PlayStation Now Open Beta – Our Journey Begins

As we announced back at CES, PlayStation Now (PS Now) is the first-ever game streaming service available on a game console, where you can quickly access a rich and expanding library of PlayStation 3 (PS3) games from our cloud servers. Since January, PS Now has been in Private Beta for select gamers across the country, and I’m happy to announce that the Open Beta will be available to all PlayStation 4 (PS4) owners in the U.S. and Canada starting tomorrow.

As part of this Open Beta, PS4 users will see PS Now titles fully integrated into PlayStation Store, available to be streamed for various rental durations. Check out the video walkthrough of how it all works:

During the PS Now Open Beta, PS4 users will see a diverse library of more than 100 titles to rent, with more added regularly. PS Now will offer a variety of rental periods depending on the game, including 7-days, 30-days or 90-days, as well as a short 4-hour duration, so players can sample the experience first.

With a strong and stable broadband connection, visual and gameplay quality will be much like what you’re used to with other PS3 games. PS Now will also feature cloud game saves, as well as support for other popular network features such as Trophies, friend lists and leaderboards. You can also play seamlessly online with other people on PS Now, or even players who have the downloadable or disc based version of the game. As you know, the PS3 catalog of games is massive and incredibly diverse, and we’re thrilled to make these epic experiences available to PS4 first, followed by our other PlayStation platforms in the coming months.

Since we’re still in Beta, and in the very early days of PS Now, we plan to continue to collect feedback during this Open Beta phase to make further refinements to the service, so please provide us feedback once you’ve experienced the service.

We want to thank those that have been participating in the PS Now Private Beta for their time, dedication and valuable feedback, which have helped us continue to shape the service.

You will immediately see a clear breakdown of what’s included with game rentals, so it’s easier to tell what content you’re getting with your rental, especially since several games offered through PS Now include DLC that increase the value of the offering. Also, in a few weeks, you will start seeing reduced pricing on some 4-hour rentals which will appear at $1.99.

In addition, we’ve heard you loud and clear for an update on a PS Now subscription option and want to reassure you that we are working on it. We think PS Now represents the next step toward the future of gaming and we’re excited to have the PlayStation Nation come along with us on the beginning of this journey.

oops, you are right.  i didn't see this posted yesterday on the psblog so i just assumed it was posted today.  looks like they launched right on time from when they said they would.   must have figured out those infrastructure issues.

So if this took off, and in 5-10 years the majority of games stream games without buying them, will future sales stats and comparisons be a thing of the past? Will the 10+ millions selling games no longer happen? Will the rental stats class as sales stats?

If it ever turns into a subscription streaming only model... well it's a scary thought and hard to comprehend (poor people without internet huh? no more gaming for them). I might not be interested in a number of games but I'll play them anyway because I can as I pay for the subscription

But I'm sure they can easily record what you have played and what you haven't so they can get good numbers on it all.

it's going to be more than 5-10 years before retail isn't an option, imo.   

..but that is where the market is going i think.   streaming services like playstation now will displace consoles eventaully and in a lot of ways we will be better for it.    no more generational transitions meaning no more buying a hardware and having no games to play,. no waiting for 7 years to finally see an uptick in graphics for those games that choose to push the bountries.   and frankly,. dollar per dollar cloud hardware is a lot cheaper than the distributed network of hardware consoles currently represent where 90%+ of the time the hardware is off.

besides,. the convience of being able to play your games from anywhere is going to be awesome.

i'm glad they announced there is a subscription service in there works here.  i hope it is something good.  i just want cross-buy between my digital downloads and psnow to be a thing.

anyone going to rent something to give impressions?

..i want to try the service just to play with the tech but i don't really want to rent a ps3 game.

I only want to know if there will be a "PS Now beta starts now" thread.

Judging by the video, there will be some crappy games to try out for free.

i can make it just for you.

My internet connection has been shady lately. Cuts off every 30 mins or so and reconnects, so pass. PS+ is awesome, but this is not. Won't show support by trying.