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

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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.

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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.

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

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Will Fulton
Will Fulton
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…
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