Skip to main content

Now you can rent games on PS3 with PlayStation Now’s expanded open beta

playstation now open beta arrives ps3
Image used with permission by copyright holder
PlayStation Now, Sony’s game streaming service that has been available on PlayStation 4 and select Bravia televisions since July 2014, is now up and running on PlayStation 3 as well. The library of over 150 titles and growing has now been integrated into the PlayStation Store.

The service offers a range of rental periods, depending on the title, but generally you can rent a game for a week at roughly $1 per day. The latest titles to be added to the ever-expanding roster are God of War: Ascension, inFamousand Ultra Street Fighter IV

PlayStation Now sprang from Sony’s purchase of the game-streaming startup Gaikai in 2012. Following suit with movie and TV streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, PlayStation Now offers cloud-based gaming that will eventually be enabled across the entire ecosystem of PlayStation gaming devices and select Sony televisions, taking advantage of increased bandwidth to negate the need for locally-hosted games and let you play games and save progress wherever you are.

A steady, wired broadband connection of at least 5Mbps is strongly recommended for optimal performance.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
I would buy a PlayStation Portal 2 if it had this one feature
A Pulse Elite, DualSense, and PlayStation Portal sit on a table.

I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the PlayStation Portal since it launched. Initially, I was disappointed by Sony's cloud streaming device. I was impressed with its screen and appreciated its DualSense integration, but its slimmeddown features made it feel like a cheap version of a good idea. I've since learned to find a use case for my PlayStation Portal that turned it into an integral part of my gaming setup. It's very imperfect, but that doesn't mean it's not useful.

Ever since its launch, I've been hoping for a refreshed follow-up, whether that be a Pro model or a true PlayStation Portal 2. It may be way too early to start discussing that considering that the Portal just launched in November 2023, but the promising device has enough glaring flaws that I'd welcome a fast-tracked successor. If Sony were to make a PlayStation Portal 2, though, there's one feature that's nonnegotiable: Bluetooth.

Read more
3 new PS Plus games to play this Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27)
Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Memorial Day is coming up, so you're probably wondering what games you should play on your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 over the holiday weekend. Lucky for you, a new batch of games were added to the PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra game catalog earlier this week, and it brought plenty of games well worth your time. Three in particular stand out to me; download them today and try them out over the next few days.

The first is a Western from Rockstar Games that needs little introduction and is a must-play if you haven't experienced it yet. The next is an open-world game that kick-started a new series for Ubisoft and turns 10 next week. Finally, a retro PlayStation 1 game that just came to PlayStation Plus Premium offers up a good time if you enjoy sports or racing games.
Red Dead Redemption 2

Read more
You can play this 2018 open-world hit for free if you have PlayStation Plus
Arthur Morgan walks into a burning house in Red Dead Redemption 2.

If you somehow haven't played the 2018 open-world classic Red Dead Redemption 2 yet and you have a PlayStation Plus subscription, we have good news. PlayStation announced in a blog post Wednesday that the game will be available for free for the Plus program's Extra and Premium tiers.

Subscribers can play this massive hit, along with 12 other games, starting on May 21.  Users will also get access to Red Dead Online, the game's multiplayer experience that allows players to create their own character and mess around inside the world as they see fit -- from forming a group of outlaws to rob people on the road to hunting animals.

Read more