Sony has announced that it is opening up the beta for its game streaming service, PlayStation Now, to PS3 users in mainland US and parts of Canada. This means that PS3 users in these areas will now see PS Now titles integrated into PlayStation Store as part of the Open Beta. The company is recommending a 5 Mbps wired connection for the service.
In addition, Sony has also announced that games like God of War: Ascension, inFAMOUS, and the recently released Ultra Street Fighter IV are all coming soon to PS Now, expanding its library of games to more than 150 titles.
Sony uses a rental model for the gaming service, and prices are relatively high. For example, it costs $3 to rent a game for four hours. However, the company has assured that it will come up with a new pricing model soon. "We recently reduced the pricing for select 4-hour rentals, and we are still working towards a PS Now subscription option", said John Koller, VP of Platforms Marketing, SCEA.
PS Now is a cloud-based gaming service that allows gamers to play PS3 titles by streaming them over the internet. Sort of a Netflix-for-games, the service debuted on PS4 in July as an answer to the demand for backward compatibility on the gaming console, as it cannot play PS3 discs.
The service will eventually roll out to other devices too, including Sony TVs, the PlayStation TV set-top box, and mobile devices.