Sony Had ‘PlayStation Now’ Plans for Mobile, Reveals Apple Documents

According to The Verge, a confidential document from the Epic v. Apple trial has revealed that Sony was planning to launch PlayStation Now, the company’s cloud gaming service, on mobile phones back in 2017.

PlayStation Now is a subscription-based cloud gaming service from Sony that lets users stream a vast library of PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 games directly to their PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, or Windows PC. Sony never actually released a PlayStation Now client for iOS, Android, or Mac.

An internal presentation Apple submitted to the courts while elaborating plans for its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade, which launched in 2019, indicates that Apple was aware of Sony’s plans to expand PS Now to mobile devices. The confidential Apple presentation slide shows PS Now as coming to mobile.

At the time, Apple had heard about a “[not-yet-announced] mobile extension of an existing streaming service for PlayStation users, streaming access to over 450+ PS3 games to start, with PS4 games to follow.”

Those plans obviously never came to fruition, however. It is possible that Sony simply decided it would have to jump through way too many hoops to get a game streaming app listed on Apple’s App Store — not an easy task, or scrapped the service for other, unrelated reasons.

Sony is reportedly working on merging PS Now with its PlayStation Plus subscription, under a program code-named ‘Project Spartacus’.

PS Now offers a number of free downloads to subscribers every month. The list of freebies for December 2021 includes Grand Theft Auto III: The Definitive Edition, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, and more.