Streaming is all very fine and good if you have the bandwidth to support it, but in many areas of the US broadband speeds are so slow that streaming content can be challenging at best – and impossible at worst.
Nevertheless, a new rumor is making the rounds that Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 4 console will be designed to stream video games in real-time over the Internet.
Sony is expected to unveil the PlayStation 4 this week at an event held in New York City on February 20.
It should probably also be noted that the Japanese-based company acquired a cloud-gaming company known as Gaikai last year. According to various sources, the streaming technology acquired in the will play into the PS4 in a big way. Indeed, the streaming content is tipped to involve games designed for the PlayStation 3 and may indicate that Sony is trying to offer backwards compatibility for the system, along with a catalogue of games already owned by many.
Rumors continue to swirl about the PlayStation 4, with Sony expected to use chips from AMD rather than the parts sourced from Sony-IBM-Toshiba in the PS3. This has prompted concerns from various quarters that the new hardware could cause compatibility problems with current video games. Thankfully, reports indicate that the PlayStation 4 will accommodate video games stored on optical discs and it remains unclear if new titles will be available for streaming as well.
Gaikai has data centers that are designed to run any modern-day game with any settings that are streamed to the Internet for gamers to play. The system sounds a lot like OnLive. In any case, we only have a few more days to wait before the above-mentioned rumors are confirmed or dismissed.
