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.
After owning my ps4 for only a week now i must say im very disappointed Not only is it not backwards compatible to ps3 witch i expected but not even ps1 witch all previous systems could do. but then i cant even play a simple music CD on it ether. WTF i see this new system as a giant money hog that wants me to rebuy my music with your music unlimited and stream my old ps3 library at $3.00 per 4 hours. Im not a happy Customer at all.
I see nothing in store, what time will it be?
Wow this seems really chintzy to me…I can’t believe people are being charged for the beta. The beta serves as a way for playstation to optimize the experience with our help(the gamers). We shouldn’t be charged during the beta period. The prices are ridiculous too. I’d only be interested in this service if there was a monthly subscription type format. Charging people $2 for 4 hours is ridiculous, and I love the way it’s trying to be sold as “good news” that’s not good news, it’s terrible. Don’t go down the same road as xbox and turn your loyal customers off. That EA subscription that playstation turned down seems like a much better deal at $5 a month and I see why it was turned down because by the looks of it you’ll be charging a lot more than that. This is just honest feedback from a PS4 owner, no sugar coating. This service at these prices is not appealing at all. A monthly subscription at a descent price point , however, would be extremely appealing. This “a la carte” idea is for the birds!
they make sure not everyone is going to try out the beta with that pricing so the servers hopefully won’t be stressed out. :D
I really think the subscription idea would please everyone I’d pay 10$ a month for a bunch of games rather than just 5 dollars for a one day rental. Hopefully playstation can keep things good because this is great and I can’t wait to see the good call of dutys on there like mw2.
Lousy game selection and lousy pricing structure, however, this will probably change overtime (hopefully for the better & not worse).
My biggest gripe is being so dependent on a quality internet connection and potential monthly cap issues. I’m one of those guys who keeps his old consoles in the closet, so I’ll probably just do the same with my PS3 stuff. Thanks anyway, Sony.
Concerns.
1.That PS Now is Sony’s way of slowly making PS Plus and PSN obsolete, thereby no longer allowing customers to create an indefinate purchase for digital titles.
2. That much like a cable company, prices are low at first, to raise steadily as more join.
3. That although we buy digitally, we would still pay as much as retail / rental.
*Although we should actually be cutting costs with marketing, advertisement, distribution, manufacturing, theft, and resale / trade.*
(Sounds to me like you would be cutting expenditures / jobs, and yet trying to retain the same price point)
Dislikes.
BUYING A PS4 TO PLAY PS3 TITLES, WHEN IF WE HAVE SO MANY CROSSPLATFORM, THAT BACKWARDS COMPATIBILTY HAS BEEN LEFT OUT FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS!!!
(All I have been hearing about is the difficulty in making that happen, when yet indie developers who are on PC, IOS, are seemingly quite capable with much smaller companies)
Likes
1. The idea of creating a Redbox type of rental option, without the returns or late fees.
2. 1.99 for 4 hours, and 7.99 for a month sounds great, IF, they are newly released games.
(I would like to add my +1 to the idea of allowing rentals to be upgraded, and the possibilty of rental fees to be added to an actual PSN digital purchase)
Personally, I will stick to PS Plus for now.
That is, untill the PS4 compares to it in value.
I think if you own The game you should not have to rent it that’s bull because I own alot digital downloads for The ps3 I will never use The Service unless you can buy The game f rentals who wants to waste money on a rental
Damn everyone is nearly saying The same thing maybe we should all go to Xbox at least they are listening to there customers look at uservoice it’s pretty cool
Relax everyone, it obvious that they will make subscription option for us – i guess 15-20$ per month and you can play as much as you want in every game
I am laughing so hard right now because this is exactly what I told everyone this service would be, a money grab. If you got rid of your ps3, such a shame, but now you can rent all those games you own for only $2 for 4 hours ROFLMAO.
I think the PS4 is a great system (I wont buy it till there are a LOT more games for it though) but Sony is taking the money grabbing way too far. How many times has Sony does this since PS2, yet people keep throwing money at them (me included! Still cant believe I wasted money on the Vita although memory cards are sooooo cheap *sarcasm*)
Subscription for $20 a month? I dont think so. For that amount of money you might as well just buy the ps3 version on disc and pick up a cheap console. Also you better have a ton of bandwidth (leaves me out since I am in the country :( ).
