This morning at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House took the stage at the Sony keynote address to announce a new service for gamers. Dubbed “PlayStation Now,” this is the promised utilization of the Gaikai game streaming technology that Sony invested in two years earlier. The service will be rolling out a closed beta period in the United States starting at the end of January, with an expected public launch in the summer.
PlayStation Now, while targeted at obvious platforms like the PS4 and Vita, will also be aimed at other devices such as smartphones, tablets and even Bravia televisions. The easiest way to think of the service is a combination of traditional video store rental service, and Netflix. A library of games from the PS1 up to the PS3 era will be available on the service, and while Sony hasn’t announced any prices, they have confirmed that the service will have both a rental model for individual titles, and a subscription service, for people wanting broader access. We can probably expect more details on the service in the weeks and months to come, with a big promotion at E3. As usual, this announcement is primarily aimed at the American market, so the specifics of how this service will work in Canada and other countries is currently unknown.
