Sony has revealed its plans for Gaikai to provide backwards compatibility to PS3 games via Cloud streaming for the PlayStation 4. However, the question that has stuck with everyone since the service was announced was whether it would also be used to stream PS4 games in the future. Speaking to GamingBolt, Senior Analyst At IHS Christine Arrington spoke about the same.
“Yes, I think Sony is using a very methodical approach to the cloud implementing capabilities slowly. Eventually I think this will lead to PS4 games being included.”
She also spoke about consoles in the far-flung future, addressing certain views such as Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada’s comments that Sony’s next console [PS5] after the PS4 would be a cloud-based service rather than a physical device.
“There is merit to that concept. There has to be something that is provided in a console that cannot be provided in a service based in the cloud. That could be many different things and eight years from now it is hard to say what that might be. Things that come to mind are interface technologies, such as augmented reality, or display concepts such as virtual reality.
“For the last few cycles the focus has been on graphics capabilities, this time around it is on interface, media services, and multi-screen access. Even if Microsoft and Sony move to cloud based services it isn’t inconceivable that another hardware make could come along with new capabilities and launch a new console in the market.”
The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, will be releasing on November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe. Stay tuned for more news on Gaikai and cloud gaming on consoles in the coming months.
