Thanks to Justin Giza for his help with this article.
As we start our coverage of the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony is once again a prime draw for those in attendance. Sony will have their conference later this evening and many wonder what the focus of the presentation will be and if their recent online issues will be addressed as well as if we will get any significant news on the Playstation 4 that was not shared a few weeks earlier at their fan expo.
This morning Sony announced a pricing plan for their Playstation Now service as well as a launch date of January 13th. For those not familiar with the service, it will allow PS4 users streaming access to over 100 PS3 games with the promise of unlimited play.
So if you are a new owner of a PS4 and did not have certain games for your PS3 or did not own a PS3, then you will be able to enjoy unlimited play of the classic PS3 titles that are being offered.
Of course this all comes with a price and Sony has announced a price of $19.99 per month and a three month option at $49.99
A huge plus for the service is that users can stream the games rather than download them which will save valuable storage space and time and allow gamers to explore a wider range of games at one time.
I am intrigued by the promise of the system I just wonder if it will appeal to a wide enough range of people to make it worth it for the long term.
While price wise one can argue that the monthly fee is cheaper than purchasing a single game, for those of us who own a PS3 as well as a PS4, there is little incentive to me as I already own or have played the games that are being offered via the service that are of interest to me.
For a hardcore fan, I would say that they may be better served picking up a new or used PS 3 system and getting games via Gamefly or purchasing used games over the long haul. The advantage Sony has is that there is the convenience of having a large library at your call with no waiting.
Naturally with any service it will succeed or fail based on how well they support it. If more titles keep being added and gamers see PS 1 and PS2 games added to the mix then you will really have something to behold.
I also can see the appeal to new adapters to the PS4 as now they have a backlog of Sony exclusives that they can dig through which will become even more appealing with sequels start to arrive on the PS4 such as the pending new chapter in the Uncharted series.
For now I am taking a wait and see approach to the service, but I am very interested to see what the future will hold for the service and will follow it with great interest.
