PS4 to steam PS3 games?

Sony could be planning to make PlayStation 3 games available on its next-generation console via online streaming.

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal (via Kotaku), the Japanese electronics giant could be hoping that streaming games will give it the edge over Microsoft's next console.

The PlayStation 4 is set to be unveiled this Wednesday (February 20th) at a presentation in New York, with the streaming service said to be a key feature on show.

"The streaming service, they added, is designed to use current PlayStation 3 titles on the new console; the new device is also expected to play new games stored on optical discs," reports the publication.

This move follows on from Sony's purchasing of Gaikai, a games-streaming company founded by industry veteran Dave Perry.

Sony snapped up the company for $380 million last summer, with Andrew House, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entrainment, promising big things.

"By combining Gaikai's resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE's extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences," House, said at the time.

"SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices."

James Lee

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James Lee is a freelance writer and analyst with extensive experience in the technology, media and games sectors. For the past few years he has provided content for internationally published industry reports, SEO companies and a variety of news-focused websites. Prior to this, James was responsible for covering news and producing in-depth features for GamesIndustry.biz while occasionally contributing to its sister-site. Eurogamer.net. In addition to this he has contributed to other notable sites such as CVG.co.uk, Edge-Online and DigitalSpy.