PlayStation Now Prices Revealed?

A leaked image from the official Gaikai website might hint at the future pricing on the PlayStation Now service, although there’s nothing certain about it, so read with a grain of salt. The rather blurry looking picture gives up the probably temporary rental prices of Uncharted 3 and Far Cry 3, although without more information it’s difficult to guess exactly what you’ll get for those prices.

Far Cry 3 and Uncharted 3 have both been a part of PlayStation Plus in the past, and are priced in this image at $3.99 for Far Cry and $4.99 for Uncharted 3. Both, presumably, come with their multiplayer modes intact. 

Those prices are absolutely amazing at first glance, but only if you think you’ll be getting that title indefinitely, or for a significant amount of time. Based on our experiences with other cloud gaming services, however, specifically OnLive, it’s more likely that those are rental prices, and will only grant you a few hours playtime. Anything from one day to three days is the norm, and would probably be comparable to renting a movie digitally.

Except that’s not a thing people really do any more. Games rental is on the way out, film rental has primarily made the jump to Netflix or other digital streaming subscription services. So, how is Now going to stand out? What justifies that price?

Until we find out a little more – including a bit of the logic behind those prices, and how they’ll apply to newer titles – it’s too early to guess.