A Few Updates On PlayStation Now

PlayStation Now was announced and we got some of the news but after getting to talk to some of the people behind the service we have a few updates.

Earlier I wrote about my experiences with Sony’s new PlayStation Now service that will be coming to market in the next half a year or so. I had a few reservations as well as a few other questions crop up during my writing. Being semi-responsible I decided to go and get some better clarifications and answers to expand on my experience. Here is what I learned directly from the horse’s mouth at CES.

This resolution doesn’t look 720p?

When I went back to the station showing the service running PlayStation Now this was one of the bigger faults I saw in the service. My first experience totally looked like it was running at 480 or lower. This new experience was quite different. In fact The Last Of Us looked absolutely amazing running on the new TVs that Sony is churning out. I did see it drop a few times in resolution but I have cleared it up that while PlayStation Now recommends a 5Mbps connection, it will work at lower speeds but that means a lower resolution will be pumped to your TV. So that kind of clarifies the whole need for a high speed connection as it is only needed to get the best visual performance out of the service.

What happens if I buy the DLC or MP Online Pass for a disc based version of a game I am streaming on PlayStation Now?

The official answer was, “We are not focusing those issues at this time.” So pretty much they are still just looking at getting PlayStation Now out to the public as soon as possible and will hopefully look at this moving forward. The person I was talking to did state that he doesn’t see why that would be an issue to do in the future, but it is not something that will be live at launch. So if you love your DLC and MP you might want to just stick with your discs for now. That is at least my advice as there is still no clue on if or when this could be available through the service.

So how will trophies work? If I have Platinumed a title will I be playing just for the fun or will I be getting the trophies again?

Plain and simple, see the answer to the DLC/MP question. It was almost repeated verbatim except for it didn’t even seem to be like it was considered. Yes trophies are a little extra to the overall gaming experience but it would be nice to know that if I choose to play Puppeteer on my PS4, then to my PS3, then to my Vita that the trophies will carry over as I can continue my game from where I left off according to what has been stated already. I’m guessing that we will hear more on this in the future, but it is still fuzzy right now.

Will PlayStation Now be a North America only service or will it be open to all PlayStation owners?

Currently the focus is on North America. If it does well obviously there will be plans to open it up to the world but that will be a little ways off. By little ways I am guessing at least another year from now as North American owners won’t even see PlayStation Now until this summer and I am sure that Sony will want at least six months to prove if they should spend the time and resources to add in all the other regions of the world as well as region specific games.

Hopefully that clears a few things up that were still fuzzy during my initial report on PlayStation Now. Yes, I know some of my answers are still in the “unclear” realm but that was what I was able to glean from CES. If you are interested in trying to get in on the closed beta starting at the end of January, you can go to us.playstation.com/playstationnow to try and score access to the beta so you can check it out for yourself and hopefully shape how the final service will be.