Sony has reduced the price of its PlayStation Now game streaming service in Canada.
Now, the service costs $12.99 CAD per month, down from the previous $19.99 monthly charge. Further, a quarterly subscription is now priced at $34.99 (previously $79.99), while an annual subscription now costs $79.99 (was $99.99).
Sony says the goal of the price cut is to offer “a more compelling price that is comparable to other entertainment streaming services on the market.”
For context, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service costs $11.99 CAD/month and offers access to more than 100 games. Alternatively, for $16.99 CAD/month, Canadians can subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes access to Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC, as well as an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
While Game Pass has players download games in place of streaming them, it’s Microsoft’s closest current analogue to PS Now.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s upcoming Project xCloud game streaming service — which will not trial in Canada at first — won’t actually charge people if they already have an Xbox One. Instead, the user’s console can act as a server to stream games to their mobile devices for free. However, Microsoft hasn’t yet revealed pricing or availability for people without an Xbox console.
On the other hand, Google’s upcoming Stadia service — which offers streaming to mobile, laptops and TVs — is priced somewhat differently. At launch, the only way to play Stadia is through the $169.99 CAD Stadia Founder’s Edition, which includes three months of the 4K-supported Stadia Pro subscription ($11.99/month on its own starting in 2020), a Stadia controller, a Chromecast Ultra and access to certain free games, such as Destiny 2. However, the majority of games will still need to be purchased individually.
Further, Sony has revealed that the following PlayStation 4 titles are now available in PlayStation Now:
- God of War
- Grand Theft Auto V
- inFAMOUS Second Son
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
These games will remain on PS Now from October 1st, 2019 to January 2nd, 2020. Sony says new “marquee games” will be regularly added to the service and remain available for a similarly limited period of time.
Overall, PS Now has a catalogue of over 800 games, which Sony says is larger than any other console game subscription service.
Source: PlayStation
