Ever since it launched way back in 2014, PS Now always felt like the odd one out when compared to PlayStation Plus. You could tell that the service's lack of polish, specifically on the PC, meant that Sony never really thought of it as a flagship program. As a result, very few people ever bothered to give PS Now their time and money.
Although PS Now has seen a huge improvement in recent times and we did start to see some potential in how it could give the Game Pass a run for its money, there was always a sense that it was only a matter of time before Sony pulled the plug.
The revamped PlayStation Plus is Sony's attempt to bury PS Now and offer something better. In some ways, the three-tiered subscription service that's coming in June is an improvement. The only problem is that Sony might have effectively killed a huge portion of PS Now's niche market.
It didn't make sense for Sony to one-up Microsoft with day-one releases and a larger library. Sony has mentioned before how the former just doesn't make economical sense. At the same time, Sony is sitting on a treasure trove of first-party titles that easily dwarves what Microsoft has to offer - even when you throw in everything that came with the ZeniMax Media buyout and what's going to come once the tech giant owns Activision Blizzard. Unfortunately, replacing the existing PS Now streaming service with PlayStation Plus Premium, the most expensive tier, puts gamers who liked streaming PlayStation games in a bind.