A closely followed story over the past week, Sony’s rumored cloud-gaming partnership with Gaikai will allegedly allow current-generation hardware to play PS2 and PSone games through a streaming medium.
According to GamesIndustry, the service will offer first-party games and would allow third-party publishers to sell back catalog games to players. This new information would seemingly point to Gaikai expanding their model from their demo-only offerings to full games — something that should ease the minds of PlayStation users who only saw Gaikai as offering demos, and farming out the purchase of games to other services.
Cloud gaming has been gaining more and more acceptance recently, and with the rumored ability to stream games from previous PlayStation consoles, the function should continue to gain wider acceptance. Gaikai already has a large portfolio of gaming partners in the fold, including giants Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sega, and THQ — though at this point all titles have been for the PC only. Recent high-definition releases of PS2 classics Silent Hill, God of War, and Devil May Cry, however, seem to indicate that there is still a market for older games for this current generation of players.
This partnership between Gaikai and Sony is rumored to be the big news that Gaikai has in store for folks at E3 next week, and while it is purely speculation at this point, it would appear to be fairly solid information. As Game Rant’s Jeff Schille reported last week, Game Rant (as well as other outlets) has received an invitation from Gaikai that promises to “change the future of video games.” Initially fearing that Gaikai’s news would support their claim that either Sony or Microsoft would skip the next generation console battle, this new information would seemingly help calm those apprehensions.
The larger question remains: if the rumors prove true, what other Sony devices will support the Gaikai game streaming service? The PS3 is an obvious choice, but considering the current technology, Sony-branded televisions, blu-ray players and tablets would not be out of the question either. Also, offering backwards compatibility for the PS3 at this stage would give Sony a perfect testing platform for game-streaming services before the launch of the PS4.
So far Sony has a checkered history with backwards compatibility. The PS3 originally allowed players to play older PS2 and PSone games, but ultimately support for PS2 games went away as newer versions of the PS3 were subsequently released. Some PS2 and PSone games are available for purchase in the PlayStation Store, though the available library is bare-bones considering how many titles were published for the two systems.
Keep it tuned to Game Rant as we bring you the news of the official announcement from Gaikai and Sony next week at E3. Ranters, how would you think Gaikai would change the future of video games?
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Follow me on Twitter @mattrowland1.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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So I can finally play Final Fantasy Tactics again? Great…that is the only ps1 disk plus it original case that I still have.
PS1 games work on my gen 2 “fat” PS3 if I remember correctly. And will I have to re-buy the PS2 games? I still have the discs it’d be nice to not have to buy them again though I doubt it’ll happen that way
It’s anyone’s guess at this point. We’ll pass along the info as soon as we find out though.
Regards,
Matt
This could actually prove the annoucement that gaikai had that sony or microsoft would skip the next generation. Think about it, if this happens, sony won’t have to be in the next generation console war, it’s much better for sony they could use their money and invest it into making the ps3 so much more of a behemoth, and then not as many people would buy microsofts new console, cause it’d be overpriced, and not as proven as the ps3 would be at that point
Pfft, that’s not backwards compatibility, that’s just re-releasing en masse. You know they won’t just give you free access to the games you already own; they’ll make you re-buy ‘em, either individually or through a Netflix-type subscription. I’ve always hoped that legitimate disc-based backwards-compatibility would make a comeback late in the PS3′s life, but not like this.
Right? If I can’t play my 500+ PS2 games, that I already own, on it for free, that’s not backward compatible in my book.
500, holy cow. How do you have room for so many?
lol, that’s just my PS2 games too. Unfortunately, right now everything except my current-gen games and a few N64 and NES are packed in boxes. They take up an entire bedroom in my house. It’s a pain, the other day I had the urge to play Kingdom Hearts, it took forever (and a lot of work) to find it. I’m in the process of remolding another room to be my Theater/Game room, but it’s pretty slow going.
Eh ill just buy a ps2. Im working on getting a collection of old systems, so far ive got N64 and original nentendo. Super nentendo is next.