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 hope current prices are just placeholders for this beta. I know this service needs to recoup costs from acquiring Gakai and its infrastructure but you’re setting up yourselves up for failure before its even begun. No one will use it if they feel like they’re being ripped off.
Looks promising. I’ll keep an eye on it.
ok so you cant release ps3 games for download to the ps4 that we already own due to “incompatibility issues” but you can have us pay you to stream it to the ps4 through a service and it magically becomes compatible with the ps4?
to me it just sounds like you are trying to make back the $380 million you paid to buy the Gaikai cloud streaming service
“ok so you cant release ps3 games for download to the ps4 that we already own due to “incompatibility issues” but you can have us pay you to stream it to the ps4 through a service and it magically becomes compatible with the ps4?
to me it just sounds like you are trying to make back the $380 million you paid to buy the Gaikai cloud streaming service”
Money hungry mega-corporations. Blame your preference for capitalism and your culture, who concedes to such disgraces, north americans.
*that
i hope they do change that price on some of the games because they are just crazy given it is streaming and the games will have some-sort of latency even if its .5 of a sec it will still feel weird when playing why not give the option to download and after the set time it expires just like the ps+ game trial.
So I can rent digital content I already own digitally via Sony for an overprice rate hmmm let me think about it.
Sure I can understand charging me soothing to stream content I already own but ltting me rent it is absurb even more absurb thn that pricing structure.
People really gotta stop saying every little thing they don’t agree with is “insulting”.
That, and “slap in the face”.
Both of these phrases are beyond overused, and always used inappropriately to begin with.
@ dinkin-flicka
To say it’s overpriced is one thing, heck, I might even agree with that, but, people can’t be “ripped off” if they’re not being deceived. Everything about the way the service functions is out in the open here. As long as there aren’t any hidden costs, the power to access the network (or not) is entirely in the consumer’s hands. And no one is being forced, either. You aren’t losing anything by not participating.
The prices are absolutely terrible. It should be 15$ a month for unlimited rental at the most.
pablofsi08 on July 30th, 2014 at 9:08 pm said: “Blame your preference for capitalism and your culture, who concedes to such disgraces, north americans.”
Oh my God… GO AWAY.
You haven’t the slightest clue…
Completely thrilled this is set to make sony a lot of money especially with subscription service. I wonder how often they will update the game library
I being in the Private Beta for a while and one major thing that I think the PlayStation Now should have, and it shouldn’t be a no-brainer, if customer that already own a digital PS3 game, and there games are available on the PlayStation Now. We should be able to play it free of charge. Only if they already own a digital copy of the game on the PSN for PS3. That is fair business.
@PrimeroIncognito
“Feeling ripped off” was a figure of speech and not an indictment of what is actually happening. A better phrase would have been a feeling of buyer’s remorse or post-decision dissonance for using the service. I realize no one is forced to use the service but if many people feel the same way then the service is destined to fail. I’m not just looking out for just my interests but the service as a whole, since I really do want it to succeed.
C’mon Sony. I was extremely hyped about PS Now until I got into the beta. The prices are too high for rentals. I own a PS4 now. Entice me to come back. So hard after getting that beast machine. Plus Amazon prices kill all digital everywhere. We can own the game for half of what you want us to rent for. No thanks. A subscription model is the only way I’ll do this and it has to be set right.
Man I hope this gets noticed, but I have to say Sony is now doing the digital right. I would always find myself preordering from Gamestop. I hate it, but the preorder bonuses are too good to pass up. I really wanna go all digital and now it’s happening. DESTINY digital guardian edition. You pulled it off. Gave me all the bonuses gamestop offered and ten dollars cheaper. Then Diablo 3 ROS shows up and it has day 1 digital preorder bonuses. Keep them coming. The Last of Us as well. Now if you can bring ALL preorders bonuses of Little Big Planet 3 to day 1 digital. That’ll make you king. Those awesome bonuses are too spread out. Gamestop and Amazon bonuses are both Epic. Get them allllllllllll. LOL. Thanks for reading. Keep going Sony. #1
I noticed they haven’t added PS1 or PS2 games to this. Hopefully the reason behind that is they plan on emulating them locally instead.
I have beta tested Gaikai for 2 years and I can honestly say it’s no substitute for playing the game read from a local machine.
The latency is still too much unless you are running a pure fiber optic connection from the ISP to your house and that isn’t likely to be the case.
The PS4 is more than capable of emulating the PS1, PS2, and probably some PS3 games.
Better yet, release an add-on box that connects to your PS4 with all of the necessary chipsets to fully handle all PS1/PS2/PS3 games without needing emulation. I know quite a lot of people that would buy that!
@ dinkin-flicka
Fair enough.
And I agree with others that a monthly subscription fee would be the best approach, but we don’t know exactly what they have in mind for that just yet. We’ll have to wait and see.
