Sony just announced that PlayStation 4 games are coming soon to the PlayStation Now cloud gaming service. It means that gamers will be able to pay a subscription fee and stream PS4 games to their PlayStation 4 or PC.
There are currently 450 games in the PS Now subscription, but Sony has restricted the service to PlayStation 3 games so far. A subscription costs $15 to $20 and PlayStation 4 games are coming “this year.”
When you subscribe, you don’t install games on your console. Instead, Sony has data centers where they can launch games on their own servers. A video feed is then sent directly to your device, but nothing is really happening locally.
PlayStation 4 games mean that Sony will probably have to upgrade data centers with more powerful machines. The company hasn’t listed the first PlayStation 4 games coming to the platform, but you can expect first-party titles, such as Uncharted, Infamous, God of War and Little Big Planet games.
This is a very different approach from Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox Game Pass service. For $9.99 per month, you’ll be able to download and play games on your Xbox without any restriction. But most people will look closely at the game libraries to see if it ends up being an interesting deal.