Sony’s PlayStation Now game subscription service has got just that little bit bigger with the November update. And I mean a little bit, because Sony have dropped just three titles into their game catalogue.
Thankfully, it’s a trio of corkers, with Persona 5, Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Hollow Knight now in the library of over 700 games.
This small number of new games is to be expected after Sony announced an overhaul of the service in October. Sony will now be cycling games in and out of the library on a monthly basis, offering newer and bigger games but with an expiration date, in addition to evergreen titles that stay in the service for longer.
Of this trio, Persona 5 and Middle-earth: Shadow of Ware are both available to stream and download only up until 4th February 2020. Hollow Knight seems to be the only evergreen game. This follows on from October’s lineup of God of War, Grand Theft Auto 5, Uncharted 4, and Infamous Second Son, each of which is available to download or stream through January 2, 2020.
Though the period of availability is shorter, it also came alongside slashed subscription prices, as follows:
- UK: £8.99 – monthly / £22.99 – quarterly / £49.99 – yearly (from 12.99 / (N/A) / 84.99)
- EU: €9.99 – monthly / €24.99 – quarterly / €59.99 – yearly (from 14.99/ (N/A)/ 99.99)
- US: $9.99 – monthly / $24.99 – quarterly / $59.99 – yearly (from 19.99/ 44.99/ 99.99)
- JP: ¥1,180 – monthly / ¥2,980 – quarterly / ¥6,980 – yearly (from 2,500 / 5,900/ (N/A))
The change made PlayStation Now’s pricing much more competitive with Microsoft’s rival service, Xbox Game Pass, which comes in at £7.99 per month but has no long-term subscription pricing. It also puts Sony on a footing to compete with the upcoming Google Stadia streaming service, matching their £8.99 monthly price, but being able to boast a much broader library of games to play that spans multiple generations.
PlayStation Now is available on PS4 (streaming and download) and PC (streaming only), having phased out support for Sony TVs, Blu-ray players, PS3 and PS Vita back in 2017.
Source: EU PS Blog
