Sony’s announcement regarding the future Playstation Now service has stirred up waters, for sure. Playstation Now will allow players to stream their games from their Playstation library across several platforms. Surprisingly, this will not be limited to Sony consoles alone. Normally, one would expect this service to only extend to the Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and the PS Vita. However, Sony declared that the service will also be extending to most Bravia TV systems available in the United States, as well as mobile phones (a surge in Xperia sales might come as a consequence) and tablets. All in due time, of course.
Still, there are some impediments and requirements that need to be ironed out, one of them being the interned connection of users. According to Sony’s recent statements, an internet connection speed of 5Mb/s or higher will be required for the service to run smoothly. Obviously, we won’t know the exact minimum requirements before the service goes into a beta stage later this year, but it’s safe to assume it will not run well on slow connections.
Sony highlighted that because of this requirements, the release of the service in Europe might be delayed. Broadband speeds in Europe aren’t exceedingly high in average, at least not in Western Europe. Eastern Europe has it better in this regard, but it’s unlikely that region will get the benefit of the service before 2015 either. Last but not least, it’s worth mentioning that the service implies the lack of a cable connection, which means you’ll need a good wireless router to be able to fully enjoy what Playstation Now aims to offer. Keep in mind that wireless connections are usually slower than cable connections. So, if you’re hyped about Sony’s new service, you’d best think about upgrading your internet service.
If you need a good indication of how fast your connection is, you can run a quick test on Speedtest.