
  • Take a Look at PlayStation Now!
Technology Articles > Entertainment > Gaming Consoles > Take a Look at PlayStation Now!

Imagine playing PlayStation 3 games without a console in sight. That's what Sony was aiming for when the company came up with the concept of PlayStation Now, and that concept has come to fruition at CES. Sony demonstrated what Now can do at CES, and the results that are rolling in are really impressive.

Take a look at what Now can do.

How PlayStation Now Works

Now is completely cloud-based. That means that this system depends entirely on your current bandwidth speed. If your data speeds are on the slow side, the system will let you know this information when it starts up and scans what you're working with. Lags can be expected based entirely on your speed.

PlayStation Now works with Bravia TV, PS3, PS4, and Vita - basically, any Sony hardware. Sony chose Bravia TV to demo the service at CES, and reviews are largely positive. Some testers did find a bit of lag with the Bravia TV setup, but, again, this depends on speed setup.

If you have fast speeds and the right hardware, though, the concept of cloud gaming is a really impressive one. You can set up your games without any kind of console around, and that's really a great way to go about gaming.

Availability and Other Details

So, when can you get your hands on PlayStation Now? Sony plans to unveil Now to the public this summer. You will also be able to play old PS3 games via Now, and that's kind of good news for anyone wanting to play older games on the new console - but, there's a slight catch. What's the problem?

The biggest issue with PlayStation Now is that Sony's new setup won't be able to distinguish owned games from games that are available through the streaming Now service. For example: if you already own a game that's available through Now, you'll have to pay to play that streamed game - even if you already own it.

There's no way for Now to determine whether or not you already own a game or two. That's the bad part about Now. The other bad part is the whole bandwidth issue, but that's kind of up to you, right?

Still Worth Looking At

I haven't come across any pricing for Now at the moment, but I'm guessing Sony will offer various pricing options (that seems to make the most sense). It would be even better if the company could figure out how to honour past gaming purchases (who wants to purchase a game twice, right?), but that kink hasn't been worked out quite yet.

What you can take away from Sony's new Now service is that it's cloud-based, will be subscription-based (likely), works on any Sony hardware, and won't be able to recognize purchased titles.

Knowing all of that, do you think that Now is still worth looking into? It seems as though most gamers might just skip the whole Now setup, but this writer thinks that it's worth looking into - for sheer fun.