However, the newest game I was met with was Remedy’s Control.Īnd let’s not ignore the game streaming itself, which is a nightmare and a half. Speaking of the titles, is anyone supposed to be impressed by the game selection on PS Now? Admittedly, I am neck-deep in the day to day of the games industry and play far more than most people. When I finally got into the app I’m given even more hurdles, as the game launch button for most of the titles didn’t work. I was forced to create a new account to even log into the PS Now app thanks to a long-running server error upon trying to use my regular PlayStation account–a problem that now goes back almost two years based on Google searches.

Where to even start with how awful getting into this ecosystem was? The free trial is hidden behind layers of menus. The PS Now setup on PC was somehow even worse.

Even on an ethernet cable the download times and streaming quality were “alright” at best. The PlayStation 4 is an impressive machine but has always failed to be an internet connection powerhouse. I tackled this comparison from the PC perspective because I’m already familiar with the PS Now on PS4 experience, which is to say that it is awful. The experiences couldn’t be more night and day, with Sony actively making me feel like they don’t even want my business. I subscribed to both Xbox Game Pass on PC and PS Now this week to give both a fair shake. Choppy, overly reliant on the Sony hardware’s abysmal ethernet and WiFi capabilities, and poor in its game selection, PS Now felt more like a proof of concept for the future than a thing you’d want to buy into.

I was in the original beta for PS Now when it was still a PlayStation 3 endeavor and from the start it was obvious that the service’s stomach was bigger than its mouth, so to speak. Born from the purchased remnants of the game-streaming service Gaikai, it could be argued that its the biggest $400 million dollar mistake Sony ever made. There’s no tie-in to your larger PS Plus account, and besides my PS4 occasionally shouting at me in regards to how PS Now is a great deal, there isn’t a lot of cohesion. If you don’t really know what PS Now even offers I wouldn’t blame you, as the service has a strange disconnect from the rest of the Sony ecosystem.

Playstation now or xbox game pass