CES 2014: Gaikai becomes PlayStation Now, streaming games to just about everything

We’ve only had the feature for a couple of console generations, but nearly every gamer was unhappy that both the PS4 and Xbox One dropped backwards compatibility just a couple of generations after it made a huge impact. Sony, though, always said it was planning to bring the feature to the PS4 via the Gaikai streaming tech it purchased what feels like oh so long ago. At long last, the plan has been unveiled, and it’s called PlayStation Now.

It’s strange to think that such a divisive, rage-inducing topic has only really been available on consoles since the PS2, and was even dropped from the PS3. We’ve only had competent console backwards compatibility for a generation-and-a-half, yet we feel it’s a feature to which we’re entitled, as if we’ve had it forever. Regardless, Sony has not ignored the uproar. Back in 2012, the company purchased Gaikai, a game streaming service, and since then it appeared as though Sony would utilize the technology to provide a back catalog of games to future consoles. This isn’t standard backwards compatibility — all of your disc-based games of old are still rendered useless — but at least those titles (and more) would be available and playable on a new console. PlayStation Now aims to bring that to the PS4, but also provides a glimpse at a very promising all-digital future.

Just announced at CES 2014, details regarding PlayStation Now are thin. However, the demo unit was running The Last of Us — one of the best-looking (and one of the best) console games to date. Because the processing power is all server-side, that means the service can extend to a number of devices, even smartphones. The real difficulty, though, lies where it always does with any kind of streaming service or digital catalog: latency. A blazingly fast internet connection will help, but the real point of contention is latency, from which fast speeds can still suffer. When discussing video games — a medium that requires instant, active input and instant in-game results — even the smallest drop of latency would render the experience unplayable.

The service will roll out sometime this year, with a closed beta beginning at the end of this month. PlayStation Now will be available for the PS4 and PS3, then hit the PS Vita and — amazingly — certain models of Bravia TVs sometime later. PS Now will stream full games — not just demos — and will save your games in the cloud. The full pricing details have yet to be disclosed, but it will consist of rent-a-title and subscription options.

Now, if Sony does have the latency down — something that game-streaming competitor OnLive could not achieve — it’s still worth keeping your excitement in check. If Sony made every single past and future video game available on PS Now — a platform that doesn’t care what kind of hardware on which it’s running — it would single-handedly kill its console business. Sony would, in theory, keep most (if not all) current-gen games off the service in order to make us buy the latest and greatest console. If anything, the end-goal of PlayStation Now would be a respectable and instantaneous back catalog of last-gen-and-older games, set up in a Netflix-style streaming storefront. Select a game from a menu, press X, begin playing.