Many PC gamers weren’t bullish on the new PS Plus when Sony first announced it. However, the three-tiered service is a lot worse for those who only game on their PCs.
With the PS Plus now set to roll out across multiple regions for much of June, all eyes are on how Sony will tweak the lineup to encourage subscribers to shell out money for PS Plus Premium, the most expensive tier. Although Sony did an excellent job with a surprisingly well-rounded lineup of classic games and Ubisoft Plus Classics to boot, Sony just killed its PC subscribers in one fell swoop.
Previously, we assumed that PS Plus Premium will include the current PS Now lineup. Even if it would have made streaming PlayStation exclusives on the PC more expensive, at the very least, the games would still be available. This is no longer the case.
Here is a list of games available for streaming on the PC in the select regions that support cloud streaming:
- Asura’s Wrath | Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 | Konami, PS3
- Crash Commando | Creative Vault Studios, PS3
- Demon’s Souls | From Software, PS3
- Devil May Cry HD Collection | Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
- echochrome | Japan Studio, PS3
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West | Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc., PS3
- F.E.A.R. | WB Games, PS3
- Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds | Japan Studio, PS3
- Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational | Japan Studio, PS3
- Ico | Japan Studio, PS3
- Infamous | Sucker Punch, PS3
- Infamous 2 | Sucker Punch, PS3
- Infamous: Festival of Blood | Sucker Punch, PS3
- LocoRoco Cocoreccho! | Japan Studio, PS3
- Lost Planet 2 | Capcom Co., Ltd., PS3
- MotorStorm Apocalypse | Evolution Studios, PS3
- MotorStorm RC | Evolution Studios, PS3
- Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 | Koei Tecmo, PS3
- Puppeteer | Japan Studio, PS3
- rain | Japan Studio, PS3
- Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty | Insomniac Games, PS3
- Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time | Insomniac Games, PS3
- Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus | Insomniac Games, PS3
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare | Rockstar Games, PS3
- Resistance 3 | Insomniac Games, PS3
- Super Stardust HD | Housemarque, PS3
- Tokyo Jungle | Japan Studio, PS3
- When Vikings Attack | Clever Beans, PS3
At $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year, streaming a couple dozen PlayStation games on a PC is now more expensive. The worst part? The library doesn’t even come close to PS Now.
For all its faults, the PS Now was not a bad deal for PC players. For $9.99 a month, PC gamers could stream more than 700 games from Sony’s extensive library of games all the way from the original PlayStation. Maybe we’re judging too early and Sony will add more games to its most expensive subscription. Even then, there is still a huge gap between the current selection to what PS Now offered.
Sony won’t cater to the needs of a small portion of PS Plus subscribers when it’s set to more money from porting PlayStation exclusives to the PC. Not to mention, Sony can release the PC ports under the guise of inclusivity.
This is the only consolation for PC gamers who maintained PS Now subscriptions. At the very least, they can now wait for when the PC ports of their favorite PlayStation games will arrive. As Sony will make at least $300 million from upcoming PC ports this fiscal year, we’re bound to see a huge uptick in PlayStation exclusives on the PC platform.
At the moment, Sony is set to release Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on the PC in the next few months. Meanwhile, there are rumors that Returnal is coming to the PC next. Finally, the Nvidia GeForce Now leak lists PC ports of Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, all coming on or before March 2023.
Only time will tell if this combination of PC ports is enough to reach $300 million in sales by March 2023, but we’re definitely sure that it’s not enough to mitigate the loss of PS Now on the PC.
TLDR; we highly doubt PC gamers will pay $120 a year to stream older PS3 games.
