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.
I agree 100% I think they want us to buy PS3’s, it makes perfect sense if you think about…
Let’s charge people twice as much just for backwards compatibility. It makes perfect sense if your trying to make back $380 Mil spent on a streaming service.
Service is a ripoff. When it was first annouced it was made to sound like a way to give customers backwards compatilbilty for games. I stopped beta testing one y’all start charging why should I pay you to beta test your product. An look at the games most i can buy at the store for less then the price y’all have. This service shouldnt even have been released without a subscription model. As of right now EA Early Access is a better deal then PS Now. Get it together Sony and stop letting the game campanies that set these prices treat us like Gamestop treats us.
@Broodn It hasn’t been released. It’s in beta. If they implemented the subscription now, we’d just have people complaining they had to pay a subscription to access the beta.
Here’s my feedback about this. I hope you guys, read it.
With this model business, this will not be successful.
It is not interesting to pay individual values (I saw, $ 15 for 90 days, and not worth it).
You have to adopt a business model like NetFlix, a fixed amount per month via subscription (Plus members could even get a discount on this signature).
If you persist in this price model, I’m afraid that may result in poor financial results. And I want to see my favorite company, healthy, because it means more investments more investment to the console that chose to spend an entire generation.
Have they added PS1 and 2 games yet?
I think there should be a straight up “purchase” option, not everybody wants to only rent games. As well, several of these games I already own via Playstation network, why should I have to pay again to play them on my PS4. I really like this idea and love the DS4!!
I got over 900 digital downloads on The ps3 are you telling me buying all them games was a waste of time I think I might just play My xbox one even due it is **** just boycott PlayStation for what they did
LMAO@ those prices… my wallet is safe, thanks $ony
Gamefly, 3 games for $25 a month… beat that $ony… seriously, beat that price
I agree Jibjab79 lol, I honestly think the service is an amazing idea, especially with having gotten rid of my PS3 and hoping to finish the back log of games I had on PS4 while I’m waiting until 2015 for the real games to cone out, however at those prices it looks like I’ll just be playing a whole lot of Battlefield 4 and Megalodon hunting! Arrrrr
just saw your PlayStation now beta tutorial on youtube have to say really cool and fair prices and I heard that there might be a subscription down the road soon but I think this should be included with a PlayStation Plus members account because this gives freedom for a plus members to pick the games he or she wants to play and no longer has to wait every month to see what we’re getting it would drive other PlayStation owners to subscribe to a PlayStation Plus just food for thought like always a loyal PlayStation fan
A few suggestiobs:
1) Make the 4 hour rental free as a “trial period”.
2) Let us buy the games to keep forever, not just rent them.
3) Give us a subscription plan, like Netflix.
A few suggestions:
1) Make the 4 hour rental free as a “trial period.”
2) Drop the individual rental scheme and just give us a subscription plan, like Netflix.
I would love to be able to pay a subscripton to Playstation Now instead of just having the only option to rent.I love Sony as a company,video game console maker, and all Sony based products.Listen to us the consumers, we want those ps1,ps2,games on this service to be playable on our new PS4.If you think the profits from the playstation 4 are up now, can you imagine how much revenue that can be possibly generated once people from all consoles as well as pc gamers, find out that they can play any playstation or playstation 2 game on the ps4? Can you say Cha-chingg.The earning potential would be staggering for Sony and Profits could see a Major increase in not only the subscription,but console sales as well.Even with Garkai the emulator that’s said to be able to emulate these older games, make that available as well broaden your horizon’s and earning-potential.Sony, your catalog of games cannot be matched by any competitor on the market.With the playstation 1,2,3,and 4 all together ranging well over a thousand,there would be no console competition and all revenue.Please make us happy we love you Sony.
@PS_man1984
I would just rent the same game (save to cloud) every 4 hours till I finished it. lol
Netflix has unlimited streaming for $8 a month. Sony should have something similar for about $10-$15 a month.
AMEN LORDVENOM777 agree 1,000,000%
So now that Now is integrated with the Store, will the app from the closed beta still work?
The pricing is ridiculous, $2 for 4 hours, not 4 hours of game time, 4 hours of real time, come on playstation you can do better. And, yes we need a subscription, maybe 5-10 games a month for $15-20? that would be great, $1 for a 4 hours of game time, it would also be great, i know is beta, but if you want this to be successfull you need to improve… a lot (don’t let this be like the memory cards for ps vita).
The prices are too high for the shorter renting periods. I would be much more interested paying a $1 per day to get access to huge library of games. In the long run it would be a better value for both the customers and for your businesses.
lol what a ripoff! You want better hmm GAMEFLY! Heck you guy’s don’t even have the PS-1 games like Battle Arena Toshinden 1-2-3 But I’m not interested in a pay per service!
Who cares I saw the preview for those games but Sony half are already in the PSN store lol and your prices that’s not going to work! New Content?? Or games that we are still waiting for in HD might help. Where’s Battle Arena Toeshinden 1-2-3 in HD or the games that launched the PS-1 from 1995-1998?? Absolutely no more excuses Sony!
