Skip to main content

Sony doesn’t need an Xbox Game Pass killer — it already has one

PlayStation Now was the first major step in game streaming services. Yes, we had plenty of other attempts with services like OnLive (which I also tried back in 2010), but none ever had the weight of a massive corporation behind it. Sony acquired the service formerly known as Gaikai in 2012 and transformed it into its very own exclusive streaming service that it’s been working on to this day.

The thing is, after that initial purchase push, Sony has been pretty silent about PS Now. It’s quietly gained 3.2 million subscribers as of March 2021, which isn’t all that much when you compare it to the number of PS+ subscribers but is still a substantial number.

As a subscriber since 2018, I’m sitting here today in 2021, wondering why people aren’t singing the praises of this service like I am. After giving it some thought and listening to the general discourse, there’s actually a lot of reasons PS Now is overlooked, but very few of them are actually good reasons, or even true in some cases. With Game Pass being touted as the all-time greatest service in gaming and how Sony “needs some way to compete,” I think it’s time someone who is a dedicated user of PS Now tells you why it’s way better than you think.

PS4 (Playstation 4) using PS Now.
Guglielmo Basile/Unsplash

The elephant in the room

Before we can get to why PS Now is better than you might think, I do have to acknowledge the faults. There’s one thing that critics point to, and with good reason, as to why PS Now isn’t all that great. PS3 games can only be streamed. It’s a multilayered issue. First, this is a problem with all game streaming services. It’s always going to be dependent on your individual internet connection based on what’s available and where you live. That’s why I didn’t sign up for PS Now when it only offered streaming. I tested it out, felt too much delay on my inputs, and didn’t sign up.

Would it be possible to ever make PS3 games downloadable? I have no idea, but it doesn’t seem like it will happen even if it could at this point in time. That being said, I will fully admit that if your primary reason for looking into PS Now is to only play PS3 titles, use the trial first to see how streaming works for you. I have moved since I first tested it, and with my new internet, which is only about 100Mbps down, by the way, most games actually play just fine. Am I playing fighting games or twitch shooters online? No, of course not, but platformers, third-person shooters, and especially JRGPs are either good enough or great.

A stack of PS3 games.
See Shoot Eat Repeat/Shutterstock

While Sony seems to have stopped adding PS3 titles to the catalog of PS Now games, it hasn’t stopped trying to improve the streaming aspect of its service. As of April, it upped the resolution that you can stream some games at to a full 1080p, where 720p used to be the limit. For most PS3 games, which didn’t even hit that resolution in the first place, it won’t matter much. But if you do opt to stream PS4 games on your TV or PC and have the speeds to handle it, this is a great addition.

What’s changed?

PS Now is almost a completely different beast today than it was when it first launched. Based on what people think PS Now is, it feels like the majority of today’s naysayers tried it out around when it came out, had a decent-to-poor experience, and assume nothing’s changed. Most will acknowledge the biggest change, the ability to download games, but even that is vastly understated.

Let’s start there. Game downloading is available for every PS4 and PS2 title on the service. That shouldn’t be news to anyone — it was added over three years ago now, yet I still see people either neglect to mention it or brush it off as a minor thing. It’s not. There are dozens — maybe hundreds — of downloadable games on PS Now, and we’re not just talking about shovelware you’re never going to play. Bloodborne, God of War, Tekken 7, Metal Gear Solid V, Doom, and InFamous Second Son are just a handful of the great games you can download right now, not including any games only available for a limited time.

What’s even better is the new games added to the service. PS Plus has always been a mixed bag, but it’s gotten a bit worse overall since it dropped Vita games. Now, we only get two games on PS4 and one for PS5. Don’t get me wrong — sometimes those games are absolute bangers, like Final Fantasy 7 RemakeShadow of the Tomb Raider, and Control. However, the chances of those games just not fitting your style is much higher when there are only two or three games offered.

