alot people say that this isnt too bad, and that EA's service is not good value.

You really have to try hard to make this out to be a bad thing. 8 bucks to play a great game without need of console is pretty damn amazing. Not something any other digital service can offer. So I'm not surprised to see so much jealousy and hate for it from people that clearly know nothing about it or the current rates of game rentals.

How is this highway robbery? If you don't like the prices, then don't use it. If they notice a trend that people aren't using the service much, then they'll lower the prices. That simple.

Digital streaming is supposed to be cheaper than what Rogers Video and BlockBuster used to charge, but looking at this, they're more expensive and it's for old games... I was initially skeptical about whether the thread author was making up an issue out of nothing, but 7-8 dollars is what blockbuster used to charge for their brand new game rentals. There's an expectation that a digital medium like this should be able to beat a physical service so outdated that it went completely out of business.

For those of you who don't get what the problem is and are saying "if you don't like it then don't buy it", this is what's called a monopoly.  Sony has a monopoly on this service so they are overcharging.  Monopolistic practices is something that a lot of Sony fans rail Nintendo for, if you're fine with this, then I expect that you have all had a change of heart about Nintendo's SNES era?

The developers/publishers set their own prices on PSNow, not Sony. The large price variations across titles implies Sony don't have solid price guidelines yet. That's kind of the point of a beta though See what does and doesn't work, then structure your decisions around that data.

The biggest problem with PSNow right now (heh) isn't really the price though, it's the subscription options. The pricing for 7 days and 30 days are pretty reasonable for many titles (especially since there is no $250 entry price). On the other hand, most of the 4 hour and 90 day options are just way too much.

Personally i think the best pricing guideline/options would be:

2 hour trial - $0.99 (for all titles)
7 days - $4 - $8 (depending on age)
14 Days - $6 - $12 (depending on age)
30 days - $7.50 - $15 (depending on age)

I wouldn't be so sure that Sony doesn't have a hand in that.  Sony is without a doubt taking a licensing fee from the developers using that service, and my bet is that the license is ridiculously expensive.  Afterall, Sony has to make money off the service themselves.  

Of course they will have a hand it it, they're not going to let a publisher charge crazy amounts like $0.05 or $100, but it's pretty obvious they have no strict guidelines yet. You have many titles being set at a perfectly reasonable $7/8 for 30 days, then others that charge twice that for no reason. Some have even skipped the 7/30 day options all together and gone with only 4 hours or 90 days. It feels almost random.

That's why open betas exist though. They can look at peoples feedback to the prices being set, see which games and rental options are popular and which aren't, and build their guidelines with that data. I expect they're also using that data to work out what sort of value people will expect from a subscription option (which they've mentioned is coming).

Sony are exclusively offering a new method of content distribution, but they certainly don't have a monopoly. People have several other methods of buying their games, so Sony have nothing to gain from intentionally overcharging. All that will accomplish is getting people to stick with their current purchase methods rather than moving onto PSNow.

I like your idea and this way PSNow could be a success.

Makes sense to have a reasonable price, but people should think that some games, Resident Evil 5 comes to mind, have servers that need to be active to play online and these things have addicional costs. 

$7.99 for a week seems reasonable if it was for a new-ish game

But $3.99 for 4 hours seems a bit ridiculous, maybe $0.99 as anyone really interested in this offer is probably only wanting to try a game before deciding to buy.

In an ideal world they would have the latest games on there with an option of $1.99 for a few hours play. At the end of which it gives you the option to buy the game one the PSN store and if you take up the offer you get the $1.99 back off the price. A way to try games before you buy them.

But I dont think this the philosophy their aiming for.

...Do you also have to pay the PlayStation Plus standard subscription fee in order to use this service?

If so, this whole thing is pretty funny.

Pay for new console to gain access to internet and games.

Pay for access to the internet, that you're already paying your ISP to have access to.

Pay for access to a video game.

Video game is not even running on you fancy new console.

Video game will not be in your possession.