PlayStation Now isn't working now

We all love games. We all love choice. We all love innovation. We all love new exciting ways to play our games if they don't get in the way. So naturally a lot of people are excited for PlayStation Now.... well ok, no its actually been very mixed thanks to the doomsday standpoint that goes in line with every single new innovation. However apart from that idea that "Everything will be entirely streamed, PS now is the ultimate destination and future" people wouldn't mind having the choice to pay out for a netflix-like cloud gaming service. So why has PlayStation Now gotten such a bad rep? Because its absolutely absurd and nonsensical with wherever its pulling its prices from!

To put this into context, its $30 to rent Dark Siders 2 at its full length when I can buy it for $20 or less less and save enough to buy the predecessor for less than they're selling it for as well. On top of that let me also identify another issue with this... we're not talking about just any other place to buy and play DarkSiders on, we're talking about if Netflix popped a timer and a fee on each movie you saw on its service. The input, visual quality, framerate, and general accessibility is tied to a high internet requirement for the entire duration that you play it. So you can not only own games for cheaper than you can rent them, but you can play them the way they were actually meant to be played regardless of how your internet is feeling today. Some people want to say that'll improve with time, or "well I've got a high speed connection", but the net goes in and out for everyone at some point and you're not in so much control over that. I've watched streams from really well supported and wealthy people go to absolute crap out of their control just because it was "a bad internet day" for him. Its going to happen, and with something unreliable like that you're paying more for less. Sure you can point out that you get to play things on different consoles like Last of us on Vita, or Killzone on your computer sometime in the future, and it take no memory space or shopping, but ultimately I think nearly any gamer will agree they'll take 20gb and gamestop over playing a 360p youtube video form of the Last of Us that plays like your online with a bad host when your just trying to experience the big campaign for the 1st time. That's just not efficient... and to have the audacity to charge more for that is just insane, and it will not stand as a working service in this form.

Oh its just buffering....

Oh but don't worry, the prices will get cheaper.... like they're working on lowering the 4 hour model to $2. TWO dollars for streaming 4 hours. Gee.... I wonder how I'll be able to beat that offer? Those of us with some experience in the console gaming industry, or just recent gamefly subscribers, should be able to tell this process feels even more insulting to those with brains on how the free market works. You compete. What happens when you don't? Well your seeing it right here. Comments lighting up with negative feedback on the look of this model. PS now isn't even being well tested with many gamers, they just look at it and walk off after a good laugh. Why shouldn't they? Almost everyone has access to some other source for this kind of thing, whether they're returning gamestop games frequently,or going to redbox and paying the same price as the new 4 hour model but getting a whole day of uninterrupted gameplay on or offline with it. Keep paying $2 for each day that you have it. The only down side is the chore of getting it back on time to cut off that payment, but personally I'll take that over marking when my trial ends on the calendar for a really long pick or having it jerk me out after 4 hours ends. Even if we're not talking competitive though, again the prices just aren't sane. To top it all off the rental service even has the trademark sony problem of doing something with the userface that confuses or frustrates people. As you scroll along the list, it all says the same thing: As low as $2.99! Unless your something like MGS4, which for some odd reason is as old as the PS3 yet is higher.... which is yet another reason to abandon ship, we already have steam to pull crap like that about how valued older titles never follow sane discount rules. Anyways you can rent most games at 4 hours for $2.99, which is hardly a deal but yet the lowest price and model is the price you see for every game up until you go into the actual page and look at your options. So... yeah its kind of like if a store page advertised the game with the price of its DLC. Oh well, at least they have more than 10 games. Oh but of course they've already admitted they aren't sure if they can do even older games like originally promised, because as I predicted this isn't their strong area. Get that idea out of your heads that PS now is going to let you go into a digital time capsule for all those awesome and even the obscure PS2 games.

At the very least, what I can say about PS now is what I wrote at the very beginning: its a choice and a new model to use. If you don't like it, turn and stay away. Only thing is.... everyone with brains is going to in its current state. Actually.... maybe that is the best thing I can say. Maybe its good this is a failure so it doesn't follow suit into some prophecy some people want it to be when discussing gaming future. If this type of model dominated the industry, we would reach a point in which prices could stay much higher than this AND get away with it. Even if PS now could co-exist peacefully with the current physical and digital market, its not going to work as a serious source until they either work out a good netflix-like subscription plan, or fix their prices to be something more reasonable and practical to use. Even then they may not get very far if the tech to run this is too exclusive for many people to handle. PS now has some work to do.... a lot of work to do really. Its not ready for now. Whether its still Sony or other publishers in charge of the pricing, it needs to be addressed and with a lot more common sense. If for some reason it can't be done, and can't be cut down anymore, than something in the market is wrong and its just not the right time to introduce streaming. However its been done better before with On-live (which still failed), so I doubt that's the case and instead I will assume this is company incompetence. So.... get your prices right, or ditch this and move on back to what we love Sony.