PS Now has as good, if not better, games released consistently. I don’t think I remember there ever being fewer than three games added in a month, and usually, it’s closer to five. More and more big-budget games are being added, either as permanent additions or timed. Yeah, it sucks to be given a time limit to enjoy a game, especially really big ones like Red Dead Redemption 2, but you usually have around five or six months to play.

This last point I’ve found the most exciting, but I never hear it brought up. Each month includes at least one indie title in the lineup. These are the games I find to fit a service like this best. Being able to try out these smaller experiences is what people always praise Game Pass for, and it is just as true for PS Now. I was able to jump in on games I missed out on like Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, and, most recently, Moonlighter, which have become some of my favorite experiences of the year. While we all love getting a “free” big-budget game on services like this, the smaller titles really are the lifeblood for me.

Why it’s worth it

Various games you can download or stream on PS Now.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you have PS Now, you can play any game on the service that has online multiplayer without being a PS+ subscriber. Those who only play on PS Now and don’t use any of the features of PS+ besides playing online can cut that subscription with no penalty.

Obviously, everyone’s situation is different, but when I was first considering a PS Now subscription, I was not able to buy more than one or maybe two games per year. I saw that PS Now had added the download option, and I can’t say for sure if the price had dropped then or if it was just on sale, but I could get a year’s worth for $60 (if it wasn’t $60 for a year then, it is now, just FYI). I wouldn’t get to pick what games I got, but having been so starved for games, there were plenty of great ones to catch up on, even if new ones didn’t interest me.

Boy, was I happily surprised. For the price of one game, I still have more games than I have time to play on the service. I almost feel relieved when the monthly games are announced and there are only one or two I want to play because I feel like my backlog has gotten so big. At the same time, I never feel too bad about having that massive backlog because I didn’t shell out cash for each individual game. I can see why timed games may rub people the wrong way, but if it’s a way for me to play Spider-Man or Judgment for “free,” I’m all for it.

I personally don’t use it, but being able to stream any game on PC is another major plus for the service. All you do is download an app, and you have access to the entire PS Now library. The same caveats exist here as with any streaming service, but having more options is always a plus for me.

PS Now as a competitor to Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass gets a lot of praise as a similar service, obviously, but it is way closer to PS Now than people think. At the time of writing, there are 409 console games on Game Pass and 399 PS4 games, plus 21 PS2 games on PS Now. Essentially, they have the same amount of downloadable games. The quality is what counts, and Game Pass does push the fact that every first-party game they release will also come to Game Pass. I can’t really argue against that. Sony has added God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and other games to PS Now much later, some time-limited, too, but I don’t think we’ll ever expect The Last of Us Part 2 or Ghost of Tsushima to come on day one.

For now, I still feel like the offerings are about equal. Over time, as Xbox’s studios start to really produce more games, then yeah, Game Pass is going to eclipse PS Now in terms of the number of big-budget, major releases coming to the service right away. If streaming works for you, then PS Now also has those extra couple hundred PS3 games as well.

What’s weird, to me at least, is that Game Pass is basically becoming PS Now, but because Microsoft did it backward, it gets way more goodwill. It started with only downloadable games and is now introducing its streaming service to it. That’s the smart way to do it, but at the end of the day, both services will offer downloadable and streaming options.

Do I think of PS Now as a competitor to Game Pass? Yeah, and for me, it’s actually better. The service has gotten stronger every year I’ve had it, with more high-quality, first-party, fun indies being added more and more often. At the same time, I can see from a mile off that Game Pass is poised to sprint past PS Now with all the studios Xbox has acquired.

What Sony needs to do to make PS Now shine

A globe of screens behind the words All You Can Play.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Unless Sony starts making more deals with third parties to bring its games to the service on day one (or do what it said it wouldn’t and add its own within a reasonable time), PS Now is never going to keep pace with Game Pass, which has dwarfed PS Now’s subscriber count in a fraction of the time. It didn’t need to be this way. Sony showed off PS Now at its worst, then spent years slowly adding features, content, and value without really making a big enough deal about it. I think I saw one commercial for PS Now over a year ago. Since then, no commercials, no ads on sites, and, worst of all, no mention of it from Sony during any of its presentations.

