As we announced back at CES, PlayStation Now (PS Now) is the first-ever game streaming service available on a game console, where you can quickly access a rich and expanding library of PlayStation 3 (PS3) games from our cloud servers. Since January, PS Now has been in Private Beta for select gamers across the country, and I’m happy to announce that the Open Beta will be available to all PlayStation 4 (PS4) owners in the U.S. and Canada starting tomorrow.
As part of this Open Beta, PS4 users will see PS Now titles fully integrated into PlayStation Store, available to be streamed for various rental durations. Check out the video walkthrough of how it all works:
During the PS Now Open Beta, PS4 users will see a diverse library of more than 100 titles to rent, with more added regularly. PS Now will offer a variety of rental periods depending on the game, including 7-days, 30-days or 90-days, as well as a short 4-hour duration, so players can sample the experience first.
With a strong and stable broadband connection, visual and gameplay quality will be much like what you’re used to with other PS3 games. PS Now will also feature cloud game saves, as well as support for other popular network features such as Trophies, friend lists and leaderboards. You can also play seamlessly online with other people on PS Now, or even players who have the downloadable or disc based version of the game. As you know, the PS3 catalog of games is massive and incredibly diverse, and we’re thrilled to make these epic experiences available to PS4 first, followed by our other PlayStation platforms in the coming months.
Since we’re still in Beta, and in the very early days of PS Now, we plan to continue to collect feedback during this Open Beta phase to make further refinements to the service, so please provide us feedback once you’ve experienced the service.
We want to thank those that have been participating in the PS Now Private Beta for their time, dedication and valuable feedback, which have helped us continue to shape the service.
You will immediately see a clear breakdown of what’s included with game rentals, so it’s easier to tell what content you’re getting with your rental, especially since several games offered through PS Now include DLC that increase the value of the offering. Also, in a few weeks, you will start seeing reduced pricing on some 4-hour rentals which will appear at $1.99.
In addition, we’ve heard you loud and clear for an update on a PS Now subscription option and want to reassure you that we are working on it. We think PS Now represents the next step toward the future of gaming and we’re excited to have the PlayStation Nation come along with us on the beginning of this journey.
7 days, 30 days, 90 days? What do you mean?
I want to own the game once I’ve paid for it, especially if there is a subscription fee.
Otherwise this service is totally worthless in my mind.
So will we recieve our trophies since were actually paying and playing or is it like a demo and you have to go get a hard copy to recieve anything we gain from renting?
Have to agree with those suggesting a link between PS Plus and PS Now with a monthly, semi-annually, and annual subscription options. I would pay an additional $20-$40 on top of the annual PS Plus subscription for unlimited streaming. An unlimited streaming subscription linked with PS Plus is the only way this service will be worth while. Otherwise expect a complete flop after dumping all the time, money, and other resources that have been put into this project.
I think if they add new or newer games to the lineup after Beta, I feel it would be worth it. The people complaining about the price structure must have never rented from Blockbuster before b/c that was pretty much the same price 10+ years ago. Also, you never owned the game when you rented from Blockbuster hence this a rental service, not a buy the game service. Funny how people don’t understand the concept of a rental service yet that is what your pretty much doing with Netflix too, only digitally. I do agree with the 4 hour part, which i think they should just get rid of all together. Make older games cheaper to rent, the newer games, the current price structure, and new games a couple of buck more. I think to along with the sub option, allow the gamer to buy the game at a reduced price if they like the game. this could do well if the price is right especially for newer games that are short or have easy trophies.
For what being charged on those multi hour rentals you could have rented games at blockbuster, or from redbox, for a whole week.
One thing I would also like to see is integration between digitally owned and streaming games. You want to give people another reason to buy games on PSN instead of outlets where they could potentially pick up a secondhand copy of a game, this would be a big one. This service was being touted as something that would bring extra value to the Vita as well as non console devices. If I own a downloaded copy of the game it would be nice if I could sync up with a streaming option for the game, and say I went on vacation I could continue the game I started which the copy that I bought. Your competition has an option like this.
@killerlightning : yeah… blockbuster… back then they rented retail games.
