This Playstation Now 12
In case you didnt know, Sony announced a new tier system for PlayStation Plus last week with PS Plus Premium, PS Plus Extra. While PlayStation Plus Premium is priced at $119 a year, you can get it today at half off at just $59.99 by subscribing to PlayStation Now for 12 months!
In case you didnt know, all existing PlayStation Now customers will migrate to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees. Unfortunately, Sony pulled the 12-month PlayStation Now subscription package on the PlayStation Store.
Heres a current screenshot of the PlayStation Store PS Now subscription page where you can see that the 12-month subscription offer has been pulled, and the only ones left are the seven-day free trial, and subscribing to it for $9.99 every month.
Thankfully, all is not lost! Deals savante Wario64 managed to scrounge up a 12-month PS Now link for the web store of the PSN Store thats at $59.99! This means that you can buy a years membership of PS Now, and youll automatically transition to PS Plus Premium in June for free.
In case youre in doubt, heres the confirmation that all existing PS Now customers will transition to PS Plus Premium for free straight from the official PlayStation Blog.
If youre still unsure whether to load up on this bad boy , heres what PS Plus Premium will get you for subscribing:
PlayStation Plus Premium**
- $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
Why Be One Thing When You Can Be Anything
Discover your next great adventure with brand-new catalogs of hundreds of current and classic games, limited-time trials, online multiplayer, member-exclusive discounts and more, with a choice of three new membership options1.
Enjoy all the core PlayStation Plus benefits of online multiplayer, monthly games and more with the PlayStation Plus Essential plan. Take it up a level with a catalogue of hundreds of downloadable PS4 and PS5 games as part of PlayStation Plus Extra. Or join PlayStation Plus Deluxe to add classic titles and time-limited game trials into the mix.
Playstation Now Free Trial
Thankfully, Sony offers a free trial, unlike most cloud gaming services. You have a full seven days to try out the service and, afterward, Sony will automatically charge you for a monthly subscription. We like that the rollover goes to a monthly subscription instead of an annual one. If the trial period slips your mind, at least youll only be charged $20 instead of $100.
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Speaking Of Monthly Subscription Fees
PLUS PRO TIP 1: If youre hunting for a competitive price for Plus, and you simply cant wait for Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Taco Tuesday, the website CD Keys reliably sniffs out the best Plus deals for you like a trusty truffle pig, then delivers said deals straight to your Inbox, saving you both time and money on Plus renewals.
PLUS PRO TIP 2: Always stack Plus membership renewals. What do we mean by stack? To stack means simply this: That if you find a competitive price for a Plus subscription, then go ahead and take advantage of that competitive price. Even if your already-existing Plus subscription still has, say, four months left on it before it expires, go ahead and purchase the new Plus sub regardlessand stack it. When the already-existing Plus subscription finally elapses, the new code automatically kicks in.
Stacking Plus subs like this means that, 1. Youll save tremendous amounts of cash, and 2. You wont have to concern yourself with Plus renewals/truffle-pigging for great deals for a very long time.
PlayStation
Playstation Plus Vs Playstation Now Value
Heres everything you would get with an annual PS Plus subscription for $59.99:
- Two to three free games to download every month, yours for as long as youre a PS Plus subscriber.
- Can play online multiplayer mode in games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Monster Hunter: World, and more
- 100 GB cloud storage
- Exclusive deals and discounts.
- Early access to betas and demos for select games.
- Special: If you own a PS5, a PS Plus subscription also comes with the Classics Collection, which includes 20 classic PS4 hits, including God of War and The Last of Us: Remastered.
And heres everything youd get with an annual PS Now subscription for $59.99:
- Can stream over 800 games on both your PlayStation console or your PC.
- Game data will be saved and stored so you can flip back and forth easily between your console and your PC.
- Can download tons of games to your PlayStation console.
- Can play online multiplayer mode in any game included in the service.
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Playstation Plus Extra Features And Price
PlayStation Plus Extra is the middle tier of PS Plus’ new offerings and is a step up from the Essential tier. It includes everything from the tier below it, and adds a catalog of up to 400 games across the PS4 and PS5 library for you to download, including Ubisoft+ games. The Extra tier in itself has some notable PS4 and PS5 games like Death Stranding, God of War, and Marvel’s Spider-Man.
- US: $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly
- UK: £10.99 monthly / £31.99 quarterly / £83.99 yearly
- Australia: $18.95 monthly / $54.95 quarterly / $134.95 yearly
Sony Cuts Playstation Now Price To $100 A Year
The streaming game service is normally $20 a month. A new promotion offers a hefty discount, but it’s available only for a limited time.
