You should be cautious about PlayStation Store game rentals

If I were you, I’d temper my expectations about a rental service from Sony through PlayStation devices.

[Simco876]

I would love a model like Netflix, one flat fee a month and you can play whatever they have in their library. Sure it won't be the newest games out there, but at least you can catch up on the stuff you missed over the months.

[tylercolp]

Now that would be pretty cool, if the selection was big enough.

[chaosx]

to make it happen , they would need DRM , online checks and even always on internet if they used PlayStation now streaming. All of which PS owners are completely against.

[iamnsuperman]

Well the Now will be like a subscription service. Rentals I doubt will be subscription but pay per product. Also if your buying a rental DRM comes with the territory (which fans won't be against but I see what you tried to do there). It is more likely a timed thing that locks out after a certain amount of time like timed demos (which have work fine without online checks) .

The big thing for rentals is publisher permission unless they have made a deal so they get a certain %.

[WatDoesTheStarFoxSay]

DRM is ok, if Sony does it. If you don't like it, it's called the PS3.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Way off the mark, bub.

We are fine with a Netflix/Amazon prime, style rental service,. Or , renting a single game @ say $3.99 for a newer game.

We are against, our Physical Copies, being Toyed with.

We are totally fine in a world, where Physical, and Digital, can Co-Exist. Like currently with Blu-Ray and Digital, Movies.

[mark3214uk]

were not against it as long as its a option,not forced

if renting through playstation now you wont need a drm as the game will be streamed,only drm if you download the game

would also be a pirates dream if the ps4 was hacked

[nirwanda]

Psplus is already DRM online based, don't see what the problem is,especially if the game is being streamed.
My problem with online DRM is stopped people from lending or reselling games that you own.

[DawnOfDon]

@Whatdoes thestarfoxsay

Lol only is Sony does it right?

[kingPoS]

I assume the DRM would be transparent, as you would have to be online in the first place to use PS Now. It could be that barely anyone would notice it, much like how hardly anyone would notice Netflix's drm unless you're the one trying to rip it.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[pop-voxuli]

The big difference being that this is an OPTIONAL service where as the xbone always on was forced on you.

[Christopher]

I'm against DRM on my disc games.

As long as I can buy it on a disc without any DRM... I'm good.

Any "optional" service with DRM? Whatever. Don't care. Won't affect me.

[BLow]

I'm a little confused by your statement. PS Now is a STEAMING service. The last time I checked, that requires an internet connection. Of course there are going to be some restrictions just like there are on Netflix. You can only use 1 account at the same time on so many devices.

Nobody is against anything but we do like a CHOICE and not someone telling us what to do. If you want change to happen, you have to take baby steps. Not what MS tried to do and just change everything. You have to test the waters first. But hey, like you said were are completely against all of that. I better go cancel my Netflix and Amazon Prime account... you know those STREAMING SERVICES...Wow

[Oh_Yeah]

That's the whole point of playstatiom now....it's a streaming service. No downloads no nothing. Just click and play, so of course you'd need an always on connection.

[GribbleGrunger]

Does the writer of this article understand what PSNow is? Doesn't he understand that these rentals are likely going to be part of that service? What would a dev rather do, sell to a console base of a million or sell to a PSnow userbase of hundreds of millions on Pads, Phones, Laptops, handhelds or TVs? And doesn't he understand that far more people will play this way because it's cheaper and therefore expose more people to the franchise?

[static5245]

Yeah I don't really understand the writers reasoning behind this. I can go up to the corner a rent a game. There's Gamefly also. Basically all Sony and developers are trying to do is cut out the middleman.

I'm sure developers are still going to get a cut, but they don't want a third party anymore to continuously making money off of one disc. Plus it's more accessible to us as consumers. So the only people really getting hurt is those third party companies. I don't see any DRM problems here or developers trying to implement some sort of Pass for this.

[BLuTheSecond]

PSN Plus is already a rental service. Those "free" games don't belong to you. You only get access to them for the duration of subscription period that you paid for. Why doesn't Sony just open up the list of "free" games to include the entire library? As for PS Now, I think Sony should just merge PS Now with PSN plus and slightly increase the price of PSN Plus by $10- $15. That way they have can everything on one service.

[GribbleGrunger]

I've seen other people saying that too ...

Now all we need to do is persuade Sony to pay every single developer a lot of money to allow that. It should be reasonably cheap ... £40 for every game ever made for the PS brand! Devs would LOVE that. Support for Sony's systems would skyrocket for certain ...

Sony would lose money and the developers would lose money. I mean, what's not to love about the idea.

