Unless it’s included with PlayStation Plus, I won’t be using the PlayStation Now service whenever it arrives in Canada.
A U.S only closed beta will begin at the end of January with public rollouts beginning this summer. There’s still no word on Canadian or international availability. They’re also not mentioning pricing models either.
I would love for it to be a feature of PlayStation Plus but if Sony is pushing this as the “Netflix” of video games, it will likely be a separate subscription. Minor compression artifacts and latency issues are forgivable if you’re only paying $7.99 per month (assuming it’s Netflix pricing) on your gaming budget. But when I already own some of those marquee PlayStation 3 games and already paying Sony $4 per month for PlayStation Plus, it’s a tough sell.
Sony have stated they’re going to start by streaming select PlayStation 3 titles before they go digging into their PlayStation and PlayStation 2 catalog.
I hope for the best but unless this is a dirt cheap option with a vast library of games that I don’t already own, I don’t foresee myself using PlayStation Now.