When Sony initially announced the PlayStation 4 earlier this year, it indicated that, while the system wouldn’t be backwards compatible with existing PlayStation 3 games physically, it would have a way to stream them through its acquired Gaikai service. Over the past week at the Tokyo Game Show, the company clarified this plan a bit, giving us an ideal of when to expect it.
During a roundtable discussion, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said that the service would launch sometime next year for the United States, with a few titles available at launch. Though specific titles weren’t mentioned (big hits like Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us are very likely), Yoshida said that the library would expand over time, and would not only allow users to play them on PlayStation 4, but also the PlayStation Vita and the recently announced PS Vita TV.
In an interview with Dengeki Online, Yoshida provided further info. “We previously spoke about PlayStation going from hardware to something closer to a service, regardless of the device,” said Yoshida, “Speaking of the ultimate goal, we would like to deliver PlayStation games to all devices. So we’re considering various things like PC, TVs, Blu-ray players, smartphones and tablets. We hope to continue to expand not only to Sony devices, but even to devices other than Sony’s.” Yoshida also noted that the possibility of this expansion is “still being studied.”
No other markets have been confirmed for the streaming services yet, but plans should be announced shortly.
Source: Polygon
