PS4 Supports PS3 Streaming Rumor

Ever since Sony announced their 'See the Future' event for February 20th, the rumors concerning the PS4 have been coming fast and furious. Just yesterday, gamers saw an image of the next-gen console's rumored controller leak, along with an additional image that corroborates the controller's legitimacy.

The image in question featured a PS4 controller not unlike the one gamers had imagined, boasting a Dual Shock 3-esque design and a front touch screen. Essentially, the image confirmed the rumors.

Today's news functions very much on a similar level: confirming a rumor gamers have been hearing for quite some time. In this case, the rumor involved how Sony plans to use their newest acquisition, cloud streaming service Gaikai, to give the PS4 a strategic advantage.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony plans to announce that Gaikai's cloud streaming software will be used to stream PS3 games to the PS4. Ostensibly, this feature would bypass the need for backwards compatibility.

This feature doesn't necessarily mean the PS4 won't be backwards compatible though, but for something like this to make sense, there has to be a pretty good reason.

Moreover, WSJ's source claims that PS4 games will come on optical discs, nixing any rumors that next-gen games will support streaming. It seems like the service is more focused on PS3 games, at least at this point.

If Sony were to adopt a program whereby gamers register their PS3 hard copies and gain access to a streaming version of a game, however, that would actually be really impressive. But, if their goal is simply to use this streaming service on future purchases, and bypass the need for backwards compatibility on some upcoming PS3 releases like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls, then gamers are likely to be disappointed.

As was mentioned, Sony's event next Wednesday is believed to be "ground zero" for all things next-gen. The event will be streamed live, and it is assumed Sony will not only show off/talk about their new console, they might even reveal some next-gen titles. And now it's fair to assume there will be some discussion of Gaikai and this PS3 streaming service.

What do you think of this PS3 streaming feature? Is this a reasonable solution for a lack of backwards compatibility?

Sony's 'See the Future' Event takes place on February 20, 2013.

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Source: Wall Street Journal (via Kotaku)