After a successful open beta, Sony will be launching subscriptions for their PlayStation Now game streaming service on PS4 later this month.
When the PS4 was first announced, plenty of people got excited. Sony touted a brand new, highly responsive controller (the DualShock 4) and some seriously powerful innards that would make the future generation of gaming both look and play great.
But in the list of ‘pros’ – lovely graphics and impressive roster of exclusive games – many people were disappointed to see that backwards compatibility wasn’t included. After almost an entire decade of fantastic PS3 games (such as The Last of Us, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and inFamous 1 and 2) many people would be unable to play these games on PS4 unless they forked out for the retooled version such as The Last of Us: Remastered. But even so, not all PS3 games have PS4 versions and most of us are out of luck.
Furthermore, it’s estimated that almost half of all PS4 owners didn’t own a PS3 and so will have missed out on many great games from the last generation. That’s what Sony’s new game streaming service PlayStation Now looks to solve and after several months in beta, it will soon get a full release on PS4.
That info comes from Sony’s announcements at CES (the annual electronics trade show in Las Vegas) as they’ve now revealed that on January 13th, PlayStation Now will be going live on PS4, allowing players to stream over 100 PS3 games. Such games include PlayStation exclusives Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, The Last of Us and God of War: Ascension as well as many third-party titles from Warner Brothers, SEGA, 2K and EA.
The company also explained that players will be able to subscribe to PlayStation Now, if they’d like to stream all games all of the time rather than shell out for limited play time of each game. So now, instead of paying for four hour, seven day, 30 day or 90 day stints for each game you can subscribe and gain access to everything as long as your subscription lasts. You can buy one month for $19.99, or a three-month package for $44.99 (about $15 per month) with more info explained in the video above.
Whilst Sony has explained that not only will they add to the veritable feast of available games regularly and PlayStation Now will soon be rolled out to PS3, PS Vita and PS TV, at $180 a year (that’s the total of four, three month subscriptions) that price is a little steep. Many have already argued that the pricing ‘sweet spot’ for an annual sub would be $99 and I’m very much inclined to agree. At the very least, Sony should be willing to knock the PlayStation Now price down for those who pay for PlayStation Plus (the $50 sub that gives you free games across all PS consoles and access to PS4 multiplayer), especially when some of the games available on PlayStation Now have already been given out for free with PS Plus (e.g Spelunky, Guacamelee and BioShock Infinite).
It’s early days for the service yet though and Sony will be listening to this early feedback to make changes accordingly. Check it out on PS4 from January 13th.
Source: PS Blog
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