For the longest time, I couldn't in good conscience recommend PlayStation Now to anyone. The streaming quality was subpar and the price was ludicrous for the service you received. Compared to Xbox Game Pass, it was inferior by a large margin. I still wouldn't say it's quite reached the levels of Xbox Game Pass yet, but with improved streaming, a price drop, and new games that have been added, it's come pretty close.
Even diehard Xbox fans have taken notice. One of my colleagues over at Windows Central, Senior Xbox Editor Jez Corden, streamed God of War directly to his PC earlier this month and was impressed with the results. What used to feel like "watching YouTube on dial up, and too laggy for shots to connect," now "works almost flawlessly, some artifacting, but otherwise, totally playable with very little lag."
https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1179190022672703488
And that's only mentioning its streaming quality. With the latest price drop, it's much more affordable, too. What was once $20/month or $100/year has now been dropped to $10/month and $60/year. The monthly membership is right on par with Xbox Game Pass, but the year-long membership is actually half the price of Microsoft's offering. If you're willing to get a year's membership of PlayStation Now upfront, it works out so that you'll only be spending $5/month. This price cut was across the board for all regions where PS Now is available, accounting for currency conversations and whatnot.
With the latest price drop, it's much more affordable, too.
What makes it even more enticing is when you throw in the possibility of cross-play. PlayStation Now includes over 800 games in its catalogue, a good number of which have some sort of multiplayer component. It was recently revealed that internal testing on cross-play had finished at Sony and exited beta, meaning that — in theory — it's open for all developers to use going forward. The potential is astounding. If more and more games in PlayStation Now start to support cross-play, it could be hugely beneficial to the company and players alike.
And among the catalogue now are some of Sony's very best: God of War and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, both of which will be available in its library until January 2, 2020. Beforehand, all games added to PlayStation Now were permanent. This may seem like an unwelcome change, but it could also be incentive for developers to put their new, premium games in the program earlier than ever.
Coincidentally, I even had a friend this week message me, "Is PlayStation Now good deal?" because she saw an ad for it on Hulu. I could honestly answer yes. Yes, it is.
Gaming where you want.
PlayStation Now allows users to stream 800 different games to their PlayStation 4 or PC, a good portion of which can be downloaded directly to your console. With an ever-growing library, it's a great option if you don't want to purchase a bunch of games.
