PlayStation Now was revealed as the new face of Gaikai and serves as Sony’s charge into the cloud streaming arena. SCEA’s marketing VP John Koller has explained why it’s not going to replace the way Sony does business, but it is intended to broaden the gaming experience.
Speaking with CVG, Koller said of PlayStation Now, It’s not necessarily the future of PlayStation, but it is a philosophical change and a reality that we want our gaming experiences to be broadly experienced. So, when you look at PS3 games – huge catalogue, really strong and diverse lineup of genres and games – we want people to be able to experience those, yes, on PlayStation platforms, but if you own a Bravia [TV] it’d be great if you could pair your DualShock 3 and be able to instantly play.
“PlayStation Now’s strong benefit is instantaneous gameplay because that is a problem in this industry. We’ve got to solve that and I think this does that. We’ve been working towards that on the download side with Play-as-you-Download [on PS4], and with PS Now we get people instantly playing whether you’re on a PlayStation, a Bravia and over time, tablets and smartphones.”
On whether or not PS Now signals the start of a move away from traditional console models, Koller explained, “We’ve been very open and bullish on physical consoles. So I don’t think PS Now necessarily disenfranchises future consoles in any way. But it does, I think, show our willingness to try and focus on content as primary. Really, again, focussing on the gamer first – obviously they want great content, great experiences. Those experiences can be had in many different places. So it’s more of an open position now.”
