A number of PS3 games will be available to play on PS4 via the cloud gaming network Gaikai, a key PlayStation executive has said.
Speaking during a roundtable interview at the Tokyo Game Show on Thursday, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said the Gaikai service would commence in North America in 2014. A European release date was not provided.
ZoomAn initial batch of PS3 games will be available to stream on PS4, PS Vita and the recently-announced PS Vita TV, he added.
"We are planning to start serving PS3 games on cloud servers in the States next year for PS4, PS3 and PS Vita - and that means PS Vita TV as well - and expand in regions and content," Yoshida said, as quoted by Edge.
"And as far as content is concerned, the first games that will exist will be PS3 games. We'd like to offer a variety of games, because with video services like Netflix or Hulu, you just want to browse through different movies, watch five minutes and if you're bored you can move on to something else - and that's part of the fun.
"But we have to make sure that the game can work through the internet, so we have to go through certification for each title. So we'll start with a certain number of titles and gradually expand the library."
The PlayStation 4 does not natively play games built for its predecessor, chiefly due to the incompatibility and exotic nature of the PS3's multi-threaded code.
Zoom However, Sony appears to have found a solution by hosting these games on compatible severs and streaming them to other devices via Gaikai.
It is unclear how Sony will charge for the service, and whether it will detect is a PSN user already has the licence to play certain PS3 games.
David Perry, the Sony employee who managed the Gaikai business when it was independent, has previously suggested the plan is to allow all PS2, PS3 and PS One games to be accessible via the cloud.
"What we're creating is the fastest, most powerful gaming network in the world," Perry said in February.
