Sony axes PS Now for PS3, Vita, more
Company drops streaming service for Bravia and Samsung TVs, Blu-ray players, and more, will focus on PS4 and PC support
PlayStation Now will soon be a thing of the past for a number of Sony platforms. The company today announced that it will discontinue the game-streaming service for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation TV, Sony Bravia TVs, Samsung TVs, and Sony Blu-ray players.
"After thoughtful consideration, we decided to shift our focus and resources to PS4 and Windows PC to further develop and improve the user experience on these two devices," the service's senior marketing manager Brian Dunn said in announcing the cuts. "This move puts us in the best position to grow the service even further."
Support on all of the above platforms will be terminated on August 15, with the exception of 2016 Sony Bravia TVs. PS Now will cease working on those units even sooner, with Sony giving an April 1 date for discontinuation on them.
Subscribers on these platforms will need to manually disable the service's auto-renewal functionality or they will continue to be charged. At present, Sony charges $20 for a one-month subscription to PS Now, or $45 for a three-month subscription.
That's... ok, I'm not sure I have words. O_o
Granted, supporting a dozen different versions of the app is expensive, but do any of you actually know somebody who subscribes to PlayStation now? Most people I know see the prices of the games, realize they can get them at game stop for a quarter of the price and that kills their interest right there
He custom hardware that can only service a handful of customers per unit, combined with the huge overhead is probably not going so well for them. Sony probably would've been way better off porting their top two or 300 titles for half the money or less to PlayStation 4 and PC, and then ensuring forward compatibility