PS4 Now Beta to Begin This Week, Sony Sends Invites
A recent post on the U.S. PlayStation blog has confirmed Sony will expand the PlayStation Now beta after spending in closed beta on PlayStation 3. The PlayStation Now beta will include an unannounced number of PS4 owners.
PlayStation Now, Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 game streaming service, allows a few PlayStation owners access to the PlayStation Now closed beta. Since its opening in January, Sony kept an impressive lid on the PlayStation Now. During that time, only a selected number of general public were chosen. Four months since then, some service-related leaks hit the mainstream game press. Hence, relatively few people were aware of the PlayStation Now current incarnation.
That is about to change for those lucky enough to receive the invites to the PlayStation 4 PS Now private beta.
Sony is currently prepping to run the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the PlayStation Now beta independent from each other. It is generally thought that PlayStation Now rentals will cover Sony's ecosystem similar to PlayStation Plus membership. As such, it is possible that a surprise awaits fans when the PlayStation Now launches this year.
Although some might criticize the decision, perhaps out of misguided notion that they are entitled to both services, the move will be beneficial for the PS3 community. At this point, there's no way to find out how many invites Sony sent out for the private beta. But it has confirmed its plans to expand the pool of testers for PlayStation Now.
Sony will be distributing new invites to PlayStation 3 owners in the future and its plans to completely roll out PlayStation Now before the year ends, according to today's post.
If this report is accurate, the complete PlayStation Now library will be available for streaming on the PS Vita, PS4, PlayStation 3 and selected Bravia TV sets. But Sony has kept its doors open for expansion into the mobile computing industry at some point in the future.