Sony has added prices to the beta for its PlayStation Now streaming service. Although these are experimental numbers — it’s a beta, after all — the current prices are insane.
What’s more, as of right now, PS Now beta testers actually have to pay to play games. If I want to test out the service, I have to dish out crazy amounts of cash.
This afternoon I signed up for the PS Now beta, which Steve tested out yesterday. And here’s how much it costs to rent Final Fantasy XIII-2, which came out in 2012:
$US5 for four hours! $US30 for 90 days! You can buy the whole game on Amazon for $US17.
And here’s Guacamelee:
Why do you have to pay $US15 for a 90-day rental when it costs $US15 to buy the game on PS3?
Other games cost similar prices, which seem to be based on when they came out.
There’s a little note on the bottom of PlayStation Now that reads: “Game titles and features shown are for testing purposes only. Not indicative of the final price.” But anyone who’s in the beta right now has to pay these prices. I just tried to rent Deus Ex: Human Revolution and had to pay $US4.99 for four hours of the privilege.
And it looks like prices like this could be here to stay. From the PS Now FAQ: “The upcoming Open Beta will test multiple pricing tiers and rental durations. You will see shorter rental periods prices as low as $US2.99 and most titles are between that and $US19.99. More information to be announced later.”
Granted, Sony has promised that they will be offering some sort of subscription program when the service actually launches, but at least for now, don’t bother with the PS Now beta unless you’ve got a fat wallet.
I want my $US4.99 back.
Comments
20 responses to “PlayStation Now Prices Are Currently Insane”
Pretty sure you can find ff13-2 for cheaper than 30 bucks, even in Australia.
Even EB has it all the time at like $25 now.
But you won’t be able to play that copy on a PS4, so it isn’t direct competition.
I see. Still, all its going to do atm is annoy people.
Sounds like yet another good reason not to bother getting a PS4 then.
No doubt after beta they will go down considerably. Right…….? They’re fucking dreaming otherwise
Just like the price of movies to rent/purchase has come down? Oh, wait…
You can buy selected Blu-Ray disc movies in some stores at 2 for $20, yet the SEN store still wants $30+ for a single digital copy (that they can take away from you at any time, because it’s a license). It’s at the stage now where I won’t pay more than $15 for a Blu-Ray. They really have no idea.
This is the problem with the ps now model. How could Sony get 3rd party publishers to play ball and not ask for an arm and a leg?
Looks like they can’t.
They spent $400 million on Gaiki. They need to make their money back…and it won’t be with PS Now if they have these stupid prices. The 4hr rental is the most ridiculous thing. It should be minimum 1 day.
$ony
This is how you beat a steam sale.
Oh well, now I have to build my own streaming service.
So wait, do you actually “buy” the games, or is rental only?
I guess it’s a bit difficult to “buy” a game that then needs external hardware and servers to process for you.
Some of these games are going to be pretty unpopular in a few years time and I’d imagine the cost to Sony to keep servers and processors running for each title is pretty expensive.
It’s one thing to buy something like Battlefield where EA knows they’ll sell X-million units in a few months and will then have to maintain servers for that title over the next couple of years, but if Sony sets up a server for a last gen game most people have played like Assassins Creed 1, then the servers may very well be an unused wasteland in a year’s time which are no longer worth maintaining.
In that case Sony won’t want to make long term commitments, which could lead to them just “renting” titles over periods of a few months.
Does it even matter, not like most people in Australia are going to be able to use this service with our crappy internet.
FIFA & COD are both $99.95 to download on PS4? How ??? Most stores they’re $80, tops.
A downloaded version should actually be cheaper than a physical copy. It’s ridiculous.
It’s the same on PS3. I don’t understand either.
This is going to die in the arse real quick
You know if I could pay a yearly once off fee and that let me pop any PS3 disc I own into a PS4 and play it via PS Now at 1080P seems the hardware can’t run the game then I would sub in a sec.
$5 US for 4 hours. In the age of steam sales and console games going to the bargain bin weeks later. I think Sony has been riding last years E3 too gleefully and need to come down a peg or 2 before they loose their way again like with the launch of the PS3.
Yeah, this is never coming to Australia.
Won’t it take 4 hours to download anyway .. Thanks liberals.
I’m hoping they incorporate it as part of Playstation Plus. Allow you to “rent” 15 hours worth of games a month for instance. Or select one game a month from a list of 10 that you could rent. Make it closer to a subscription model. I don’t think they could do all you can eat due to publisher restrictions i’m guessing, but at least something like $30 allows you X amount of hours, or Y games in a month.