January 29, 2014

Last evening Sony began sending out invites for their upcoming PlayStation Now game streaming service, IGN.com has reported. The streaming service is entering a small closed beta period ahead of its official release sometime later this year and requires a 5MB internet connection and the use of a PlayStation 3 is recommended according to the invite email.

PlayStation Now is an online streaming service that will allow gamers to play titles from the console maker’s nearly 20 year history on the PlayStation 3, PS4 as well as Sony Bravia televisions and Smart Phones. The technology behind PlayStation Now based off of GaiKai’s streaming services, whom Sony purchased for $380 million dollars in 2012.

We don’t have a definitive list of launch titles for PlayStation Now but when the service was shown at CES 2014 both Beyond Two Souls and The Last of Us were both playable. We also do not have details on a pricing structure, launch window or whether or not PlayStation Now will tie into PlayStation Plus.

If you got into the beta, we’re super jealous!

It hasn’t been a particularly cheery time for Nintendo Japan as the Wii U is failing to meet projections and with the company’s profits expected to fall short next quarter; these certainly aren’t the money printing heydays of the original Wii back in 2007. While we won’t speculate about where Nintendo is heading, because frankly everyone has their own opinion and mine is probably way off, we can report back some of the numbers that recently came to light.

Nintendo had expected to ship 9 million Wii U units by the end of their fiscal year in March. Their latest projections state that they now see themselves moving 2.8 million consoles – with 1.96 of them moving during the Christmas season that just past. In the end this will cost the company a projected loss of 25 billion yen ($242 million) ending March 2014. That’s a lot of numbers to go through but at the end of the day it means that Nintendo is losing money despite the strong sales and critical acclaim for their most recent 3DS titles.

The console manufacturer has tried to drum up support for its latest home console with a small price cut, the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and third party titles like The Wonderful 101 last fall. 3DS also saw a number of high profile releases over the course of the last year including Pokemon X & Y, Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

Source

Sony Begins Sending Out PlayStation Now Beta Invites

Nintendo Shipped 1.95 Million Wii U Consoles Last Quarter