Sony will soon let console haters get their PS4 fix on Windows PCs

Starting with "private test"; we have good guess for PlayStation Now's upgrade date.

PlayStation Now, Sony's own "Netflix-of-games" online streaming service, is about to get a lot more attractive. The company announced on Monday that the service will begin to officially support games from its current PlayStation 4 platform starting "in 2017." Right now, PS Now only supports games from the older PS3 system.

It's a vague start date, but we think we know when to expect the switchover: sometime after this August.

Almost exactly one month ago, Sony had a less-welcome announcement for its PS Now users, telling them that pretty much all devices they used to log in and play games would no longer work starting on August 15. That means if you liked playing PS Now games on the portable PlayStation Vita, smart TVs from Sony and Samsung, or your old PlayStation 3, you would soon be out of luck.

That February announcement hinted at updates and expansions to the service on its remaining compatible platforms: PlayStation 4 consoles and Windows PCs. Coincidentally, those platforms will receive access to PS Now's PS4 "private test" in a "few weeks," and current subscribers have been told to keep an eye on their e-mail inboxes for a possible invite. (Users are not being asked to specifically sign up for the test.)

Sony said all paying subscribers will get access to PS Now's eventual PS4 library of games later this year, much like they currently stream and play any of the PS3 games in Sony's server pool. However, not every single PS3 game can be accessed on PS Now, and it remains to be seen how many current-gen titles will land in the $99/year subscription service. (Microsoft, conversely, is still pushing its Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, which lets buyers of a single game's license play that game on both Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 PCs. More third parties have begun to enter that Play Anywhere ecosystem, as well, though MS still dominates it.)
Sony has continued improving and tweaking the video quality and latency of its PS Now service, as I've found in my own informal tests over the past couple of years. (Anyone who want to test its latency before plunking down for a full year can dive in for $20 per month, or $45 for every three months.) Competitive FPS gaming is a non-starter, but the input lag is similar to an older HDTV, which is acceptable for single-player adventures, for example. Depending on how rich the PS Now library turns out to be, this could very well do the trick for Windows PC gamers who want another avenue to playing console exclusives.