Should You Give PlayStation Now Another Shot?

PlayStation Now is a premium service that first released in 2015, allowing subscribers to stream over 100 PS3 games to a variety of devices. The product of Sony’s $380 million acquisition of cloud streaming company Gaikai, expectations were high that the service would help to bring cloud-based gaming into the mainstream. However, a number of factors, such as an unexpectedly high price point, minimal selection of games, and frequent internet connection issues, kept the service from truly breaking out. While the service still has stalwart defenders, it’s fair to say that interest has waned.

While the service may have been written off by many, a lot can happen in just a couple of years. We took a look at Now’s most common complaints at launch and whether or not the grievances have been addressed and improved. More than two years later, is PlayStation Now worth another shot?

Complaint: Small Game Selection

Then: There was a lot of talk of PlayStation Now being dead on arrival, but Sony never gave up on supporting their investment into the cloud gaming platform. It launched with only about 100 games, but titles were continually added to the service. For a while, they only brought in a handful of titles per month, but that number has actually grown over time, with some months adding a dozen or more titles. Still, nothing can match November 2015, when Sony added an unprecedented 105 games, including titans such as Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Earth Defense Force, and a slew of SNK classics including King of Fighters and Fatal Fury.

Now: The number of games on PlayStation Now has grown from 100 to well over 460, and Sony is showing no signs of reining in their continued support for the service. There are some big-shot PlayStation exclusives like Heavy Rain, inFamous, the first three Uncharted games, and the entire God of War catalog, in addition to multiplatform heavies like BioShock, Tomb Raider, Dead Island, and Saints Row. Beyond that, there are also a slew of cult favorites (Dead to Rights: Retribution, Red Faction: Guerilla), arcade classics (Q*bert Rebooted, Namco Museum Essentials, Frogger Returns), and even a bunch of stinkers, which are good for little more than a cheap laugh (Heavy Fire: Afghanistan, Alien Rage).

Verdict: PlayStation Now’s greatest asset in 2017 is the sheer quantity of quality titles available for the service. From blockbuster action titles to JRPGs, there is plenty here for every type of gamer.

Complaint: High Price

Then: At launch, the cost of a PlayStation Now subscription was pretty steep: $20 a month, or $45 for three months. All told, that’s between $180 and $240 for a year of the service. For that kind of money, you could buy four years of PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold, or raid your local used-game store for dozens of the older titles that are available on PS Now.

Now: In the years since that disappointing price point was announced, the cost of PlayStation Now hasn’t changed. However, they did put the service on sale, temporarily offering a 12-month subscription for $100, or less than nine bucks per month. It’s a mystery why this deal isn’t always in place, since $100 is competitive with streaming giants like Amazon and Netflix, of which PlayStation Now is striving to be the video game equivalent. That sale has come and gone twice over the past two years, so while it’s safe to assume it may return to that price at some point, new users are unable to take advantage of it at the moment.

Verdict: If the $100 annual subscription were to be made a permanent fixture, PlayStation Now would be a much more attractive option for gamers on a budget or who just don’t feel like putting down ~$200 in addition to their PS Plus subscription, game purchases, and myriad other expenses.

Complaint: Vita Troubles

Then: At launch, one of the most appealing aspects of PlayStation Now was that you could log in and play on either PS3, PS4, PlayStation Vita, or even certain Sony-branded televisions, as long as the local WiFi could take the heat.

The weak link in this chain, however, was always the PlayStation Vita. In theory, it’s the perfect device for the service; the Vita already supports Remote Play, in which PS4 games can be streamed from a console directly to the handheld, but users have had mixed experiences. Some of us regularly enjoy playing PS4 games on Sony’s handheld, while others simply cannot get a stable enough connection, leading to endless stuttering, lag, and crippled resolution – if they can get it working at all. To those without connection issues, PS4/Vita Remote Play works because developers can optimize their game’s controls to the Vita’s lack of extra shoulder buttons or clickable thumbsticks. For example, when playing Destiny on Vita, the sprint function is moved, by default, from L3 to down on the directional pad, making for a more natural gameplay experience on the handheld than if the function were mapped to the dreaded rear touch pad. On PlayStation Now, however, controller settings were not optimized for the Vita’s reduced button count, and all R2/L2 and R3/L3 functions are relegated to the touch pad without any option for customization.

Now: The Vita never did get around to allowing users to remap touch-pad functionality to button inputs, rendering titles like Saints Row 2 and Bodycount unplayable on PlayStation Now on Vita, save for the few players who invested in a third-party peripheral that added extra triggers to the system. Of course, that’s all moot now, with the surprise announcement that Now support for Vita (and PS3, Bravia televisions, Blu-ray players) is being dropped completely on August 15. Moving forward, Now will only be supported on PlayStation 4 and PC.

Last year, Sony added Now support to PCs, including laptops. Laptops are slightly less portable than the Vita, and the increasing marginalization of Sony’s underrated handheld is lamentable, but maybe this is the best solution; simply bring a laptop, a DualShock 4, and a Micro USB connector, and the entire PlayStation Now library is readily accessible in a far more playable state than it ever was on Vita… As long as the WiFi holds.

Verdict: While PS4 and PC are indeed the two best devices on which to enjoy PlayStation Now, losing support on Vita is a serious blow for many fans of the service, and of Sony’s long-suffering handheld.

Up Next: we explore how Now deals with visual downgrades and input lag.

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