Consumer Electrics Show 2014: PlayStation to launch console-free gaming

PlayStation broke new ground as it unveiled plans of launching console-free gaming.

17:20 08 January 2014

At CES 2024, Sony’s computer entertainment chief Andrew House announced plans to roll out cloud gaming service, which effectively means console-free gaming is in the pipeline.

The new facility is based on technology developed by Gaikai, a cloud gaming start-up that the Japanese firm acquired for $380million in 2012. 

With this new technology, subscribers will now be allowed to play some of the platform’s greatest hits by streaming data from Sony’s servers and this will be supported by the firm’s latest smart TVs. Demo titles on show at CES include The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, and God of War: Ascension.

Sony intends to offer the facility to other third-party products.

Brian Blau from the tech consultancy Gartner, reacted to the news saying: "It's a pretty big asset. You can imagine the hundreds of years of manpower that went into building it up, and now they can get value from it for a long time into the future."

Although the new technology sounds exciting, tech bloggers who have tested the kit found some limitations.

Chris Welch for The Verge said: "There's a slightly perceptible lag between button presses and the corresponding action onscreen.”