With the PS5 launch date now confirmed, gamers the world over will be speculating as to what features and services the PlayStation ecosystem will maintain from the current generation – and which ones will be dropped.
For now, though, it looks like the PlayStation Now platform – which lets you stream a curated list of legacy PlayStation games directly to your console – will still be available on PS5.
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently featured an interview with software engineer Yasuhiro Osaki, who works at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
According to DualShockers, Osaki confirmed that PS Now would continue on the next-gen PS5 console, though with some surprising limitations given wider trends in streaming for games – including a lack of support for PS Now for mobile.
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Everybody else is doing it
Mobile is big business for games these days, with tentpole free-to-play games like Fortnite, PUBG, or COD: Mobile being pushed on iOS and Android devices – and the Apple Arcade subscription service pitching iOS and iPadOS as go-to platforms for quality indie titles.
When it comes to game streaming, too, Google Stadia could prove a disruptive force when it launches in November this year, with a per-title payment model that will let players access games through a huge array of devices and platforms, from mobile and tablets to browsers and smart TVs.
With Microsoft also pursuing mobile, with its Project xCloud streaming service, Sony could well be left behind by a lack of flexibility – something that may not come as a surprise to anyone who's been trying to use cross-play between Sony and other platforms, although we recently saw a change of heart from Sony on that front.
Both Sony and Microsoft allow gamers to access their respective game streaming / subscription services on PC, but as players come to expect easy access to their titles wherever they are, with whatever devices they have to hand, not supporting PS Now on mobile could be a death knell for the service in the upcoming console wars, however many price cuts Sony brings to the platform.
