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Gaikai tech brings spectating, instant demos, more to PS4

Gaikai boss Dave Perry reveals plans for broadcasting and future backwards compatibility

Gaikai founder and CEO Dave Perry took to the stage of Sony's PlayStation Meeting event today to reveal extensive PlayStation cloud features for the next-generation PlayStation 4.

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Perry revealed that the DualShock 4's share button will allow players to instantly broadcast their gameplay to their PS4 friends in real-time.

Spectating players will not only be able to post comments to your screen, but will also - should you so wish - be able to take over control of your game to help you through a tough spot.

'Multi-casting' features will allow you to set a broadcast time and stream gameplay live to several spectators at once.

Perry said Gaikai's tech enables special spectating tools for developers, who can 'insert command buttons for levels' that let friends drop in items for you such as health while you play.

Perry also described a system which will allow players to instantly play almost any PS4 game they're interested in, without having to pre-download a 'demo' to their hard drive.

While browsing the new PlayStation Store, he said, players will apparently be able to simply 'hit X' and instantly try out a game.

Perry said he believes players should be allowed to "instantly experience anything that you want", and "try for free, and pay only for games you fall in love with".

"What we're creating is the fastest, most powerful gaming network in the world," said Perry.

Speaking briefly of backwards compatibility, Perry went on to say that Sony is "exploring" the possibility of making PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS Mobile games ubiquitous to any platform, including PS4.

'Everything everywhere' is the ultimate aim, he said.

Perry said Sony will be "rolling out PlayStation cloud services in phases", hinting that backwards compatibility may not be available at launch.

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