At the CES show in Las Vegas Sony announced its incoming PlayStation Now game streaming service that would be coming to both the PS3 and PS4 in the coming months. The service would allow gamers to play games instantly through their consoles without a physical disc or download.
However, gamers in the UK really shouldn’t be getting their hopes up about PlayStation Now at a the moment, as Sony is not planning to release the service in the EU and UK until 2015, meaning we have a full year long wait until we get to see the service.
Sony stated to Eurogamer that the new streaming service will be launched in Europe in the first quarter of 2015, which compared to the 2nd quarter 2014 launch that folks in the US will be expecting is a pretty big delay.
Sony stated that all PlayStation platforms (PS4 will launch first followed by PS3 and Vita) will be connected to PlayStation Now from the middle of Q2 2014 in the US with SEL devices, including Bravia TVs, to be compatible in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Sony says that:
“PlayStation Now offers the first ever streaming game service on consoles powered by our exclusive advanced cloud-based technology. Gamers can now play games the same way they stream TV, movies and music…instantly. Starting with PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®4, and expanding to PlayStation®Vita, BRAVIA TV’s and other Sony and non-Sony devices, PlayStation Now will be available on the electronic devices gamers use most.” and that “PlayStation Now gives gamers instant access to some of PlayStation’s most popular full games. With a wide variety of games to stream, there will always be new challenges to conquer, instantly.”
When the service does launch it will provide gamers with the chance to purchase individual games or sign up for a monthly subscription service which gives unlimited access to games. We expect that the first iterations of PlayStation Now will bring many PS3 classics to the PS4 including games like Uncharted and InFamous as the PS4 has no disc-based backwards compatibility.
At the moment it’s looking like Europe has the longest wait for Sony’s PlayStation Now as the service will be launched in Japan and South Korea near the end of 2014 or early 2015.