I love seeing all the complaints and we still throw money at these greedy people – must be human nature *sigh*
So is this In select parts of the country? I was invited to the the private beta and never sent any info on how to participate. Now I’m told there is an open beta for everyone and there are no options for ps3 game rentals anywhere on my system or Playstation store. Why do you hate me Sony :(
I’m hoping no one uses this service and either drive the prices down to a comfortable price or Sony says ‘alright, that was stupid of us, you can have your games that you already purchased through PSN. Plus we will unlock the backwards compatibility’… sure it’s awet dream
What about Saudi Arabia area ? .. We want there try the beta :(
Most PlayStation3 games every day are getting cheaper and cheaper these prices are not justified if you have a PS3 as for PS4 it would’ve been better for the consumer just to put in backwards compatibility but of course they didn’t so they can nickel and dime us
I have to agree with most everyone else. If those are the actual prices then I wont be using the service. I’ve never heard of a ‘rental’ that’s less than a day in length. And that should be your minimum price, probably around $2…
With Blockbuster stores now closed, the only place I can go locally (and I live in a major US city) to rent a physical copy of a game is my local Redbox machine. I can get a newer title for $2 for a full day’s rental. I can even pick it up one morning at 9 AM and it’s not due back til 9 PM the following night, making it a 36 hour rental for the same price. That would cost me $27 on this service (36/4 = 9 x $3 = $27).
Yes, I’m sure you can offer a much larger selection of titles, especially older ones that my local Redbox machine no longer sees as profitable to keep in stock, but anything that seems to be slightly newer has an even higher price point in your service PLUS for many of the older titles I can go to my local Gamestop store and pick up used copy for $10 or less to OWN it, not RENT it.
That being said, I would consider a subscription model, if the price were right.
Will it ever come to Europe?
This is incredible, a milestone in computer entertainment. I’m hopeful it’ll be successful.
I have a US account but from Israel, so I guess it won’t work. Hopefully it will eventually be available in my area…
This tiered rental service is a terrible idea. This would work better as a subscription service or a free add-on that allowed one to play purchased digital games. Even a combination of those two. I hope this dies quickly and is revived as one of the other options.
And I hope that PSone @ PS2 games are still on the way. Add the trophy support that was rumored and we’ve got another winner.
The 4 hour price is too high IMO.
The journey ended before it began.
Lets see, rent a game for 90 days at $29.99 or buy it and keep it for $19.99… tough call
Maybe if I comment about the same thing over and over I just might get an answer, lol
CAN WE USE PS3 GAME SAVES WITH PS NOW OR DO WE NEED TO START OVER?
P.S. If PS3 game saves don’t work on PS NOW why in the hell would you rent a PS3 game to play on PS4 and have to start over from scratch when you can just play on your PS3 and not have to start over.
I’ve searched all over the internet and even instant messaged SONY customer service and no one has an answer.
When will it be available? I still don’t see it in PS Store.
Maybe this will work
DEAR SONY,
Can current Playstation Plus members pick up where they left off on PS3 games using Playstation Now or do we need to keep our PS3’s to be able to use our current cloud saves??!!??!!
…. I’m gonna keep asking the same thing over and over until I get a response
This isn’t a beta if you have to pay for it and with the prices that are on there as of now I don’t think your going to be seeing a lot of people beta testing it especially when they have to pay to test it
I think Sony missed an awesome opportunity here to gain even more respect from gamers in general.
PS Now could’ve been a way for people to experience on their PS4 or Vitas the older games they already bought on their PS3 digitaly. I don’t mind you propose renting games as long as you also offer people a way to buy the games and play for as long as they want, and also let people who ALREADY bought the games digitaly on PSN to play them without additionnal cost.
In its current state, PS Now is only a glorified online rental store offering very poor value for the price.
I don’t know what got to Sony, but recently, it’s been poor business decisions after another. I mean, the people at Sony who decide on everything seems to be completely disconnected with what their core costumers want.
You can give up on $10 a month for unlimited access so you may as well stop posting. Netflix pay’s MILLIONS to the movie companies to get rights to stream those movies, Sony isn’t going to be able to do that. They are going to have to offer up a price that make’s them money and make the developer happy, and we all know how money hungry developers are. They also won’t be able to match RedBox prices, because you don’t have to own right’s to rent out DVDs like RedBox does or Blockbuster did. If they offer up a $30 a month price for unlimited rentals and kept updating with game’s you can’t get at Redbox or find at your local game store for $2-3 now thne I’d gladly pay that for it. I’d probably pay upwards of $60 a month myself once they got a great selection.
Here you go, acceptable prices by ME. (IMHO)
2H = Free
4H = 1.99$
7D = 3.99$
30D = 6.99$
90D = 9.99$
Like this, I may really give it a chance.
p.s: I expected to see more PS1/PS2 Classics, not every game I played on PS3 through PS+ or bought. =|
Nobody is paying those ridiculous rental prices, Sony. You guys are just going to have bite the bullet and charges the absolute min. while still bringing in a profit.