I am glad I finally get to try this service! I am VERY excited that you are working on this technology! However, I do have some concerns and suggestions:
1) Games that I have already purchased digitally for my PS3 should be available to me at no additional charge through PS Now
2) While I appreciate that you lowered the prices some, they are still WAY too high! The 4-hour option should be a 24 hour option at that price! 90-day option should be eliminated, replaced with an option to purchase the game permanently (see next suggestion)
3) Give me an option to PERMANENTLY buy the game! Some of us want more than just a rental!
4) I know you are actively working on a subscription option, but I will still ask that we see details on this sooner rather than later!
I wish you guys the best in this endeavor. You guys are really stepping up and raising the bar for what video game companies should be doing! Keep up the good work! And Thanks!
$.4 per hour or $.96 per day and use actual game time, or even better yet how about 20minutes for free for PS+ members
I’m having a problem with Dead Island game through Now. I was a Closed Beta testers and when I played the game apparently I had the Survivor Pack. Now I’m playing the game and it says and I quote
WARNING: Installed downloadable content is no longer available as you do not have entitlement rights to this content. As a result, any previously saved games that include the content will not be available until the entitilement is restored and content will not be available when beginning a new game.
This is disturbing. It’s like I feel like I’m playing a downgraded version of Dead Island Riptide (In fact thats what exacity what it is). Please restore the rights so all players have the Survivor Pack.
I have a PS Vita but no PS3 or PS4. My friends and I think would be great if they offered some type of purchase and download option so we could still play when we were on the go and be able to keep playing without a subscription. And so we wouldn’t be overcharged for playing the same game for months and possibly years at a time, depending on the replay value. I am looking forward to playing a ton of games from the PS3 generation seeing as I missed out on all of them. I’ve never played PS3 and only a little bit of XBOX 360 online multiplayer at friend’s houses so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do and I am not always connected to the internet. I know a lot of Vita owners agree with me that we would like to be able to actually download the games and keep them since they haven’t been released on the Vita. Thank You.
@183 WickedSeraph
if they had built software BC into the PS4, we wouldn’t need this service….but then they couldn’t nickle and dime us to death with this new “superawesome omg future-cool” “service”….when rental stores existed, i used to be able to rent a game for a week for 6 bucks…..now if i pay that to PSnow, i get 16 hours…half of which will be spent sleeping, unless i do nothing but play that game ALL DAY….
it’s a ripoff.
Not a huge fan of an open beta model, that we have to pay stupid high prices for. I am ssuming all of the games work as they were all released 1+ years ago….but the open beta would be to stress test the servers, or if enough of us start commenting on slowdown, skip, studder, pixilation, during a certain cutscene for a certain game… However id o not even know why this is called an open beta though, because for all those aforementioned issues, you could potentially just point the finger at a customers internet. . . So why is this called an open beta, and not just a release of the service? Foolish way to test anything out, all everyone is going to say, is the pricing is horrible. . . ~ Beta concluded.
Most of this Pricing is absurd. Most of these games I can buy for half the price you are offering for a rental. $1.99 for 4 hours? I can go to Redbox and get a game for $1 for a 24hr rental. If this is going to be old games, than just do $5 a month for unlimited play that would make way more sense. Otherwise I will just continue to buy the games in bargain bins for way cheaper. I guarantee most people will do the same, the way this is looking.
Just looked at the games available. I already own, have played, or won’t pay more than $.99 for any of these titles. Sorry.
“I still think you’re all doing it wrong sitting on a PS4 to play old games. Stick to the PS3 & PS2.”
Backwards compatibility is a feature on every other device. Why can’t game systems have it? Imagine having to rebuy all your old content on your new phone/PC because it won’t play you’re previously purchased stuff. Sucks doesn’t it?
Not everyone has multiple game systems scattered around. Many people sell their old systems when they upgrade. Do you still keep your Windows XP computer to play old games? Of course not, because those games are still playable on newer hardware.
I’m about to get rid of my ps4 if I have to pay to play games I already paid Sony for through the store why would I remain loyal to a company who hasn’t been loyal to me. I have supported this company since ps1 and owned every console, held included and bow is get rewarded by repaying for what they have digitally as a download as a rental.
I agree with everybody else. We need some kind of subscription plan. Really excited to try this service on my Vita but not at these prices.
PS_man1984 your barking up the wrong tree I’m afraid, your idea would generate more PS4 sales and would be very bad for business as sony wouldn’t make as much as Renting the games versus giving you backwards compatibily, the main reason they eliminated BC on newer versions of PS3 is because PS2’s were still selling!! Crazy huh.. Maybe once PS3’s stop being made sold etc, then you might have a chance of BC on PS4, but highly doubtful because our opinions as gamers only goes so far, unless no one uses PS Now at all I’m afraid it’s not going to change. It’s sad that you can buy a PS2 on eBay with BC built in cheaper than renting some of the PS now games for 3 months at a time. I know they are gonna fix the prices, but still sad considering XBOX won the console war last gen, you think they’d want to win the console war this time around. Oh and MS is in the works of adding BC to XBONE as a software update, if they can do that then why oh why can’t Sony do it for us?
