Sony may plan to add PS5 games to PS NOW, which will be based on a new patent filed by the company. Microsoft has allowed PC and mobile players to use Xbox Cloud Gaming to transfer Xbox Series X/S games to their devices and plans to allow console users to do the same this winter.
This includes Xbox One players, which means XGP Ultimate users can play next-generation games on their previous-generation systems. Now, according to a patent discovered by DualShockers, Sony may be working to provide similar services.
The patent shows how Sony plans to combine multiple high-speed NVMe SSDs and store the same information on them to provide high-speed data to customer devices. This description takes games as an example and explains how to send information from multiple different SSDs to users to ensure stable performance when the SSD is overloaded or stopped working.
If Sony plans to use SSDs with similar speeds to the PS5 in its streaming network infrastructure, then PS5 games may be added to its PS Now streaming service, which currently only offers games from Sony’s old consoles. PS Now’s software library includes more than 700 PS2, PS3 and PS4 games that can be played on PS5, PS4 or PC, and more than 300 PS4 games can be downloaded and played on the console.
In October 2019, Sony sharply lowered the price of PS Now to increase the competitiveness of its rival streaming services. The company also started adding blockbuster games for limited-time sales every month. According to Sony’s data, as of April 2021, PS Now has more than 3.2 million users, up from 1 million in October 2019.
Nevertheless, this service still lags behind Microsoft’s XGP Ultimate, which also provides streaming services in addition to downloadable games. By the beginning of 2021, XGP subscribers had exceeded 18 million, but Microsoft did not disclose how many of them were XGP Ultimate subscribers. Microsoft has previously stated that it intends to use cloud gaming to allow “many” Xbox Series X/S games to run on previous generation hardware.
It said: With thousands of people playing Xbox consoles today, we look forward to sharing more about how we will bring these next-generation games, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, to the console through the Xbox cloud gaming platform. Just like we do on mobile devices, tablets and browsers.
