Sony Announces PlayStation Now Streaming Service
When showing off the PS4, Sony shared its desire to be able to stream PS3 games from their servers to the PS4 since the PS4 couldn’t play PS3 games due to its different chip architecture. The console launched, but the game streaming wasn’t ready yet, as we had been told from the start. But it seems we’ll have game streaming soon, as Sony has announced PlayStation Now. The streaming service will work not just on PS4, but also on PS3. Streaming is also planned for PS Vita, as well as most 2014 US models of BRAVIA TVs, and in the future tablets and smartphones. Sony is using the Gaikai tech they purchased to help stream across multiple devices, even keeping your save progress in the cloud.
PlayStation Now will offer both game rentals for individual games and also a subscription for multiple games. The games won’t just be PS3 games either, as PS1 and PS2 games will also be offered. The service won’t be launching until this summer in the US, but Sony will be giving more details soon on a beta program that will start by the end of January.
It’s great that this is finally happening, but I’ll admit that I’m a little disappointed that I’d need to spend money to play games I already own. Though I thought it would be farfetched (because it wouldn’t make as much money), I had hoped to be able to stream my entire game collection just by putting a disc in the PS4, having it detect the disc ID, and then streaming the game from Sony’s servers instead of reading from the disc. As it is, I’m not sure I’d bother paying for the service when I could just boot up my launch PS3 and play my PS1, PS2, and PS3 discs just fine in HD. But for those who trade in their old games and systems, this is a great alternative to tracking down copies of older games.
Source: PlayStation Blog