Lance Whitney
Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He’s written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He’s the author of two tech books–one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Gamers who want to stream and play an unlimited number of titles may now find Sony’s PlayStation Now service more appealing.
On Saturday, Sony said it’s offering an annual subscription to its PlayStation Now service for $100 a year. That’s down from the usual cost of $20 per month or $45 for three months. PS Now gives gamers the chance to stream an unlimited number of supported PS3 titles to any PlayStation gaming platform as well as to select 2015 Sony Blu-ray players and select Sony Bravia or Samsung Smart TVs.
It’s a question of balancing price and performance. PlayStation games can cost upward of $50 a piece, a challenge for budget-conscious gamers. Streaming offers an alternative, but obstacles include inconsistent performance, a lack of sufficient titles and, once again, a high price tag. A drop in the price could convince more Sony device owners to give PS Now a shot, especially since the discount applies to both new and existing subscribers of the streaming service.
There are a couple of caveats, as usual.
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You Don’t Actually Own Any Of The Games You Play
As with any streaming service, you don’t actually own any of the titles you play on PS Now, and once you stop subscribing, they’re all gone until you renew your subscription. This applies to downloaded games, which lock if you decide to leave PS Now.
Also, if for some reason PS Now decides to shut down, then you’ll have to individually buy all the games you’ve invested your time and effort into. This will be both expensive and frustrating.
There’s a certain amount of security in knowing that something is actually yours, so if there’s a game you absolutely love, and you only access it on PS Now, you might want to buy it separately.
You Can Stream Ps Now On A Windows Pc
A significant feature of PlayStation Now is that it’s not limited to Sony’s consolesâyou can stream PS Now titles on your Windows PC. As many PlayStation games are exclusive to Sony’s consoles, this is the closest we have right now to a Sony PC experience.
This is a great way to play Sony games if you’re away from your console, offering a lot more flexibility as to when and where you want to play. A really neat addition by Sony.
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Ps Now Features New Monthly Additions
Another prominent feature of PS Now is that the service adds new titles each month. This offers an incentive to keep the subscription a game you’ve had your eye on for a while might become the next addition to PlayStation Now.
PS Now’s model is similar to streaming services like Amazon Prime or Netflix because it has exclusive titles, fresh additions, and time-limited games. This constantly evolving list of games doesn’t compromise on quality, howeverâyou’ll always find a worthwhile title to play if you use PS Now.
Playstation Plus Premium Features And Price
PlayStation Plus Premium represents the new high-end version of PS Plus with all the bells and whistles. It features every benefit of both the Essential and Extra tiers and adds up to 340 more games that can be played. These extra games are from the PS3, PS2, PSP, and PlayStation libraries.
While PS3 games can only be streamed, the rest of the system libraries are available via a mixture of downloading and streaming. This tier also includes time-limited trials for newer games like Horizon Forbidden West and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. As a caveat, in markets where cloud streaming isn’t available, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be offered at a slightly lower price. It will include most of the same features but loses the ability to play streaming games, including all of those PS3 titles.
- US: $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly
- UK: £13.49 monthly / £39.99 quarterly / £99.99 yearly
- Australian: $21.95 monthly / $63.95 quarterly / $154.95 yearly
In markets where cloud streaming isn’t available, PlayStation Plus Deluxe will be available rather than Premium. The price of this service will vary by the market.
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What Happened To My Old Playstation Plus Subscription
If you subscribed to the old PlayStation Plus, you should have been automatically rolled over to the new Essential tier. Your monthly fee does not change, and you still get all the same perks as before. The only thing that changes for you is the name of the service: PS Plus to PS Plus Essential. Should you wish to try out the higher tiers and come back to the Essential tier youll get the same benefits at the same monthly price .
How To Get Playstation Plus Premium Half Off By Purchasing Ps Now
Twitter user Wario64 has dug up a link to the PlayStation Now 12-month subscription option on the US PSN Store for $59.99/year. Considering that the Premium Plus Premium tier will cost about $120/year, thats practically 50% off the purchase price. If you can afford it, you may also want to stack subscriptions now to lock in additional savings.
PlayStation Now 12-month subscription is $59.99 on US PSN
will convert to PlayStation Plus Premium in June
Wario64
Youll need to click on the link as quickly as you can, though, as PlayStation has slowly but surely gotten rid of almost any mention of PS Now. In fact, the link being shared already says that PS Now is not available for purchase anymore, and the page for PS Now on the PlayStation on-console storefront is not longer available either. As such, the above link might become a dead one very soon.
