4.2 Million PS4 Consoles Sold, Sony Announces PlayStation Now Game Streaming Service

Sony announced today during their CES 2014 keynote that over 4.2 million PlayStation 4 game consoles have been sold since the console’s November 2013 launch. That figure puts it well over Microsoft’s announcement yesterday of 3 million Xbox One sales worldwide.

As of December 28, Sony’s cumulative sales target was 5 million PS4s sold by the end of March this year, which it seems well on its way to accomplishing. This March ultimatum ties in with the end of the company’s fiscal year.

The company also announced today the long-awaited details of its game streaming service, which they’re now officially calling PlayStation Now. The service, which is made possible by the company’s acquisition of streaming service Gaikai, will stream PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 games over the Internet to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita devices, as well as some Sony-approved non-PlayStation devices. It will be available this summer for all PS4 and Vita owners, with a closed beta beginning this month.

The service will likely be available as a feature for PlayStation Plus subscribers (Sony’s paid subscription service for PlayStation), but we’ll update this story when we hear more concrete details.

The Last of Us from game developer Naughty Dog and Beyond: Two Souls from Quantic Dream will be showcased using PlayStation Now to attendees of this week’s show in Las Vegas.

To give you a bit of history, Sony originally acquired Gaikai in the summer of 2012 for the sum total of $380 million, and made clear at the PS4 announcement last February that it would use the technology to make game streaming a reality for PS4 owners. At E3 last year, the company clarified that the service would launch in 2014.

We’ll be here all week delivering you the best stories from CES 2014, so keep your browser locked to BestTechie for the latest.