 This is Sam Byford with The Verge. One of the most ambitious promises Sony has made with the PlayStation 4 is cloud streaming. Essentially, it's playing video games over the internet just like watching a movie on Netflix, so no need for a disc or download. Sony made that a reality today at CES 2014 with the announcement of PlayStation Now, which allows PS3 games to be played on anything from a PS4 to a PS Vita to even TVs and smartphones. The goal of PlayStation Now is pretty much game streaming on any screen without a set-top box or console. But while that's great in theory, how's it actually going to work? PlayStation Now is Sony's solution to the fact that you can't run PlayStation 3 games on a PlayStation 4. Because the two systems have vastly different hardware, it's too difficult for the newer console to emulate its predecessor. So Sony's constructing massive data centers filled with PS3 hardware that actually render your games before they're beamed straight to your screen across the internet. This sounds like the stuff of science fiction, or at least the country with the more robust broadband infrastructure than the US. But Sony's putting PlayStation Now into beta this month and plans to launch the service in full this summer. The company certainly puts on a good demo at CES. The games they played on PlayStation Now had good image quality and only a slight amount of latency, but I don't think it would bother most people. But there are still a lot of questions Sony's not prepared to answer. Sony wouldn't tell me how close we were to the server, nor how many it plans to deploy when PlayStation Now launches. For now it's an impressive proof of concept, but Sony still has a lot to prove.
 This is Sam Byford with The Verge.
 One of the most ambitious promises Sony has made with the PlayStation 4 is cloud streaming.
 Essentially, it's playing video games over the internet just like watching a movie on Netflix,
 so no need for a disc or download.
 Sony made that a reality today at CES 2014 with the announcement of PlayStation Now,
 which allows PS3 games to be played on anything from a PS4 to a PS Vita to even TVs and smartphones.
 The goal of PlayStation Now is pretty much game streaming on any screen without a set-top box or console.
 But while that's great in theory, how's it actually going to work?
 PlayStation Now is Sony's solution to the fact that you can't run PlayStation 3 games on a PlayStation 4.
 Because the two systems have vastly different hardware, it's too difficult for the newer console to emulate its predecessor.
 So Sony's constructing massive data centers filled with PS3 hardware
 that actually render your games before they're beamed straight to your screen across the internet.
 This sounds like the stuff of science fiction, or at least the country with the more robust broadband infrastructure than the US.
 But Sony's putting PlayStation Now into beta this month and plans to launch the service in full this summer.
 The company certainly puts on a good demo at CES.
 The games they played on PlayStation Now had good image quality and only a slight amount of latency,
 but I don't think it would bother most people.
 But there are still a lot of questions Sony's not prepared to answer.
 Sony wouldn't tell me how close we were to the server, nor how many it plans to deploy when PlayStation Now launches.
 For now it's an impressive proof of concept, but Sony still has a lot to prove.