Now you have indie titles on the PS Store, at 15$ each, often on sale for 5 to 10$.
And then you see them on PS Now, for rent for 24 hours, for 6-7$…
Thats my biggest pet peeve.
Pricing is fine, for titles that still retail at 50$+… but old titles that often get on sale for 10$ … uhm not for me.
How does the rental time count. Is it game play time or is it clock time?
My Internet’s speeds aren’t good enough to stream. I think the service is a great idea but can we also download the games so people like me can still use the service?
@556 Clock time, it sucks BAD.
Yo Sony great stuff so far but some points i want to add
– Scratch that 4h option and bump it up to 24h. it feels to much like a demo ripoff. With twitch and youtube i may have better sources on the hand to see what a game plays like.
– add more Info for the Speed Test. Whats the average download and upload speed etc. some numbers to compare settings and day time. A good internet is critical for this service so provide some facts and numbers with the speed test !
I wish there was an option to purchase the games permanently, i dont like this idea of renting it.
And i was hoping at some point the psn games i purchased on ps3 would transfer to ps4.
This makes me not want to buy psn games and just get games from steam. now i have to pull out my ps3 to play guacamelee or castle crashers.
These prices are ridiculous. Will be ignoring PS Now until it’s not for rich people only.
Okay it does some like a good idea, but most of those games I already own on my PS3. It’s kinda odd to pay for something I already purchased on my PS3 just to play it one my PS4. Can you guys make the games I already purchased free? Paying to play a game you already own especially since they was purchased from the Sony Network seems kinda pricey.
Sony,
Okay, you guys need to wake up and realize your 1990s style pricing is ill conceived in this Netflix all-you-can-eat world.
1) Fix your pricing, rental prices should never exceed 50% of the value of the games current price.
2) Subscription system is a must, you are just shelling out old games from a generation ago.
3) Premium pricing is meant for PREMIUM NEW CONTENT, not old content.
4) PS1/PS2/PSP games should all be playable via this service.
5) If a gamer already owns the game, and has PS Plus, if they insert the disc into their system, it should be Playable via NOW
6) Respect the gamer and show them you are not trying to gouge them
7) Finally, be a market leader, set the benchmark for the rest of the industry
If you can do the above, your Now service will wither and die before it has a chance.
PS: Who ever at Sony thinks instant gratification warrants absurd pricing schemes needs to be fired. Those types of managers are the reason good companies lose focus.
I do not like the fact that instead of buying games from a local retailer I purchased all my games and movies from psn on my ps3 and I am not able to play them on ps4. That is how cloud works. So why is PlayStation now simply just an add-on to the current store? The games I purchased on ps3 should not have an additional price to play now. I bought them from psn. If this is integrated cloud storage, I should be able to download anything I have purchased onto my Ps4 as it has the capabilities to do so. Its not okay to charge me again to play something I have already boughten from you.
so i go to sign up and cannot enter postal code it says us and canada whats gives ?
Your design team isn’t in touch with reality. Fair prices:
$0.25-$0.50 for a day
$1.5 for a week
$3 for a month
keep forever: $5
Multiply that by 2 for new releases.
But of course, the real ossues will be ignored because you as a company have strayed away from selling qaulity and adding qaulity. Instead you push more crap out that just gives you another way to make money. And if thats the case, and your telling me that my games that I purchased in the ps3 store are going to cost me more money to play them on my Ps4, what was the point of buying them from you? So you can charge me to play them on next gen? Look up my account. I have spent $5000 in the store. I am insulted. Appalled. And want my money back for every purchased product that I made in the ps3 store.
Or you can simply fix it. Make it right. Treat your customers with fairness. And for once, listen to everyone. Not just the carefully selected few that were probably hand picked for your marketting reasons.
You are seriously charging people 3 dollars for a glorified demo. Seriously fix your pricing. I can go to red box and get a game for 2 dollars only difference is red box I have it for 24 hours. I understand the cost of streaming but consumers are not going to bother with that.
im sorry but you drop the ball on this one… sorry gamefly has a way better rental plan…
Well, I’ve had a chance to check out PS Now…EA Access offers better value.
