Sony gears up to launch PlayStation Now subscription system

Sony has slapped price tags and set a launch date of January 13th on a subscription system for its PlayStation Now game streaming service, which has been working through various stages of closed and open beta testing since late last January.

This is in line with Sony's initial pitch for PlayStation Now, which it formally announced last January as a rental or subscription-based service intended to stream PlayStation 3 games to PS3 and PS4 consoles, along with the PlayStation Vita and a select number of Sony and Samsung HDTV sets. 

Starting next week, PlayStation Now users will have the option of signing up for a monthly subscription ($20/month or $45/3 months) to access over 100 PlayStation 3 games via the streaming service; it's yet unclear if that encompasses all games currently available for rent via the service.

Though Sony hopes to make the subscription plan available across all PlayStation Now-enabled platforms, at launch it will only be available to PlayStation 4 owners.

"We know there are lots of PS4 owners that never owned a PS3, and this is a great way to catch up on games they may have missed," stated SCEA VP Phil Rosenberg in a press release announcing the new subscription service.

PlayStation Now users have so far only been able to rent access to streamed games at prices many find to be too high, though Sony has said it is working with publishers to make prices more palatable after soliciting feedback from PlayStation Now beta users.