PlayStation Now open beta is live, subscription plans in the works

By Will Fulton July 31, 2014

playstation now open beta arrives ps3 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The beta for PlayStation Now is now open to the North American public. Anyone with a PlayStation 4 or select new Bravia TVs can rent and stream from a diverse library of over 100 PlayStation 3 games using Sony’s new online service. Rentals range from a 4-hour trial through 7-, 30-, and 90-day windows. Sony is also looking into subscription plans, a natural response to Electronic Arts’ recent announcement of its all-you-can-play EA Access subscription service on Xbox One.

PlayStation Now is the long-anticipated result of Sony’s purchase of the game streaming service Gaikai in 2012. A library of over 100 PS3 games is available to play, with all of them streamed from the cloud, including Dead Space 3, God of War: Ascension, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and Ultra Street Fighter 4. Cloud saving, Trophies, and other network features are all included in the streaming service.

The service is initially only available on PS4 and 4K-compatible televisions, but will eventually come to PS3 and PS Vita as well. Yet unconfirmed rumors from earlier in 2014 suggest that PlayStation 2 and PSone games will not be coming to PS Now, but will instead be supported with local software emulation. Nothing’s confirmed on that front, however.

PS4 owners in the United States and Canada will find PlayStation Now titles integrated into the PlayStation Store.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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