The lines between consoles and PCs continue to blur. On Tuesday, Sony announced that its PlayStation Now streaming service will be landing on PCs in the near future, bringing hundreds of PlayStation 3 games along for the ride.
Update: That didn’t take long. Sony announced PS Now was coming to PCs on August 23, and on August 30, the service went live on Windows. Sony’s offering a one year subscription for $100, which is a steep discount compared to PS Now’s standard price.
Until now, PlayStation Now—which was built on the back of Gaikai and OnLive—has focused on streaming PS3 games to the PlayStation 4, which can’t play last-gen games. When PlayStation Now does land on PCs, it will mark the official debut(-ish, since it’s streaming) of several notable PlayStation-exclusive franchises on the PC, including God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Twisted Metal, Rachet & Clank, and Shadow of the Colossus a.k.a. one of the five best games of all time. PlayStation 3 emulators don’t even exist for legally grey types.
Playing those games will require some investment on your part. A PlayStation Now subscription costs a whopping $20 per month, though that price unlocks hundreds of PS3 games. You’ll also need a DualShock 4 controller. Until now using a DualShock controller with your PC or Mac required tethering it via a USB cable, or via Bluetooth with the help of third-party software, but alongside the PS Now revelation, Sony announced plans to roll out an official $25 wireless adapter for the DualShock 4 in September.
Sony says PS Now for PCs will launch “in parts of Europe soon and will come to North America shortly thereafter.” Here’s what you’ll need to run PS Now on your PC:
- Windows 7 (SP1), 8.1 or 10
- 3.5GHz Intel Core i3/3.8GHz AMD A10 or faster
- 300MB or more of storage
- 2GB or more of RAM
- 5Mbps Internet
- USB and sound ports
The story behind the story: More interested in streaming current-gen games to your PC than last-gen leftovers? Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One already have you covered.
If you’re a PlayStation fan with a Windows 8.1 or 10 PC—or OS X Yosemite and El Capitan Mac—you can download Sony’s free PS4 Remote Play app and go from there. Xbox One owners can link their console to their Windows 10 PC by signing into both with your Microsoft account, then logging into the Xbox app preloaded on Windows 10. Both solutions let you stream games from your console straight to your PC—no pricey subscriptions required.
Editor’s note: This article originally said you need a 5Gbps connection to play PS Now. You really need a 5Mbps connection. Apologies for the error.