ 2:33 pm
Sony would have tons of users lined up for this. If they do it, it’ll be historical, a first for a gaming console.
Comment by GoBlue — Apr 16, 2007 @ 5:27 pm
How about an option that I can use my PS3’s dispributed processing on my own local computer? Or is that too unworthy a cause?
Comment by Jeff — Apr 16, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
I think that Folding is a lot of potential. However, I would much rather see Sony concentrating on more games. It does get me worried when I see the xbox 360 actively pursue the online market by now connecting xbox live users with pc users. This is huge and a tremendous lot of potential. Home has a lot of potential but as far as reaching a user base is concerned, the xbox is doing just that. I am a fan of the Playstation, i do own a PS3 and don’t own an XBOX and I think that folding is an amazing idea especially if you could send me a 30$ check every month. If not gaming content (good gaming content please) would be very good too. However could you PLEASE, PLEASE make online games more enjoyable and get some more RPG’s out there. OK i know i’m demanding because it’s only been since november but yeah.
Comment by VicePK — Apr 17, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
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