Sony is soon gonna offer you a way to access PlayStation games without needing a PlayStation.
Some new Samsung Smart TVs will come bundled with the PlayStation Now service that enables you to stream PlayStation 3 game instantly over the Web. Samsung intends to launch the new sets sometime in the first half of next year. You’ll need a DualShock 3 or DualShock 4 controller, which are the joypads that work with the PS3 and PS4, respectively. PS Now is available now on PS4, PS Vita, and some Sony smartphones.
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Sony’s cloud-gaming service offers more than 200 PS3 games, and the publisher plans to continue adding more for the foreseeable future. The company plans on bringing PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation games to the platform at some point as well.
PlayStation Now is Sony’s first step into what is known as “cloud gaming.” Similar to the way Netflix streams movies instantly over the web, PS Now does the same thing with games — only it sends video from a server to your TV and control inputs from you to a server.
Since the PlayStation 4 does not have backward compatibility with the PS3, PS Now is one way that Sony is keeping its older games going. But the company is running it as a rental service where you can buy access to a game for a limited amount of time instead of offering an all-you-can-play subscription — although Sony says it is considering something like that.
PS Now’s expansion beyond Sony devices won’t stop with Samsung. The company has always said it plans to put PS Now on a huge number of devices, and we’ll likely learn what those are in the new year.