I don’t see playstation now in my store .-.?
“I’m hoping no one uses this service and either drive the prices down to a comfortable price or Sony says ‘alright, that was stupid of us, you can have your games that you already purchased through PSN. Plus we will unlock the backwards compatibility’… sure it’s awet dream”
No because savage capitalism.
SONY don’t make decisions for your customers! Please Sony give us our due consumer RIGHT, CHOICE! @EA Access = OUR CHOICE! Instead you are trying to STICK US WITH ONLY USING PS NOW????? YES I AM SHOUTING!!!
As a ps4 owner, if i were to decide to rent ps3 games, would i be able to play online multiplayer with ps3 owners? Or would i still be locked into ps4 owners only? Have you guys heard anything for this?
Playstation Now way overpriced I mean like REALLY! I’m glad to hear that a subscription model will be added soon. I would love to stream all my old PS3 purchases The tech is great and I honestly would play more if the prices were better!
This is a game changer for the console world. If your team gets the pricing right, MS will not stand a chance against you. LET’S GO SONY…..lol! Okay that might have been a little too much…lol!
We should BOYCOTT PS NOW so sony will think twice for charging us insane price..maybe they should make ps now free..
@230 it’s funny you say that because the MS CEO actually admitted that BC on Xbox one would be an awesome future software patch and it’s in the works so MS users can play Xbox and 360 games on their xbox one!, but I guess sony wants to lose yet another console war this gen. Oh well.
I’m gonna try the tech support chat again seeing how I’m not getting my question about game saves answered here.
I am little baffled that you are charging 1.99 for four hours of “trying” the game, feels a little bit out of proportion.
Nonetheless, I am excited to use this service.
Hope you can add the PS1 and PS2 games to stream and hopefully you can become the “netflix” of video games.
You have a nice lead now sony. Please, do not blow it this time.
Much love.
Do our current PS3 trophies cross over???
Do our current PS3 game saves cross over???
They said it would come out today but i don’t see it ?
#226 you’re wrong! First off EA sports is offering a streaming service exclusively for the xbox1. It’s exclusive because playstation turned it down saying it has no value for the playstation customers…haha! This subscription is $5/month or $30/year and gives streaming access to all EA games, early access to upcoming games and 10% discount for purchases. How is that not a value? Playstation turned it down so they can nickel and dime us. I’m peeved about this!
These prices are too high…this service should be called PAYstation Now.
I read this post shortly after reading that Sony stated that the EA Access Streaming being offered to Microsoft was not a good value for Playstation users; however, EA Access is only $5.00/month or $30.00/year, and it gives you access BF4, Madden, Fifa, etc and you get early access to new games. You are charging almost $5.00 for 4 hours, so how is that a good value for playstation users.
This needs a subscription service. Maybe make it part of the PS+. Have a tier 1 which is just PS+ and tier 2, which is PS+ and PS Now
How do I access it
I understand it’s a convenience service, but when my trophys and game saves don’t transfer over it’s a giant INCONVENIENCE!!!! I don’t have the time to re play all my PS3 games and get the trophys all over again, especially the annoying MP trophies in Assassins creed
I’m an avid reader of this blog but have yet to comment on anything. However, I really wanted to add my voice to the chorus on pricing changes. I was invited to the closed beta, enjoyed a few games while they were free with minimal service issues (and I was even playing over wifi) – then you introduced pricing. I looked over the games and their associated costs a few times, and realized I would never, ever pay those prices to rent a last-gen game and haven’t opened the app since. 4 hours for 2 dollars is ludicrous. When I originally imagined the pricing scheme, I imagined a dollar a day, 5 dollars for 7 days, and 10 dollars for a month. I miiiiight rent something amazing at those prices. Your current pricing scheme might be fair for new, current-gen rentals, but as many on here have noted, not even close for last-gen.
I’m hopeful for the subscription service, but worried it’s going to be something like “rent 4 games a month for 40 dollars a month” or something silly. The ONLY way to make this as successful as you want it to be is to offer a Netflix-style, all-you-can-play service. I would probably pay 40 dollars a month for that.
Unlike most who are complaining , I can afford the price. thank you for the continued hard work, I am absolutely loving the service. I know you guys are working on a subscription as well seeing everyone is requsting. I’ll be just as greatfull!
This question is for all the closed beta testers as I have not tried the beta yet because I’m still at work lol.
can anyone explain how the game saves and trophies actually work, so far everyone has been complaining about the prices instead of what really matters… The features!!