Back in 2014, PlayStation launched a brand new service – PlayStation Now. A service which would provide the subscriber with a library of games to play for a set monthly or annual fee – a library of games which would continue to grow as the years went on.

So now, 7 years after launch, I want to take a look at where we are – the good and the bad, and whether or not PlayStation Now is worth your hard earned cash. Let’s begin.

About PlayStation Now

PlayStation Now is a subscription service which was first launched by PlayStation in 2014.

You simply pay a monthly or annual fee and unlock access to a library of games which can be played immediately. Sounds great, right?

Well yeah, it’s a fantastic idea… but one that has been adopted by several companies now, and at the time of writing, it’s clear that PlayStation Now is not the best of the bunch.

Competition

There is stiff competition for PlayStation’s streaming service, the main one (of course) being the incredibly popular Xbox Game Pass.

Launched in 2017, Game Pass quickly became a fan favourite, offering an exciting array of games on its monthly subscription service.

One of the biggest pros being that, unlike PlayStation, Xbox have not shied away from adding hugely anticipated titles to their streaming service on the day of release – a move that many PlayStation fans will be envious of, whether they’d like to admit it or not!

Now let’s compare the prices of these services and which one is worthy of its price tag.

So at the time of writing, a yearly subscription to PlayStation Now comes in at £49.99. Whereas the monthly fee for Game Pass Ultimate is £10.99 – around £130 per year. Seems like a big difference right?

Now we need to take a couple of other things into consideration to make this a fair comparison.

Firstly, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is inclusive of Xbox Live Gold, members discounts and also EA’s own subscription service, EA Play.

So for a fair comparison, we’ll incorporate the cost of PlayStation Plus (£49.99 annually) and EA Play (£19.99 annually) with the PlayStation Now fee for a total cost of £120 per year.

The prices are not so different now after all. But what is different, is the quality of games on offer. Xbox Game Pass is a clear winner in this sense.

How can PlayStation Now be improved?

We’ve spoken about how PlayStation Now is being outperformed by the competition so now it’s time for me to offer up a few of my suggestions for how PlayStation can improve their service:

1. Newer, more appealing games. Many of the games available are small indie games or old games that offer the player that feeling of nostalgia. Although they have recently included the likes of The Last of Us 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2, these are only available for a limited time and have been added way after launch.

2. Day 1 releases. Xbox are offering some huge games to Game Pass on the day of release and really working hard to encourage players to subscribe – and it’s working. If PlayStation were willing to offer big PlayStation Studio games on launch, they would likely see the number of subscribers skyrocket.

3. PS5 games. Currently, there are no PlayStation 5 games available on the service. Adding even a handful of PS5 games will bring the service into the next generation.

4. Possibility to download all games. At the moment, many games are available to download to the console to avoid the frustration of lag whilst playing. However, there are many that cannot be downloaded. I know that there are some technical issues with being able to download PS3 games onto the console, but if they were able to work a way in which this was possible, it would make for a much smoother experience for the player.

5. ALTERNATIVELY – incorporate PlayStation Now into PlayStation Plus. One way in which they could do this is to split PlayStation Plus into 2 tiers, for example:

-PlayStation Plus (as it is currently) = £49.99 per year.

-PlayStation Plus Premium (with PlayStation Now) = £69.99 per year.

Personally, I would likely opt for the Premium version in this instance, as I’m sure many others would.

These are just a few ways in which I think they could improve upon what they already offer.

Summary

So now it boils down to the big question: Do I think PlayStation Now is worth spending your hard earned cash on?

And the simple answer is, well, probably not.

Not for longer than a year anyway. Personally, I think that it’s worth getting if you can manage to purchase at a discounted rate (I got it for £39.99), as it can be fun to play back through some old games from earlier consoles. However there is not enough content to keep me subscribed for another year.

If they were to make a couple of changes to the service, perhaps some of the suggestions I made earlier, it would certainly go some way to improving it and making it more appealing to players. But as it stands, I don’t think that PlayStation is doing enough to warrant the £49.99 price tag.

I really do hope they make improvements to the service in the future as there really is potential for it to rival Game Pass with a few tweaks.

If you have any other suggestions for how PlayStation Now can be improved, please let me know in the comments!