With current prices – even the announced new lower price, no PS+ benefit, no free streaming on already owned content, I have to say this was a very short lived journey for me.
I have lost absolutely all interest in PS Now and am losing faith in Sony. As of late Sony executives have been a bit arrogant with gamers and press. Telling gamers what they want and deciding for us what has value is the same arrogant Sony many gamers abandoned during the late PS2 and early PS3 days.
BTW…that new SCEA President…he makes me want to buy an Xbox One. Keep up the shallow attitude and your customer base will reflect it.
Part 1
Dear SONY,
I think you guys should rethink this all service. If this is an experiment, it will fail badly. Stick to what you know…which is value and pleasing the consumers. If you provide a great service with value then you make money and gamers will be happy. Win/Win, right?
I think you guys at SONY should do what EA is doing, which is a like a “Netflix-Like” subscription and maybe revamping the PS PLUS. When I say revamp, make a PS PLUS PREMIUM Service for maybe like $70 which bundles Plus + PS NOW while keeping the basic PS PLUS the same price. I guarantee you that it will sell like crazy. Heck, maybe even make a Plus Platinum Subscription where you add PLUS, PS NOW, Unlimited MUSIC and Unlimited Videos for about $100. I am no business expert and I have no idea if you guys will make a profit that way but these are only wild ideas that might make you guys awesome and make profit by the number of subscribers..
Part 2
For those who don’t want to commit to a great bundle (Like a wholesale price). Perhaps charge $10/month and for those who commit to a six month plan, $20-25. PS NOW Unlimited $40
Also, PS NOW would be awesome if it allowed us to stream our PS3 PS PLUS and digital purchased title on our PS4 systems. I thought that was the whole point of purchasing Gaikai?
Once again, this won’t survive at the end……..we as gamers love value and try to save during this tough economy. Wow us SONY!
Here are some ideas:
1. Make it available for the entirety of America. That means servers in every country in America: South, Central and North.
2. If you will not do the above point, at least allow users to flag games as “still playable under high latency” for (S)RPGs/Strategy games. I can’t initiate any game only because it has a latency restriction. Or make the restriction optional, not mandatory.
3. Reduce prices
Hello PlayStation!
I have a few suggestions after playing the Beta. First and foremost, the prices on the beta currently are much too overpriced. The example that you showed in darksiders can be purchased for cheaper than the $14.99 price point you have selected for a 90 day rental period. This is the case after reviewing all of the titles on the beta. Renting a game should be cheap, period. Secondly, a subscription service would be nice too. There should be different subscription options such as a 3 month, 6 month, and yearly subscription. I would feel as though the service would be most valued at a similar price to PlayStation Plus, but maybe even a little cheaper. The fact that you are still renting the games and not owning them gives consumers the idea that it needs to be cheap and not a significant purchase as a new game would be. Thanks for listing to your community PlayStation!
Long Live Play!
This is so stupid half the games I own from psn but if I want to play them on my ps4 I have to pay you to rent them your out god damn mind Sony this sucks why don’t you do something kool like bring back DNL music and videos not this crap you guys should change your new saying to WE JUST WANT YOUR MONEY >.< Sony
I am fine you guys turned down the EA subscription program on the PS4 but I think you guys shouldn’t have spoken about EA not offering great value. You guys kind of overlooked your own service in terms of “value”. It’s painful to look at the PS NOW section in the PSN store…only because of the prices 0_0 *cringes*. I think I have to agree with EA for once and their Netflix like move. I dare to say its a better value despite it just being EA games (which they will add more over time). I still have love for you SONY. Make it right and show us that iron fist!
Keep pricing simple. $1 a day. $5 a week. And a purchase option. 4 hrs is pointless. Each title should have 30 mins to 1 hr free play demo time.
Or I can understand if the purchase option doesn’t want to be offered. You want to be able to retire old games. A subscription plan would be better. All access for $$ a month. That would be better than EA’s model because if all publishers did it that way I’d be paying big, big bucks to play all the games from all the different publishers that I like. How about older games on a subscription and new releases by rental period? Similar to how the movie rental business is. Redbox streaming does it that way
.