But I can already see how the current set-up would benefit many gamers. The value of the rental options shown in the video got significantly better as the rental period increased. For example, if you’re the kind of gamer who only plays one game at a time until you finish it, the options for $8/30 days and $15/90 days would really offer a lot of bang for the buck. In fact, it could turn out to be cheaper than the traditional method of “buy, play, complete, delete” that most of us do for downloadable titles. Why buy it for $15, when you could rent it for $8 and finish it before the month is up? Right?
Seriously, $8 to rent a game for a whole month is awesome. Remember when video stores used to charge $4 – $5 just for a 3-day period?
@163, dinkin, well now that’s a reasonable, mature post worth considering. I wish everyone could frame their comments as if they were rational adults.
What I’ll add here is that I almost wish Playstation would stop offering new services because no matter what, it just brings out the immature, demanding complainers. You notice they’ve drastically cut down blog posts per week. Might be related to all the unpleasant comments we would read every day.
@ SpooNManX
Indeed, latency should be the biggest concern. Much more than the pricing structure.
Smooth gameplay is essential otherwise the whole thing would be pointless.
Your recommended rental rates don’t compare (complete) to GameFly. $1 per day (24hrs) my put them and many others out of business.
Are there any plans in place for individuals who currently own PS3 titles that are offered on Playstation Now in the way of discounts or some type of “ownership” of the Now version?
so wait…this is a beta test…but we hafta pay to participate?
riiiiiight, no thanks..
we’re doing YOU a service, by testing your product for you…
lol, i used to REALLY like you sony, but you’re making a lot of dumb decisions…
Looking forward to a subscription model, love it so far.
@pablofsi08 on July 30th, 2014 at 9:08 pm said: “Blame your preference for capitalism and your culture, who concedes to such disgraces, north americans.”
Can’t argue with $15 Billion dollars of GDP.
Also, I think that PS Plus members should get a free 1 year subscription to PS Now’s future subscription plan, since, oh, I don’t know, WE’RE ALREADY PAYING $50 A YEAR FOR MULTIPLAYER. That being said, PS+ has a lot of benefits.
I’ve been playing in Closed Beta. The reason I dislike this is because there is no way to actually Buy the game and download it. You have to stream it in ‘almost as good’ as disc quality if you have good internet. Not to mention, maximum rent is 90 days. Its cheaper having a PlayStation Plus account and buying a PS3 for 50 bucks on Craig’s list and used games for 5-10 bucks at game stop than this. Not only will you have better quality graphics and no streaming, you will get your free games from plus also.
way too expensive… i though the idea was all you can play for a reasonable price. even better, ps now WAS INCLUDED with ps plus! BY THE WAY, i guess THE EA STREAMING SYSTEM FOR XBOX ONE SOUNDS A LOT BETTER DEAL!
OR you guys could give PS+ users, say, 2 free 30-day game rentals for each platform (PS4, PS3, PSVita, Bravia) every month.
I think either one would be a great tip-of-the-hat to us PS+ users who are already shelling $50 a year.
$15 Billion worth of GDP? Damn… you’d be stoned forever…
Darksiders is $14.99 for 90 days!? This game is $9.99 at GameStop. You can do better than this…..
No thanks, I was part of the beta and while the indie games played great, the triple A titles weren’t responsive enough. Please add PSOne and PS2 emulation support, we know the PS4 is powerful enough.
@PrimeroIncognito
I agree, the monthly subscription is an interesting option. I can’t wait to hear more about that.
Yeah, the hourly rates probably appeal more to people who just want to try a game before they buy it, basically a longer demo than what PS+ offers, so the planned price decrease on those are a good sign. The longer rental terms were getting closer to competitive prices compared to current game rental options i.e. GameFly but it would nice to see prices adjusted for old versus newer games, as well.
I remember, video store rentals were high. Luckily I only resorted to those a few times. Instead I just borrowed from friends or bought the games outright.
The choice for me to buy versus rent really depends on the game, since I don’t always finish them within a month. But yeah, it’s a great option to rent for a month at that price. I’ll have to log back in and look at the monthly prices again but from what I recall it seemed higher than $8/mo.
I haven’t really been following PS Now other then hearing little bits about it here and there. One thing I didn’t hear was the fact that games were going to be on a rental based system and would cost money. I always figured this was going to be a sub-based application much like PS+.
As the article says, prices are bound to get adjusted, but it’s still a little much for me. As many others are saying and have already addressed, the absolute smartest thing you can do is have an actual subscription to Playstation NOW instead of renting games by themselves. This gives FAR more incentive to people like me and several others who might have skipped out on the PS3 and would love to play a huge backlog of games. So please, PLEASE Sony, just make it sub-based for a year or so and give us access to all the titles.
@lisatsunami
Thanks. I try my best by offering some constructive criticism. Hopefully it gets Sony staff attention amidst all the raging commenter posts. That’s the Internet for you. :) Hopefully they’re desensitized by those comments by now.
