PlayStation Now beta launches on July 31 for PS4, PS3 and Vita to follow

By Will Fulton June 11, 2014

playstation now beta launches july 31 ps4 ps3 vita follow ps lead — Image used with permission by copyright holder

At its E3 conference on Monday, Sony gave an official launch date for its long-anticipated game-streaming service, PlayStation Now. An open beta in the U.S. and Canada will launch on July 31, so PS4 owners can start streaming games from the cloud. PS3 and Vita compatibility will follow shortly thereafter.

PlayStation Now has been in the works since Sony’s 2012 acquisition of streaming service Gaikai. On launch players will have access to 100 games, including Dead Space 3, God of War: Ascension, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and Ultra Street Fighter 4. That list notably does not include PS1 and PS2 games. A yet-to-be-confirmed rumor from earlier this year claims hat games from the first two generations of Sony’s console will not be streamed, and will instead rely on local emulation at native HD resolutions, which would be a marked improvement over the PS3’s visually-problematic upscaling. Last month, Sony announced that a private beta would begin on May 20, which gives them a few months to work out the kinks before opening up to the masses.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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