PlayStation Now open beta is live, subscription plans in the works

By Will Fulton Updated July 31, 2014

playstation now open beta arrives ps3

The beta for PlayStation Now is now open to the North American public. Anyone with a PlayStation 4 or select new Bravia TVs can rent and stream from a diverse library of over 100 PlayStation 3 games using Sony’s new online service. Rentals range from a 4-hour trial through 7-, 30-, and 90-day windows. Sony is also looking into subscription plans, a natural response to Electronic Arts’ recent announcement of its all-you-can-play EA Access subscription service on Xbox One.

PlayStation Now is the long-anticipated result of Sony’s purchase of the game streaming service Gaikai in 2012. A library of over 100 PS3 games is available to play, with all of them streamed from the cloud, including Dead Space 3, God of War: Ascension, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, and Ultra Street Fighter 4. Cloud saving, Trophies, and other network features are all included in the streaming service.

The service is initially only available on PS4 and 4K-compatible televisions, but will eventually come to PS3 and PS Vita as well. Yet unconfirmed rumors from earlier in 2014 suggest that PlayStation 2 and PSone games will not be coming to PS Now, but will instead be supported with local software emulation. Nothing’s confirmed on that front, however.

PS4 owners in the United States and Canada will find PlayStation Now titles integrated into the PlayStation Store.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

Everything announced at the May 2023 PlayStation Showcase

Snake stares into the distance in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater's reveal trailer

The flurry of summer gaming showcases is finally upon us, and Sony was the one to start things off. After a 20-month wait and several smaller presentations, we finally got another PlayStation Showcase where we saw what's next for first-party, third-party, and indie games on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2. During the show, we got a look at some upcoming multiplayer games from PlayStation Studios like Fairgame$ and Marathon, in addition to exciting single-player titles like Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

Third-party studios also showed up, with Square Enix unveiling a multiplayer game called Foamstars, Alan Wake 2 and Assassin's Creed Mirage getting release dates, and Konami announcing a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This was definitely the most important PlayStation livestream to happen in a long time, but it was a densely packed show so you might have missed out on some of its announcements. That's why you should read through this recap of everything announced during the May 2023 PlayStation Showcase.

Gaming

PlayStation Showcase 2023: how to watch and what to expect

Miles Morales and Peter Parker stand together in Spider-Man 2.

It's been a very long time since the last PlayStation Showcase. While Sony has held tons of smaller State of Play streams over the years, it doesn't often host Nintendo Direct-sized events that give a wide picture of what's coming to the PS5. That'll change later today when the company hosts a proper PlayStation Showcase, just a few weeks before Summer Game Fest.

Details on what we'll see at the event are sparse, even hours ahead of the showcase, but there's a lot we can already predict. You won't want to miss out on this one, so here's everything you need to know so you can catch it when it right when it airs.
When is PlayStation Showcase?

Gaming

PlayStation Backbone controller gets an Android version ahead of PlayStation Showcase

A person sits on a bench with Backbone One - PlayStation Edition for Android.

A new Android version of the Backbone One -- PlayStation Edition is now available. The mobile controller brings the aesthetic of Sony's DualSense to Android phones.

Backbone One -- PlayStation Edition, a mobile gaming controller that copies the aesthetics of the PS5's DualSense, was first revealed and released in July 2022. At the time, though, only an iOS-compatible version of the mobile gaming controller was available. Now, Android users can pick up a version of the PS Backbone One that works with their phones. As its appearance and functionality are almost identical to the iOS version in almost every way, it's no surprise that the Backbone One -- PlayStation Edition for Android also costs $99.