Can PlayStation Now deliver on the promise of game streaming from the cloud?

2014 is the year of game streaming. Sony and Valve are both dedicating substantial development resources towards these hotly anticipated features, and rumor has it that Microsoft isn’t far behind. With Steam’s In-Home Streaming, PS4-Vita Remote Play, and PlayStation Now all coming to bear, it’s clear that the gaming industry is betting heavily on
game streaming as the next big thing.
With the PlayStation Now open beta coming next month, now is the perfect time to take a look back and examine the long road leading towards this moment. From satellite broadcasts to browser plug-ins, game streaming has been promised as the holy grail of gaming for decades now. With Sony and Valve at the helm, will we finally have the perfect streaming solutions for everyone?

Satellaview

Released exclusively in Japan in 1995, the Satellaview was an extraordinarily novel add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This odd peripheral allowed Nintendo’s 16-bit console to receive games from St.GIGA’s Broadcast Satellite, and operated for years as a one of the first notable precursors to modern game streaming.
Certain titles utilized a live voice streaming system called “SoundLink,” and thus limited when the games could actually be played. In some ways, this system is much more similar to traditional television broadcasts than it is to modern streaming systems. It only lasted five years, but the Satellaview offered a number of quirky and exclusive titles and features. It’s hard to label this add-on as a success, but it absolutely helped pave the way for alternate distribution methodologies.