If you were to believe IGN, Polygon, and Kotaku,  you’d walk away a bit disappointed in the pricing scheme that Sony has presented for PlayStation Now. As a quick recap, PlayStation Now is the game streaming service that’s gone into beta which will allow PS4 users to stream PS3 games. The service will eventually make its way to PS3 and PS Vita before taking a bigger leap to Sony 4K televisions and smartphone and tablets. As it stands, there is no Netflix like pricing but Sony is said to be looking at into offering a subscription based model. That means till such a time arrives which I don’t believe will be till 2015, games must be rented on an individual bases.

Later today, we’ll have a more in depth article about the pricing provided by PlayStation Now but for this article, I wanted to specifically focus on the 4-hour model provided by Sony and why it’s actually a pretty fair deal.

As it stands, the smallest window a game can be rented for is 4 hours. It’s worth taking into consideration that not all games offer the same length of time to be played. While some allow for 4 hours, 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days, other titles have a mixture of these which likely set by the original publisher and not something that Sony can dictate. This is similar to what titles appear on Netflix and when they disappear. For games that are available for a 4-hour rental, you’ll be asked to put down anywhere from $2.99 to $4.99 for it with a majority of titles leaning towards the $2.99 range.

Be it $2.99, $3.99, or $4.99, I think this is a pretty good price from Sony. Clearly for a majority of titles, Sony doesn’t expect you to beat the game in that time. While the folks at IGN call this a ‘demo’ period, I think they are missing the bigger picture. In today’s world, video games have to fight for our attention and no longer simply compete with “do you want to spend time outside or sit at home and play games.” Chances are if you look around you, there is a smartphone, a tablet and in the vicinity a computer and a television – and this is just in your house. Beyond that, there is a whole host of entertainment options available outside.

Within your household, you have no shortage of services that want to entertain you from movies on Netflix and Hulu to a smaller puzzler you downloaded from the App Store. All these things beg for your attention and video games equally have to fight for your attention. Something that I’ve seen as a growing trend has also been gamers who purchase titles and never finish them due to lack of time or other things garnering their attention, resulting in the gamer to move on from that title. PlayStation Now solves this problem with a low entry point. For 4 hours, just a few dollars will let you play that game. If you like, you can move onto a longer rental and if you don’t like it, it’s not as if you just paid $40-60 for a title that will collect dust, but that’s not all.

If we put that pricing into context, we pay anywhere from $10-25 for a movie ticket (depending on if it’s in IMAX or 3D) that lasts around 2 hours. For nearly 1/4 that price, you can play a game that lasts longer than the movie. That to me isn’t a bad deal at all but there are more instances that the 4-hour pricing scheme can shine. I know that the type of games I like to play (JRPG, Action Adventure) don’t always translate over as a party game, yet when you have friends over, you want to boot up a game that everybody can jump in and out of and simply enjoy.

With a 4-hour rental, it’s very easy to rent a game that guests want to play and entertain them without needing to actually buy a game or having to rely on a guest bringing over a game. I believe these exact scenarios are why there even exists a 4-hour rental option. Otherwise, I don’t believe Sony actually thinks anybody will rent/beat Darksiders, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Final Fantasy XIII, or Metal Gear Solid 4 in just a few hours.

On the other hand, if you have some time to kill and you don’t want to go to the movies or are having guests over, for just a few bucks, you can be playing Killzone 3, PixelJunk Monster/Racer/Shooter, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, and Twisted Metal which will cost less then going out, last longer than a movie, and give you more entertainment with friends than a bag of chips which costs more than that rental.

Discuss:

Do you think there is value in a 4-hour rental that’s priced between $2.99 and $4.99?