In our big PlayStation Now news piece yesterday, PlayStation’s Matt Harper detailed how the DualShock 3 would be required for anyone who wanted to use the new service on their Bravia TV.
For a little more information on how the DualShock will be a part of PlayStation Now, John Koller, SCEA’s VP of Marketing for Consoles and Handhelds, talked to CVG about how you’ll control PS3 games on your tablet or smartphone:
It needs to go through the DualShock. The DualShock remains the key ingredient. So that controller experience needs to go perfectly. We didn’t want to utilize touch screen or anything like that because the games are best played with a DualShock.
As a follow-up to this, Koller clarified, “Yes, it requires the DualShock. The DualShock 3 specifically. To enable tablet and smartphone play, you’ve got to have the DualShock 3.” A Sony spokesperson then further clarified how you’ll be using the DualShock 4 with PlayStation Now on PS4.
While Koller wouldn’t specifically confirm iOS and Android for PlayStation Now, he did answer whether the service will bring about a future for PlayStation without traditional consoles:
We’ve been very open and bullish on physical consoles. So I don’t think PS Now necessarily disenfranchises future consoles in any way. But it does, I think, show our willingness to try and focus on content as primary. Really, again, focusing on the gamer first – obviously they want great content, great experiences. Those experiences can be had in many different places. So it’s more of an open position now.
I think it’s interesting you had that reaction – many of your colleagues have had that same reaction because they’re saying, ‘I really thought it’d be PlayStation-only’. We wanted to make it broader.
Adding to that, John explained if this means the future of PlayStation will be moving towards just software:
It’s not necessarily the future of PlayStation, but it is a philosophical change and a reality that we want our gaming experiences to be broadly experienced. So, when you look at PS3 games – huge catalog, really strong and diverse lineup of genres and games – we want people to be able to experience those, yes, on PlayStation platforms, but if you own a Bravia [TV] it’d be great if you could pair your DualShock 3 and be able to instantly play.
PlayStation Now’s strong benefit is instantaneous gameplay because that is a problem in this industry. We’ve got to solve that and I think this does that. We’ve been working towards that on the download side with Play-as-you-Download [for PS4], and with PS Now we get people instantly playing whether you’re on a PlayStation, a Bravia, and over time, tablets and smartphones.
Do you plan on using PlayStation Now through your PlayStation device, or will you be playing PS3 games on your smartphone/tablet/TV? Let us know in the comments below.
[Via]
