This week see’s the launch of Playstation Now in the UK. Sony’s game streaming service has entered the beta phase on this side of the Atlantic after it’s launch in the US and Canada in January this year. The service offers game rentals over 48 hours or 30 days but you don’t actually have to download them, instead just stream them. Currently available on Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Sony’s Bravia range of televisions and Sony Blu-Ray players it will be looking to extend onto other platforms such as Playstation Vita nd Playstation TV by the end of the year.
You will however need an internet connection of at least 5mbps as you will be streaming the game from a central server which is why there is no need for time consuming downloads or waiting for a disc to be sent out in the mail and although the rental system currently only allows either 48 hours or 30 day rentals, a subscription deal will be on the way very shortly over the next few months.
The list of games that are available isn’t to shabby either. You can get your hands on the full Uncharted series so far, The Last of Us, X-Com, the Red Faction and Saints Row series’, Infamous, Killzone, Lego and I could go on and on and on. David Scammel over at videogamer.com has put together a list of all the games you can stream here, so check it out there.
With hard drives constantly being maxed out by huge install files this step from Sony could prove to be a stepping stone to the way that we consume and play games in the future. Sure seems like a nice idea to have somebody else’s machine doing all the hard work while we just stream the game, doesn’t it? Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below!