Sony unveils Playstation Now cloud-based gaming service at CES

Himanshu Arora

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Sony announced Tuesday a new cloud-based gaming service at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Dubbed Playstation Now, the service will allow gamers to stream classic Playstation titles to a range of devices including PS4, PS3, PS Vita, smartphones, tablets, and supported Bravia TVs.

“Playing your favorite PS3 game on your television will become a reality”, SCE chief Andrew House told audience members. At present, only the 2014 Bravia TVs launched in the US will be supported.

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The technology behind Sony's Playstation Now comes from cloud technology specialist Gaikai, which the company acquired in 2012 for $380 million. Gaikai's technology uses advanced servers and compression techniques to reduce the lag which is often observed when high-quality games are played over the Internet.

While Sony promises low latency, it will be interesting to see how the service performs in the real world. The Verge tested Sony's new gaming service and concluded that, apart from the loading time and a slight "lag between button presses and the corresponding action onscreen", the service is impressive.

According to the company, gamers will be able to either rent by individual titles or opt for a monthly subscription service that allows them to access the complete catalog for a fixed fee. No pricing details have been announced yet though.

A closed Beta program will kick off by the end of this month in the US, before a full rollout this summer.

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