[BLuTheSecond]

What's not to love?

That's its not my money being wasted.

You can bend over, open those ass cheeks up and continue to serve as a tribute to Sony's **** if you'd like. I'm not going to give them my money until they start showing me they're worth it.

[cyclindk]

Why someone hasn't implemented it, I have no idea.

They already have the model in place with game demos and betas (and movies) that have "expiration" dates.

Guess they gotta work it all out with the publishers and whatnot. The publishers probably don't realize they'd make boatloads more on a subscription than just HOPING their game sells loads at launch, and then two things happen:

1) they lose sales because of the used games market,
2) if their game doesn't have wide-spread appeal they only make whatever they make during that first sale

With a small percentage of profit coming for each of their titles that are a part of the subscription service, they will make money the more customers there are subscribed.

There is tons of crap on Netflix I would never pay to watch or waste the time to go rent, but because it is there for "free" or as filler content, they at least have a chance that I will watch whereas otherwise I never would have.

Subscription is the way to go for sure.

[akaFullMetal]

I can't read the article but why? Options are always good, some will find it appealing, others won't, but it isn't forced, which is great.

[komp]

expectations / conclusions

Companies make money
Companies want to make money
Games like games
Gamers want to buy/rent games

Cost is relative

Cant please everyone all the time - when there are more details then an opinion can be formed until then, play games.

If done properly then I believe it to be a good addition.

[Ravenor]

Yep if priced and implemented properly it could be a great way to try games you're curious or on the fence about. I guess it all depends on the prices, how you get the game and length of the rentals.

I could honestly swallow a 10-15 dollar price on the rentals, if that money was counted towards purchasing it from the PS Store. So if it's 59.99, I pay 10.00 to rent it for 3 days or something (Just spitballing) and I am given the option to buy it for 49.99. I could maybe see something like that spurring people to try new things they wouldn't normally.

[Sharius]

"A publisher can’t really impress investors with rental numbers, that’s why it would prefer you purchase the game. Without solid sales numbers it might lose incentive to create sequels or games of that type, which could be dangerous for the industry."

seriously?

investors give a F about sale number, as long as the company make a profit, just look at how many copy tomb raider reboost sold

[Majin-vegeta]

Hey guys I know this may sound crazy but I got an idea how about we wait and see how it will work before we all go ape sh*t??No?

*Crowd boooooooooooo start throwing tomatoes*

[kingPoS]

I see it as a expansion of the 60 minute trials on PS+. Don't feel like trotting off to redbox or waiting for gamefly: rent a game from PSN instead. It works out as an optional convenience.

Who doesn't having a gamut of options? Who else is offering digital rentals anyhow?

Gateway MT6706 2008

[D-riders]

f- game rental let me pay a monthly fee for access to all games . Im bever going to beat a game in a required amount of time. but ill pay 40 a month to play what ever ps3 ps2 ps1 and psp game whenever

[MonChiChi]

Have no problem with rentals. Grew up on 1 week rentals, so $5 for 1 week for me is not bad, of course this could be lowered to say like $3 but $5 does not bother me.

[desertpunk86]

everything with ps plus and now is rental make sure that sub doesn't expire or you'll lose everything.

[kingPoS]

Mines set till 5/2015. I'm good to go!

Gateway MT6706 2008

[McScroggz]

The more options for consumers, the more options for revenue for Sony. Because we are talking about digital goods, this is a no brainer if they can get the pricing right for gamers and the royalty fees for publishers/developers. I'm not big on renting, but those two or three times a year where I would want to rent a game and can't - this might solve that problem.

[ltachiUchiha]

Sounds like it has potential to be a huge success if the price is right. Especially since it would eliminate the hassle of going out to just rent a game & all. PS Now just sounds really promising. I hope it works out for them, id jump onboard in a heartbeat if the price is right.

[FAT MAN GO BOOM]

Author has no clue what he is talking about and this should be looked at as an opinion...

So be cautious what you read here.

[jspsc123]

the sony channel

[PersonMan]

Why can't they make the renting similar to the PS+ Game Trials (1 hour), except instead of only an hour, you get a week or something?

Then after that week is up, you can no longer launch the game. However, if you think you might rent the game again, keep it on your hard drive, pay for another week and get immediate access to the game again.

[PersonMan]

This could be bad for publishers and developers because if they make a 10 hour campaign, you could rent the game, play the campaign and then never have a reason to buy the game.

They would lose out on a lot of money that way.

[tommygunzII]

That's what I told Sony when they asked if I had any comments about the PS Now beta :)