PS Now’s subscription price isn’t a bad deal

Earlier today, Sony announced the details for a monthly subscription plan to PlayStation Now. For those unfamiliar, PlayStation Now (or PS Now as it’s popularly referred to) is a video game rental service in which consumers with PlayStation enabled devices (like a PS4, Vita, PS TV, and certain Sony-branded televisions) can rent and stream PS3 games without having to first download them. Up until now, each game would have to be rented individually for a limited time at a price determined by the publisher. However, Sony’s plan all along was to offer some sort of monthly subscription plan that would grant members full access to the entire catalog of games for a flat fee. The question always was, how much?

Today we learned PS Now will have two subscription plans: one month for $19.99, or a three-month package for $44.99. Obviously, the three-month plan ($15/month) is a bit cheaper than subscribing on a month-by-month basis for $20.

So is $20, or $15, per month a good deal? I suppose it depends on your position, but it’s certainly not an unfair deal.

We’ve already established the prices for individual game rentals were a bit excessive. In some cases, renting an older game for just a few hours actually turned out to be more expensive than flat out buying it through a retailer. Let’s say you opt for a price at $4.99 for 8 hours of rental. Assuming you play more than three games per month, or a game for longer than 24 hours, than you’ve already spent more than what it would cost for just the monthly subscription. Considering the length of some of these games, I don’t think spending 24 hours a month playing a game or two is that unheard of.

God of War: Ascension was recently added to the PS Now library. Looking at GameStop, even a pre-owned copy of the game is priced at $18.99. For a mere $15/month rental you can not only play that game for however long you want, but any of the other games in the PS Now catalog.

If you owned a PS3 and already played many of the games offered, you may be a bit more skeptical. Rightfully so, but the fact is there’s no other alternative. The PS4 isn’t backwards compatible and aside from a few ports or remakes, PS Now is the only way — like it or not — to play these older games on your PS4. Does it suck if you already owned them for PS3? Absolutely. But would you rather not be able to play these games ever again or pay $20 for a month, or $45 for three months, and get your retro fix in?

And for newcomers, it’s even better. For those of you who never owned a PS3, you’re about to have hundreds of games at your disposal. Think about it — $20 for 100-plus PS3 games. Where can you find a better deal than that?

I’m not saying PS Now isn’t pricey — especially for those of you used to paying $8.99 for Netflix, another subscription-based service that PS Now has been compared to. But PS Now is at least priced fairly. Again, considering what it would cost you to go out and purchase just one of these PS3 games, you can rent it and access to a ton more for a comparable price.

PlayStation Now isn’t “cheap,” but it’s also not unfairly expensive. It is what it is. $20 per month or $45 for three months. For those of you on the fence, at least you’ll get a free seven day trial to test out the service.