Today Sony has finally revealed their plans for streaming video games.
At CES, Sony announced a new subscription service called PlayStation Now (PS Now). PS Now will offer subscribers the ability to stream “classic” playstation games to their Playstation 4, PS Vita, and other devices like phones, tablets, and televisions. At CES they have already shown The Last Of Us streamed through a PS Vita, demonstrating the capabilities of their streaming service that came from the purchase of Gaikai late last summer.
While no pricing has yet to be revealed for the subscription plan, they have stated that a rental option will also exist on a per game basis. A beta is scheduled for the end of January, while the full service is expected to release by the end of summer 2014.
This is a great way for sony to keep their existing library games alive, as well as tackling the issue of backwards compatibility. However, whether this new service takes into account Playstation Plus statuses or if it would be a single plan regardless of PS Plus status has yet to be revealed.
The thought of being able to play every old sony game on one device is pretty exciting, because entertainment centers can get pretty crowded these days.
Will gamers be excited for the return of backwards compatibility, or will this be a wait and see thing?