PlayStation Now Open Beta – Our Journey Begins

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PlayStation Now Open Beta – Our Journey Begins

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.

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771 Comments

4 Author Replies

  • Any plans on a Vita beta?

  • So what about PS2/PS1 games?

    • We are currently considering measures to offer original PlayStation, PS2 and PS4 titles in the future, but at this time, only PS3 titles are being offered.

  • The 4 hour rentals are way overpriced so that needs to be fixed. Also looking forward to that subscription service and it would also be nice to be able to maybe rent to own the games too. Any news on when we can expect PS Now on Vita?

    • Good news, we will soon have titles come to Open Beta starting as low as $1.99 for a 4 hour rental. Also, we’re working hard on the subscription offering – more on that later. No announcement yet on a PS Vita launch date but it is coming soon…

  • Dude, c’mon. 4 hour rentals for $2? What the hell am I going to do with that? If you want people to sample the game why not do a 30 min or 1 hour preview like with PlayStation Plus? No one is going to pay $2 to play a stupid demo.

  • Seeing_Red_Again

    I want to buy the games on PS+, or have a subscription where I get unlimited access to the games. I cant justify spending money on renting a PS3 game when I can own a disc version for less

  • Looking forward to giving it a try. Like many have stated before, and you note in the post, a subscription model is what would be most appealing to me.

    • Glad to hear it. We’re working on the subscription and I’m excited to share more details when I can!

  • IINathan_DrakeII

    Why just the US (again)?? Why not have the beta here in EU ( ireland) we have the internet speeds.

  • Wasn’t much of a fan of ps now here is why

    1. Pricing is ridiculously bad why would I pay a price to rent when I can buy it used or sometimes new for the same price?

    2. Streaming lags like crazy I have a 30 meg connection and at times the games would constantly freeze or stutter doesn’t make since with a wired connection for this to happen.

    3. Most game titles were old and boring or were for kids In my eyes the average playstation gamer age is between 16-35 why would I want to play a game like Ben ??????

  • The prices have been terrible. All around pretty bad pricing. I sure hope pricing options change quite a bit.

  • @5 Agreed

  • Will there be options to just buy all the games normally? Or are we forced to pay regularly to “rent” games, which many of us already bought on PS3.

  • Very interested to see how this Service performs once a ton of people start accessing it. It would be nice if they gave everyone a free 4-hour rental to really pound the system.

  • I will test this out for a game but if the prices are as high as they were last time I can’t see myself using it a lot.

    I would love a subscription plan though.

  • any news on letting us rent games for free that we own already on psn and through PS+?

  • Can I play my PS3 PS+ games for free on PS4? Because I don’t have my ps3 anymore

  • Wow, so overpriced.

  • Dear Sony, please stick to your guns when you say you’re all about adding value. Blow everybody away with your pricing options. Get people excited. You can always increase prices down the road when everyone is on board and the demand is higher. This model of starting high and lowering during beta to attract consumers is not customer-minded business.

  • Ps now wish lost
    A subscription model ex 10dollars a month for all games the prices are crazy
    And to support dobly digital sound any plans to support dobly digital sound for ps now in future?

  • Will definitely keep my eye out for a subscription option. My gaming time is extremely erratic, so renting for “X Number of Days” doesn’t work well for me.

    But a reasonably priced “All-You-Can-PlayStation” package? Shut up and take my money!

  • So what about PS2/PS1 games?

  • I can buy most of the games for 15 bucks ….smh

  • Yea I’d like to know if there are still plans to offer PS2 and PS1 games on PS Now as well.

  • Why did you all have to use Darksiders as an example? It breaks my heart seeing it played knowing they aren’t making a third one and continuing the story :(

  • Why only the US? Surely best place to test it would be the UK and the rest of Europe where we actually have decent broadband and fibre optic speed?!

  • games like cod and battlefield would be awesome and any plans for supporting dobly digital sound for ps.now and not stereo?

  • Any plans on supporting dobly digital sound for snow and not stereo in future

  • I mean any plans on supporting dobly digital sound for ps now and not stereo I need to know

  • You say that it’s a great way for people who skipped out on PS3 to play some of the PS3 games they missed…

    So why are all the PS3 games shown games that are also available on other platforms? I didn’t see one first-party or exclusive game there. You may say that the service is still in its infancy, but how does that excuse the lack of any notable PS3-exclusive games?

    What is the real incentive?

  • IINathan_DrakeII

    @24 well said, really is annoying that it’s only to US but not only that we have no idea when it’s coming to EU, EU games getting the back end of it again, US has a lot better content on there store and a working better store,

  • Way too expensive, when for a bit more you can often buy the game outright and have a better/smoother experience which lasts forever.

