March 28, 2024

Digital rentals for next generation game consoles

Both Sony and Microsoft have released their first digital subscription service for their respective consoles. I’ve been waiting for a netflix like service for game systems, but the question is do gamers want digital rentals per game, or all you can eat for a monthly cost?

Sony went with the rental model with the publisher setting the price and rental period. You don’t download the games, your PS4 is just an end point for the game play to stream to. Sony is planning on offering Sony Now to other end points (PS3, DVD and TV sets) in the future. The game library is P3 and older games, none of the current gen games are part of their offering.

xbox one photo

Microsoft partnered with EA (Sony turned down EA) to offer a subscription to download and play older EA games and to get discounts on DLC and new digital downloads. The current games offered in the EA vault are Need for Speed Rivals, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Peggle 2, and Madden NFL 25.

I like both models but the fact that with Sony’s rentals you can’t get current gen games is a real turn off for me. If I had a next gen console I’d go for the Xbox one and EA Access.

Only time and the markets will tell how these two models play out. The Xbox One hasn’t been selling well and they released a model without the kinnect to drive their price down to mix Sony. I’m interested in the kinnect for voice commands and Skype on my TV.

So do you have a PS4 or Xbox? Have you tried either of these new digital rental services? If so let us know below in the comments.

 
Photo by netzkobold

Jason Benway

Christ follower, husband, father, IT geek, and Xbox gamer

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3 thoughts on “Digital rentals for next generation game consoles

  1. I knew it was only a matter of time for all this digital rental to become the norm. I may be a stickler for the good old days, but I love DVDs and Blu-Rays, saying that I still love to by CDs as well, there is something great about having a physical copy of a release.

    1. I don’t re-watch movies enough, unless its a kids movie (see frozen) so I rent a lot through vudu or watch on netflix.
      Same with video games I don’t have time to get to in-depth with a game (family,work,etc) so renting them for a little while is what works before for me.

      1. I think in my case movies are part of my life, so my wall is full of DVDs, with lots of screeners in there that I’ve been sent to review, just love to have the boxes/booklets and the physical side of them 😉

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