Good news for PlayStation 3 owners with an eye on the upcoming PlayStation 4: At the Tokyo Game Show Sony revealed it's working on making PS3 games compatible for the PS4, as well as a service that can record videos of those games using HDMI.
IGN is reporting that Sony is preparing the Gaikai cloud service to allow users to play PlayStation 3 titles on their PlayStation 4, which is not backwards compatible. Sony stated that a collection of games will be available when the service launches, and will expand over time, though the company did not announce any specific titles. Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida compared the service to video streaming service Netflix, and is hoping that a wide selection of quality titles will be available at launch. The games that will be a part of Gaikai will also be available for use on the PlayStation Vita, as well as the Vita TV. Sony announced that the service will begin sometime in 2014 in North America, with the European markets also receiving the device within the year, though after the North American launch.
Sony also took time during the Tokyo Game Show to announce that users will be able to use HDMI to capture video from their games. Polygon confirmed the news with Brad Douglas, the Head of Third-party Relations for Sony Computer Entertainment. Douglas also took to Twitter to announce the news. This is a huge development for anyone looking to make gameplay videos for the PlayStation 4; the PlayStation 3 did not allow the use of video capture over HDMI. Sony had also blocked the use of devices that attempted to have the video capture bypass the DRM of the PlayStation 3, so this news is a huge turnaround for Sony's next-gen console. It should be noted that the Xbox 360 and Xbox One have always supported video capturing devices, and both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will have a game DVR that will record content.
The PlayStation 4 will launch on Nov. 15, with the Xbox One launching on Nov. 22. The PlayStation 4 will have almost two dozen titles available at launch, including Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Knack and Killzone Shadow Fall. Look out for more news about the next-gen console right here as Sony prepares the PlayStation 4 for launch and developers announce new games for the system.