• Posted December 2nd, 2013 at 09:01 EDT by Michael Harradence

According to Eurogamer, PlayStation 4 will receive the cloud-based streaming service Gaikai in the U.S. in Q3 2014.

Unfortunately for European gamers, it looks like the wait will be extended into 2015; significantly later than many people had hoped for.

The site quizzed Andrew House, Group CEO and President of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), on the firm's plans for the service:

"We’re on track to have a commercial service up and running in the US first within 2014. That remains the plan and we’re very much on track to reach that. But what’s important is to understand the full scope of what we’re trying to achieve and why we felt the Gaikai acquisition was important," he said.

“Our goal is to be able to have a new form of game distribution streamed from the server side, initially to PS4 consoles then gradually moving that out to Vita. But eventually, the endgame is to have this available on a multitude of network-connected devices, essentially delivering a console-quality gaming experience on devices which are not innately capable of doing that.

“We think there’s a great opportunity to broaden the market, because you essentially remove the need to make the console purchase in order to have access to that experience. It may sound counter-intuitive, because, aren’t you replacing a business that is your bread and butter? But part of being an innovative company is being a pioneer in new forms of distribution of content, and we would like to be there first and take a leadership role.”

Asked specifically on the rumored European 2015 launch of Gaikai, the executive replied:

“I really can’t be specific on the European roll-out. It’s a brand new form of delivery. We need to prove out the technology, which we feel is good at its core, but we place – as I think is quite right – a real emphasis on delivering a quality experience for consumers. And that will be dependent to a degree on what the strength of broadband connection is going to be, and what our server deployment and infrastructure looks like.

“We’re hard at work on all of those fronts, but I’m not at a point right now where I can be specific about when our European fans are going to be able to enjoy that.”

PS4 launched in the U.K. and Europe last Friday and sold over 250,000 units in its first 24 hours, becoming the fastest-selling console in the country’s history.

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