Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service has now been made available on Samsung’s Smart TVs. Sony originally announced its plans to provide the service through other means of accessibility back in December.
While the service is going live from today, at this point in time it’s only available in the US and Canada, and whether or not Sony has plans to provide this service in other territories is currently unknown. With over 100 PlayStation 3 titles at a monthly subscription fee of $19.99, this may well be a viable option for those who do not own the system but still wish to access to it’s library.
As the system is entirely cloud-based, features such as game saves, Trophies, chat, sharing, and online-multiplayer will all be included. The only hardware that users will be required to purchase will be a Dualshock 4 controller. While this is great news for consumers who do not own a PlayStation 4 but do have access to the Smart features of a Samsung TV, it does remain questionable as to how this may affect sales on the console.
This also bears the question of what Sony has planned for the future and which direction they wish to take PlayStation brand. Since the console’s initial launch and the rise of digital purchases, many have questioned whether or not this will be the last traditional console generation, and if the future of gaming will become a consumer service as opposed to a consumer-owned product; On Demand.