Digital Foundry reports that Sony has developed custom PlayStation 3 hardware to power its newly announced PlayStation Now streaming service.
According to sources close to the project, this new custom PlayStation 3 features eight “custom console units” which are built right into a single rack server. This basically means that consumers will be accessing PlayStation 3 units; though it will probably never be seen outside of Sony offices.
“Gaikai was primarily a software team, but once it was bought up by Sony it was suddenly faced with a problem that could only be tackled by bespoke hardware. In creating new PS3 servers for the PlayStation Now, the team worked closely with their new colleagues in engineering, creating a new PS3 adapted to the cloud streaming challenge,” Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter writes.
The first beta phase of PlayStation Now will begin in the next couple of weeks. That will be followed by a nation wide release this summer. Digital Foundry claims that Japan and Korea will be getting access to the service by the end of the year while Europe will have to wait until Q1 2015.
Source: Digital Foundry