Cloudy with a chance of backwards compatibility

When rumours regarding a prospective partnership between Sony and a major cloud gaming service started to spread, we speculated that the company might be looking to the technology to solve its platform's backwards compatibility issues. According to a report on GamesIndustry International this afternoon, that’s exactly what the platform holder is looking to do.

The website reports that Sony is on the verge of announcing a partnership with Gaikai that will allow current generation hardware to play PlayStation 2 and PSone games via the cloud.

According to the site’s unnamed sources, the service will offer first-party games and will be “open to third-party publishers to sell their back catalogue to players”. As per previous rumours, the partnership is set to be announced during Sony’s press conference at E3 next week.

It’s unclear what platforms the streaming service will be offered to outside of PlayStation 3, but GamesIndustry International speculates that it could theoretically be added to Bravia televisions and tablet computers. In that case, Vita seems like a probable candidate too.

Sony and Gaikai are remaining hush-hush about the team-up for the moment, but expect the full extent of the deal to be revealed at E3 next week.

[source gamesindustry.biz]