For those a bit weary about locking in the savings of the crafty deal, according to the official post for the new PlayStation Plus service on the PlayStation blog, it should be honored: PlayStation Now will transition into the new PlayStation Plus offering and will no longer be available as a standalone service. PlayStation Now customers will migrate over to PlayStation Plus Premium with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.
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What Are The New Playstation Plus Tiers
Like Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus has three separate tiers: Essential, Extra, and Premium.
The Essential tier costs $10 per month but still provides the same benefits as the old PS Plus subscription: the ability to download one PS4 game and one PS5 game per month , discounts on certain games, cloud storage for game save files and access to online multiplayer so you can keep playing games like Fall Guys and Dead By Daylight. The Essential tier price is the same price that old PS Plus subscribers paid for the service.
The Extra tier costs $50 per month and provides the same perks as the Essential tier, but also gives subscribers access to more gamesup to 400 popular PS4 and PS5 games are downloadable.
The Premium tier costs $18 per month and provides the same perks as the Essential and Extra tiers as well as the option to play hundreds of PlayStation games in the cloud. That list of up to 340 games includes PS3 games and classic games from the PlayStation, PS2, and PSP generations. Subscribers can stream those games from PS4 and PS5 consoles, and PC. Premium subscribers also have access to timed game trials before purchase.
Do Ps Now Games Look And Play Exactly Like The Games We Can Play On The Ps4 Directly
Streamed video is in either 1080p or 720p rather than or 4K, depending on your region and what title you’re playing. That doesn’t matter so much for PS2 and PS3 titles that were originally created in lower resolutions but you may find a dip in detail and picture sharpness will be more noticeable for the PS4 line-up.
There are also reports of slight lag and latency issues when playing some of the faster, more demanding games. Latency is basically the time it takes between you pressing a button on the controller and seeing the results appear on screen. Because the controller response has to travel over the internet to a PlayStation Now server, be understood, then the video has to travel back over the internet to your console and TV, there is an unavoidable lag that wouldn’t occur if you were playing the same game locally.
However, great strides have been made in ensuring the latency is as low as possible and you would be hard-pressed to notice it on most games. The vast majority play just like they do on the console itself.
That includes the ability to play multiplayer on certain titles and PS Now games also reward gamers with Trophies like their disc-based counterparts. Save games are stored in the cloud too, so you can pick up from where you left off no matter what device you played on last.
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Playstation Now Cloud Saves
There are a handful of non-obvious ease-of-use issues with PS Now. As mentioned in the features section above, your saves are sent to the cloud so you can go between PS4 and PC. However, if you buy a game thats available on PS Now and want to continue your save locally, youll have to manually sync your PS4 system with the PS Now servers.
The same is true the other way. If you start a game locally and want to play it on PS Now, youll have to manually sync your saves. However, Sony says you can only do this sometimes. If you have PS3 saves tied to your account, you may be able to sync your save and trophies with your PlayStation Now session, but it doesnt always work.
Combined with the queuing, PlayStation Now doesnt inspire a lot of confidence. The FAQ gives the ever disappointing maybe to a lot of very important questions. Its as if PS Now was tacked onto the existing PlayStation Network ecosystem without full thought, which can lead to issues when syncing saves or starting a new session.
Theres even more gray areas when factoring in downloadable content, PlayStation VR and the PlayStation Camera. DLC that you own isnt supported, no matter if you purchased it from the PlayStation Store or received it from a disk. Likewise, you cant use your PlayStation accessories, such as PS VR or the PS Camera with PlayStation Now.
What Is Playstation Now
PlayStation Now is the subscription gaming service for PS4 and PS5. It first debuted in open beta in 2014, just a few months after the PS4 was released. On the heels of PlayStations acquisition of streaming company Gaikai, initially the service acted only as a game streaming subscription for PS4, PS3, PS Vita, and PlayStation TV, and even select TVs and Blu-ray players, though in 2017 Sony ended support for PS Now on all platforms except PS4.
In 2018, PS Now expanded not to new platforms, but to old ones – sort of. Sony announced that in addition to streaming PS4 and PS3 titles, players could download select PS2 and PS4 titles with their subscription. In this way, PS4 started to resemble its main competitor, Xbox Game Pass, in a way that fans had been hoping for.
If you want to stream games, PlayStation recommends at least a 5 Mbps broadband connection, and says to go with a wired connection when possible. As always, the faster the better, though. In my experience, all of these streaming services, not just PS Now, stop having issues around 35 Mbps. Below that and your mileage may vary. Above that, and you wont likely notice a difference at all.
PS Now is available in over a dozen countries. The list includes Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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