In an announcement today Samsung and Sony declared a partnership that will see the PlayStation Now game streaming service being built into select Samsung Smart TV's next year. This will allow customers in the United States and Canada to stream games directly to their Samsung TV without any need for downloads.
When this is launched in the first half of 2015, owners of compatible Samsung TV's will be able to connect a Playstation Dualshock 4 controller and play any of more than 200 PS3 titles. Sony will be demoing the service running on Samsung TV's at CES 2015, so attendees can try some hands on time with it in the new year.
Playstation Now is a service that was announced when Sony bought game streaming company, Gaikai in 2012 and can be used to stream games to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita consoles, as well as PlayStation TV and Sony's Bravia TV line. Games can be played by renting them for a set time per game, or via a monthly subscription.
“PlayStation Now provides a new dimension to Samsung Smart TVs that consumers have been looking for – blockbuster PS3 games accessed through an intuitive interface that makes it easy to discover and play great gaming experiences,” said Youngchan Kim, Vice President at Samsung Electronics.
While there was no mention of plans to bring these Samsung TV's to the rest of the world, it would be surprising if Sony and Samsung didn't expand this if it proves popular with consumers in North America. It's also worth noting that at Gamescom 2014, Sony confirmed that PS Now would be available in Europe during 2015, with the United Kingdom being the first European country to have access to the service.
KitGuru Says: I've never been a big fan of game streaming services, with the sacrifices that they make to the image quality and the input lag that is pretty unavoidable. Having said that if I had a TV with this service built in I might well be tempted to give it another go as I'm sure it works very well for some games.
Source: PR Newswire