I think ps now is a great idea. I can’t wait for a subscription option to become available. There are many games that I didn’t get a chance to try on the ps3, but the current pricing is a little questionable at the moment.
I know Sony wants money because they are a business but they will make less of it from Playstation Now if they use these prices because not many people will use the service. The 4 hour rental period should be taken out straight away. A substitute for that would be 1 day. Then charging $2-3 for a day would be very reasonable. If Sony allowed us to buy games permanently on PS Now that would be great. Sell the game for the same price they are on The PS3 PS Store. Also renting I feel should act just like the rental service they have with the movies, even though the movie renting seems overpriced to me. SONY, you have a great service. If you pull a 180 and gain a good public opinion on PS Now then many will flock to it. Also one of the best things you could do is to allow a digital activation with PS3 discs. With my BF4 I have to insert the PS3 disc in the PS4. If you were to allow users to insert their discs in the PS4 and then use a $2 transfer. You could allow people to play their PS3 games through PS Now using that license transfer. Please head my requests as i feel this whole situation could be improved greatly. That said I have no complaints on the streaming. I have a 12 mbps connection and have not had an problems.
PlayStation now should be a monthly rental like ps plus i would rather buy a game fisk and d system only an idiot would rent a game 4 for those ridiculous price how d hell would i rent a game $3 for 4 hours some of those game are almost free at games stop money dont grow on tress peace
Nice, now Sony gets backwards compatibility at a premium that nobody wants to pay.
Sony my main concern, other than remastered content, is really the DS4. But that’s for somewhere else…
Stay Bourgie
The prices in general are ridiculous.
The fact this is the only pricing model they have is down right unbelievable. No option to stream my own games I own for a fee. no rent to buy option. Even those 4 hour rentals they should just be 30 minute to 1 hour demos. No general subscription option when we are in the subscription for streaming generation.
Oh and the games in the beta most of them are horrible choices.
It’s going to flop, I’d rather buy the PS3 games pre-owned.
Here are a couple of my suggestions:
The 4 hour and 90 day rental periods are a bit on the expensive side. I think that two rental time periods would be just fine. Weekly and Monthly. A fixed price between $5-7 for the former, and $8-15 for the latter. If you decided to keep the 4 hour slot, maybe reduce it to $1 or maybe up it to 24 hours and keep it at $3. Also, I would love to see an option to simply purchase and download the game outright via PSN, if it’s for sale in the store. I’m amazed this option doesn’t exist now.
I would love to see a subscription option for those of us that have PS+. I’m not sure how much others would be willing to pay, but something like $10/month with discounts if you buy multiple months at a time. So it would look like $10/month, $25/3 months, $45/6 months, and $85/year?
I’d really like to try out this service, but right now the pricing and selection of games is pretty weird. For anyone with a PS3, I don’t see any reason to rent these games unless you will be able to commit the time to finish it in the 4 hour or 7 day period, because anything longer than that is way too expensive compared to buying the disc for most of these older games.
But it still doesn’t make sense if you are hoping that people who didn’t have a PS3 and now have PS4 will want to rent older games, because there is very little there that even looks appealing to rent. You will need to increase the game selection quickly to make this remotely worthwhile. There’s very little first-party content on there with your heavy hitter franchises, which I assume means they will all get PS4 re-releases, which I kind of undermines the PS Now service altogether. You need the big guns like Uncharted, God of War, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, etc. so you can get new players renting these games to see what they’ve missed.
Anyway, I’ll hopefully find something on there soon to try out and see how well it performs, but for now I think there’s still a lot of work to do.
I forgot to mention, will we ever get free access to games that we’ve previously purchased on PSN? This seems like a no-brainer to me. If I already have the digital version of Killzone 3, then I should be able to stream it through PS Now for free.
Overpriced. I would be ashamed to try and charge these prices.
I understand you need to make a profit from your business.But.How much profit are you willing to try and make at the sake of damaging your customer relationship?
If the current prices are providing minimal profit. Then your service is doomed to fail. Because it makes no sense to pay those prices for a product that can be purchased to own. At a lower or similar price.
I don’t know the overhead costs to run this service. But someone should have had the foresight to know that your broadest user base could/would not pay the current pricing.
