PlayStation Now: A Wishlist

Since the beta released to the PS4-owning public this past July, I’ve had the opportunity to browse and inspect the service that some believed would be Sony’s response to Netflix, Gamefly, and the ghost of Blockbuster Video. And while it would be easy to dismiss PS Now as a good idea gone awry, instead I thought it could be constructive to offer up some suggestions for a project that I still truly believe could have serious potential for a wide variety of gamers if taken in the right direction.

First and foremost, let’s illustrate the circumstances around which PS Now could offer its services. If you are a Sony gamer, you likely own at least one of the following consoles: PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PSP, or PS Vita. And depending on the various console models and mix-and-match setups you have going for you, your route to the complete library of games for these systems can vary considerably. Add into the fray the fact that all but the PS3, PS4, and Vita are no longer receiving new titles on a regular basis, and that backwards compatibility on many of these consoles ranges from “ok” to “complicated” to “non-existent,” and it becomes painfully obvious how many gamers could be shaking their heads in disappointment over their lack of access to classic games that they never got to play.

Enter PlayStation Now. Or rather, enter PS Now as it should have been. The concept is relatively simple at the core: in response to the complexities outlined above felt by its network of gamers, Sony announced a goal of providing a streaming option for players to acquire the titles that previously had been inaccessible to them. The service, dubbed “PlayStation Now,” was thought initially to be a simple app downloaded onto any of the Sony consoles (and even further, we later learned, on select Sony televisions and media devices) that would allow players to download from the complete library of Sony games and play to their heart’s content without the hardware restrictions of the past. And as a sign of good faith for those who questioned the bandwidth feasibility of this option, Sony invested big dollars (to the tune of just short of $400 million USD) in the acquisition of Gaikai cloud gaming service to ensure that the download and gameplay process went off as smoothly as possible for everyone involved. Sounds like a win-win for all, right?

Well, as we have seen thus far, not so much. To this point, only those with PS4 consoles have had the opportunity to download the PS Now beta and try it out. As someone with the desire to continue to play from the solid collection of PS3 titles while in the comfort of my PS4 interface, I for one was very excited to give it a go when I saw the app become available for the first time. But once I was in, I—and undoubtedly countless others trying it out for the first time—was immediately taken aback by two things: first, the selection of games was both small and weak (honestly, nothing against Saints Row: The Third, but…been there, done that). But perhaps more important was my second observation: pricing. There are essentially five term options to purchase, or rather rent, a game: four hours, 24 hours, seven days, 30 days, and 90 days (though not all of the games have all five terms available for some reason). And depending upon the quality of the title in question, price points are associated with each term. And let me tell you, if you wish to play one of the more expensive games, be prepared to pay a pretty penny. Using Saints Row: The Third as our example, there are two terms available for purchase—four hours or 90 days. And assuming you don’t wish to throw some money at a video game quickie, your price for the 90 days option is a cool $29.99 USD. $29.99 for a game that, at almost any games store, can be purchased new or used for less than that. See the problem now?

But putting aside the actual cost of the rentals, there are still some obvious flaws in the methodology of PS Now’s term limits. For instance, one of the reasons why services like Netflix and Gamefly became popular is because they allowed people to have access to a movie or a game for as long as they liked. The importance of this cannot be overstated, especially given the recent closings of term-based franchises like Blockbuster and the like. Whether with an actual optical disc or a download, people like having the freedom to use their rentals at their leisure. Add to this the fact that the average game requires an exponentially greater time investment than that of a movie, and it should become obvious why a similar open rental schema would be perfect for a service like PS Now.

Another option that could be a potential game-changer would be the ability to download a game and own it, for an additional premium of course. There are a variety of reasons why this would be an attractive benefit for the service, and fewer obvious reasons why it wouldn’t work. I can imagine the argument that licensing agreements could make something like this difficult in some cases, but as we have seen with the incredible success of PS Plus and its monthly freebies, Sony can find a way to get around these restrictions when it needs to. So why not add a similar option to PS Now?

The ability to download and own a title would be that much more appealing for those who wish to make use of the service on their mobile devices, like the Vita. Those who commute to work or travel frequently for their jobs know only too well the lack of a stable WiFi infrastructure in many areas around the world, and the option to download and play a game without having to stream over the Internet could prove invaluable. And as an additional option, should the licensing obstacles prove too problematic to overcome, why not offer a short term download opportunity where the title is added to the hard drive or memory card until the term is up? This doesn’t seem too difficult a proposition, as PS Plus already uses a similar feature for those who download the monthly free titles but subsequently discontinue the service. If it works there, why not here too?

Finally, let’s talk about the most important part of the service: the game library. Like it or not, this is the reason why people are interested in the first place, and without a robust collection, who would care? I realize it is relatively early in the life of PS Now, and that could be a legitimate reason why (1) the library is currently pretty small (122 available titles at the time of this article), and (2) only a select number of consoles have been included in the service so far. But sooner or later the promise of accessing all of the gems of Sony’s illustrious past will have to come to fruition if the service is to gain and maintain any real merit. Being able to play a few PS3-based Final Fantasy titles and a couple of Resident Evil games is nice, but let’s be honest—most of these are already either available in HD overhauls or will be soon. What about the more obscure titles, and what about the greatest hits of the PS1 and PS2? What about playing PS3 games on my Vita, like I was promised when I bought the damn thing? Why can’t I have it all now?!?

The truth is, unfortunately or not, I’m just a gamer with a keyboard. I don’t know all of the ins and outs of the sorts of negotiations required for some of the items on my wish list, and I really can’t speak with much intelligence to what is needed to make my dreams come true from a tech development standpoint. I can say, however, that I still remain a believer in the core concept of PlayStation Now, and should Sony ever truly follow through on the promises of the past, I will be the first in line for it.