Sony have developed a new version of the PS3 hardware to provide the power required for its PS Now service, and it effectively shrinks the system to fit the equivalent of eight PS3s on one motherboard, sitting in a singular rack server.
It’s a new form of system, inside and out, with important changes to lower latency and make the system perfect for streaming to households across the world. Gaikai, a very software-focused team, worked closely with hardware developers to assure the best piece of equipment possible.
These will  be running all of the games which people will be playing when the service launches, then. It’s set to release this summer in the United States, but Eurogamer’s sources have confirmed that the service will land on European shores in the first quarter of 2015, via an image obtained from an internal slide.
Back to those new PS3s – it’s likely you won’t see them at all, as they’ll just be sitting in a server room. Sony had considered using retail units instead, but power and efficiency issues prevented this from happening. There’s no confirmed specifications, but naturally networking could be upgraded, and controller inputs could be hard-wired to purely prevent input lag.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that Sony have a difficult job making sure the launch of this service goes as smoothly as possible, but it’s apparent that they’re really trying their hardest and not skimping on resources here. It’s a big risk, but hopefully one which will pay off for both the company and the consumers.
It’s good that they’re currently testing the system internally, and that they’ll be hosting a public beta towards the end of January then. There may be some unforeseen issues, but you have to remember Sony have been already very successful with similar streaming methods found in Remote Play.
Source/Image source: Eurogamer
bunimomike
Can’t help but respect the level of commitment to this and it’s not even out yet. Fingers crossed it works well enough for people to have a bit of fun on. Sure, it’s not going to be zero lag but decently low levels will give single player games a lot of options with how we consume games.
beeje13
I was reading something Dave Perry (of Gaikai fame) was talking about yesterday, and he said the difference between them and OnLive was that the game source code didn’t need to be changed for Gaikai, little to no extra work is required on the developers side.
ron_mcphatty
The gadget addict in me wants one of these PlayStreamer Eight-by-Threes, I really don’t know why! Very impressive though and like Mike said shows a great level of commitment. Now, lets see some proper Dualshock support for tablets so come 2015 we can start enjoying a bit of PlayStreaming when we’re on our holidays.
TheShepanator
From the headline I thought that sony were actually releasing a new ps3 model for consumers.
It’s actually a good really good idea: They just have a simple low-power pc running the ps3 OS that can handle all the multimedia capabilities and then when you want to play games they are streamed over the internet.
Actually, scratch that. That’s what VitaTV is going to be.
Foxhound_Solid
Where do I sign?
camdaz
I hope this is a success as it seems Sony are getting the hardware right but one thing they cannot control is the internet, which is always going to be the weakest link in the chain.
pdannysan13
This will change gaming, without a doubt.
Kennykazey
Imagine if you could buy one and play PS3 games using all the power, like when Sony showed off GT5 (or was it 6?) in 4K.
Sony sure is going all in on this service, Playstation as a streaming service… That’s the future right there. I’m having mixed feelings now…
colmshan1990
That sounds broadly similar to the US Air Force’s PS3 supercomputers.
TSBonyman
I love how they are using PS3(s) as their server. Perhaps it can finally earn that “CELL Broadband Engine” moniker. ;)
I guess these server units aren’t too far removed from what we could have expected if they had stuck with the Cell architecture for PS4.