  • $2 for just 4 hours what a joke PS, should be for at least one day!

  • @19 oycomics, love the branding “All-You-Can-PlayStation.” Sony, trademark it now, and cut this man a cheque.

  • Seeing_Red_Again

    I also feel that $1.99 should be for a one day rental, a full 24 hours

  • I’ve tried the free games available, and while they’re mostly simple, they’ve run flawlessly. So if I can try a retail game for cheap, I’ll give it a whirl.

    The only issues I’ve had with it, is that I earned trophies I already had on Critter Crunch. It didn’t sync, so it made no difference, but it’s weird. I kinda wish PS Now had its own trophy system.

    And when the store/game pages don’t load, PS Now doesn’t either. I don’t know why the Ps4 does that. My internet works fine, I can watch Netflix, Crunchyroll, use the browser, but the store just hangs on a blue screen after I’ve used my PS4 for about 30 minutes.

    Get the pricing down and this’ll be a great service, I’d be nice if we could try stuff free or maybe upgrade from 2 hours to other rentals for a discount while it’s still active? Then trying it out wouldn’t feel like a waste of money.

  • Playstation any plans in future to stream games in dobly digital sound and not stereo ?

  • Say we rented something for the 4 hour time rentals (not one of the multiple day options)

    … Is that 4 hours counted immediately after you start the game the first time, even if you quit, does the timer continue to roll? Or is it 4 hours total playtime?

  • hey guys nice pricing plan. glad people can get back the the future for 5 bucks a episode for 3 days instead of simply buying the game for what 15 or 20 bucks?

    i give this program like 6 months before you guys kill it off. the fact that ps plus customers are given NO free games, discounts or anything is pretty unacceptable.

  • This isn’t what I was hoping PS Now would be at all. I was hoping either a subscription plan similar to PS+ or being able to actually “buy” the games for lifetime access, not just 30/60/90 days; particularly when it opens for Vita.

  • just wondering lets say we already own a game and its on PSN is their any word on if that game well be available for free or if we well get a discount of sorts

  • Glad I still have my PS3 around.

  • I’m curious how much data PS Now is going to use. My ISP caps me at 250GB per month, and I already come close to that most of the time. Has it been said anywhere how many megs (or gigs) this will use per hour of play at the highest quality?

  • Will this start at midnight tonight??

  • I’m sorry, I have to say that everyone who says that the prices are ridiculous are idiots. Sure, you’re entitled to your opinion, but your opinion is wrong. This is a great value.

  • I have some suggestions and critiques on the current Playstation Now Model that I’d like to share for feedback. Where would you suggest is best to provide my input for Playstation Staff’s viewing?

  • This is my personal feedback and all I have to say about it so far: I’ve been suscribed as a closed beta tester for 2 months but I haven’t been able to play a single game which was available because I live in South America, and the games have a latency restriction. My advice would be: release this in all of America, and allow users to flag or qualify games as “playable under high latencies or not” which would be the case for strategy/rpg games and any others that don’t require instantaneous reaction times as a fundamental part of the gameplay. This way at least those games would be easily accesible for everyone, and the restriction wouldn’t be so dull and generalized.

  • Sadly I do not see how Sony does not see what the users see. This is a great ideal, but as it is setup now it will be a very slow grow. I mean super slow. First people who own these games digital on the network should be allow to play without repaying. That allows them to have games but also pulls them in to renting more and buying more digitally. That should be your target since things are pushing more in that area and a good base could be built now to create a stronger digital future for the company. Looked at that I just did the CEOs job for him.

  • I was really excited about this. I have to admit I have not been looking at previews or researched anything so it’s probably my own fault I’m disappointed.

    The thing I was expecting is my PSN buy history, those games to be streamed for free and playable through my PS4. That means all the games I got through PS+ on the PS3 and other systems I could play on the PS4.

    Now I just watched that video and they showcased a game (DarkSiders) and I’m looking at the prices required to rent those games and I’m simply shocked. 2.99 for 4 hrs / 5.99 for a week / 7.99 for a month and 14.99 for 90 days (which is $2 more then GameStop new buying.)

    I really doubt I’ll be making use of this and frankly right now I’m quite bummed.

  • Make it more like Netflix, 10 dollars per month to play all games! That would be great!

  • We want PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games to be streamed on PlayStation Now and want a yearly subscription for PlayStation Now and want DLC for all PS3 games to have more value of extra stuff and everything for PlayStation Now.

  • Having been in Closed beta for a while I am liking the week and month prices but the 4 hour is still too high, even at the new reduced priced you just announced. $1 for 4 hours is the sweet spot imo, $2 for a day, even $1 at a day would be awesome, kinda along the lines of redbox although I understand your overhead is probably more expensive. Hopefully the sub model will be reasonable.

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