14 
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony’s next PlayStation, which is expected to be announced on February 20th, will include a new technology that’ll allow it to stream video games. Yep, streaming to play.
Sony bought streaming game service Gakai last year and will let PS4 users play games over the Internet. According to the WSJ:
The new technology, to be unveiled Wednesday along with the new console, will allow users to play games delivered over the Internet, these people said. The streaming service, they added, is designed to use current PlayStation 3 titles on the new console; the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs.
Streaming games would be a new feature that video game consoles haven’t seen yet. It’ll be interesting to see how Sony balances games on optical discs and games for streaming. [WSJ]
WSJ: Yes, Sony Will Announce the PlayStation 4 on February 20th
The PlayStation 2 Is Finally Dead
The PlayStation 4 Is Here, Sort Of
This could be a good way to deal with the backwards compatibility question.
That depends on how much the streaming costs are (assuming it’s not free) and if it’s possible to use previously bought games
Swear we’ve basically known this for ages, since the untrue rumours that the PS4 would drop the Blu-Ray Drive.
There were rumours they were dropping BluRay? :O
“the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs.”
As others have mentioned, this sounds like a means to play PS3 games on the PS4 without having to include any PS3 hardware in the box. Making the hardware PS3 compatible would bring the price up.
Oh, so the news isn’t that there was a streaming service, the news is that the streaming service will include PS3 games? Because we already knew all of this article besides that.
Actually, I think that a true streaming service has never been confirmed before, and the wording of the WSJ article seems to infer that it will be used exclusively for PS3 games, not PS4 games.
Just to clarify, by ‘streaming’ I’m assuming that they’re referring to a system similar to OnLive or Gaikai, whereby all of the software is run on a remote server and just the game’s sound and video are streamed to the client. Control inputs are sent back to the server from the client. This is in contrast to a download platform whereby the game is still run in its entirety on the client.
Sony bought Gaikai, so it’ll most likely be their technology running this. As for using it to play PS3 games I’m not too fussed since I already have a PS3 that plays them quite well. Maybe they’ll offer time limited streaming of new games as an alternative to downloadable demos? Not that I could do any of that with my internet connection
Or perhaps the PS4 will read the disc key from a PS3 game to check that the disc is original before firing up the streaming version…
But like you say, if you’ve already got a PS3 this is all pretty moot.
I’d love a try-before-you-buy system, but then their streaming servers would have to be capable of running PS4 games.
Still not been confirmed though, I swear? Yeah, I gather, since they bought Gaikai
. But my internet is nowhere near reliable enough 
Personally I couldn’t give a s*** about backwards compatibility, new console new games I say, besides who’s to say if you own a copy of the game sony are gona let you stream it for free. Im just concerned this is gona end up with laggy, freemium games which don’t exploit the hardware to the fullest, and where you have to effectively pay £150 + a year to play your favourite game.
It could be a good way to play a demo of a game without downloading it. Which could take a while with a next gen title which you may well not like. Just a thought.
Good point but in its present form it seems its just for streaming PS3 games as opposed to PS4 games which in my view is the whole point of buying a PS4 to play PS4 games.
Further down the line Im concerned that this streaming tech will be used in some way to furnish the trend for Freemium games currently doing the rounds on iOS and Android, with some kind of hideous broken difficulty curve, coin based pay to play system where they effectively rent you the game for as much as they can get out of you (not even a fixed price). I could be wrong but thats the way I see it going, you’ve only gota look at what EA are doing on Android and iOS. I guess it’ll all depend on how much EA make under the new freemium model on mobile, initial PS4 sales figures and piracy rates.
Streaming games is just another way to prevent you from owning what you buy.
The more rumours that come out about the PS4, the less I want to buy one.
Well since Sony said they were not making the PS4 download only and that they are keeping the disks, I can only see streaming of games as either an option or for PS3 backwards compatibility
“It’ll be interesting to see how Sony balances games on optical discs and games for streaming”. Casey Chan, the clue to how they’ll do that is in the following quote from WSJ:
“The streaming service, they added, is designed to use current PlayStation 3 titles on the new console; the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs.”
I’d have thought you’d have seen that, since you wrote this article.
I don’t know about you guys, but the more I read about the next gen consoles, the more I want to buy a wii u and a new laptop.
Looking forward to the next xbox more than the next playstation, probably because I currently have a 360.
Funny though, I have had a 360 since launch, works perfectly.
I got a 60 gb ps3 and its broken down on me twice, the second time I really couldn’t be bothered to send it in for repair.
My gf at the time also got me a slim 360 last year and of course I have a wii, which i still feel was the best console this gen, especially games towards the end of its lifetime, xenoblade, the last story, skyward sword, project zero.
what im trying to say is, I just don’t really see the need to get a new console at the moment, i don’t get time to play that much these days and with gtav in september, pokemon in october and mgrising and fire emblem at the end of this month as the only games i want this year, i don’t think that there are gonna be any compelling games on the new systems.
I dont like the sound of that what about people that cant get the internet or fast speed. and having everything on a sever will give hackers more things to mess with. I might be getting the wrong end of the stick but if its a case of no internet no game thats just daft and good chance that I would move to xbox