 "Sony debuts PlayStation Now cloud gaming service for consoles, TVs and smartphones")
Sony has addressed one criticism that many gamers would have levelled at the PlayStation 4. At CES, Sony President and CEO Andy House revealed details of PlayStation Now, the cloud gaming service that will stream games to PlayStation devices, Sony smartphones and Bravia TVs using Gaikai’s cloud technology.
The service will launch in North America later this year, but Sony has shied away from giving any details of a broader release. It acknowledges that Europe, in particular, will pose some problems due to internet regulations.
Coming this summer to the US (Image credit: Kotaku)
With PlayStation Now, Sony will let you stream classic games from the PlayStation 3 library at first. This will be switched on in phases with support for PlayStation 4 and PS3 systems coming first, followed by PlayStation Vita and then the 2014 US models of Sony’s Bravia TVs and eventually to other Sony devices such as tablets, PCs and smartphones.
So what this means is you will be able to play console-quality games streaming through the cloud on any supported device without having a console. All it needs is a low latency Internet connection, so we can understand when Sony says bringing it to a global audience will take its time.
PlayStation Now is made possible thanks to Gaikai’s advanced cloud-based technology, which Sony acquired in June 2012. At CES, the company showed a demo of The Last of Us on a Bravia TV, but with no console in sight. Thanks to games being hosted on the cloud, gamers will always get the most updated version to play and achievements, progress data and DLC are synced across multiple devices. The full service will let users rent games or pay for a subscription that will let them “explore a range of titles.” A closed beta of the programme will launch in the US later this month.
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