Sony’s Playstation Now service has recently opened to the public this week for its beta testing. The idea behind it is that Playstation 4 owners can now have access to dozens of the hottest titles for Playstation 3. For a few dollars, players can sample games instantly without the need to download them. You can rent a game for varying periods of time that range from about four hours til roughly 90 days.
The service as a whole works decently well despite some problems with latency. I myself, am not a fan of the prices, as they seem a little high. I couldn’t see myself logically paying for rented games that I could outright buy for considerably less.
Again this is a beta test, and Sony has noted that it will continue to grow and change over time. At this particular juncture though, again I couldn’t see myself spending money on the service.
A couple of things Sony could do to Improve the service:
1) Let consumers buy the full game for a discounted price after renting it.
I find it ridiculous that you end up paying more to rent a game rather than buy it. At the current price points Sony is saying that paying 7 dollars for four hours of play is feasible. It isn’t. Also 2-3 dollars for a demo isn’t much better. In my opinion 4-8 dollars is a reasonable value in fair trade for seven days worth of play. It roughly equals out to a dollar a day.
2) Not being able to add exact amounts to your wallet when paying for a game. How is this even a thing? You can add exact amounts in the Playstation store but not with Now?
3) You can easily tell the games are running at a lower resolution. I rented Deus Ex for 4 hours and it didn’t look nearly as well as it did when I played it on a friend’s Xbox roughly about a month ago.
4) Something really minor that I noticed while playing. You have to use the touchpad on the Dualshock 4 as the start and select button when playing the games. Right side of the pad for start and left for select. It takes some time to get use to, especially when you’ve been playing the PS4 a while and have grown used to hitting option for Start.
Here’s a list of games currently offered through the Beta:
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Killzone 3
- Zone of Enders HD collection
- Resident Evil Code Veronica X
- Alone in the Dark: Inferno
- Dead Island Riptide
Saturday Am gives Playstation Now Beta a 7.0/10
+potential
+no need for a ps4 eventually
-latency issues
-inflexibility with pricing model
-minor latency issues
-minor resolution issues with rented games.
Wille, ( the e is silent) S. Colon is a Ninja with a Black Belt in wordplay, he specializes in creative fiction and making the world a safer place from whack emcees.