Dear Sony,
Please make PS Now free. You are multibillionaires, you should give us back free games and free services as a thank you to us who rent your games from Gamestop. What is business? That’s a stupid word!
Kthxbai
Ridiculous prices. If it’s not going to be something comparable to Netflix, you shouldn’t even bother.
Im not sure if someone can help me, but if i remember correctly didnt the Closed Beta exclude Hawaii (and i think Alaska) im just hope this isnt the case now that its open beta now! it was kind of ashamed that i couldnt test this service out just because i live in Hawaii. just doesnt seem fair and makes it seem like you dont care about us over here. i just hope the next time you do something like this if its in the US, try to include all of NA and not just the Continental!
Wow lots of great games there to choose from…..great start.Also how nice that you guys showed Darksiders…pretty cool very underrated game.
Anyway you guys should lower the internet connection/velocity required for this…impossible?…no,work your way around it,you are damn Sony.
I’ve been in the beta for a while, and there are 3 glaring issues I see right now:
1) The games. There isn’t a single front line PS3 title on the list other than Metal Gear Solid 4. No Uncharted. No Infamous. No Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, or God of War. Not even Heavenly Sword or Warhawk or Ratchet and Clank. These are the games you have to get on PS Now if you really want to ignite more interest. You have Killzone 3 on there, but most would prefer to see Killzone 2. The odd thing is, doesn’t Sony own most of those titles? You’d think they would be some of the first one’s on the service.
2) $2.99 for 4 hours is too expensive. I could see renting for 4 hours just to try out a game, but that price needs to be $1 or $1.50.
3) No rent to buy option. This is what I am waiting for. I’d love to purchase a catalog of PS3 games on PS Now, but I’m not about to rent the same game over and over again.
PSNow would be a great service, but sadly as of now the rental prices are so absurd that it makes me just want to go buy the games used since I can get them cheaper than what PSNow charges to rent them. I mean, seriously, you have 90-day rentals that cost more than the physical games! Sony, you refuse to drop your insane Vita memory stick prices…I sure hope you’ve learned from that and realize the PSNow prices are just as insane.. If you want sales, then you need to compete.
So I pay for electricity, internet provider, ps4 hardware, Forced to pay for playstation plus, and now you people think its a great idea for the PS players to pay to rent for old titles. Looking at the list of the games right now , 90% of the titles are old,extremely boring, made for little children( ben 10). Its ridiculous I have to pay to play for a streamed game when I can go out and buy a used or new hard copy for a couple dollars more.
What really needs to happen…
1. Playstation plus memebers should get this for free, period.
2. No secondary subscribtion should be added.
3. No streaming, I want to digitally own whatever games are on the PS now list.
Seriously Sony,
Before saying that the EA offering doesn’t get gamers good value, please, look at yourself first before saying so. Because right now, PS Now is much, much, much worse than what EA is offering on your competitor’s platform. PS Now, right now, is the complete opposite of what “good value” is.
This pricing scheme, and forcing people to pay again for games they already bought (through PSN, no less!), is one of the most insulting and arrogant move I’ve seen in the gaming industry since quite some time. You said in the past that you were coming with some sort of solution regarding backwad compatibility on the PS4. Well, I’m pretty sure no one thought this solution would involve paying again for what they already bought. Seriously, what were you thinking?
However, it’s easily fixable. SO FIX IT.
1) No one should pay AGAIN to play games on PS NOW they already own from the PS Store on their PS3.
2) Add an unlimited subscription model with a FAIR PRICE.
2) No rental, however long they are, should be priced higher or the same as a new or used copy.
I really wanted to try this out last night to see how well it worked. I’m sure it’s awesome, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend such a silly amount of money on something like this. Plant me firmly in the subscription model camp.
Until a subscription plan is finalized, I would definitely get rid of the 4 hour rentals. They are completely absurd. Not even just the pricing, but the concept in general.
I hate streaming games. Rather download and play. If someone uses my internet and the streaming lags that could be game over.
You should have spent the money in new games instead of Gakkai or whatever it’s called…
PS Now is DEAD! Long live my PS3! :D