14 DAY TRIAL // PlayStation Now is one of the most exciting new services to arrive on the PlayStation 4 home console after launch, and the development team at Sony says that it is still testing elements of the service and that core features might change radically after it is first introduced.
Jim Ryan, who leads the video games division of the company in Europe, says that a team has been working on exploring data gathered from the beta and players continue to offer feedback that might be implemented in the future.
The executive is quoted by CVG as stating, “We're learning about what the right model for consumers is: we're starting off with rental, and what's the right period to rent, what's the right price for the rental, playing with these things. We haven't got them quite right yet, but we will do, and we'll just take learnings from it and do stuff differently as appropriate.”
Ryan is still vague about the potential of adding a monthly subscription model to PlayStation Now, but it seems that if such an option ever becomes reality, it might come with some limitations.
Those who have access to the streaming service are saying that it needs to become cheaper to play games in order to keep them interested in the long term.
The Sony executive believes that his company has the capacity to quickly adapt to the requirements of the market.
Apparently, the decision not to implement the EA Access model on the PlayStation 4 is now related to PS Now and is genuinely based on the need to deliver more quality to users of the platform.
Jim Ryan adds, “You're looking at a service that's streaming content to multiple devices - some PlayStations, some Sony devices that aren't PlayStations, such as televisions, and before too long non-Sony devices, where you're talking about offering the PlayStation experience to people who won't have to buy a PlayStation in order to get into it - this whole conundrum is way bigger than a subscription service on a competitor platform.”
EA Access is at the moment available on the Xbox One home console from Microsoft and offers access to four titles for a monthly payment, with the total set to rise soon to more than 100.
Meanwhile, Sony has said that it will deliver a big 2.0 firmware update for the PlayStation 4 in the fall, with new features and support for more media types.