A rumor that’s been going around the web is that Sony will announce the arrival of PlayStation One and PlayStation 2 games for the PS4 without the need of their recently announced PlayStation Now service. The rumor further speculates that this will be done via software emulation and that Sony is working to ensure that backward-compatible games are optimized for native HD resolutions. This would be akin to what Sony offered on the PS3 via PSN where gamers could purchase and download past titles which were designed to run on the cell processor. While a juicy rumor, I find it hard to believe. Here’s why.
After spending sometime with PlayStation Now at CES 2014 and playing God of War: Ascension on the PS Vita, it became quite clear that Sony has invested a lot of money in this service. PlayStation Now is designed to bridge the gap between the PS4 and PS3 by allowing users to stream past games via the cloud. While the focus at first is on PS3 games, my sources revealed to me that Sony is also targeting PS1 and PS2 games as well and really why shouldn’t they? Instead of needing to create software emulation to ensure games would run properly, Sony can simply use the cloud and stream those games to the PS4 and PS Vita. Furthermore, offering a catalogue bigger than the PS3 will only make the service more attractive for consumers.
In the end, it’s always possible that Sony has created multiple internal plan and whichever is more lucrative to the bottom line or more inline with the future of PlayStation will be the one that will be unveiled to consumers. Heck, it’s even possible that Sony will offer PS1 and PS2 via PlayStation Now and download from PSN. However one thing that should be clear is that Sony believes the future of PlayStation is with PlayStation Now which will expand beyond the PS4 and PS Vita and be offered on televisions, smartphones, and tablets by the end of 2014.
Discuss:
Do you think Sony will offer PS1 and PS2 games via PSN for purchase or will those games only make their way to the PS4 via PlayStation Now?