As was whispers' wont this week, yet another rumor centering on Sony's PS4 surfaced late Friday.
This one comes by way of the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Sony plans to utilize Gaikai, a game streaming company Sony owns, to stream existing PS3 games to the new console.
Why not new games? Those will apparently come on an optical disc.
Sony has allowed for backwards compatibility before with its older consoles - gamers could pop a game disc from a PS1 game into a PS2 console, PS2 games could run on a PS3 - but the new AMD x86 chips reportedly housed within the new PlayStation won't allow for the cross-generational play.
Game time
Gaikai is a cloud-streaming service that streams video games over the web, much in the same way as movies and music are accessible, according to the company's website. Sony bought the company in July 2012.
If Sony plans to host pre-PS4 games in servers and send those down to the new consoles, it's sure to keep its backward compatibility streak going.
The Verge noted that services like Gaikai and OnLive have delivered games at a max resolution of 720p, possibly preventing the former from sending new PS4 games to the console.
It might even be a stretch for Gaikai to deliver PS3 titles as it hasn't been used publicly to stream anything but PC games, however Sony has likely poured plenty of resources into addressing the issue.
If Gaikai's services are intended for use in the new console, there's virtually no limit to where games could go. Think PS Vita, PS3 and potentially tablets and phones.
Counting down the days
This week we've had two prototype pictures of the PS4's trackpad controller leak, while last week we heard word that the entire console would go for about US$428.
Typically when there's this much smoke before an event, finding the source of the fire is never far behind, so we certainly expect to see the PS4 come Wednesday.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed, so you'll just have to tune back into TechRadar to see how Feb. 20 plays out.
Any game titles you'd especially like to see stream from the PS3 to PS4? Let us know in the comments below.
Via The Verge
