The yearly Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was full of TVs, Steam Boxes, and a whole lot of mentions towards “4K.” It seemed that this year the best thing to do about CES, was to make fun of CES. I believe most people are exhausted of hearing all the different TV’s that are set for a definition that most media players can’t even output yet … but I digress. Sony stole the show on the day 2 for most gamers with their announcement of PlayStation Now.
This is basically the believed, mythical, streaming service that we were told about last year that would allow PS4 owners to play older games. Well it’s a reality and that reality seems pretty great. The streaming service will allow gamers to play older PlayStation games on phones, tablets, the Vita, and PlayStation 4 console. It will be streaming content at 720p on HD TVs. Can you imagine, The Last of Us or God of War 3 on Vita?
Sony’s Bravia TV will be a portal as well. You will be able to use your DualShock 3 controller to sync with the TV and play the game. The tablet and phone support was mentioned as well and I can’t imagine the state of joy many people will be in from playing a game like Little Big Planet from their iPad. The service will support multiplayer and will allow players to join multiplayer games with gamers, who have a physical copy of the game.
… and that’s not all.
The service will also be a rental program. You’ll be able to rent the game, try it out, and decide on whether you want it or not. It will also be a subscription-based service. It’s essentially Netflix for gamers through any and every portal available. It is supposed to be in beta later this month, with it beginning fully this summer. There are still many questions to be answered such as: price, cost of rentals, and the number of games that will be available. Hopefully we will find that out sooner than later.
Sony has continued to knock it out of the park with each event since E3 last year. Regardless if it’s PlayStation Plus (which has 3 free games this month that came out in 2013), PlayStation Now, or the PS4, Sony has continued to do what they promised, put the gamer first. Time will only tell how both the PS4 and Xbox One will fair, but right now it seems that Sony has got a jump on things.
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