Sony has built cloud-dedicated PS3s for PlayStation Now – report

An army of purpose built PS3 consoles is being amassed for the launch of PlayStation Now, it is being claimed.

Eurogamer reports that the new machines consist of eight custom built consoles housed in a single server unit.

The company had apparently originally planned to use standard PS3 retail units, but that such moves were abandoned due to the power consumption levels and the fact that these new custom units – which house the equivalent of eight PS3s on a single motherboard – offer better streaming performance.

While some PS3 components such as the infamous Cell chip have to remain unchanged to ensure compatibility with existing PS3 titles, other changes such as a revised network and controller interfaces are expected to have been introduced.

A custom PS3 OS will also likely be used and HDMI will quite possibly be ditched in favour of a hardware video encoder.

The site also claims that the Gaikai team have the advantage of complete access to the PS3 design and the engineers that created it” and speculates that further, unknown measures to reduce latency will also be in development.

It estimates a public rollout in the US in Q3 2014 with an Asian launch to follow in Q4. Europe will have to wait until Q1 2015.