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PlayStation Now Beta Invitations Going Out
Sony has dispensed a new wave of PlayStation Now beta invitations. Users began receiving notice via email last night.
Sony recommends that users connect their PlayStation 3 (yes, PS3) via wired connection and have a 5 Megabit per second or higher broadband connection. Accepting the agreement, which includes non-disclosure clauses, alerts users that vouchers will be emailed out in the coming days.
PlayStation Now was announced formally at CES in January, though Sony has long been discussing the ability to stream games to its PlayStation family of devices and more since before the PlayStation 4 was revealed. During our demo, which you can read here, Sony streamed The Last of Us and God of War: Ascension.
While performance was impressive at CES, games were being served from a nearby location. Sony plans to stream games from PlayStation systems as recent as the PS3.
Our Take
There are two things that Sony must accomplish in order for PlayStation Now to be successful. On the technology side, the experience must be extremely low latency, especially for titles that require twitch-style gameplay.
As challenging, is the business model of the service. Not only will Sony need to properly incentivize publishers, but contracts between third-party developers and publishers may not have included streaming rights. This creates a difficult scenario involving the negotiation of rights among multiple parties.
I’d love to see the service work out, but I’m realistic about its challenges. I’ll be curious to see how Sony navigates these waters.
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