So I have a question. Does the streaming only work for the specific account that purchased it on said PS4? So for example if I have two users on my ps4, account A and account B, and then rented a game on account A, would I then be able to log out and access the same game from account B? I ask because there are other people who use my PS4 and I know would like to play the rented game on their own accounts.
PS Now has potential. Can’t wait till it’s on a subscription base. There is one thing that bothers me, if i already own the game on my PSN account, why do I have to pay for it again just to “rent it” ? That’s completely ridiculous !! Please reconsider for future production. Thank you.
1) “Backwards compatibility is a feature on every other device.”
– Nope not everything. I can’t stick my SNES cartridge into my WiiU. Woe is me. lol @ entitled gamers
2) “Why can’t game systems have it?”
– Licensing and architecture become restrictions. Not every previous gen console can be easily emulated.
3) “Imagine having to rebuy all your old content on your new phone/PC because it won’t play you’re previously purchased stuff. Sucks doesn’t it?”
– Sucks for you. I keep my original hardware for all old content if I ever want to play them.
4) “Not everyone has multiple game systems scattered around.”
– Sucks for everyone else but me.
5) “Many people sell their old systems when they upgrade.”
– Shoudn’t have. Sucks for them.
6) “Do you still keep your Windows XP computer to play old games? Of course not, because those games are still playable on newer hardware.”
– PC has had the same architecture since the 90s. That’s why it has the best BC. Funny thing is I repurchased old games because I wanted them to be all on Steam.
You have to rent / pay for it again because it’s a convenience fee, BC on PS4 is not free, that’s why you don’t see PS3 games in the PS4 store for purchase
If you bought a PS4 to play PS3 games you’re doing it wrong.
Once they establish a subcription plan and unlock the open beta, (free 99) everyone will stop crying, including myself, and I purchased plenty of PS3 games from the store I’d like to play, but like I said it’s a convenience fee, once the subcription and price are set, not being able to play previously purchased full games on my PS4 won’t feel as bad lol
This would be a MUCH, MUUUUCH better business plan but i doubt they would go that way :
Don’t put different rental plans on each games.
Instead, let users pay a monthly fee that could be a set of tiers (like 10$ a month, 20$/month, etc…).
Each title could be worth a virtual currency (let’s call them points). Like a AAA title could be 500 points.
And a 9.99$ indie title could be 50 points.
The monthly fee would give you a set amount of points.
So a user opting to pay, i don’t know… 20$ a month could be getting 1000 points.
Those points would allow him to get some games “out” to play.
So for that 1000 points, one user could get 2 AAA titles out at a time to play. OR one AAA title, a few indie titles and in-betweeners.
You could decide at any time the games you have out, BUT there would be a minimum of one week usage for each title you decide to “rent”, to curb abuse.
—————
Other way of doing things :
LOWER the prices, that is one thing. Give points for each rentals. Points could be redeemed to permanently own a game, or to spend on rentals.
This would work for me:
1) $5/month add-on to PS+ to use the service.
2) $.99 for 4 hours, $2 for 24 hour rental, $7 for 7 days, $15 for 30 days.
3) Purchases work through the PS Now service.
Your digital purchases would skyrocket. If you need more funding for the streaming, you could charge a $5 “upgrade” fee for each title to work with the service. I think that would at least be more approachable than what you guys have currently.
I agree with givemesometots tho, if your gonna cry about having to pay double or triple what a game is worth to play it for a few hours on your PS4, do yourself a favor and buy a 60gb PS3 off eBay and you now have a PS1-4 system,, aha!!
Also i don’t agree with the fact that we have to pay to test their system… that’s not right.
But the way people reacted to those pricing models…. i seriously doubt that they will have a lot of testers.
I myself would absolutely love to throw some hours down testing their system, but I’d rather play a game I already have on my PS4’s hard drive at Free 99 /hour
when i first heard about this service i was so excited to be able to play these games on my ps4, seeing as i played every other game i had on an xbox, and, at the time i heard of this service i heard that it would be a subscription service somewhat like netflix and would be able to pay a flat rate per month to play the games, so i was very excited to be able to play these games for a relatively cheap price comparative to buying them all again (i sold my xbox 360 and games for my ps4). i cannot describe the disappointment i felt when i saw that it wouldnt be a subscription service and would be a price per game (up to half of retail price for only 90 days when i could pay double and be able to play it whenever i want). i heard that there is still a chance that it could end up being a subscription service and i really hope it does because it would gain a lot more users, as in myself. as of right now i will not be spending much, if any money on this service until/unless it becomes a subscription service.
Who agree’s that if they made the open beta truly open (free) that you’d test the crap out of it? I know I would.
Was hoping to come home and finally play God of War – as advertised- on my PS4.
Where the heck is it?!
I’d probably only use PS Now as a subscription service. Heck, I’d pay more on my PS Plus subscription, probably up to $50 more dollars on the current PS Plus price, for a yearly subscription service that offered a wide variety of games. Just to note, also, I’m a day one PS Plus member. Love the services Sony has to offer.
There are only select titles available for purchase,, ah I mean rental at this time. God of war will probably get added some time after the beta ends.