Sony announces Gaikai-powered PlayStation Now game-streaming service for PS4, Bravia TVs, and more

Sony is about to unleash its cloud-gaming initiative.

At the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House unveiled PlayStation Now, which is the company’s new game-streaming service. It will use Gaikai, the cloud-powered gaming infrastructure that Sony acquired in July 2012 for $380 million, to serve up games instantly via the Internet to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and Sony Bravia television sets, smartphones, and tablets.

Game streaming enables players to access titles that are hosted completely online. Similar to Netflix, consumers can call up a game and start playing it immediately without having to download anything.

It’s one of two big announcements from Sony during one of tech’s biggest events of the year. The Japanese publisher also said that it has sold 4.2 million PlayStation 4s since the home video game console’s launch in November.

PlayStation Now will enable players to rent games one at a time, but it will also feature a subscription model that will likely give players access to a huge library for a monthly or annual rate. Sony did not provide pricing info at the presentation.

The company plans to start a closed beta of PlayStation Now in the U.S. by the end of this month. It will roll out the service in full this summer. At first, the streaming program will only feature PlayStation 3 games, but Sony could add older works in the future.

We’ve reached out to the company for more details.