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WSJ claims Sony will use Gaikai to stream PS3 games in PS4
Posted: 16.02.2013 16:30 by JonahFalcon Comments: 2
The Wall Street Journal claims that Sony will use Gaikai, the company the publisher bought back July 2012 for $380M, to stream PlayStation 3 games on the PlayStation 4.

Part of the reason would be that the new PlayStation 4 allegedly uses AMD x86 chips, so direct backwards compatibility would not work, forcing Sony to use software backwards compatibility that Microsoft used with the Xbox 360.

The WSJ also stressed that the live streaming would only apply to PS3 titles and not new PS4 titles.

Several questions arise, however. Would gamers be forced to repurchase PS3 titles, much as they had to repurchase PlayStation 2 games after the Emotion chip was removed from post-launch PS3's?

Then there's the structure and philosophy of Sony itself as an electronics company. After the acquisition of Gaikai, an analyst warned:

"Sony buys it, because cloud gaming is an existential threat to a core part of their business. They then try and integrate it, but they integrate it Sony style - they integrate it and all of a sudden they have to work with the Sony Online Networks, and it has to be integrated into Bravia, and it will only work on certain televisions and not others, and it will have to carry PlayStation branding and you won't be able to use it if you're not building a PlayStation game."

Stay tuned.
Source: The Verge

Comments

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Feb 16, 2013
danfreeman
So PS 4 will have no actual backwards compatibility without Gaikai,that`s a pretty stupid move Sony but then again you`ve only done stupid moves for the past few years.
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Feb 17, 2013
HenoKutus
Maybe its too early to tell what they really will do if the PS4 comes out,i hope it isn't so because i am not buying all the digital downloads again that would be a stupid,as a PS3 user you should have your downloadlist converted to the PS4 and defenitly run your PS3 games on the PS4,after all it should be the same network and store they are using now logically with some new things added.