Sony explains European Gaikai delays

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss Jim Ryan has discussed the challenges in bringing streaming service Gaikai to Europe.

Gaikai is due to roll out across North America in early 2014. In an interview with Edge, Ryan reiterated the idea behind the cloud technology. "So the plan is to begin with North America next year and the plan is to provide a streaming service that will allow for PS3 content initially to be streamed to firstly PS4 then PS Vita and then PS3," he said.

Ryan added that the challenges of high-speed broadband in Europe were causing problems for the company.

"Now, and I touched upon these issues of broadband in Europe during the [Gamescom 2013] presentation," he said, "Europe is of course on the roadmap for that service to be deployed at some point in the future, but for reasons outside of our control we don't yet have a timeline for it."

Explaining why Sony didn't mention Gaikai at all during its Gamescom 2013 press conference, Ryan said that he didn't want to discuss the service at a European show without more details.

"At a show which is now pretty global in its reach but primarily aimed at a European audience, we didn't really want to start talking about the virtues of this great cloud-based service without knowing exactly when it'll come to Europe.

"We've got a roadmap, there's just a few bumps along the road that need to be ironed out."

During Sony's Gamescom 2013 press conference, Ryan announced that Sony was creating partnerships with European internet service providers to allow PlayStation services uninterrupted bandwidth.

Sony purchased Gaikai in 2012 for $380 million.

The PlayStation 4 will launch on November 15 in North America for $399, and on November 29 in Europe for €399/£349.