The cloud service previously had Sony plans, which have since been scrapped, in the context of the ongoing lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple.

The Verge has discovered the documents filed in the lawsuit between Epic and Apple that Sony’s plans for PlayStation Now are entirely out of date, as the company was considering expanding the availability of game streaming in 2017, not recently…

According to the document, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 games would have been available on iOS and Android. Apple had insider information on this, as the paper called PlayStation Now a console and mobile subscription service. If Sony could have executed the plan, it would have had more than 450 PS3 titles available for streaming and added PlayStation 4 titles to the list over time.

PlayStation Now was previously available for PlayStation TV (anyone remembers that? it was essentially a TV-connected PlayStation Vita), smart TVs (Sony Bravia, Samsung…) and Sony Blu-ray players alongside PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Still, in 2017, Sony limited it to PlayStation 4 and PC. We don’t know when the service would have been expanded to include the iOS/Android duo (as Sony implemented the PS4/PC restriction in August 2017, six months after it was announced).

You can still play PlayStation games on mobile, but you’ll need a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, as the PlayStation Remote app lets you play PlayStation games on iOS and Android via your console. But that’s a far cry from what PlayStation Now offers (PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 games) by default, so it’s a last resort, nothing more.

Was it the idea of Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, to scrap this? He was, after all, the one who had the “who would play these?” thought a few years ago after seeing the PS1 and PS2 Gran Turismo games, decrying backwards game compatibility.

Source: PSL