14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Sony in charge of the PlayStation 4 announces that in less than 24 hours gamers who are selected will be able to get access to the PlayStation Now service and test all the features associated with it.
Until now, gamers have only been able to experience it on the PlayStation 3 and the company is expanding the number of testers and bringing it to another platform in order to get more data that can improve PS Now in the coming weeks.
In the official PlayStation Blog announcement, the team explains that, "Now gives you the freedom to play select PS3 games like you already stream movies, TV, shows, and music – directly to your favorite PS Now compatible devices without any discs or downloads. The first supported devices launching in 2014 are PS4, PS3, select 2014 Bravia TVs, and PlayStation Vita, with more devices down the road."
Sony says that the until now private testers for PlayStation Now have logged more than 50,000 hours with it and that they have delivered a lot of feedback that has improved its core features.
The company adds, "We are also happy to announce that access to the PS3 Private Beta program will expand to a broader audience in the near future. If you aren’t a member of our Private Beta community yet, click here to register your interest. Please be patient if you’ve already registered but haven’t received an invitation yet. We are inviting more Private Beta testers on a regular basis."
It's unclear how many testers will be associated with PS Now during the beta process.
At the moment, Sony is planning to launch PlayStation Now for North American gamers early during the summer and European gamers will have to wait for a few more months because of some issues associated with infrastructure on the continent.
Rumors are saying that a wide variety of games will be offered on launch, although an official list has not yet been offered, and that most gamers will be unable to know the difference between a streamed game and one that is running locally.
PlayStation Now is based on technology that Sony has acquired from Gaikai and the company is hoping that its addition to the PlayStation 4 and the PS3 will allow users of the two devices to experience titles that they would otherwise not have access to.
Microsoft has not announced a similar service for its own Xbox One.