1. Netflix type sub for 7.99 won’t happen. They won’t make money.
2. The guy posting 75 cent price points a day for ps3 games …moron
3. They have to make money for this to work. If you do t like the pricing don’t use it.
From what I understood the publishers have some say in price and their cut.
That means sony can’t just do what wants. So stop with the lame crybaby comments about
It being to expensive. Using a ds4 to play ps3 games is worth it. The whole point of the beta is to fine tune pricing
And how it runs. Really though the unlimited access for 7.99 is not realistic and idiotic to keep asking for because
As someone said they have to pay for everything streamed.
And forgive my choppiness typing on an iPhone is painful.
I’m interested only in a Subscription model as long as the price is right. Having unlimited access to all titles in the gaming catalog is the right choice. Having a 1 month, 3 month’s, 6 month’s, 1 year subscription model is important to me and I’m sure other’s are interested as well.
I think renting should be listed as 4 hours, 1 day, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, 90 days. But the pricing should be reduced for the 4 hour rentals because I can rent a disc version of PS3 title at RedBox for $2 per night and $2 each additional night. So I would not spend anymore money then $2 per night for a rental. The cost for 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days are good listed price but to get more people to try your service I would go for $0.50, $0.75, $1.00 for 4 hour rentals because you would rake in more money because it doesn’t sting to bad on the wallet for allot of kids with only lunch money to spend towards there gaming habits.
Listing a 4 hour rental at $1.99 is very scarry because some games aren’t worth playing over 4 hours and some games for $1.99 are worth playing for at least for 1 day. So to be far you should list game rentals for $1.99 for 1 day rentals because your going to drive more sales because your main competition is RedBox for 1 day rentals at $2 per night.
People just ignore that primero moron. He attacks anyone that says anything that will hurt his poor sony. He is like a tick that the blog team protect and never ban off here or psn. But as soon as he goes tattle telling to the blog team they hold his hand and ban or block us from commenting on here. He’s just a sony fanboy troll. Nothing special. Just ignore the idiot. Probably republican to lol. Go figure!
As for this new service I was excited about it until the ridiculous rental prices which sorry to say is a rip off plain and simple no matter how much the tick prime boy defends everything that sony store team do. Man that prime moron is a nuisance, I swear he must not work as much as he camps out in here waving his sony fanboy defend my sony flag. Sony must love you lol. Anyways until they offer a subscription for about 10 bucks a MONTH for a service like netflix and will be able to unlimited play any game on there for like 10 bucks a month I’ll pay it but if its like 20 to 30 a month and limited amount to play a month then you can forget it. Won’t go on my ps4′ ps4 or either of my 2 vita’s.
Meant to say ps3, ps4 and my 2 vita’s last comment. iPad is a pain to text on here.
Sounds interesting. Do you have any info when the PS Now beta will be released on the Vita? I’m seriously anxious to try it out!:D
Hey Slick, good to see you again. :)
But, no, I’m not a Republican. (Or any political camp.)
Some advice, though: Try to be a little less transparent next time you come back on a new account. I knew it was you as soon as I saw your username! Ha ha!
Sorry I can’t stay and play with you this time as I’m done working on the computer for the night and I’ve gotta get some sleep. I’ve got a busy day tomorrow! Later!
I’m just keeping my PS3, this is really not for me.
As long as I can play the games I already own on PSN when they become available, I’ll be happy.
I seriously think that PS Now service is, indeed a breakthrough in gaming.
I wonder though, how many PlayStation owners will actually use the service, or the potential number of people who do not own a Sony device will jump ship just for PSNow.
I really hope that PSNow could be released for tablets other than Xperia will be considered, if not, at least a PC version.
You won’t be streaming PS4 games anyway, so I do not think PS Now on either PC or iPad will hurt Sony hardware sales.
So excited for this! I didn’t own a PS3 so a lot of games I missed out on are going on my list. Thanks for making trophies count too for these games, makes it more worth it. Can’t wait to hear about the subscription service.
I’m glad I still have my PS3 :D
I can wait for a sale and get the games when they are cheap. I own them and can play whenever and as long as I want.
And the best thing is… I don’t need to use my internet connection for streaming. One less problem.
It looks well cool :P
The cheapest way to enjoy those games is still to get a PS3, PSP or PSVita and get the games in store or on sale through PSN for the system its meant to be played on. Streaming can be very expensive and the experience you get will never be quite as good as on the console or handheld itself.
It’s better to own those games and play whenever you want and as much as you want. Also they are streaming only older games that should be pretty cheap on the market.
I hope you don’t whine if you experience problems with streaming. This is the way to choose to play the games so please don’t complain afterwards… ;D
I heard PS+ users get a 50% discount ;DDDD?
Paying for renting games streamed via the internet? Never.
Sorry, Sony, but this is one service from you that I honestly hate.