Sony Announces ‘PlayStation Now’ Game Streaming Service At CES 2014

Sony has managed bring another innovation to the console gaming industry by announcing the availability of its new game streaming service, PlayStation Now (PS Now). PS Now will let users’ stream famous games from PlayStation’s library of games to PS4, PS3 and handheld PS Vita console. Apart from PlayStation devices, the video games can also be streamed on the latest models of Sony BRAVIA HDTVs but you would require an internet connection of 5MBps and above and a Dual Shock controller to play the game. This means you do not need to own a PlayStation to play PlayStation titles. PS Now uses Gaikai’s cloud based technology to stream video games to devices in the same way you stream multimedia files. Since your device does not handle any computing tasks (the cloud computing takes care of it) the games can also be streamed on other internet connected devices like smartphones and tablets.

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The subscription based service will allow users to access the updated version of the game every time they login with their Sony Entertainment Network account. The system supports saved game functionality, online multiplayer, trophies and messages. Apart from subscribing to the service, gamers will be given the option to rent the titles of their choice. Sony has not disclosed a exhaustive list of games that can be streamed over the service but for tech demonstration purposes the PS Now is streaming titles like The Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, Beyond: Two Souls and Puppeteer to BRAVIA HDTVs at CES 2014.

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Sony announced in its #-Link-Snipped-# that PS Now will be launched in the US as a beta program by the end of January and will be rolled out to the public by summer. For its European fans, Sony says in the #-Link-Snipped-# that it cannot confirm any launch date of the PS Now service for PAL territories since Europe is a ‘complex region’ when it comes to broadband provision. But all is not lost yet, as it goes on by saying that it is working hard to bring the game streaming service to this region as soon as possible.