PlayStation Now Arrives On PS3 In Open Beta Form

At the end of July, Sony opened the doors to the open beta of PlayStation Now for PS4 owners. Now that same privilege is also available for the PlayStation 3 faithful, giving them access to as much as 150 PS3 titles without having to worry about discs or downloads, provided, of course, your Internet connection can handle it.

A product of its Gaikai acquisition, PlayStation Now does away with download times and physical media by streaming games to consoles and handhelds. This may be a bit more significant for the PS4 as the titles offered on this streaming service are from the company's PS3 catalog, which the latest gen console can't access. And indeed, the first testing phases were targeted at the PS4, but now even those with PS3's can join in on the streaming fun.

PS3 owners in parts of the US and Canada will now see PS Now titles integrated into the PlayStation Store. Sony says that there are about 150 titles now available, which is undoubtedly just a fraction of the games available in the store in non-streaming format. Three titles have just been added to that list, namely God of War: Ascension, inFAMOUS, and Ultra Street Fighter IV. Different games will have different rental prices, depending on the rental period, though most would let you put in $1 a day for week's worth of access.

Our brief review of PlayStation Now didn't leave us disappointed as to the quality of the service, the graphics, and the performance, but in this case that isn't the big question. The biggest hurdle facing the acceptance of Sony's subscription is its pricing scheme. Right now, it employs a rental model that resembles more closely the system used for physical goods rather than a new digital system popularized by the likes of Netflix. Whether this business model will make or break PlayStation Now is something we'll have to wait and see when the service fully launches.

SOURCE: Sony