PS Now is actually a better deal price-wise than Game Pass, and Sony would benefit from actually letting players know. PS Now is actually cheaper than Xbox Game Pass and offers more games. If you’re looking at both services at their full price for a year, PS Now will cost you $60, which boils down to $5 per month, and Game Pass Ultimate is $15 per month.

I’d bet there are millions of PlayStation owners out there who would love PS Now if they just knew it existed. It only hurts more that the biggest voices in gaming openly trash it while admitting to either not using it or only using it back when it was new and janky. PS Now needs advocates, but it won’t get them if Sony doesn’t get more people interested in it. It doesn’t have the same marketing drum to beat as Game Pass with the day-one first-party games, but that’s not a good reason to let this service just kind of dry out.

Services like PS Now and Game Pass are the future. PS Now could’ve been paving the way, but Sony let Game Pass steal the spotlight and now appears on the backfoot despite being a better service. The streaming is better than expected on a decent connection, there are hundreds of actually really good games to download with more added each month, and while improvements aren’t as frequent as I’d like, it is getting better year after year.

If you have a PS4 or PS5, give the free trial of PS Now a shot if you haven’t yet. It’s way better than you think.

Editors' Recommendations

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
Try one of gaming’s best trilogies before it leaves Xbox Game Pass next week
Hitman 3 Dubai level.

Xbox Game Pass might not be losing a lot of games at the end of January, but the most significant loss is a big one. On January 31, the subscription service is losing Hitman: World of Assassination, which is one of the best stealth gaming experiences out there. Technically, it is a collection of three games’ worth of content, plus an excellent roguelike mode.

Few games can make you feel as clever or as idiotic as IO Interactive’s Hitman games, so World of Assassination is a must-play if you enjoy stealth gameplay and want to see those mechanics explored to their fullest. While the base games are short enough to blaze through in a few sittings, there's way more content here than you could reasonably get through in a week. You better get cracking if you want to try it without paying for the full package.

Read more
You need to try this new, adrenaline-fueled Xbox Game Pass highlight
A ball zips up a ramp in Go Mecha Ball.

It's going to be a busy year for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The subscription service is expected to get an influx of high-profile games in 2024. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 and Avowed are leading the charge, and there's a good chance that we'll see a lot of Activision Blizzard games on the service soon. What's always more exciting to me, though, are the games I've never heard of. Some of my favorite Game Pass titles over the year have been left-field indies that I learned about the very day they launched. Call them pleasant surprises.

Xbox Game Pass is already getting one of those games this week. Go Mecha Ball is a new roguelike, twin-stick shooter hybrid that launches on January 25 for both PC and Xbox Game Pass. It's a wildly creative little action game that makes it the kind of Game Pass curiosity that keeps me subscribed to the service.

Read more
Persona 3 Reload leads a surprisingly strong batch of Xbox Game Pass additions
A character uses a bow and arrow in Persona 3 Reload.

Microsoft unveiled the next batch of new Xbox Game Pass titles, which are dropping between January 18 and February 8. Of the seven new titles coming to the video game subscription service over that time span, four are new games being added on the day of their release. The most noteworthy of those games is Persona 3 Reload, Atlus' highly anticipated remake of an RPG classic.

Persona 3 was first released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2006 and came to North America just a year later. While its sequels would go on to garner a bit more immediate acclaim, Persona 3 provided the solid foundation that they all built on. It is darker than those future entries, though, as you'll go from living your life as a Japanese teenager to shooting a gun at your own head to summon a Persona in stylish turn-based battles. Persona 3 is considered one of the best RPGs of its generation, and this remake brings the experience to modern platforms with a visual overhaul that makes it look more like Persona 5.

Read more